We wanted to take a minute to recognize that this week is National Small Business Week. Over the years, Office for Mac has been a part of thousands of small business ventures and we’re proud that our software could lend a hand in the creation of what is a mainstay in the American economy. In fact, according the Small Business Administration, small businesses create 60-80 percent of the new jobs in the country!

One small business owner/entrepreneur, JoAnna Minneci, and her husband are in the beginning phases of launching a new Bed & Bistro in Tennessee. JoAnna is a long-time Office for Mac user and managed her finances in Excel for Mac while building the Bed & Bistro. She was able to save over $14,000 on the project, all tracked in her spreadsheets! See what Joanna had to say about how Excel for Mac has impacted the way she approaches aspects of her new business.

From JoAnna:
My husband and I have moved to Prospect, TN and we are starting a small business: “Mockingbird Acres Bed and Bistro”.  We’ve been keeping a blog at http://MockingbirdAcres.blogspot.com if you want to read the story and see some photos.  It’s still in the planning stages, but we couldn’t have done the planning as efficiently without Excel for Mac.

Every time we hired a new contractor, we’d enter the costs of labor and materials in an Excel spreadsheet. This helped us make sure that each company’s bid included the same information, and that we wouldn’t be stuck with any surprise costs.

When we compared flooring options, we could directly compare the costs of square footage of the actual flooring but also the underlayment and padding... even delivery and installation. Those hidden costs had nowhere to hide; we just added a new line to the spreadsheet.

Every few days, we gathered our hardware store receipts and entered what we spent into a Excel spreadsheet. This made it easy to compare actual costs against our budget. We know exactly what our house cost, down to every doorknob and light switch!  That gave me the peace of mind to know I was under budget, so I splurged on my 6-foot-long whirlpool jet bathtub with a clear conscience.

The best part is that we don’t have to start from scratch when we progress to Phase 2...When it’s time to build the guest cottages, all we need to do is make few adjustments to the original worksheet, and the budget is done.

When it comes to the “Bistro” half of the “Bed & Bistro”, I’ve been using it to keep track of food costs for each recipe, so I know how to price things out on the menu and still allow for a profit. I think most restaurants fail because they just don’t do the math. Excel makes it so easy - I really don’t know how I’d get along without it.

I use Word for Mac when I’m entering recipes for my cooking classes, putting together menus, creating advertising for the local paper and making flyers to post at the feed store to find new farmers to supply locally raised meat & produce for the bistro.

 
Click on the attachment at the bottom of the post to view JoAnna's Excel sheet.

How have you used Excel or other Office for Mac applications to help you in your business endeavors? We’d love to hear your story!