As I shared with you recently, e-conomic has been selected as a ‘Gazelle’ company based on our excellent growth and turnover performance, which includes doubling our turnover in just three years.

Most Profitable Gazelle

Now, we have received further recognition as we’ve been named ‘Most Profitable Gazelle 2011′ for the Copenhagen region. I was presented with this additional honor at Dagbladet Børsen’s Gazelle conference earlier today.

Being presented with the ‘Most Profitable Gazelle’ award

Growth despite obstacles

I’m very proud of this acknowledgement as one of Denmark’s premier growth companies. Despite a marked lack of understanding on the part of banks and financial institutions of how we’re going to ensure future growth in Denmark, e-conomic has been able to generate massive growth during the financial downturn.

To me, our success is all down to the dedicated, skilled and committed people working at e-conomic. And my list of employees has grown significantly longer over the past years. When I started in 2008, 35 people were employed at e-conomic – a figure that will soon exceed 85!

Increasing the number of people at e-conomic

Hope for small and medium businesses

So, it is still possible to create growth and jobs in Denmark in spite of the recession, and in spite of the difficult conditions that banks provide for companies like ours.

And hopefully, success stories like e-conomic can serve as an eye-opener to financial institutions showing that it makes sense to invest in small and medium businesses with the right business case, market potential and people in place.

Tribute to our clients

Finally, I’d like to thank our clients – most of them small and medium businesses facing the same challenges as us. Our growth would of course not be possible without the loyal support that we have from a great number of these businesses. So, a big thank you is in order to all our clients.

Today, I have the honor of introducing the world’s largest selection of accounting apps!

All apps integrate with e-conomic and are part of our strategy to make bookkeeping and accounting easier and more fun for small and medium businesses.

Providing the world’s largest selection of accounting apps

Streamlining and simplifying processes

For business owners without accounting experience, bookkeeping can be very time-consuming. That’s why we strongly support the development of apps that streamline and simplify these processes.

Using e-conomic apps, you can e.g. report mileage automatically using your mobile phone, automatically record orders and sale of a web shop, or automatically scan and transfer invoices to e-conomic. In the same way, apps are available for helping you collect outstanding payments, book salary and record time and materials spent on projects.

Connecting systems

In e-conomic, an app is an integration application that works as an intuitive utility to connect e-conomic with other systems such as web shops, CRM systems, payroll systems etc.

As you may know, e-conomic is structured around an open Application Programming Interface (API) enabling other companies to develop and sell apps that integrate with e-conomic. This is part of our basic philosophy that data should be allowed to flow freely between business systems. Our framework is so standardized and easy to use that you can code almost all of your app in our API.

We don’t make money on apps, but the number of apps has increased by 40% in the last year, and they play a significant part in attracting new customers and so help us increase our growth.

Apps seminar for developers

With so many apps and opportunities provided through our API, we’d like to play a much more active role in helping developers and partners create the best possible apps.

That’s why we’re organizing a Getting started with Apps seminar (select ‘Getting Started with Apps’ as ‘Type’), which will take place November 24  at 18:00 CET. Here, developers will get introduced to our API, our app resources and learn how to create their first app.

We’ve also set up an Apps team dedicated to assisting developers and partners by providing them with feedback on their ideas, helping them promote their apps and pointing them towards resources.

With these new initiatives, I look forward to seeing even more great e-conomic apps developed in the future. Keep an eye on the Apps section of our website to stay up-to-date with the latest apps.

Recently e-conomic had the opportunity to collaborate with Microsoft.eu and discuss my view on the cloud movement and it’s lasting impacts on the international marketplace.

I shared e-conomic’s experience as a start-up in the cloud marketplace 10 years ago, and how far we – and the cloud movement as a whole – have rapidly progressed ever since.

Read ‘The cloud is more than just hot air’ on Microsoft.eu

e-conomic for Microsoft.eu

You can read my full guest post, The cloud is more than just hot air, on Microsoft’s website.

Please feel free to comment here or on Microsoft.eu with any thoughts you have on the subject.  Do you agree with me that the cloud is truly the way forward?

Thank you to Microsoft for this great collaboration!

I’m happy to share that e-conomic has been selected as a ‘Gazelle’ company, one of the most prestigious awards for growth companies in Denmark!

To make us entitled to this award, we have experienced continued yearly growth and doubled our turnover during the last three years – which is actually one year less than the required turnover doubling in four years.

No mean feat, I think, particularly in light of the global recession – as witnessed by the fact that last year only 1 in 500 companies were able to meet the requirements.

Among these elite growth companies, the very best Gazelle companies will reveice further honors on October 31, and of course e-conomic will be in the running for this. You can read more about this announcement and the Gazelle award in general on Børsen’s website (in Danish).

The Gazelle award is presented by Dagbladet Børsen, the leading Danish business newspaper

Reasons for success

It’s always great when others appreciate your hard work – and I think everyone at e-conomic has delivered a huge effort to get the company to the position it is in today. So, well done and congratulations with the award to the people at e-conomic!

Also, the award is proof to me that we have made the right strategic decisions by e.g. focusing on expanding into foreign markets. This strategy is starting to pay off now as we’re really establishing ourselves around Europe – and that’s one of the reasons why I see plenty of room for continued growth for e-conomic in the coming years.

Ready for growth

While we’re on track for continued growth – and we do, after all, aim to reach 100,000 customers by 2013 – we have also made some key decisions concerning how to support an increasing number of customers in more and more countries.

Here, we have chosen to stay true to our roots as a digital and online company by relying on social and online media to communicate with customers and provide support and service. This way, our customers can get assistance in their own language, wherever and whenever they need it.

In short, I believe we have everything in place to allow us to stay Gazelles for many years to come – and hopefully already receive further honors as Gazelle winners on October 31!

As a company in rapid growth, it’s not only our number of customers and turnover figures that are climbing. We’re also more and more people working at e-conomic, with offices all around Europe, from Spain to the UK to Ukraine.

That’s why it’s especially important for me that we take time out – as we did on September 29 and 30 – to meet and exchange ideas, share knowledge, be inspired by each other, network and get to know each other a little bit better.

And of course, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have fun while you’re doing this!

Having fun at the e-conomic Company Days

Benefits all around

Close to 80 people from e-conomic’s different offices were part of the Company Days. They all contributed to a great atmosphere, full of energy, dedication and a desire to share and learn from each other to help move the company forward.

That’s why I think this event is not only beneficial to e-conomic as a company and the people working here – it’s also an opportunity for us to consider new and different ways of creating even more value for our customers.

If you have any ideas for how we can improve your e-conomic experience, we would love to hear from you.

And in case you would like to know what the people working at e-conomic look like – they are all there in the video below, doing an umbrella version of the e-conomic logo!

With Steve Jobs’ passing, the world has lost a great innovator and visionary. On a global level, Jobs changed the world we live in and how we interact with each other.

Learning from mistakes

Aside from the inspiration of seeing a creative genius like Steve Jobs at work, his story also shows us another thing: Learning comes from mistakes. Jobs dropped out of college, was fired as tech executive and was, for many years, an unsuccessful businessman.

One of my basic philosophies is that if we make no mistakes, we are not doing enough. But do not repeat mistakes.

No-one konws exactly what the future holds – even we at e-conomic don’t know precisely how online accounting will look in say, 10 years. But we know that we want to keep creating, adapting and innovating to provide our customers with the best that we can possibly give them.

Steve Jobs talks about dropping out of college and being fired from Apple

Online, interesting, fun

At e-conomic, it has of course been very fascinating and inspiring to follow Steve Jobs and Apple as they have moved along the same path as us promoting concepts like online, flexibility and innovation.

Personally, I’ve been truly inspired by Steve Jobs in a number of ways – both in terms of forging the way for connecting the world online, but also in terms of making products “fun”.

I was really struck by this quote from an Apple customer who was asked how Apple products had affected her life, and replied:

“They made it more interesting. And fun.”

This is exactly what we strive for at e-conomic – and by achieving this you have, at the very least, done something right!

At e-conomic, we believe that everyone within the organization should be acquainted with our company’s very highest priority: our customers.

That’s why last week, I sat down with e-conomic’s Online Manager Tue, and we spent the day making welcome calls to new e-conomic customers (Undercover Boss anyone?).

As I’ve said before – it’s not by coincidence that the word “fun” is part of e-conomic’s mission statement.  Fun is essential for everything, and over all I must say that this experience was insightful, enriching – and fun!

Welcoming new e-conomic customers on the e-conomic phone hotline

A continuing event

Tue and I has a great time calling customers, and overall we had a very positive experience being on the phone hotline.  We were educated and guided by some of e-conomic’s incredible support team – thank you to Charlotte, Gurjap and Asma for your help!

We learned many new things by speaking directly with the very people that we are in fact all working so hard for every single day, and this was an eye-opening experience for us.

Note to CEOs out there – when was the last time you talked directly to your customers?!

To hear their positive attitude and interest in our accounting system and service was exciting and empowering.  I think it is very important that all of the employees in e-conomic have the chance to reach out to our customers – not only our phone support staff.

Therefore, we will be asking all of our non-support employees to spend time on the phone hotline for a day. I believe that this will give them further insight into who exactly we are delivering our product and service to – and what we can do even more of to make them happier.

Two subjects that I regularly cover here on the blog are the importance of cloud computing in the growing market and expanding an innovative business model.

I have worked with start-up companies in the online industry for many years (you can take a look at my experiences on LinkedIn), and in the coming month I will be sharing my experience with business start-ups, growing online companies, and how to gain a competitive advantage – not just here on the blog, but also in person!

Join me at the Above the Cloud and Innovation Champion conferences

Above the Cloud

On October 6, 2011, join me in Stockholm at the Above the Cloud conference from 15:25 -15:50, where I’ll be discussing how collaborative online accounting and the “e-cosystem” can approve administrative efficiency and flexibility in business processes.

Kjell A. Nordstrom, one of the highest rated speakers in the world, will also be speaking at the event.  He will share how the business climate is influenced by trends in cloud computing.  Take the opportunity to participate in the Above the Cloud conference, where you can find out how the most successful companies use cloud services to gain a competitive advantage.

Find out more about the event here.

Innovation Champion

In June, I blogged about e-conomic’s sponsorship of the 2011 Innovation Champion event – a Danish business competition to find the most innovative company leader or team.  Now the winners of Innovation Champion 2011 will present their innovative business at a conference organized by IBC Innovation Factory, in Kolding, Denmark on October 11, 2011.

I will also be in attendance at the conference, where I will share how e-conomic reinvented bookkeeping as an online service and became one of Denmark’s fastest growing entrepreneurial companies.  (Hint: We believe the key is a culture of innovation and strong team-work!)

Find out more about the event here.

Please join me

I hope to see you at one of the upcoming conferences.  Please stop by and say hello if you’re in attendance!

This past week in Norway, the magazine PC World compared nine different online and offline accounting systems against one another, including the e-conomic online software.

I’m happy to share that e-conomic received fantastic scores in this test and exceled in several specific areas.

e-conomic scored high in PC World's accounting system test

e-conomic –  easy and secure

The PC World test compared the nine different accounting systems based on the needs of a public company with three users, who would use the program over a period of three years.  A number of categories were judged.

In the getting started category, PC World highlighted e-conomic as the easiest accounting system to start working with.   They also highlighted the fact that e-conomic was the only online option for companies who do not use a Windows operating system.

e-conomic also scored highest in the backup and security category, and our e-conomic apps were highlighted as a clear strength.

Low cost, high expectations

In the cost category, e-conomic also received the highest score.  Out of the nine programs tested, e-conomic was the lowest priced system.

Over a period of three years, the e-conomic system cost nearly 1,125 Euros less than the second cheapest system, as well as 3,970 Euros cheaper than the other online system in the test.

With e-conomic’s high scores in all three of these categories, it is clear to see that the cheapest solution can also be the best solution!

Looking forward to the next round

It has been an honor to receive these high scores (e-conomic was the only system to receive the top score in three different categories), especially since PC World has highlighted some of the aspects of our system that we work hard to emphasize – most notably usability, security and flexibility at a low cost.

Later this year, PC World will once again run a comparison of numerous accounting systems, this time based on sole proprietorship companies.  e-conomic will again be among the compared systems, so we look forward to seeing their assessment in the next round.

See here what PC World said about e-conomic (in Norwegian).

As you might have heard, e-conomic’s Referral Partner Program has a new website design. We hope that the new design will encourage more partner sign-ups, while simultaneously improving the quality of our existing partners’ referrals.

Earn money working from home 

If you haven’t heard about our Referral Partner Program before, then it’s time you learned how to earn money with e-conomic!

The Referral Partner Program is all about one thing: giving our partners the possibility to earn money by referring new customers to us.  But you can be assured that it is not one of those “make a fortune without doing any work” offers that we have all heard of (and ignored).

The new design and layout of the e-conomic Partner website

e-conomic RPP – not like the others

Unlike other online affiliate programs, the e-conomic Referral Partner Program promotes a B2B product: cloud based accounting software.

For our referral partners, this has several implications:

1. Our products address a certain niche. In e-conomic’s case, out target market consists of individuals who are deciding which accounting system should be used in their small or medium sized business. This might sound very specific, but the truth is there are tons of SMEs out there and most of us even know people who make decisions like this in small companies every day.
2. Referral Partners may use whatever platform they would like to get in touch with the relevant audience. Websites, facebook or LinkedIn profiles, Twitter pages, blogs, etc. are all possible ways of promoting your partner links.  The context of your page should always be about the target customer: SMEs.   But whether it is the latest accounting system or cloud based solutions for SMEs in general which gets the news, is up to the individual Referral Partner.

A program for all users

The lesson here is simply the fact that earning money through internet marketing is not something that is only possible for techies.  Anyone who feels that SMEs are part of their audience, readership, or visitors can get on-board with the e-conomic Referral Partner Program and start earning 80 Euros per customer referred!

If you aren’t yet on-board, then what are you waiting for?  Partner up today!