Running a business in today’s world of course means you need to be up to date with the latest tech, software and innovation or you risk falling behind. To stay on a level playing field with your competitors you need to be utilizing the programs available to you to ensure you’re not wasting time or money and everything stays accurate and up to date. Here are some examples.
Good Equipment
First and foremost, it makes no sense having top of the range software and programs if you’re running them from outdated machines. Your employees should have access to powerful computers (and smartphones/ tablets if they’re out on the road) to be able to do their job properly. If it’s been a while since you updated your company’s devices, this is something you could consider doing. Particularly if you’re planning on upgrading your software too.
Accounting Software
In business you will need an accountant to do the hard stuff- tax returns, forms and other manual tasks. However something you can do for the day to day runnings of your company is to use accounting software. This enables you to keep efficient records and means you’ll have most of the work done, so you don’t have to spend as much money on an accountant for more hours than necessary. Older methods such as manual bookkeeping will do nothing but slow down your business, you’ll be paying an employee for hours of work that will take a computer seconds and you put yourself at risk of human error. Do some research into accounting softwares and see what would work best for your business.
Cloud Online Backup Software
When you back up data to a hard drive or a USB, something could happen to the physical copy. If it’s a burglary, fire or flood that wipes out the original copy on the computer, the same is likely to happen to the backup. When you backup to the cloud, your files are safely secured on online servers so you don’t have to worry if anything happens to the physical device. Everything is encrypted for safety, so it’s the ideal way to store files for your business. What this also means is if you have employees working remotely, they can easily access any information they need from any computer.
Verification Software
Many businesses will need to verify their customers in order to provide their service. Maybe you need to confirm their identity to hire out products or money, or check they are over eighteen. Either way, software which can verify customer IDs in real time allows you to do this quickly and easily. There are programs that can integrate into your website or app, and can be a great addition for some businesses.
A Live Chat Feature
Live chat is an excellent feature for business, it’s something that customers love and is likely to secure you more sales. If a customer is browsing your site and has a query they’re not necessarily going to pick up the phone, however a live person available to quickly type a message to in the corner of the screen is completely different. Once any issues have been resolved, the customer is far more likely to go ahead with the order when before they may have simply clicked out. Live chat makes your company look legitimate and trustworthy, and people will more than likely put their faith into ordering from you for the first time if they know they can easily contact someone if something goes wrong.
A Blogging Platform
Blogging is massively beneficial for business, it can really get your name out there to potential customers. When you write interesting and engaging content it’s likely to be shared by others, and when your blog is integrated into your website this means more traffic for your site. Not only will you gain a following and readership meaning fans of your company but you’ll also boost your page rank in Google and mean more organic traffic. You could hire freelance writers online to create you unique and interesting content, they will be experienced in blog writing so will know the style and tone that readers will want from your blog.
There are many different kinds of softwares out there, it’s all about working out which is best for your business and getting on board so that you’re not falling behind your competitors. By using the right programs you can save both time and money in your business, and in many cases areas of your company will almost ‘run themselves’.
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