Many startup businesses start within a home. However, there usually comes a time that business needs necessitate a move to an office. What are some things to consider when moving your startup to an office? Here are tips to consider:
Location, Location, Location
Location can be important for startups — but not all startups. If your startup is an online business, you likely can save money by looking for cheap office space close to where you live.
Don’t Cause Downtime
The life of a startup is fragile to begin with. When moving, don’t neglect your daily business in the transition. If necessary, take it …read more

Crunch.co.uk, an online accounting startup that is aimed at helping freelancers, recently received funding. The notable aspect about the funding is the source of the funding.
Michael van Swaaij, the Chairman of Skype, and Paul Birch, the co-founder of Bebo, were the duo behind the funding of Crunch.co.uk.
Said van Swaaij: “The accounting industry is ripe for some disruption in order to make it more efficient, lower cost and less time consuming for freelancers. Freelancing is booming and here to stay as a form of employment, giving millions of people access to work and income otherwise out of their reaches.”
Especially for freelance …read more

Thumbtack.com was recently named the Gold Medal winner at Juice Pitcher — an inaugural event that has a goal of allowing startups to get exposure. Juice Pitcher was hosted by TheFunded.com and Vator.tv. In total, more than 130 companies competed in for the Gold Medal.
Said Marco Zappacosta, the founder of Thumbtack.com: “Thumbtack is very proud to win the Juice Pitcher competition and formally announce the release of our alpha.”
Thumbtack.com is a free service that allows service providers a way to find clients. It also features the ability to manage clients. For example, a service prodiver could manage the payments and …read more

Chocri, a customized chocolate bar company based in Germany, recently won a German startup award presented by WirtschaftsWoche. The award was for a yearly competition in Germany for companies who could survive on the global market. For winning the award, Chocri received more than $400,000 worth of services aimed at helping a startup company.
With Chocri, customers can create their own chocolate bar. First they choose their chocolate base (white, milk or dark). Secondly, toppings are selected. Finally, customers pick a name for their chocolate bar and select the type of wrapper they want.
Said Franz Duge, Chocri’s co-founder: “Since chocri was …read more

Livebookings, the largest restaurant reservation service in Europe, has received $16 million in their latest round of funding. The company, which has employees and partners in a total of 19 countries, received its funding mostly from Wellington Partners, a venture capital firm.
With the latest round of funding, Livebooking will look to expand and strengthen its position as the industry leader in Europe.
“Livebookings has grown aggressively since day one and we’re now at a point where we see a fantastic opportunity for further managed but rapid growth supported with further investment,” said Niklas Eklund, Livebookings’ CEO. “Despite the recession, recent figures …read more

For startups, customer service is one of the most important aspects of your business — if not the most important. Not only do you need competent customer service, you need quick customer service. Especially in the online world, customers expect answers in less than 24 hours.
How can you create quick customer service without spending a bundle? Here are some customer service tips and tricks:
Helpful Autoresponder
Don’t resort to using a cookie-cutter autoresponder. Instead, put together an autoresponder that is helpful and addresses real needs and wants.
Give options
Especially for new startups, you should be able to give a number of contact options. …read more

One of the first steps online startups take when they launch is to aggressively utilize social media. While some experts believe that startups rely too heavily on social media at the moment, others believe that social media is vital for connecting with potential customers and building brand awareness.
You can count Robert Proctor of Reality Digital as part of the latter group.
“Brands that utilize social media during the construction process of their websites will find it much easier to engage visitors,” stated Proctor. “The use of high quality features such as an online video platform, or even something simple like a …read more

While there are literally thousands of search engine startups each year, Goby.com is a very creative search engine idea. The startup allows you to search for fun things to do.
At Goby.com, you need to answer three questions: what you want to do, where you want to do it and when you want to do it. After clicking the search button, your results will be shown.
Mark Watkins, Goby.com’s CEO, wants to make things simple.
Said Watkins: “Our mission at Goby is to allow users to spend less time searching and more time doing the things they want to do. Goby enables you …read more

Vuclip announced that it has landed $6 million in Series B funding. The funding was led by Jafco Ventures and previous investor New Enterprise Associates. The startup plans to use the funding to help pioneering in the industry of mobile video search.
One of the main issues Vuclip has needed to tackle since the inception of the startup has been the fragmented mobile landscape. With so many different platforms and services, it is difficult to find a solution that satisfies everything. As the months go on, the mobile landscape gets more and more fragmented.
Said Nickhil Jakatdar, the CEO of Vuclip: “We’ve …read more

Pricefalls.com has been launched and is now available as a public beta. The online reverse auction website uses a unique pricing model that could help this startup find a niche.
Mixing shopping with entertainment, Pricefalls has a “dutch auction” system that has prices continuously decreasing. It’s up to the shopper to buy the products at the right price.
Said Elliot Moskow, Pricefalls.com’s CEO: “With the economy still biting and the 2009 holiday season approaching quickly, many people will be turning to sites that list popular items at lower prices, like Pricefalls.com, to get the best deals.”
When the price is first announced, shoppers …read more