Smarta Business Builder

[Gordonmacg]

Does anyone on the forum use this tool from RBS/Nat West?
If so is it any use?

 

[Subbynet]

Quite expensive for what it is - I'd pass if I was you.

 

[kjmcculloch]

If you compare the cost of the individual services it doesn't seem that expensive.

 

[Subbynet]

If you compare the cost of the individual services it doesn't seem that expensive.

But I'm not... I'm comparing it to other services (and free products), when you do that, then yes, you can get such things much cheaper.

 

[kjmcculloch]

Care to share which?

Kris

 

[Subbynet]

Needless to say, you'll spend £240 over the course of the first year on the cheapest SBB deal.

Bookkeeping - You can get a proper copy of Quickbooks Simplestart for £65.. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intuit-QuickBooks-Simple-Start-PC/dp/B0002ADBLI
Personalised Domain - Big deal, it's about a £5 cost per year.
Moonfruit Website - You can get a Moonfruit site for free - the extra space SBB are providing probably won't ever be used.
Legal Builder thing - you can incorporate a co for around £80..
Liveplan Business Planner - virtually all banks give away this type of software for free.

£65
£5
Free
£80
- Total
£150 - and this is for more than one year, apart from domain costs.

So you can save nearly £90 over the first year, a time when you should be looking after the pennies. Also, I know you can do it cheaper than this too if you're willing to put more work in yourself.

 

[Gordonmacg]

Thanks for the replies, i will look in to it further.
I take it no one on the forum has actually used it?

 

[danielmeade]

Hi Guys

Dan from Smarta here. Smarta Business Builder is an integrated online package allowing you to build a website, manage your accounts, write a live business plan (that evolves with your business) and have access to hundreds of legal documents and a 24 hour legal advice hotline.

Yes, you can get some solutions for free, but there are big cost savings to be made here (with the advanced features you get with SBB), alongside the convenience of having everything inside one dashboard with one login.

To respond to the previous poster who broke down the costs; the accounts package you highlight is an offline product, where as you can access your Smarta Business Builder account from anywhere in the world. And the legal documents is not for incorporation, but actually gives you access to hundreds of personalised legal docs, meaning you don't need to incur high legal fees.

The suitability of SBB goes down to your requirements, but I would encourage you to check it out, and see how it could help your business.

Cheers

Dan