Over the years I have been asked this question numerous times, and my response has changed. 10 years ago my answer would be customer database purely on the sheer complexity and the poor ROI (return on investment) that CRM offered small business.  Most small business initially rely on word documents, spreadsheets, shared folders, outlook express and paper files. As the business evolves it becomes difficult to access the necessary customer information when required, thus customer service is compromised and growth is limited due to labour intensive business processes. At this stage most small businesses will search for a better solution.

So what options are out there? - Tailor made customer database, off the shelf customer database, in-house CRM and hosted CRM. More...