Author: Katie Conroy
Running a small business can take up a lot of time—not to mention money. But with carefully chosen technology upgrades and software, you can streamline your business operations and cut costs. These upgrades are worth the investment—and they’ll earn their keep in just a short time.
Website Design and Development
No matter how small the business, a website can help your company get discovered. Whether it’s a Google My Business listing or a complete website with regular blog posts, an online presence will increase business traffic.
As USA Today explains, a website helps with a brand’s credibility, marketing, and expansion. In short, higher discoverability means more potential for sourcing new clients—and making more sales. Plus, setting up your business site is not as challenging as you may think. Many free site options are available, but even paid hosting for a personalized site can earn an excellent return on investment.
Branded App Creation
Depending on your business, you might feel like a website is enough. But with most consumers having a smartphone in hand, creating an app is a smart move for your business. Especially if you offer a product, partnering with an iOS app development freelancer to launch an app could be the game changer your company needs.
An app complements your audience’s online experience and takes advantage of consumer habits. After all, smartphone users spend about 30 hours per month in their favorite apps. By adding yours to their library, you can boost brand engagement and meet customer needs even better. Plus, rolling out a new product, special offer, or reward program becomes simpler when you have a ready and willing client base to pitch to.
Secure Data Protections
Regardless of your industry, keeping proprietary data safe is a must. Plus, if you’re handling customer information, locking down data is even more crucial. Your brand’s commitment to security raises your clients’ confidence and adds value to your business. And, depending on the type of data you collect, you might be legally required to follow HIPPA, GDPR, or SOX data protection regulation. Remember, one breach of trust, and it can take months to years to regain your customers’ confidence.
A range of products and services like those offered by Fastcomcorp can help you secure your company’s documents and share them safely. For most business owners, the peace of mind alone is worth the up-front investment. But it’s also worth noting again that companies have a moral and legal obligation to protect consumer data. Meeting those obligations—and exceeding the minimum—is a great way to earn customer trust.
Digital Accounting Tools
No matter how small your small business, tracking your finances is a must. If your business is too small for an accounting department, investing in accounting software is the next best thing. Accounting software can help you organize your business’s finances, prepare for tax season, and compare and predict profit and loss per quarter.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is another valuable addition to your digital arsenal. ERP allows you to quickly manage many aspects of your operation, including sales, distribution, purchasing, and inventory management. Check out Axelor ERP.
Since 57 percent of business owners work more than 40 hours, saving time with software that does the work for you is extremely cost-effective. Instead of laboring over spreadsheets, you can rely on software automation to pull and categorize relevant data. Even generating complex reports only takes a few clicks—saving you time and money.
Remote Collaboration
As a whole, society is working toward a more interconnected yet remote workplace. In fact, Fast Company predicts that even non-remote teams will eventually come to rely on remote tools. But what does that mean for your small business? Giving employees (and yourself) the right tools to collaborate effectively becomes essential, no matter where your team is located.
Choosing digital collaboration tools for communication, marketing, budgeting, and general project management helps unite your team and make them more effective in their respective roles. Since telecommuting can help employees be more productive as well as maintain work-life balance, supporting their desire to work remotely is also the next step in evolving your business model.
Spending more to save more isn’t always the wisest business strategy. But in the case of technology and software, passing on opportunities to save time and increase efficiency is a no-brainer. Seeing a return on your investment is a given with these smart tools, and your company’s bottom line will only benefit.
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