All business owners begin their venture with a focus on growth.
With the rapid advances in technology, new and effective opportunities are opening up for businesses to quicken their progress. Small businesses, nowadays, are increasingly tapping into the many resources that technology has rendered accessible. This is because, technology can provide a competitive advantage to businesses worldwide.
Technology brings forth innovation. These innovations have the potential to empower businesses and help them stand out from among the competition. However, it is crucial to devise strategies that can optimize the usage of these technologies in order for these to be effective for your business.
Let’s take a look at how you can utilize the boon of technology to your business’s advantage.
Using Technology for Small Business Growth
Utilize the Power of the Cloud
For businesses worldwide, ‘Cloud’ is the buzzword. Cloud is a global network of online servers that allows you to carry out a number of business activities over the Internet. Most of us are already using the cloud to conduct our online banking transactions. In fact, you are already using the cloud as we speak, to read this article. The primary appeal of the cloud lies with the fact that you can manage your business operations from anywhere, any device and any time.
The benefits of the cloud are immense. Shifting your business to the cloud not only eases the workload but also increases productivity and coordination, facilitates mobility and reduces expenditure. Additionally, the multiple backups reduce the chances of loss of important data significantly.
With businesses migrating to the cloud, business clouds have evolved to accommodate the requirements. However, many businesses feel that safety is a concern while shifting to the cloud. Therefore, it is always wise to take proper precautions to keep your data secure.
Harness the Potential of Social Media
The number of active social media users has been found to be a whopping 2.307 billion. This number is expected to grow to 2.55 billion by 2018. That’s where your business’s expected traffic is. Therefore, you need to tap into the realm of social media to attract customers for your business.
The first step is to build a compelling social media presence for your business to increase visibility. The next step is to utilize these platforms as marketing campaigns. On social media, you can:
- promote your services and products
- provide personalized offers and deals to your consumers based on their online behavior
- build channels with influencers
- engage your customers through various activities like quizzes, contests etc.
- enable buying options directly from social media platforms
- gather customer feedback
That being said, it is important to keep in mind that most social media users access these platforms through their smartphones and tablets. Ensure that your website’s design is responsive to facilitate a seamless experience for your customers.
Leverage the Scope of WiFi
The scope of WiFi usage in businesses has expanded recently owing to the scores of benefits it provides. Nowadays, everyone wishes to stay connected wherever they go. Therefore, offering free WiFi to your customers can prove to be an effective marketing tool.
Providing free WiFi to your customers opens up the opportunity to build quality networks and accumulate valuable data regarding your clients’ online behavior. This can help you devise effective and customized strategies to promote the services and/or products that your business provides. Increased client satisfaction could mean further customer acquisition prospects for your business and, consequently, increased profit.
The right strategies to harness the power of WiFi can help you expand your business in no time.
Keep Track of Your Progress
The reach of technology has penetrated the domain of monitoring a business’s growth and productivity. Scores of business productivity software are available in the market that can track progress during each stage of attaining a goal. Numerous technology tools can help boosting the performance by identifying what doesn’t work and providing the right reinforcement to keep things up and running.
You can also monitor business performance by using tools to analyze the metrics in real time and make tweaks accordingly. You can utilize these reports to devise foolproof strategies.
Technology for small business growth is booming. It is important to be aware of the tools and the latest trends that can benefit your business and invest in the right tech-implementation techniques to optimize your benefits.
Cloud Photo via Shutterstock
This article, "How to Utilize Technology to Grow Your Small Business" was first published on Small Business Trends
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