I do a bit of small business consulting in my free time. Mostly it's something I do for friends and friends of friends. I wouldn't say it pays many bills, but it's good networking and I get to learn a lot about people and about their businesses.

A fairly common problem for the small business owner, first time entrepreneurs are particularly susceptible in this regard, is a lack of understanding of how complicated running a small business can be. Many who go into business for themselves do it because they have a passion for the products or services they sell. All too often the new business owner finds out that running a business itself takes him or her too far away from the passion that brought him there in the first place. That's why, when I was offered the chance to review the MerchantOS point-of-sale site, I went for it. This is exactly the kind of service new business owners should look into if they're serious about their passion and running a successful business based on it.

Think about it, if you're passionate enough about something to invest your time, your effort, maybe even your life's savings, is learning how to manage and operate business information technology systems and software how you want to spend your time? If you were a business owner how would you rather spend your afternoon, backing up your inventory data, updating software and typing in product data; or talking to your customers?

MerchantOS offers a point-of-sale system that lets you track your sales and inventory on line, over the internet. You don't need to worry about installing systems and software. You don't have to keep it all up to date. Your point-of-sale system is always there, up to date and ready to ring up sales on the computer or laptop you already own. That you're running sales and inventory over the internet also means you can do a lot of your back office work from anywhere you have internet access.

The small business people I talk to invariably know all there is to know about their products and services. I tell them to stick with that, cultivate it; because that knowledge, that expertise, is the key to the success of their venture. The trick they have to learn is to outsource the rest. Hire experts to do those things that take them away from their passion. Services like MerchantOS can be the difference between success and failure in a small business.