Your business is either lagging or leading when it comes to technology. You can’t be sitting around in the same gear that you’re on because you will be pushed back into the past. You don’t want that. You can’t be scared of technology. The invention of the wheel, that was technology, the light bulb, that was technology and these are things that we all just take for granted nowadays. But if you don’t stay on top of the technology, other cool things come out and they will take its place. So today we’re going to be talking about why technology matters in business and how you can utilise that to make your business grow.
1. Get an Accounting Tool
Let’s talk about your business. One of the most important parts of any business is accounting. You can’t avoid it. So if you’re from the 1970s and the 1980s and you actually had a legit general ledger, probably an abacus off to the side then you know what I’m talking about you.
New technologies, such as MYOB and QuickBooks, allow you to do better than what you were doing before with accounting. Accounting tools have evolved even more and the latest iteration now is Zero. Zero is a wicked tool. It does some awesome stuff and automates to the next level. Zero is something that every business should be considering talking to your account about as Zero is being used across the board.
2. Retail Businesses: Get a Square Card Reader
I’ve gone into businesses that don’t have credit card facilities still. The cost to head down to Officeworks and buy a square that allows you to take credit card transactions is very minimal, around $60 or $70. It doesn’t cost you any money having it sit there.
You can actually take even PayWave. PayWave is a new technology that you could be implementing into your business. Transactions and the money you take will get back to you faster with PayWave. It means you’re not having to walk off to the bank and give them carbon copies. That is so old school!
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3. Take Advantage of Technology and Capture Data
Any business can use technology to its advantage. You could use it if you’re a plumber to start quoting using your tablet. You could use it if you’re in manufacturing for the quality assurance processes to visualise whatever it is that you’ve been creating in 3D and see if there’s any missing bolts or parts. The best thing that you need to do in your business is looking at analytics and start capturing data if you aren’t already doing so. You need to be looking at how much time is being spent on certain tasks.
We went into a business, and it was taking them two days to do payroll. We implemented a few thousand dollars’ worth of technology and the amount of time that it took down to two hours a week instead of two days a week.
4. Take a Step Back and Look at Your Business
Bring it back down to what it is that your business spends the most time on and what that costs you and then look at a way to automate that. If you’re not sure, you get a consultant such as Business Efficiency Experts or Dorks Delivered and see what they have to say. There’re other companies out there that can do this, too. If you’re getting an efficiency consultant, they will look at the way that you can integrate products to make sure there’s no double-data entry.
5. Consider Application Planning Interfaces
APIs or application programming interfaces are changing around the way that you’re doing business. It is amazing at the number of man hours that they can save and how they can breathe new life into your business. By integrating a few applications together, it can stop double-data entry. It will make sure that the integrity of the data doesn’t have the human connection involved in it, so it’s going to be quality information.
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6. Think Outside the Box With Marketing
Get a website as a 24-hour advertising tool for you. Do something different in the way that you’re marketing your business. Unless you are truly unique and original and the connection you create with your clients is so unique and original that they’ll never forget you, for the right reasons, then you need to make sure you’re staying front of mind.
Sending out a newsletter is a great idea. If you don’t have a sexy industry that has things changing all the time, you can still create a newsletter showing customer experiences, new installations or anything else that you think people might want to hear. You might be just sending out Merry Christmas or something like that and they go, “Oh, yeah, I remember working with them. That was cool.” And you’ll be surprised at how many people will start doing business with you again, just because they got this newsletter and then, “Hi, I remember working with you guys.”
The Final Word
Be different in business. Be in front of mind for your clients. Utilise technology to speed up your deliverables and to monitor your staff. That is the number one take-home here. Thank you and stay good.
