In the early days of your business, you might feel like you can take over the world, but soon after, you may realise that you have some things that are hampering you. Most often, it is time, money or technology. 

IT and your business work together in unison; if your IT isn’t great, your business will feel the effects. IT projects like implementing new servers, suitable systems, and more are possible. 

So how could your technology limit the possible growth of your business? 

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

Communication

If your communications are on multiple different platforms, there are things you will miss. A communication system doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does need to be streamlined. 

Proper communication can help you communicate quickly with your clients, and customers are better. Look at all of the places where people can reach you; which of those feels right to you? 

Security 

It might be surprising to many small businesses, but small businesses have been targeted more often by cybercriminals in the last few years. The reason is that they don’t continually invest in the proper IT security to keep their information safe. 

A breach’s damage is significant and can leave your customers wondering why you weren’t taking steps to protect them. It can also lead to losing vital information, including people’s bank details, home addresses, etc. 

Without suitable security, the chance of being the victim of a severe cyber attack is never zero. 

Processes 

Almost all businesses start off with a big idea, a kitchen table and a pile of notes. Slowly turning that into a company that makes a small profit, and then the ability to hire people or outsource so that you can create something that frees you up to focus on your business a little more. 

The bigger you grow, the more you will see that you need a process to help people manage their jobs and keep all of the information in one place. 

Most systems aren’t typically built for you to be able to do everything you need, so software and technology are one of the most important things for you to move your business forward. 

The longer you work within outdated systems, the most you hamper your business. 

Newsletters and Emails 

Your mailing list is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal, but building that list takes time and effort. You’ll need to have a great and eye-catching CTA – and often give people something apart from just the email itself. 

If all of the other social media went dark tomorrow, what you have on your email list is direct communication with our clients and customers. What you have to say goes directly into their hand. 

You, your employees and any customer contacting freelancers should have an email address corresponding to the business name. Contacting people with @gmail or @hotmail always leaves room for doubting the legitimacy of the business. 

Inventory 

For those who aren’t creating selling services, products need a great inventory system. If you are relying on counting out how many you have of something and updating it manually. 

Doing your inventory management manually takes a lot of time and leaves room for human error. 

Selling something on your website only to find that you don’t have it in stock causes many issues. Explaining to the customer you don’t have the product, offering a discount to make up for it, and knowing that they will go elsewhere to get what they need isn’t ideal. 

Instead, research scalable inventory management software – as you grow, it can grow with you. 

When you have software that immediately gives you the numbers you need, you can answer them if a client or customer asks you a question. These quick response times can be part of why your customers will return in the future. 

Marketing 

One of the places that people spend the most time in the early days is marketing. But, the software has been designed to do the lion’s share of the marketing while you focus on content creation. 

Online marketing is more than gathering as many followers as possible and only sharing your own offers. You can build and be part of significant communities. 

If you don’t have an online presence, even the most basic website or a Twitter, you will miss out on millions of potential customers depending on your sales. 

There are plenty of options in terms of software that can help you plan, create and auto-post the content you want to share. 

CRM

Your customer is the key to your success, and if you aren’t making sure that you are managing how and when they interact – or regularly checking in with them- you will quickly see that reflected in your profits. 

Your software should be fit for purpose or purpose-built to handle everything you need from it. Ask yourself if your current system is up to the task. Does it comply with the requirements in terms of legal and regulation?

Does your database catch all of the information you need? For example, is having their address essential to serving them? Or is it something that you will never need? 

A CRM is built over time but eventually will be the driving force behind most of the sales you make. 

Analytics 

If you don’t dip into your analytics, you will never be able to check out what is and is not working. When a piece of content resonates, you can see the preference for that piece in the number of shares and reads. 

If you notice that many visitors appear to be having an issue with one of the web pages because you checked out the analytics – you are in a position to change that. 

All of the metrics you have can make a difference to how you do business, and perhaps one of the most important things – is that by highlighting what isn’t working, you can focus on what does work. 

Your technology needs to fit your business’s needs, and where that isn’t the case, you will notice your business doesn’t thrive at the rate it could. 

Often we start with the website and content creation; here are some great tips for getting you off to the best start: MoonProject – Building From The Ground Up.