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How the iPad Saves Time & Money for One Small Business (Video)

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The iPad is a great tool for small businesses, but it’s not just the new iPad that’s saving time and money.

I caught up with a small business owner who has used the original iPad to take inventory at his coffee shop.

Phil Zimmerly of Common Grounds in Bluffton, Ohio took time out of his day to share how he uses the iPad, Numbers and email to save time and money every week.

In the video below, you can see Phil taking inventory with Numbers and an iPad. No extra add-ons for scanning or expensive custom solutions — just a $10 app and an original iPad.

20120323-113853.jpgZimmerly tells us that the iPad inventory taking system saves at least 2 hours of time every week, which adds up to days of extra productivity a year. For the small business owner, time is incredibly valuable. As an added bonus, by completing the task of taking inventory faster, there is less stress for Zimmerly and his wife, who also works for Common Grounds.

The Numbers spreadsheet used at Common Grounds allows the inventory taker to update one sheet with the current stock, and then formulas update the rest of the sheet to show where purchases are needed, and to highlight any areas where there is too much stock on hand.

Sure, there are more elegant ways of syncing the file to and from the iPad, but at the end of the day, if email works for this small business owner, it solves his problem.

Phil also uses the iPad and his iPhone with Square and Intuit credit card readers when he needs to take payments on the fly, but for the most part he is using the iPad at the coffee shop for back end tasks.

We saw yesterday how a specialized tablet makes it easy for a sound technician to control the audio at concerts, but when it comes down to the small business owner, the standard iPad is a great option.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. wrystarr

    04/12/2012 at 3:37 pm

    I prefer my galaxy note. Although, in general, smart phones have really improved how small business owners – and even more established one – conduct their business. With regard to the card readers, I’m really looking forward to the release of mPowa’s (www.mpowa.com) POS system. Square and Intuit is okay but mPowa’s .25% rate per debit/credit card transaction is just too inviting!

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