When it comes to running a business in this day and age, technology plays a huge role in that – not only does technology mean that we’re able to carry out the daily tasks that need to be done in the business, but it allows us to be able to connect with people from all over the world so that we can grow and scale our businesses in a much bigger way than we were able to before.
Of course, the technical side of running a business is not something that everyone wants to do or is able to do, but that doesn’t mean it’s something that shouldn’t be done, so you can certainly outsource plenty of things in your business, such as the more techy stuff, and many people do outsource this – depending on what it is you need in your business, you can work with a Virtual Assistant who can manage these things for you, or if it’s something more specialized then you can outsource to an IT company who can offer you it cost reduction more so than if you were doing things for yourself and trying to figure it out when it’s not where your time and energy is best suited.
On the other side, not everything needs to be outsourced, and there are plenty of things that can be done in your business, that despite being a bit out of your technical depths are able to be automated so that you just need to have them set up and then they can run on their own.
If the technical side of your business is something that you need to start taking care of, but you really don’t know where to start, then in this post, we’re going to share with you some of the main tech tools and apps that can really benefit your business.
Robust Web Hosting
Even if your business is primarily offline, you’re no doubt going to have a website and some kind of online presence to help you reach a wider audience and since having a website is a good way to give people more information about your business in general because even if you’re offline, they will mainly search for you online, so having a website is just a good idea. When it comes to websites, you certainly don’t have to spend a fortune getting a professional site with all the bells and whistles set up and designed for you – especially if your site is only for informational purposes and not really set up for daily uses or transactional in its nature.
What you should have is a solid web hosting plan. Web hosting is basically what allows your site to exist online, and not all hosting is great, so it’s important to find one that’s reliable and makes your site run without issues. For example, if your hosting isn’t robust enough and doesn’t offer things like enough disk space, then it can run very slow and even have problems when loading, which is definitely not going to make a good impression on your visitors, and they certainly won’t hang around to wait for it to load, so having a good hosting plan where you can also get good support is a good idea.
Intelligent Email Marketing
Email marketing is a big part of most businesses nowadays – especially if you’re planning to operate online, then not having an email marketing strategy in place is basically like leaving cash on the table. However, it can be quite overwhelming when you’ve never used email marketing before to know which platform you should be looking at and what features you should be expecting.
The good thing about email marketing is that for the most part, it’s going to be automated and then just maintained through regular checking up on campaigns, etc. When it comes to looking for an email marketing platform, many people will choose to shop on price, but what you should actually be looking for is deliverability.
The whole point of sending emails is that they don’t end up in the spam folder and are being read by your ideal customers, so it’s important that the platform you go for has a good reputation when it comes to this key feature. You can easily find this information online by just Googling the company and seeing the reviews they have.
You should also be looking for things like good customer service, and the best way to observe how they perform in this area is by checking Twitter to see how quickly and effectively they deal with things like questions and complaints.
Secure Cloud Storage
As much as technology is a truly great thing that, in many ways, makes our lives so much easier, it’s also never a good idea to be overly reliant on it since it can fail sometimes and if this happens then it can have really bad consequences – especially in business.
One of the worst things for a business owner to deal with technology wise is when they totally lose everything they’ve been working on because their computer decided to crash or completely give up on them. If you have good and secure cloud storage then this isn’t going to be an issue.
For example, you can use things like Dropbox and Google Drive to keep important documents and also with Google Drive you can do all of your work directly in there, collaborate with your team, and know that everything is always backed up should your computer crash and that you don’t have to start all over again.
The other great thing about cloud storage is that because it’s all cloud-based, your saving space on your computer and devices so they won’t end up running too slow which can happen when you have too much stuff on there.
Intuitive Project Management
No matter what kind of business you run – whether it’s online or offline, being able to manage your day, your time, your team, and your projects is crucial, and the best way to be doing this is by using some kind of project management system. Even if you run an offline business, an online project management system can still be the way to go because it means that anyone can access the information they need at any time and it keeps everyone on the same page without having to constantly send emails and make phone calls back and forth all the time.
There are definitely a lot of project management tools and systems online today and they all range in price and features, so it’s really about finding the one that suits you and your business. Some like Trello is more focused on keeping this visual, whereas others like Asana are more for people who think in a linear way, but they both offer a great range of features to help you stay on track and manage your business on a daily basis if needed.
Painless Payment Processing
Payments are definitely an essential part of any business, and whether you’re working online or offline, a system to process your payments is something you’re absolutely going to need, so making sure that you have something, not only safe and secure for you, but also for those who are going to be paying you is something you should be looking into. You can use things like Stripe to allow your customers to pay you by credit card and even set up subscription payments, or you can have a look for other payment processing tools that may be more suitable for you and your business.