The cutting-edge technologies have helped to reshape small businesses significantly and improve their overall productivity in daily operations. Small businesses work closely with customers to offer them services and products which enrich their lifestyle. By choosing the right technology equipment, small businesses can move ahead of their competition and win the heart of their customers. Here are some key areas where technology has impacted the small businesses.
1 Automation of Business Processes and Increased Productivity
Automation is an important technology milestone which has boosted the productivity of small businesses and helped them to compete with larger organizations. Automation of business processes can make businesses agiler and respond to market changes swiftly. Using software tools like Quickbooks, you can automate the bookkeeping process of your company. Other tools like SalesForce, SalesAutoPilot, and Hubspot can help you to automate and track your sales and marketing. Small businesses can use software applications like HootSuite and 99Dollar Social to automate their social media marketing campaigns. There are several other technology applications which can help small businesses to improve their daily operations and increase their revenue. This helps them to focus on other business aspects like employee and customer engagement and overall business strategy.
2 Affordable Storage Solutions
Cloud computing is one of the biggest inventions in history which helps small businesses to get reliable and affordable data storage to protect the valuable records of the company with minimum maintenance requirements. Since the load is distributed across powerful servers in remote data centers, it reduces the overhead and cost involved for managing such servers locally in office premises. There is a wide range of cloud storage plans to choose from, and businesses only have to pay for the amount of the data they use which reduces the operational expenses significantly. Use of security software helps small businesses to protect critical data from hackers and malware.
3 Communication and Collaboration
For any business, Communication is vital to exchange their ideas, and technology helps small business to communicate effectively and quickly. With the use of mobile devices like tablets, laptops, and smartphones, businesses will be able to communicate and collaborate with their customers and other businesses efficiently. Use of communication software like Skype for Business, Webex, and Jabber, etc. can help employees to communicate with each other effectively.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is another key technology which offers the convenience of enterprise-level office phone systems for small businesses at highly affordable rates. This can be useful for small businesses to provide 24/7 customer support in a reliable manner. To know more about the best VoIP products available in the market and to find genuine reviews about them, you can refer to this site. Email and Instant messenger tools are of great value to businesses which help to engage with customers effectively. Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter also have helped small businesses to share updates about their latest products and help in easier marketing.
4 Efficient Project Management and Employee Training
There are several web-based project management tools like Zoho, Basecamp, 5 pm etc. which offers a simple solution to keep track of your projects and delegate the tests to team members. It can be useful to allocate resources, track the timelines for each task and also help businesses to invoice customers accordingly. These tools also help business to share documents in real time. Such tools act as a central hub and help the businesses to achieve efficient project management. There are several online platforms which can be used for effective training of your new employees.
Technology has a high potential to affect small businesses in positive ways, and you should know how to choose the right technology for your business to improve your productivity and overall business revenue.