Technology can be a great asset to any business as long as it is used in the right way. As a business owner, you need to make decisions about which types of tech, which programs and apps, you can use most effectively to make your business more efficient and streamlined.
The best use of technology will make everyone’s jobs much easier, reduce cost, and increase profits wherever possible. They should also benefit the customer wherever they can. With this in mind, the following technologies are excellent ways to help your business grow.
Make It Safer
Finally, if you work in an environment that has hazards in it, such as working at height or in a warehouse, for example, technology can help to keep people safe in a variety of ways.
Cameras installed across the site mean that everyone can be seen; they will work more safely and not cut corners, and if an accident were to happen, you could access them a lot more quickly. Warning signals that use lasers are another useful tool.
When we talk about the safety of your business, we don’t just mean physically, however; we also mean in terms of cybersecurity. There are all kinds of bots, including NFT bots and similar, as well as viruses and malware, which can cause many different issues for your business, your customers, and your finances.
Using technology to reduce the likelihood of these viruses and bots causing problems is a great safety precaution, and as well as specific anti-bot technology, there are firewalls and anti-virus programs that should be installed on every piece of work equipment connected to any network or the internet.
Your Website
Starting with the absolute basic and most essential piece of technology that any business could need; your website. When your website is done right, it is a great visual representation of what your company stands for and how you work.
It should leave your customers in no doubt about what you do, and it should be easy for them to navigate and buy your products or contact you to arrange to have more information.
To do this, your site needs to be mobile-friendly, simple to use, and it should have as many relevant keywords as possible (without them looking forced, of course, as this can easily put people off).
If you’re not sure about designing it yourself, then outsource the job to a professional, but whatever you do, don’t just rely on a Facebook business page (or, worse, having no website at all) as you will lose out on a lot of potential business.
Social Media
Social media is a powerful way of engaging with your audience, most of whom will be signed up to at least one platform, be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or something else – new ones are emerging all the time.
Many people use social media daily, many times throughout the day, so the more times they see your message when browsing, the better; your business name will more easily stick in their minds.
Although we’ve mentioned that only having a Facebook page for your business rather than a website isn’t the best way to promote yourself, having a business page and a website that work together is a great way to get your company noticed more often by more people.
Once you have set up your social media accounts, it’s important to engage with the people who are contacting you – this will also give you access to many more potential customers.
Make Invoicing Easier
Technology can help you to make invoicing much more straightforward, which is a bonus for your company and your customers. Using specific accounting software means you can just click a few buttons, and invoices are instantly created and emailed to customers.
When the invoice is paid, it can be marked as such using the app or program, and everything keeps completely up to date; you can even set it all up to send out automated reminders too. This will save you a lot of time and stress trying to collate everything together, especially around tax time.
Keep Up With Your Competition
By searching online, you can find out all you need to know about what your competition is doing, and that will give you the tools you need to create a marketing strategy that will work for you and combats their ideas.
Check their website, search Google, look at reviews, and check their social media sites to get a good overall view of what they are doing and how they are doing it.
At the same time, you can try to keep your own company information as secure as possible so that your competitors don’t have all the information – you can use tech to do this too, including ensuring encryption tools when sending information online.
Project Management
Project management is something that every growing business needs to think about. As the company gets bigger, it will be harder and harder to keep track of all the different jobs that are happening, and ensuring you know where to allocate your staff could become problematic.
Without using project management software, problems can arise when jobs aren’t completed properly, or customers are waiting for people to arrive who haven’t been told where they need to go.
Project management software means you can keep track of all the current jobs, including all the people allocated to them. You can see how much is being charged and all the details of the customers. Plus, you and your employees will be able to keep in touch with one another, all through one useful program.
Create a Newsletter
You can quickly and easily write a newsletter and send it out to your customers in moments using up-to-date technology such as MailChimp.
A newsletter is the perfect way to keep your customers informed about what you are doing and how things are changing. If you have any special offers, you can include them in the newsletter (perhaps with a code that means people have to read it to discover what that code is, for example).
You can market new products and ideas to existing customers who already enjoy working with you and who will be more willing to buy from you again.
It’s much less expensive to sell more to these customers than it is to find completely new ones. Therefore a newsletter can do a great job of keeping people informed while also saving you money on your marketing budget.
Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels
