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About
Reselling SoftBooking |
Resellers FAQ's |
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SoftBooking Limited
is a software development company based in Solihull in the West
Midlands. We have spent since early 2005 developing and marketing our
latest of software known as SoftBooking. SoftBooking is designed for the
salon industry and more specifically for small and medium size
independent salons.
We have been directly
selling, supporting, training and supplying additional services around
SoftBooking from our offices in the Midlands as well as through a value
added reseller in Ipswich. We are now at a point were enquiries for the
product come from further a-field. This is as a result of our existing
clients providing work of mouth marketing and our recent increase in
advertising in nationwide magazines such as Vitality (salon trade
magazine), we are also committed to future articles and adverts in more
trade magazines and therefore we need to create a nationwide network of
companies to promote, sell, install and support our product.
The purpose of my
email today is to enquire as to whether selling our software would be
something of interest to yourselves. I am sure before you could even
consider an answer to this question, you would like to know more about
the product, the market, the competition and of course the sales
potential for yourself. I have therefore divided the remainder of this
email into these four sections.
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SoftBooking is a
piece of software known as salon management software. It is designed to
look after all the processes currently undertaken at salons using paper
based methods, this briefly comprises:
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An easy to use yet powerful
booking system;
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A comprehensive client
record database;
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A full point of sale system;
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Fully automated purchase
ordering and stock control system;
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Staff management
functionality;
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A comprehensive reporting
and analysis tool;
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Client marketing tool;
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And much, much more.
Each and every part
of the system has been designed, developed and refined within a salon
environment using salon managers, receptionists and therapists to make
the system truly applicable and usable. |
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As I have mentioned
above SoftBooking is a package designed specifically for salons, this is
broadly split into the following type of salons: Beauty & holistic
salons; Hair salons; Nail bars, Tanning salons and Laser clinics. The
software is also highly adaptable for any business which takes bookings
and sells products and services; we have it installed in a crystal
healing clinic, urban spas and aromatherapy clinics.
This large variety of
businesses SoftBooking suits consequently means the target market for
the product is vast, from our research and database held in just the
West Midlands we would estimate in excess of 60,000 applicable salons in
the UK; this is split with the majority of salons being hair, followed
by beauty, laser, tanning and nails respectively. The entire sector is a
growth sector and SoftBooking is perfectly poised to capitalise on this
growth.
As SoftBooking is
aimed at small and medium sized independent salons, we have found
reaching the decision makers (usually the owners of the business)
relatively easy, they usually work in the salons and more often than not
actually answer the phones, therefore getting a foot in the door is a
reasonably hassle free task. |
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It may sound strange
but SoftBooking was actually embarked on as a direct result of the
products currently being offered in the market. Our parent company CA
Software Systems were approached by a local salon in 2005 about whether
we could create or recommend a system applicable for themselves. We
looked at the products available and discovered that although a large
variety of software was available none was particularly applicable.
First and foremost,
most of the software available is prohibitively expensive, designed and
priced more for the large health club or hotel style salons than the
smaller independent salon. In addition to this we also noted that much
of the software, both the highest and lowest priced was neither
particularly easy to use nor in fact as comprehensive as it is required
to be.
You could say from
this point SoftBooking was born; there was a clear demand for
affordable, comprehensive and much more simple to use software in the
sector. Indeed preliminary market research and later sales have proved a
genuine appetite for quality and affordable salon management software,
after all the management of a salon is an incredibly time-consuming and
complex operation.
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In our experience of
selling SoftBooking, we have found if a salon is going to take on
SoftBooking they usually require the complete IT solution, that is to
say: training; support; hardware; additional software and of course on
going support. The SoftBooking product therefore enables you to sell a
lot of related products around the software; in fact you will find only
a fraction of the final invoice is for SoftBooking while much will be
for the related products and services.
When we sell
SoftBooking, we pride ourselves on being able to create a package which
is both affordable and applicable for the needs of our clients. We build
ongoing business relationships, ensuring our clients are adequately
trained to get the most out of both SoftBooking and the ownership of a
PC.
I have included a
list below of products and services often supplied by ourselves to
salons. * indicates what is typically sold alongside SoftBooking.
Installation:
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SoftBooking*;
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Hardware*;
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Internet*.
Hardware sales:
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PC*;
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Receipt printer*;
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Barcode Scanned*;
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Cash Draw*;
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Digital camera;
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Webcams;
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Memory Sticks*;
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Printers*
Additional software sales:
Training:
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Two days SoftBooking
training*;
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One day general PC training;
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One day additional software
training;
Support:
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SoftBooking*;
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Hardware;
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Remote Backup*
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Websites
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The
Software