Every small business owner realizes that time is money, and that’s why it’s vital for small business owners to find simple ways to increase business efficiency. Technology solutions can be expensive – money you can’t or do not want to spend when you’re starting out – but finding affordable options that takeover or streamline tasks on your to-do list are key and can actually save you money. According to CNBC, mobile apps save small business employees 725 million work hours every year!
Take a look at these must-have digital solutions that will enable you to accomplish more tasks in less time.
Track Tasks Digitally
Very few tasks are one and done. The majority of work small business owners take on consists of collaboration, multiple steps and consistent check-ins with clients, partners and staff. All of the follow-up and tracking can suck a huge amount of time from your day.
Technology can handle a lot of that work for you. Software and online platforms track tasks, workflow and calendars to consolidate information about specified members of your team, progress, documents changes and deadlines. The task conversation can be moved to a dedicated place that every person on the team has the ability to access.
Digital task tracking allows for instant team communication and greatly reduces the need for check-ins via email and phone. You can see what has been done and by whom, and what still needs to be accomplished by looking at the workflow.
Digital Marketing
Social media presences and email newsletters are no longer an option; they are marketing procedures in today’s world. They’re also very time-consuming when done by hand. You can drastically reduce your time investment with social media and email management products. There are many smart ways to use social media automation tools. These tools offer numerous functionalities and adjust to your business’s needs, automating cumbersome tasks such as posting on social media – and you don’t have to lose your personal touch.
Some major benefits include coordinating postings on multiple social media platforms, scheduling tweets and posts to publish at future times of your choice and scheduleing newsletters to go out to clients and social media outlets at specific times. This form of technology can not only save you time, but it is also one of many ways a startup can save money. When you embrace digital marketing, you can cut out a salary.
Other Technology Shortcuts
There are other day-to-day tasks you can streamline or automate with technology also. You can utilize digital scheduling to schedule meetings. Instead of spending 10 or 15 minutes emailing all involved parties, you can send a link and the receiver picks an open time slot and it’s done. Digital scheduling improves performance and solves issues in real-time, allowing greater consistency and a business that runs more efficiently.
Instead of writing every single thing down by hand or transcribing digital recordings, real-time captioning can help you save time and keep up today’s expectations when everything is on-demand.
You can also turn to digital scheduling to schedule meetings. Instead of spending 10 or 15 minutes emailing all involved parties, you can send a link and the receiver picks an open time slot and it’s done. Digital scheduling improves performance and solves issues in real-time, allowing greater consistency and a business that runs more efficiently.
Another technology shortcut every small business owner should consider is digital-signature technology. Instead of mailing paper contracts and chasing new hires and clients who haven’t signed them, you can put digital copies of the paperwork online. This allows you to send a link to the paperwork, so the recipient can sign it electronically. The system will alert you once the paperwork is complete and it sends reminders to those who haven’t completed it.
There are endless small business technology solutions available. Some will work better for you than others depending on your work style and the nature of your products and/or services. Not only will these technologies save you time, but they can also save you from paying a salary in areas like task tracking and social marketing. When you implement these types of technologies, your business can operate more smoothly and experience not only success, but also growth.
Photo credit: https://www.htxt.co.za/2019/04/25/is-your-small-business-using-technology-to-help-it-grow/
