Micaela Birmingham has gone from new mom to entrepreneur in less than a year. When she was given a stroller for her baby she was less than trilled with the lack of sun protection so she created her own and started selling it. Now this new business owner runs her entire business, CityMum, using free Google apps reports Crain’s New York Business.
“I have two employees, celebrity endorsements and distribution in several different countries,” says Ms. Birmingham. “I started with a dishrag in my kitchen.” Revenues for CityMum are expected to hit nearly $1 million by September, the end of its first fiscal year.
Having deftly conquered search, Google is moving on to small businesses like CityMum. The company is trying to sell entrepreneurs on using Google Apps–a suite of Web-based services that includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet and website-building products–instead of traditional software from Microsoft and Apple.
Google’s key selling point, at least for now: Its Google Apps standard version is free for small businesses, though the company doesn’t rule out charging for it down the line. Google also offers a Premium Edition that includes more storage space, extra security, customer support and added customization, for $50 per year per person (or roughly $4 per month). By comparison, Microsoft office users shell out $280 each for the Home and Business version of Office, which includes Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, e-mail and organizer program Outlook and note-taking tool OneNote. The latest version of office includes access to web-based versions of the same programs, but users must have Office on their computers.
Google doesn’t disclose how many of its Apps users choose the Premium Edition, but there are upwards of 2 million businesses, or 25 million users, on Apps. The company says more than 3,000 businesses sign up each day.
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