We here at Blink have recently signed up Crunch Accounting to manage all our books and those pesky VAT returns and have to say, the service has been great. So great we decided to interview Darren Fell, MD and founder at Crunch, to see how they have managed to make a service that is so absolutely tailored to the needs of freelancers, contractors and small businesses.

 A little bit about Crunch accounting: Crunch does everything from setting up a Ltd company and registering for VAT to doing all the returns, forms and helping with the books and even helping you file your self assement (or for a little more they do that for you as well). And they are always only a call or email away for any questions. The online system delas with invoices, expenses to be input and tells you how much to pay yourself - you just get on with work knowing the figures are all 100% correct. Crunch works well and are really nice guys. So, basically, here at Blink we think Crunch are the best thing since sliced bread. But now let’s find out a little more about the company itself from Darren Fell, their founder and MD.

Blink: So Darren, how did you come up with the idea for Crunch and when was it founded? 

Darren: Whilst in my first startup, Pure360.com, the digital marketing company, I was approached by 2 friends, one a highly experienced accountant and tax specialist, Steve Crouch and Drew Griffiths, an owner of a small web design agency. They had a very basic idea for an accounting system that could help freelancers. I was so excited about the possibility to change the accounting industry which I felt was ripe for an significant overhaul I agreed.

The original name was Accounts4You and clearly that was my first job, to find a name that really resonated with the level of change of was looking to make. I put together the technical team, the spec, the business plan and a substantial amount of money in. 

Blink:  So tell me a little about Pure360 and how your first startup company came about? 

Darren: Pure360.com is an anti-spam email marketing company. It started in my tiny flat in Battersea and then moved back to my college town of Brighton to setup in a bungalow. The front room was the office and I had a bedroom and the developer and designer had the other room. We won our first customer in Feb 2004 and it was Levi’s europe.

Blink: Why did you develop Crunch as a company specifically aimed at helping contractors, freelancers and independent consultants? 

Darren: It was a marketplace desperate for a quality service that combined the online side with expert accountants and account managers. I personally had experience as a consultant of an incredibly poor service from a traditional accountant. 

I knew we could create an amazing system that would be easy to use and I felt that building an accountancy practice from scratch would allow the quality of customer service to be outstanding by ensuring it was correctly process driven. 

Crunch has built a banking grade system for the ultimate in security and with the technology for the accountants and account managers, every single aspect is tracked. Nothing is left untouched and customers will never receive penalties for late submissions. With all the amazing technology that is in place now which automates many of the processes, we will add payroll so we can look after small businesses up to 10 employees. Many of our customers have been very successful and grown so this was a natural step. This is our focus, micro businesses, freelancers, contractors, consultants, locums etc.

Blink: A great idea and others are certainly in agreement too - Crunch.co.uk  received backing from Skype Chairman Michael van Swaaij and co-Founder of Bebo Paul Birch last year – how has that helped the company develop? It must be great to be getting noticed by such prominent entrepreneurs. 

Darren: Paul and Michael have been absolutely brilliant and are on email or the phone almost every other day.I created a strong business plan and only spoke to 6 people. It was so important to me to get precisely the right investors on board. Those who were as passionate as me about changing accountancy radically and delivering a service level that had never been delivered before. I was introduced to Paul who jumped at the chance to be involved as he has started his career as an IT Contractor and had 2 Accountants that were in his view pretty poor! A week later a broker contacted me and introduced me to Michael. I had a 3/4hr phone call to Switzerland talking about my work ethic and what I had done with Pure360.com and realised Michael was a fantastic person to have on board. 

I specifically went looking for the right people to work with. The money came very much second. 

Blink: So, Crunch helps set up Ltd companies for freelancers, do all their books, sort out the VAT, expenses and automate invoices – is there anything I missed there? 

Darren: It does absolutely everything. Registered office, online service, unlimited accountants time, your own account manager, annual accounts, VAT, moves and changes. In October the investors were so elated they doubled our valuation to £4m and invested £500k into Crunch. 

We’ve gained a new 4,000 sqft office so we can scale and handle demand, we’re employing lots of people in Brighton and Hove and we’re increasing the development team to fill the online crunch system with time-saving feature after feature. 

Blink: Crunch works very differently to other accountancy services – I am a big fan of the unlimited email and phone support  - why are you offering this where other accounts cannot? 

Darren: Indeed we do. Every single facet has been looked at to great the best product with the most outstanding support. 

It has taken non-accountants like myself and my previous operations manager from Pure360 to look at how the service should be delivered to the customer and not the way the accountant has always done it! 

It has also taken a significant investment in building the systems to make every part of the customers accounts work like clockwork! 

Blink: One of the other things that sets you apart is the online nature of the service. Why did you choose a web based interface for Crunch over say, desktop software? 

Darren: It’s so much easier to deliver. It works on everything; Mac, PC, Umbuntu…everything that has a browser and web access. 

Also our Accountants and Account Managers can look at customers accounts and make adjustments if required and during phone chats with them. 

Blink: What’s next for Crunch? 

Darren: Much, much more development on the Crunch online system – customers will absolutely love it! 

Continuous improvements, tuning the service to make it even better and a scaling so we can deliver the same fantastic levels of service and support many more customers.

So many accountants firms are never equipped to scale when they are successful, at Crunch we’re ensured every part of the foundation of the business is perfect so we can handle this massive growth with absolute ease and we’re continue to stay at the no1 position on league like FreelanceSupermarket.

Blink: Thank you Darren, we look forward to seeing how Crunch evolves in the new year.

Darren is Founder and Managing Director at Crunch accounting and serial entrepreneur:

- Founder at Freelanceadvisor.co.uk
- Founder and Managing Director at crunch (www.crunch.co.uk)
- Founder at Pure360
- Pan-European Account Manager at Colt Telecom (Colt Internet)
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How to find out a little more about Crunch:

You can visit them online at crunch.co.uk and read up a little more, try their free trial or see how to talk to an advisor on the phone to talk you through whether Cruch is the right solution for your business.

What current crunch accounting customers say:

- If only my Bank were as helpful and efficient as Crunch! – Andy Clayton
- Crunch has made doing my accounts really simple and weirdly fun! – Jono, DigitalB
- It’s simply the best online accounting system for the self-employed. – Clive, SMP C Ltd
- Crunch is the best thing that’s happened to me in my business life! – Mohammed, Khanee Ltd

Jordan Lane is an Email Marketing Expert. He is the founder of the blog http://www.emailmoxie.com/ and is also a contributor to the blog http://www.emailresponsibly.com/.

Q – Tell us a little about how EmailMoxie.com started.
A- EmailMoxie.com started as a place where I can put down my thoughts, observations, and learnings about email marketing- and share them with anyone who is interested. Email marketing is fascinating because it is always evolving and people are always asking what other people are doing and looking for examples. Email Marketing is like a big game of follow the leader. Everyone is looking at what everyone else is doing and them imitating them. For example, one question many of my clients, co-workers, and network friends would ask me frequently is what is a good creative for a welcome campaign. Instead of providing some sort of vague answer I created a post on my blog that not only displays 45 welcome creatives from the best in the business, but also lists the subject line and other statistics. (see the August 11 2009 post on emailmoxie.com) EmailMoxie.com is a great place to learn more about email marketing. It’s as simple at that.

Q -Digital campaigns, especially email marketing, are thriving despite the recession – why do you think this is?
A- There are many reasons that email marketing is thriving despite a recession. Here are a couple of the most interesting.
1- The first is that email marketing is a much less expensive form of marketing compared to other online and offline marketing. (I don’t want to say email marketing is cheap because that is an overused and inaccurate phrase). More subscribers and customers can be reached for a lot less money using email marketing than mailing print catalogs, purchasing air time on the radio or television, or making a large bill board on the side of the road.
2- The second reason is that digital campaigns and email marketing are a necessity for a business, service, and organization to be successful and competitive. Email Marketing is no longer a luxury or novelty. It is an important and well integrated part of every business from the bakery down the street to a multi national corporation. Email Marketing is here to stay.

Q – What do you feel are the main strengths of email marketing as a
medium?
A- The main strengths of email marketing are:
1-Its cost point compared to other types of marketing.
2- Its flexibility. Email Marketing is always changing and improving. Also, email has become an acceptable and often preferred method of communication. Email is comfortable for many people.
3- Its rules and regulations. CAN-SPAM and other regional email regulations are something that all email marketers need to take seriously.
4- Its participation and popularity. There are tons and tons of folks who LOVE email and email marketing. These passionate, and sometimes crazy people, keep email marketing interesting and strong

Q – What are the 2 most common pitfalls you have seen companies fall into when creating email campaigns? How could they be avoided?
A- Great question. The two most common pitfalls I have seen companies fall into when creating email campaigns are 1- Not segmenting their subscriber list properly 2- Not testing the email thoroughly before deployment.
1- The days of load and blasting (i.e. sending to the entire list each email every time is diminishing). However, marketers need to be sure that the subscriber segments they are sending the mailing to is correct. You dont want to send a welcome email, for example, to someone who is already on your list. The way to avoid this error is to check your segments and keep your data fresh and clean. Check, check and check them again.
2- It is no fun for an email marketer when an email is sent with an error. Maybe the subject line is not correct. Maybe links do not work or images are not displaying. The way to resolve these issues are to not let them occur. A thorough testing and quality control routine prior to any email being deployed is a must.

Q – I have seen the email marketing industry evolve over the last few years – what would you say has been the most important advancement and why?
A- There have been so many important advancements. Here are two of the biggest ones in no particular order.
Social Media – Email and Social Media seem to be more compatible than many folks give them credit but they do not depend on one another. Facebook (twitter, digg, etc.)will exist without email and email will exist without Facebook. Because of this they work well together. Social Media allows like minded friends to not only share their ideas, thoughts and desires but also their emails. This is good stuff for email marketing!
Email Education, Organizations and Best Practices There are quite a few great organizations dedicated to protecting and advancing email. These hardworking people help email and email marketing tremendously. They are always thinking and looking for what is next. Simple ideas like forward to a friend, and playing video in an email, have helped email marketing.

Q – With the number of different email clients out there there have been calls for standardization of email coding, something companies such as Microsoft have so far failed to listen to with their last releases such as Outlook 2007. Do you think this is starting to change as the industry grows?
A- No, I dont think this is starting to change nor do I think it should. Email clients will always be different. There will never be universal standardization. This is something that email marketers need to both fear and embrace. The fear comes into play when an email renders correctly in one email client and not another or deliverability issues per email client. The positive of diverse email clients is that email will not become stagnant. The Email Clients will always be challenging each other and trying to beat one another. This competition is good for the email clients and good for email marketing.

Q – Do you feel new communication channels such as blogs, twitter and social networking may one day replace the email channel?
A- No, I really dont. As I said earlier Email and Social Media seem to be more compatible than many people give them credit but they do not depend on one another. Facebook (twitter, digg, etc.) will exist without email and email will exist without Facebook. Because of this they work well together. People will always be checking email as long as emails are being sent.

Q – What predictions do you have for the email marketing industry in 2010?
A- I see 2010 as the year that nothing huge happens in email marketing. This is not a bad thing. Email Marketing will continue to grow steadily and will evolve slowly. I do not see a Twitter moment happening in email marketing this year. By a twitter moment I mean having something come along that totally changes the game. This will not happen this year in email marketing. The biggest drive that I see is how to make email look its best on smart phones and how to connect more with social media and email. These two items are in no way groundbreaking but they are important.

Q – Lastly – what is the one piece of advice you would give any company thinking about starting or renewing their email marketing strategy this year?
A – Test, test, test and education, education, education (okay, this was two pieces of advice) Instead of basing ones email strategy on what one thinks or feels will happen, run some tests. Test the subject line, the creative, deliverability etc. Also, keep on top of the latest and greatest in email marketing. One great way to do this is by reading my blog

Jordan lives in Los Angeles, California and can be contacted by email at JordanLane@EmailMoxie.com or by going to www.EmailMoxie.com

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Obligatory advert: Have an email design project? Need a design company to help? Get in touch here .

I cam across SpyreStudios the other day and was impressed with their WordPress customisation and web design portfolio so caught up with Jon Phillips to find out more about the company and his experiences:

Jon, Tell us a little about yourself and how Spry Studios came to be:

I’m a web-designer from Montreal Canada. I launched SpyreStudios in 2007 after running a couple other blogs (freelancefolder.com for example – which I have now sold) I’ve been designing websites for many years now and needed a place to showcase my work so I started SpyreStudios.com as a simple portfolio site and later changed the focus of the site to add a blog and put more energy in writing articles and tutorials. The experience has been awesome so far.

How do you work? From a messy desk in your bedroom covered in post-it notes – or a zen rented office suite?

I work from home, I don’t rent a space or anything but I have a room with my desk and everything I need to work. My desk can become pretty messy if I’m in a creative process but I try to keep things clean and organized, I’m really big on minimalism and keeping things simple.

Mac or PC?

Mac definitely

What one colour or font do you think are too heavily overused currently in the design industry and why?

Well, with so many designs out there I don’t think a color or typeface is really overused. Some may see Helvetica as the most overused typeface ever, but if it fits a project I don’t mind using it. I think some styles are becoming overused though (combinations of colors, effects, typefaces, etc…) like the ‘Web 2.0′ glossy trend that’s almost dead now. I’d tend to say that grungy designs are the current trend, which in my opinion is a good thing.

What is your favourite project you have worked on so far? And why?

I think I would have to say one of my favorite projects has been SpyreStudios, simply because it’s my own site and I can experiment and share with others. Another project I had tons of fun working on was FreelanceFolder. I’m currently working on a new design site with Mason Hipp (the current owner of FreelanceFolder) which I’m pretty sure will be an awesome experience.

Why WordPress? What led you to believe this was the right ‘weapon of choice’ over other offerings such as Drupal or Joomla?

Why WordPress? Because it’s extremely flexible and easy to use. And also because there’s a huge community of designers and developers ready to help, support from the community is great! WordPress can be used not only to run a blog, even though WP is best known for its blogging capabilities, I use it to create static websites for clients and other types of sites (job boards, ecommerce, etc…)

Do you think social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are the advertising tool of the future? Will they replace traditional media?

I don’t think Facebook and Twitter will replace traditional media but rather complement it. Of course newspapers and the print media industry is slowly dying. We’ve seen a lot of print magazines go exclusively online in the last year but since everyone can open a Facebook or Twitter account, the information that is shared over these networks can’t always be considered reliable. I think there will be some kind of shift or merge between traditional media, online magazines and social networks, especially with the rise of life-streaming and blogging in recent years.

What one mistake have you made in your career that could have been avoided – and how would you advise designers new to the industry how to avoid it?

Always under-promise and over-deliver. If you know a project is going to take 4 weeks to complete, tell your client it’s going to take 5 weeks and try to deliver in 3. In the past I’ve made the mistake of setting really strict deadlines and sometimes had to ask for an extension, it’s not fun to do and you and your client usually lose money. It’s always better to budget, stick to your schedule and give yourself some room to breathe.

Finally – Where can we find you online?

You can find me on SpyreStudios (http://spyrestudios.com) or on Twitter (www.twitter.com/jophillips) mostly, or via Design-Newz (http://design-newz.com) which is my other design website.

Here are just a few examples of Jon’s work from his portfolio:

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Obligatory advert: Have a creative project? Need a blog site designed? Get in touch here .