14 DAY TRIAL // According to Microsoft, Office Live Small Business has skyrocketed to over 1 million subscribers in just the two years since it was introduced. Via the service, the Redmond giant is essentially offering small-business a cheap, fast and effortless way of establishing an online presence, and the audience gathered in the past couple of years is sufficient evidence that entrepreneurs are interested. Small businesses, especially those with fewer than ten employees are the target audience of Office Live Small Business, Microsoft revealed.
"From the outset we knew we wanted to tailor Office Live Small Business to the smallest of small businesses because they have unique needs that were not being addressed by any other service at the time. We focused on three key things: make the service easy to use, make it affordable and make it all work together," explained Baris Cetinok, director of product management, marketing and planning for Microsoft Office Live Small Business.
The Redmond company explains that the number of Office Live Small Business has doubled in the past year. This indicates that entrepreneurs are steadily adopting the service and that more and more small businesses become convinced on the need to establish a foothold in the digital world.
With Office Live Small Business, subscribers are able to build a website for their business complete with email capabilities and take advantage of low-cost e-commerce offerings. Microsoft is also delivering free online business applications which can help subscribers manage their projects and resources and deal with online sales.
"We are able to entice small businesses to come to the Web by making the barriers so low, you can do it yourself and get started for free," Cetinok added. "Some of our most successful customers have told us that their Web site is their business. It's not about a static online brochure. When you have back-office tools that talk to your front-office Web presence, your online activities go to a whole new level and help you grow your business."