From One QuickBooks Retail Solution Provider to Another

Mike first got involved with QuickBooks Point of Sale while helping his brother close his books. He saw one of the employees walking around his brother’s store with a pad and pencil taking stock of inventory. “After college I worked in public accounting for several years. I subsequently became a controller for a company that operated a chain of retail stores, so I know what an important asset inventory is to a retailer. If retailers have too much inventory, they have excess carrying costs but if they don’t have enough, they don't have anything to sell customers when they come in. You simply can't manage inventory with a cash register. Luckily my brother had just received a QuickBooks Point of Sale pamphlet. I looked at it and we bought it right away because it was “QuickBooks.” I knew that they were going to make this product right. Up until that point I had done a lot of research around point of sale systems and found that they were either too expensive for small retailers, didn't integrate well with financial software programs, or were too complicated.”

Q: What’s Your Business Model?
“I am a ‘full service provider’ which means that I sell point of sale solutions, come on-site and do all of the IT work including Internet connectivity, network setup, get any new computers up and running, I install the point of sale software, the financial software if they’re using that and any other software that they need, I set up the point of sale hardware, train the employees, and offer post-sale tech support.

About 70% of my revenue comes from providing & implementing QuickBooks Point of Sale and the related hardware accessories and services needed in small retail stores.”

Mike doesn’t proactively market his services because he has more business than he can handle now. “Since becoming a ProAdvisor three years ago, I have always received leads from the Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Referral Database. I also receive leads from customers and have received business from other ProAdvisors. Now that I am an RSP, I get receive customer service leads from the RSP Partner Manager. My business is growing so much that I just placed a hiring ad in the newspaper but haven’t even had time to review the resumes yet,” Mike explains.

Q: How Many Hours Does the Average Installation Take?
“The average setup for QuickBooks POS involves more billable hours than QuickBooks Financial Software setup. In my experience, if customization is needed on the financial software, it's usually about 5 hours. With QuickBooks POS, it varies but it can be 2 days or it can be 40 to 50 hrs or more depending on whether I can get the backend too — the financial software setup. One of the setups that I did was a gift shop in a hospital staffed by elderly volunteers who were scared of computers. It took a month of full-time work – a lot of training. I trained 10 of them how to: receive items, enter inventory, scan and ring up transactions. Then we added some customization so that they could run an account for each employee since most of their customers were hospital employees. They really like it now that they’re trained. It was really rewarding.”

Q: What Do You Value About the RSP Program?
“It’s not just the additional discounts that we receive as RSPs. We get a lot of support from the RSP Partner Manager, marketing materials, and training. Plus, I’ve been getting post-sale client referrals.

I really like the fact that we get up-to-the minute information about QuickBooks Point of Sale and … even other opportunities. For example, in a recent RSP Webinar, we learned about the new QuickBooks Point of Sale SDK and talked with developers who plan to integrate additional applications to QuickBooks POS. In another one, we learned that QuickBooks Merchant Service is now included in the [QuickBooks] Affiliate Program so we can earn residuals by offering this service on our web site.”

Q: What Tips Do You Have Especially for New RSPs?
“You need to be geared towards IT with a strong customer service focus. In my opinion, your business should have someone available seven days a week – the same hours as retail stores. This is a mission critical solution for retailers,” Mike advises.

When you receive a customer service referral from Intuit, treat it as an urgent situation because usually it’s a retailer who is having problems and is frustrated; the sooner you get to them, the faster you can assure them that you can help them and avoid a negative situation getting worse.

Add a “fast response” billing rate provision to your engagement letters so that you can bill at a higher hourly rate if you bill on an hourly basis and receive urgent or after-hours calls from clients.

Get new business by getting the word out in your retail business community; tell people that you’re a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. “QuickBooks is such a well-known product when you tell business owners that you're a QuickBooks ProAdvisors, their eyes light up.”

It really helps to have an accounting background in addition to retail experience, according to Mike. If you aren’t an accountant, consider partnering with a local accountant to set up the QuickBooks Financial Software too; they can also be a good source of retail leads.

Get certified on QuickBooks POS and QuickBooks Financial Software quickly -- as soon as the newest certification versions are released. “I do this and I’ve noticed that I get more calls from the Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Referral Database,”* says Mike.

Offer to provide QuickBooks POS consulting services to ProAdvisors in other regions who are newly certified on QuickBooks Point of Sale and want a mentor for their first client installation; Mike does this as a service exchange or for a fee.

Interested in reselling QuickBooks POS? Learn more about being a QuickBooks Point of Sale Retail Solution Provider

Become an expert: QuickBooks Point of Sale Certification