Kiwiblog

Rod Drury has blogged:

We put out our first half operating update this morning.

Xero Operating Update to 30 September 2009

Xero has over 12,000 customers and now has customers in 50 countries. How cool is that!

Very cool. I say that as a user and shareholder. I also calculate $600/year income per customer and estimate income is now around $7 million a year.

Just 12 months ago we had 2200 customers. As you can imagine there has been a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes to ensure that we scale all aspects of the business to deal with this level of growth. With the additional capital raised in May we’ve been able to gas up on development as well as build out our sales team with senior people in NZ, the UK and Australia.

Wow that is great growth.

We’re delighted we’ve been able to lock in our growth rate after our seasonal high of March and feel that we’ve put the foundations in place for the next step up.

Selling software to the vast and fragmented small business market is really hard. There are few companies who have cracked it. The way people are using the web is evolving quickly and we’re all just starting to understand the impact of social media. Over the last half we’ve experimented with a number of marketing and sales approaches to find what works in our space and in each country. I’ve really enjoyed this stage of the business and I think we’re evolving sales models and processes that work. There is no doubt we are still learning.

Our entire team have worked really, really hard over the last half. There is a buzz inside Xero as all the hard work we’ve been doing is beginning to pay off. We just love the feedback and hearing how people enjoy using our software.

Thank you to our valuable customers and partners. We really appreciate your support and the great ideas and feedback. Our list of things to do has not got any smaller. And thank you again to our shareholders who have given us the opportunity to build a company that we all at Xero are proud of.

For those interested, there’s a thread from earlier this week on Xero’s new pricing plans, and some Q&A with staff.

I’ve been a shareholder in Xero from its initial float (and before they had any customers!) but only been using it in my own business for six months or so.

We were using MYOB and as I had paid for that software, I was a bit resistant to going to a monthly subscription but my business manager, Anna, actually convinced me of the benefits after she had used it elsewhere. So we went ahead and subscribed at $49/month.

I can’t describe how great it has been. The synchronization with online banking has saved hours of time, but most of all I can just login to Xero from anywhere in the world and see what bills have been paid or need authorisation, what invoices are going out to our clients etc, and most of all our profitability.

Xero have announced to the share market yesterday, and are advertising the changes – a new pricing model. Currently it is $49 a month for everyone, but now there are three options:

1. $29/mth – ideal for contractors and freelancers with a small number of transactions
2. $49/mth suited to most business
3. $64/mth for businesses that need multi- currency conversion

Xero is keen on feedback from readers, especially those who are freelancers, contractors or in a small business, about how you currently do your accounts (do you just use spreadsheets), what features you most want, is the new price level attractive and is the transaction limit okay?

Details of the packages have been blogged by Rod Drury.

Xero’s product manager (Andrew Butel) and communications manager (Helen Matterson) will be part of the conversation, and I expect Rod D will pop his head in also!

BNZ is running a campaign called Closed for Good. No, they’re not closing down permanently, they’re closing their branches and offices just for the day on Wednesday, November 4, so almost all of their 5,000 staff can work on community projects.

Now the cool thing is they have not unilaterally decided what projects to work on. They want local communities to suggest projects to them. You can do this through their Closed for Good website. Some examples are helping at the local SPCA, cleaning up a beach or stream etc.

BNZ’s guidelines are they’d rather do projects that help local communities, match the number of people they have in the area, and have an organiser present on the day. They’d like to avoid political projects, projects that benefit commercial organisations, and projects that would normally be the job of local or central government.

You can submit your ideas for Closed for Good up until 27th of September. You can also follow them on Twitter @ ClosedforGood. Plus you will see ads promoting Closed for Good on this blog and some other sites.

While BNZ branches will be closed on the 4th of November, Internet and telephone banking will still be operating of course. If you’re anything like me, you visit your branch around once a year and do online banking several times a week, so won’t even notice the day that they’re closed!

If you do submit an idea for a good project to Closed for Good, feel free to comment here with a summary of what it is.

This advertisement may remind some people of a former Labour Cabinet Minister from Dunedin