Mar 21, 2008

Point-of-Sale Software: Even Smallest Shops BenefitBy Gerry BlackwellITManagement.EarthWeb.com

Just because you run a tiny high-touch, small-town business doesn’t mean you have to forego the benefits of automation. Some people would even argue it’s all the more reason for automating to the hilt.

Kimberly Kennedy, owner of The Silver Basket, a gift basket shop in Presque Isle, Maine, may be the ultimate case in point. Kennedy’s business, which she launched three years ago in this town of 10,000, is about as low-tech and high-touch as they come. She custom assembles gift baskets filled with gourmet foods and snacks.

And it’s certainly tiny enough. She has one full-time employee, her mother. During peak periods such as Valentine’s Day and Christmas, she might bring in as many as three part-timers.

The Silver Basket pretty much caters to people in and around Presque Isle – within about a 60 mile radius, she says, though she’s now working on a Web site. The company had less than $100,000 in sales last year.

Kennedy is nobody’s technology wiz either. She prefers in any case to stay focused on her very people-oriented business. But that doesn’t mean she was blind to the potential of using technology to make it run better.

When she started, she knew she needed a computer and knew she wanted a computer-controlled cash register, but that was about as far as it went. A local reseller suggested QuickBooks Point of Sale software from Intuit Inc.

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