Technologies crucial to your business and its success

Updated: March 4, 2024

As a small business owner, you are a pioneer and a decision maker. Two very important roles for your goals. The pioneer is looking for ways to innovate and pivot. You have to, because that is the new expectation in the business landscape.

User expectations are changing as times change. By 2017, more customers were reaching out through email than through phone calls. Shocking, I know. Generation Z may look at email as an old technology but it’s still a viable business tool.

As a decision maker, yours is to understand the technology landscape and then make a decision on what to use in your business. Making right decisions is a prerequisite for success, especially for small businesses. It starts with information gathering which is why you are here.

We discuss the technologies needed by a small business and why in this article.

Customer Relationship Management(CRM)

The customer is king. A cliche term that is as true today as it was a hundred years ago. It is the best treatment of your customer that will help you grow. Anything otherwise, is at your own peril. Customers, unfortunately, can also be fickle. They can be loyal but only if you fulfill your end of the agreement. It starts with a relationship. Relationships are part of the process be it sales or marketing.

A CRM software helps in creating and maintaining these relationships. Fun fact: good customer service is the second highest reason why customers buy from a business. We’ll let you know what the first and third reasons are. Read to the end… or skip.

In the past, CRMs were mainly used by large corporations. The prices were high and they required technical expertise to even get started. Nowadays, if you are looking to grow, they are very handy. The value they offered in the past used to be less when compared to the price they asked but that has changed. Currently, CRMs have a lot to offer. We go comprehensively into the features in another article. Here are the important ones:

• With a CRM you get to keep contact information about your leads(potential customers) and current customers. You can do this through software like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
• You get to record the status of a conversation with a client and when it happened. Basically, you store data on what happened the last time you talked to them and where to pick up a conversation you left off. This may seem irrelevant when you have a few dozen clients but it’s a life saver when your business scales to hundreds of clients.
• With the stored client information, it is possible to use automated emails to send automated messages like a thank you note for purchasing from your business.
• All this information is useless if it does not help you prepare for the future. That is where analytics comes in. With the right CRM, it is possible to see where most of your clients are coming from. You can also set future goals and forecasts.

Website and Social Media

Since 2014, face-to-face sales have been on a decline. A trend that has accelerated since the pandemic. Small businesses are seeing their sales increase through online platforms. You are missing out if you are yet to implement any website or social media for your business. It can seem daunting but it is one of the best ways to keep up with your customers.

Facebook has revealed that continuous posting from small businesses not only helps with brand awareness but also drives repeat customers through your door. You need them coming through your door so you can drive growth of your business. Another concern you might have is on being picture perfect for your audience. Interestingly, that is no longer the case. Facebook reports more attention and engagement going to lo-fi (low fidelity) mobile shot videos. Everyone is tired of these larger than life, pixel perfect photos and videos. Real is relatable.

Websites are like your store but online… your online store. Your website will have your catalog of products, their listed prices and descriptions. It will contain frequently asked questions regarding your product or service. It MUST contain your contact information in case your customers have questions they would like answered. When your customer comes to your website, they can tell pretty much what you are about. A well set up website will drive up your sales. You also get opportunities for organic visitors. These are people coming to your website without your marketing. The best thing about websites is you can get one started in under an hour for as little as $30 a month. The prices will vary depending on what you need but they are affordable.

A common mistake a lot of small business owners make is to underestimate the importance of their online presence. Let us put it this way, your largest competitor is not the guy across the street from you. It’s another person in another state or country. It’s your competitor who shows up every time someone googles the same product you are selling. Like with all technologies, if you are new to them, there is an initial learning curve.

Having an online presence through social media platforms and websites allows you to market online. With traditional advertising, you pay a large fee and millions of people see your ad including those who are not interested. Online marketing reaches up to millions of people who would be your customers through targeting. You can target only the people who like the kind of good or service you sell. With search engine ads, you can target only those who are searching for specific words. The best part is, you only pay when someone either sees your ad or clicks on it. Overall, you end up paying less than traditional forms of advertising with a potentially higher return per dollar spent.

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping, also known as accounting, is a business activity that entails recording and organizing the financial transactions of your business. Let’s face it, accounting is boring. It is, though, crucial to your business not only because of Uncle Sam but also because it is the main way to tell your business health. A proper bookkeeping software will at the very least save you from having to deal with literal books. It is possible to outsource your bookkeeping to an accountant. If you would rather avoid the numbers, that is one way to handle it.

An ideal accounting software is made with the users in mind and is user friendly. It will do many crucial activities at a cheaper price. The software will help enforce proper business practices like maintaining a separate business and personal account. Knowing who owes your business at the push of a button is better than having to call Larry the accountant or opening the dusty diary. You can then send a custom invoice to businesses that owe you. It is advisable to do it yourself initially so you can learn the basics of your business. For small businesses, the lack of proper financial records is one of the leading reasons why small businesses fail. Money slips through the cracks faster than you can say onomatopoeia.

Inventory management

Inventory management is how you keep track of your orders and replenish your inventory. Poor inventory management practices lead to frustrated customers. You end up having popular products being out of stock. When you are unsure of what is fast moving, unpopular products end up stacked on your shelves. You could use the tied up money for other business purposes. Most times, your accounting books may show you have made a profit, but the money is not in your bank account. It is in your inventory and you can only access it when you get rid of the dead stock and this is often at a loss.

With an inventory management tool, you know when your business is about to run out of stock. What’s more, you will have enough time for ordering and delivery. They arrive ‘just-in-time’ which is ideal. It is perfect for avoiding slow moving inventory in storage and to prevent frustrating your customers. You may feel like you have your finger on the pulse of your business but more often than not, changes are slow to pick up. A product that was popular may have slower orders and it’s hard for us humans to pick up on gradual changes.

A good inventory management tool saves you from a lot of manual labor. With so many online ecommerce platforms, having to update your inventory manually is a task. Such a tool automatically updates the number of products available for you. Worst case scenario, if a product is yet to arrive, the software will have all websites where you sell show the product is out of stock. It saves you the headache of explaining to angry customers they will have to wait longer than they expected for delivery.

There are inventory management tools that integrate with logistics companies. Once a product is ordered, the software will arrange for Fedex or DHL to pick up the product and deliver it to the buyer. You decide where the delivery company is going to pick up. The delivery company will, through the software, update you on when to expect delivery. Through some integrations, you will know where a product is at any time. The delivery companies available will depend on the company that offers the software and the partnerships it has.

Analytics

When you are starting out, you may lack enough data to gain meaningful insights through analytics. It is better to create a culture of using the data you have earlier on in your business. Most analytics software will come as part of a larger functionality. Your CRM system will have its own analytics dashboard, so will the accounting and inventory software. Despite being part of a larger system, it is a technology that you will use and we mention it for completeness. There is an exception to this with web analytics. You may have to integrate it into your website. It is possible, however, for your ecommerce platform to provide analytics integration into your website saving you a lot of energy.

Others

The technologies mentioned so far are generally used across small businesses regardless of industry. Some technologies will find more use in certain industries. For example, point of sale systems are important if you have a physical store. It is a complementary system to accounting software and inventory management systems. You get to know which product has been sold and at what price. It makes it simpler to enforce methods like First In, First Out(FIFO). Email is another basic technology that has extensive uses. It can be used for revenue generation through email marketing. The list is endless and we have mainly addressed the technologies most businesses will need.

Conclusion

You now know what is important if you are starting a small business. For a cash strapped business you will have to prioritize what to use. Here is how to implement this technology.

Earlier in the article, we mentioned customer service being the second most important reason customers gave for buying a product or service. The third most common reason is a unique good or service. Drum Rolls please! The first reason why customers will buy from you is because you have a high quality product or service.

So, if you put your customers first in every possible way, you will grow your business.