How Technology Can Help You Run Your Small Business

Small businesses are beginning to make up a large proportion of the business world, with some even turning into some of the most successful business giants you may recognize today. With so much variety in the industry, there are many new skills and ideas being brought to the table. While this can benefit a wider range of consumers, it also makes it harder for other businesses to stand out if they don’t have the right tools to help them. This is where you should consider making use of the technology that is at your fingertips, as it will help give your small business a competitive edge and help you run it in ways easier than before.

Budgeting

When you have a small business, budgeting is a much easier task than if you were running a huge corporation, but that doesn’t mean it comes without its difficulties. It is especially true if you struggle with numbers, but want your vision to come to life. In the early days of any business, managing money is crucial, and this can be the case a few years down the line. That doesn’t mean all hope is lost. There are many online technologies you can use to help you budget, starting with Microsoft Excel, and culminating in those which help build forecasts alongside costs.

Work schedules

Another tedious but important task that takes up much time is setting work schedules for your employees. While smaller workforces are easier to manage, you could still be saving on costs if you were able to set the right shifts for your employees. Setting the right shifts is especially useful if your workforce needs to meet flexible demand, but some technologies even allow you to plan the work schedule for the day ahead. It ensures that your employees are staying on task and allows you to set realistic goals for each employee to accomplish each day that are in line with your business plans. If you are struggling to see how technology can help you, you can find out how to by researching online.

Pay wages

After your employees have worked their hardest for the month, the time always comes where you must pay them the wages that are owed to them. This is another task that can be time-consuming, but which is also easy to get wrong if numbers aren’t your strong point. Many people elect to hire an accountant to help with paying staff, but online payroll systems enable you to pay both staff and freelancers accurately and on time. It is always wise to run payments by your financial advisor, but if you can align your payroll system with your schedule planner and the hours worked, you can pay the exact amount employees are hoping to receive. In some cases, you may even be able to pay bonuses on the same system.

Communication

Communication barriers are some of the most detrimental to any workplace. You could have the best business plan and some efficient workers, but you won’t see this come to life unless people are willing to co-operate. Making use of online apps like instant messaging and social media is a great way to break down any walls between employees, where they can combine collaborations with social aspects to make work more fun and easy to manage for everyone. In some cases, you can rely on these apps to connect with remote workers and freelancers, who you may be struggling to reach without them

International Reach

Gaining an international reputation is important for any business, even if you are running on a smaller scale. It is also important to the growth of your business as the world becomes more globalized and newer clients pop up from around the world. The key to gaining international reach is pulling in a customer base from places other than your home country, and many people recognize that social media is the best way to do this. Social media marketing on platforms like Facebook and Instagram has helped many businesses to grow in recent years, but only if you have the right skills to utilize it to your advantage.

Customer service

Social media is not only key to attracting more customers, but for keeping them. Loyal customers are more important than those that shop for your product or service once, as they are more likely to stay with you if they believe in what you are offering. However, many customers turn off if they encounter bad customer service during their time with businesses. Having social media on board allows staff to reply to concerns and complaints instantly, where they can be processed more effectively than relying on long phone calls.

Security

Technology is not only present in online forms, as there have been many physical innovations that many businesses have found themselves turning to, to keep their business safe. It starts with using effective anti-virus software on computers to keep cyber threats at bay but also can be used to keep invaders out of your office. In fact, you can find fingerprint locks, specialized cameras, as well as light security are ways of keeping your staff and equipment protected from harm. The best thing about security technology is that you don’t need to be a whizz at technology to keep your business safe. In these cases, you can employ a special security team to help, or you can make use of online resources to guide you through it.

Training

One element to keeping your business secure is by training your workforce to make sure they know the appropriate safety protocol to follow. Luckily, training is another aspect of business which has been helped by technology in recent years. This is mainly due to the existence of refined eLearning systems that make on the job training and bitesize learning a reality. Such technology means you can go about your daily running of the business knowing that your staff is being trained to the highest level with materials you have handpicked.