If there was a severe tornado coming to your town and reporters said it would destroy everything in its path, you had five minutes to evacuate your house, and could only take one item with you, what would it be? Most of us would say our phone or laptop, and that’s because the only thing we really need is technology with an internet connection. If you had asked this exact question twenty or thirty years ago, people might have said something different, but today, technology is king. Technology is what allows me to write this article and for you to read it, regardless of where you are located, and where I wrote it. Once it is in cyberspace, it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Because technology is so important and has made our lives easier, in this article we will be discussing the topic of how to combine technology and your business and become a load balancer.
We assume that you’re reading this article because you started a business, have been running one, or are going to start one soon. It doesn’t matter what stage of the business process you’re in, you can read this article and the tips we will give and begin applying them right away. If you’re barely starting a business, however, some of these tips may take some time to implement, such as the use of a CRM (customer relations management) software.
So why would someone want to combine technology and business? Simple. To make things faster, easier, more streamlined, and ultimately to make more money by leveraging the use of technology. The people who think of and develop these technologies take many business factors into consideration to create the best tools an entrepreneur will use. One of the most important pieces of technology you will need is obviously a computer or laptop with internet. We also advise that you create a cloud-based work environment which will allow you and whoever will be helping your business, work on projects at the same time. This is the first step to combining technologies and your business.
The use of certain technologies will depend on whether your business is a brick and mortar or an online one. If it is brick and mortar (a physical location) then the best piece of technology is your website. If you already have a website then the other technology to use will be a chat box for customers and viewers to be able to contact you immediately. This will create a sense of great customer service and you will be able to answer people’s questions or concerns right away as opposed to having a contact form and answering them a day or two later. Now, a contact form IS another great piece of technology as well, if it is connected with the other technology which is a drip campaign. Drip campaigns are automatic emails which “drip” or are sent given a specific time frame. For example if you set the parameters for each email to be sent every day, then that’s what’ll happen. These drip campaigns allow you to automate that aspect of the business so you can focus on other things.
The next pieces of technology that your business will need include items for accounting, for payroll, taxes, customers and leads, and even project management. We already discussed using google’s cloud services, google drive, to keep all the pertinent documents in one place. The cool thing about this is that google has allowed many third party business technologies to be able to sync with their systems, making it even easier for you to work remotely. THIS may be the biggest advantage to having technology in your business; you will no longer need an office and people can work from anywhere. Of course, it is still a huge advantage for teams to meet in person, but if your business doesn’t actually require it then it will be best to remain “in the cloud”.
We forgot to mention that the word “technology” is not only computers and gadgets, it’s any type of scientific information which can span a large variety of things. One of these is the use of a business plan. Whether you’ve been in business for decades, started a new one recently, or are in the process of starting a business, the business plan is like the map of your business. There are technologies such as LivePlan that allow you to create a business plan, pitch deck, and even keep your accounting all in one place. The cost for this service is $14.99 per month, but it will keep you organized and on track to meet your goals. Looking back, you can see everything that happened, or didn’t happen.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in this article we discussed the topic of how to combine technology and your business. Technologies that will help your business tremendously and should be implemented if they’re not already include CRMs, accounting software, mile trackers, payroll and invoicing software, a powerful computer or laptop, marketing technologies, business plans, websites, and many others. Because this is a shorter article, we couldn’t go into more depth on each of these so it is up to you to make a list and research each one individually to select the technologies that will make your business the best it can be.
Originally posted at RuhaniRabin.com
Click here if you would like to write at RuhaniRabin.com
