With a small business, you may already have had some success and therefore looking to find more opportunities and ways to help your company grow. Technology and the digital world is becoming more and more critical to businesses and if you’re looking at how technology can help your small business then keep reading. 
Craft out an Online Presence
An online presence is useful for any business, no matter what the industry. Crafting out an online presence takes a lot of time and knowledge. However, it can be easily done by yourself if there’s only a limited amount of individuals in your company. You want to start with building a website if you haven’t already got one. By having a website, this allows your current customers and potential customers a place where they can learn about your company and more importantly, get in touch. This site will be an opportunity for you to sell the company and whatever product or service you might have.
A website can easily be created using WordPress or Wix to just name a few examples. You ideally want to buy or get a web designer to create the design for your site. Having a brand identity is important when it later comes to advertising and promoting yourself on different platforms. The same logo or colour scheme will let customers know who you are. A lot of this can be self-taught so if you don’t yet have the available budget, use your current skills and research ‘how to’ on the internet.
Social Media Is a Goldmine
Social media truly is a treasure trove for any business. At the end of the day, it’s one of the most powerful tools, perhaps the most powerful, in influencing others and communicating. Whether it be on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, each of these social media platforms can offer something different to the company. However, one platform may work for one business, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for everyone. For example, if you have an art business then Instagram or Pinterest are going to be your most useful platforms to create on. If your business refers to a lot of online articles and publishing, then perhaps Twitter and Facebook are your domain.
Start by creating some social media platforms and experiment with which ones work best for you. That way, you can then focus on the most useful ones to you so that you can build an audience and start interacting directly with your customers.
Cut down on Operation Costs
With so many digital advancements, there are now services like electronic document delivery that means you can send online faxes without the use of having expensive fax servers and equipment that eat into your annual operating budget. Overall operations costs can be reduced especially as printers and other software like desktop PCs are becoming smaller and more eco-friendly. Therefore, it’s a good idea to do a review of your current equipment and see if there are ways to upgrade or replace specific ones that are costing you more money than it’s worth.
Team up with your operations team to put a plan in place and perhaps a budget if you can afford to.
Streamline Your Finances with Software
Having everything financially in one place is much more beneficial than having all it all over the place, which risks certain invoices or expenses going missing. There is plenty of software out there that can streamline your finances, so it’s all on one platform. Online systems like this can also be beneficial to clients so that there’s a shared space where evidence of invoices or payments in general, can be documented.
Beef up Your Security
Online security for businesses has become more important than ever and if your security isn’t the best it can be, you leave yourself vulnerable and a potential target for hackers and cyber attacks. Cyber attacks can have a critical impact on a business, with some even going bust because the fall out from it is too much to come back from. Also, if you’re dealing with confidential or personal information, then it’s your responsibility to make sure that information never falls into the wrong hands.
Pick a anti-ware software and service that’s suitable for your business and train your staff in using the internet safely and knowing how to spot a phishing email or a suspicious website.
Technology is only getting more prominent, and it’s foolish to avoid it because there are many benefits that your business can get from it. Try out these technology tips with your organisation and see the difference it makes.
Leave a Reply