

Ask HN: Review my startup: Bill On Site - DanHulton

http://www.billonsite.com/<p>Bill On Site is a web-based invoicing system, with a unique twist: you can use Bill On Site on your mobile phone, enabling small business owners to send invoices to their customers while still on their client's site.  All you need is a semi-recent phone – one with a web browser on it – and internet access on your phone.<p>This used to be my part-time gig, but then I was laid off and have used much of my time and severance since getting it to "release-ready" status.  I just released it the first of this month, and I'd really appreciate any feedback.
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fraXis
You should have a 'free plan' option. I use Freshbooks for all my invoices and
I used their free plan until recently. Their free plan really sold me because
I was able to use it for 6 months to make invoices, and when I needed to do
more, then I was more than willing to upgrade to a paid plan.

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mrduncan
Just took a quick look at the plan selection page, I noticed the following:

\- The numbers for the basic and premium plans seem to fade into the
background and are hard to read.

\- The "Serious" name for the plan was a little off-putting for me. To me it
implied that the other plans were for amateurs, which was even a bit more
confusing since it is the middle plan. (I'm not really your target audience so
take this advice with a grain of salt.)

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DanHulton
These are all good points. I didn't notice the number fade until you mentioned
it. I'll play around with the colours.

And I have worked quite some time at coming up with names for the plans - it's
hard! I have competitors with plans names like "Time Machine, Limousine, etc."
and I wanted something a little more professional than that. But on the flip
side, I wanted something better than the traditional "Bronze, Silver, Gold".

Also, there's the pricing advice that I keep hearing, that you have a premium
option so that people buying your middle option feel good that they saved
money, and you have a cheap option so that people buying your middle option
feel good that they're not cheap.

I think the first and last tiers I have are good, but yeah, the middle one
needs work.

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DanHulton
There. Hopefully that's a little less jarring.

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NickWritersBloc
I think that paraschopra is right in the determining whether there is an
existing need for this. Though, my approach is - what's the application that
this could be really great for? Whether it exists, or is exactly on-site
billing at a client -I think the answer is - where is this a killer app? Isn't
there a great application for pop-up sales events? Fairs, trade shows, etc?

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Jim_Neath
Clickable link: <http://www.billonsite.com/>

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DanHulton
Shoot - shoulda done that myself.

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paraschopra
Just curious if you did a study/survey in your target market and found that
the inability to bill at client's site is a big frustration point for your
users. I don't know much about small business owner market but s this
differentiator strong enough?

~~~
DanHulton
No formal studies of that kind, no, but I spoke with a few small business
owners who thought it was a great idea and that they would love to have it.

I also did some market testing last December where I threw up a simple test
page under what I _was_ going to call the product: "Mobilliti". I ditched the
name (seriously, look at all the i's and l's, it's completely unreadable), but
kept the feedback. I spent $50 on Google Adwords, and got a several people who
were interested enough to click through all the way to the "Sign up" button,
and then fill in contact information about when the product would be
available.

~~~
there
(disclaimer: i'm the author of a competing product -
<http://corduroysite.com/> which has an iphone/mobile interface in
development)

i've also been told by my customers that a mobile interface would be great and
generating invoices at a client's location would be useful, but i think the
important thing is that it's just a feature of a bigger billing system. when
they get back to their office, the normal web interface to the system still
has all of the tools they need to work quickly.

do you see your product as being a company's only billing system where they do
everything through a mobile interface or is it intended to be a small
invoicing system that works in tandem with their existing billing system like
quickbooks? i ask because your site is heavily pushing the mobile part without
really detailing the rest of the system.

~~~
DanHulton
That's an excellent point. I've already got someone using it for the web
interface despite the heavy mobile use I'm pushing, but I can see how my copy
comes off as missing the "complete picture," as it were. Something I'll have
to work on.

And no worries on being a competitor - there's tons of guys like us!
FreshBooks, CurdBee, Ballpark, Ronin, The Invoice Machine, Cannybill - the
list goes on. And Freshbooks has an iPhone interface, even.

This is - I'm told - good news. A large market with a fractured user base is a
good place to enter, provided you can target a niche that nobody else has made
their own... which is what I'm trying to do.

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NEPatriot
Hard to read the text in the footer. It also seems there is an extra box below
your footer.

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DanHulton
Browser? Operating system?

I'd love to fix it, but I can't see it in any of my configurations
(Linux/Windows, Opera/Firefox/Chrome/IE.)

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sinden
I get the same extra box.

Using Safari 4.0.3 on Snow Leopard.

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DanHulton
Hurk. Don't have a Mac. I'll see what I can do, though. I have an idea what's
causing it.

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chrisa
I was able to reproduce with Chrome 3.0.195.27 on Windows; it's happening
because Clicky Web Analytics has an image inside of a <p>, and you've styled p
in footer to have a background image. I was able to get it to go away by
removing the style, or by removing the p around the image in the footer.

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boundlessdreamz
Which payment processor are you using ?

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DanHulton
PayPal. Easiest integration.

Paying invoices works largely like Etsy's integration with PayPal, too.

