Two simple steps to recruiting successfully on Linkedin for free
Linkedin is a disruptive recruitment tool. The two employees who resigned from Clear Books in 2012 were both headhunted on Linkedin. I posted about them resigning in this article, A surprising opportunity hidden in key employees resigning. Recruitment consultants have...
The surprising opportunities hidden in key employees resigning
I received two unexpected letters of resignation in 2012 from key members of the Clear Books team. Neither departure left a vacuum but rather spurred on productivity. As the CEO should I feel let down when people want to leave?...
Remarkable businesses on Facebook
Your business is remarkable. Not everyone has the guts to start their own business or to be their own boss. You did that. As the champion of small businesses, Clear Books wants to recognise your remarkable business. Go to facebook...
If you have an open plan office then get a separate meeting room now
When the coffee shop staff next door to your office start to greet you by your first name then that’s the sign you need to get a meeting room. The Clear Books team was housed in an open plan office...
Hire people who are better than you
Recognise your strengths and weaknesses and hire people to fill in the gaps in your team’s ability. I have had conversations with people who have seriously questioned why I would want to hire someone to join Clear Books who is...
You’re fired! Firing isn’t nice but do it fast.
There is a startup mantra, hire fast and fire fast. Firing fast is good advice if you have made a hiring mistake (however, I don’t agree with hiring fast because hiring the wrong candidate is a time consuming and expensive...
Don’t hire that candidate you are not 100% sure about
Never hire someone out of desperation. When Clear Books started gaining traction in 2010 I was desperate to hire a third developer. I was too desperate. Our candidates take a 45 minute exam and this particular candidate scored a woeful...
Thanks for completing our surveys
The Clear Books team has been busy emailing our customers with several surveys over the last couple of months. First, I wanted to thank every customer who has contributed as your feedback is extremely helpful to us. Secondly, I wanted...
Put customer community at the heart of your business
Powerful movements are the result of community. For your small business to be more than just a piece of software (or any other product or service) you need to nurture your customer community. Communities, tribes, religions, clans, cults and political...
As a leader do you micromanage or delegate? Here’s why you need to start delegating today!
Start delegating the moment you have the resources. Don’t hang on to tasks that someone else can do. You need to be driving the strategy and direction of your company and not getting bogged down in the detail. I coded...
Building your first startup – things I have learnt building Clear Books
This is the story of how I built my startup; Clear Books. Clear Books may have begun in a similar way to your own business. In 2008 I packed in my career and started working from home as a bootstrapped...
Building your first startup – things I have learnt building Clear Books
This is the story of how I built my startup; Clear Books. Clear Books may have begun in a similar way to your own business. In 2008 I packed in my career and started working from home as a bootstrapped...
We’ve made some changes to how you log in
From Monday 17th December 2012 the way our customers log in and sign up to Clear Books is changing. For new customers (post 17th December 2012) you will sign up and log in to Clear Books using a direct log...
How to operate your business in the cloud when it rains
It's 10am on a cold Wednesday morning in London and the Clear Books office is completely empty. Our Internet Service Provider is performing maintenance on our exchange so we're expecting no Internet in the office for portions of the day....
London accountant starts £6m software empire from his lounge
British cloud accounting startup, Clear Books, has transformed from a one man band working from home to a SaaS technology company valued at £6 million in four years. 4th October 2012 (London, UK) Clear Books, a leading provider of online accounting...
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Here is a quick summary of an interesting business book about teams - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. 1. Absence of trust The first dysfunction of a team is when team members are not comfortable being vulnerable, open and honest...
New price plans from 1st September 2012
Please note that if you are a business customer and signed up on a trial or subscribed to Clear Books prior to 1st September 2012 this will not affect you. You will still have access to our previous subscription plans:...
Open Payroll Pricing Update
Please note that pricing for Open Payroll is increasing from September 1st 2012 from £1.00 per employee to £2.50 per employee. A minimum charge will apply if you only have one employee. We have been advertising the price increase to...
Clear Books Ltd has a new home on the interwebs
This is a quick blog post to let our customers know that all corporate information about Clear Books has a new home, ClearBooksLtd.com. Let us know what you think of the new website on the first blog post, Clear Books corporate...
Clear Books corporate website launched
Welcome to our new corporate website, ClearBooksplc.com! Over our first four years ClearBooks.co.uk has been home to both our accounting software and company information. However, with a growing team, lots of exciting news, announcements and projects coming to fruition, it has...
Winner Best Young Entrepreneur 2012 H&F Brilliant Business Awards
Let me get the self congratulatory introduction out of the way - yes I am writing about winning the Best Young Entrepreneur Award 2012 in the inaugural Hammersmith and Fulham Brilliant Business Awards. It's incredibly rewarding to win but it's all...
Your mission statement, should you choose to accept it
Mission statement Mission statements - business mumbo jumbo or a useful tool? I think the latter. At the very least it sets out on paper and in your mind what your organisation's purpose is in a sentence. And with a...
A report you should be checking every month
The Profit and Loss report is a really really useful report which should be reviewed on a regular basis to understand how your organisation is doing in terms of income, outgoings and overall profit and loss on a month by...
Multiple login systems
We are sorry if you experienced any trouble accessing Clear Books yesterday afternoon. When Clear Books first started in August 2008 we operated our own simple login system. However, as we geared up for our official launch in June 2009...
Fat, flate or flat rate VAT scheme?
I was helping our support team with a flat rate VAT scheme query and needed to look up HMRC's documentation. Here is the link (note bold text): http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/returns-accounts/fat-rate-returns.htm Later on in the documentation the text reads, "You need to include...
Is Clear Books accounting software notable enough for Wikipedia?
The Clear Books Wikipedia article is currently listed as an article for deletion in Wikipedia. This is the second time that it has been put up for deletion after no consensus was reached the first time. The debate is currently ongoing....
Clear Books Reviews
There are lots of accountants and small businesses using Clear Books. We thought it would be interesting to pull together some of the reviews and articles that have been written about our accounting software. Simply click on the Clear Books...
Under the development hood
The development team at Clear Books has been relatively quiet of late so what has been keeping the guys busy? Here's a quick update. The team has been working very hard under the hood. Over Christmas and into the New...
I’m a Mac and a PC
I need some help. Mac or PC? My MacBook's days are numbered. The arrow keys have stopped working and the battery overheats which slows the machine down to a painful crawl. Do I replace it with another MacBook or do...
Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)
The quick summary of SEIS is that it provides a huge incentive for an investor to invest in a small business. Effectively an investment of £100k might only cost £18k due to the tax relief. That's up to 78% tax...