Running a small business can be a tough job if you don’t have enough resources. It’s usually just you and a few of your trustworthy employees. You may not believe this, but a small business with restricted resources can make use of technology that will help them grow their business and streamline processes with much ease. However, like several other aspects of your business, it is up to you to decide whether or not to use it for the greater good.
If used effectively, technology can significantly boost the performance of your business. It helps you complete your existing operations quickly and efficiently. Not only this, but technology is also affordable, easy, and cost-effective, making it perfect for small businesses that are just getting started.
Do you want to learn and master how to use technology strategically? Keep on reading to know in what ways you can make use of technology for your business.
8 Ways To Use Technology for Your Small Business
1. Connect through Emails
One of the best things about technology is that it allows you to connect and interact with others right through your fingertips. Emails have become a necessary and valuable element both in personal and professional life.
Frequently sending out emails is one of the most reliable and convenient ways to connect with and build your customer base. Try to find what your potential customers are interested in and produce content that adds value without being promotional.
Moreover, with remote working and work from home, it is a great tool to get in touch with your employees as well. Emails turn out to be the best when it comes to streamlining communications between you and your staff members.
2. Make Your business easy to find with a Great Website
A good, attractive website is often seen as a sign of professionalism by potential clients. Thanks to technology, you can build a professional website without having to code through various content management systems available today. There are many different platforms that you can choose from, like WordPress and Wix. A website is an excellent means to mark an online presence for your business and increase its chances to rank high in search engines through SEO.
3. Extend Your Reach through Social Media
Having your business on social media is one of the effective ways to form strong relationships with your existing customers and have a good influence on prospective ones. Take the time to curate and share valuable information with your followers on social media handles in the form of pictures and videos associated with your business.
4. Simplify Invoicing processes with Online Systems
If you deal with generating invoices for your customer, it is crucial to have an effective system that will take care of it. Today, there are many software available that offer more than just invoicing, including FreshBooks, Zoho, QuickBooks, and many more.
5. Use a Project Management System
If you want to organize all your business processes like managing projects, appointments with clients, team handling, etc., then project management software/system is the solution. You can streamline all your processes with tools like BaseCamp, Active collab, Asana, and many more.
6. Reduce Communications Costs
If your business requires a lot of communication, like conference calls, you can cut down the expenses through various free business communication tools. Services like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Skype lets you easily communicate with clients worldwide through the Internet.
7. Easily Track business expenses
Tracking your business expenses and salaries of your employees can be made easy and effective through tools like Expensify, QuickBooks, and abacus. By going digital and eliminating paperwork, you can invest more time managing other core activities of your business.
8. Study your Customer’s Behaviour
Apart from the tools and software that help streamline the communication and operations of your business, every small business should be aware of the changing patterns and preferences of its customers. This information is extremely important as it lets you know if your marketing efforts are working in your favor or not. It also lets you decide which campaigns are the most effective in attracting customers. Thus you should very well know what your customers want. There are various analytics tools available such as Google Analytics, that give you detailed insights into your customers’ behavior online.
