The Technology can become best friend of Small Business owner to work more efficiently, for finding more clients and with this he, can save lots of time and money. In order to earn high profits, online tools can really help small businesses to achieve high profits and to earn client’s appreciation.
The technology can be the best friend with a small business owner. It can help you work more efficiently, to find more customers and save money at the same time. Every year two things takes place in the world of technology overall and specially in the world of small businesses.
1. Technology remains unchanged (cell phones, computers, web browsers etc)
2. Technology evolve and gets enhanced (think iPhone, time tracking tools, Netbooks, Google’s Chrome – match them to the list above)
What this means for your business is that if you want your business to grow up through leveraging technology you simply can not persist to rely on the same old technology you have always used from beginning.
Let us take a look at high level in some of the areas where technology can assist small businesses to turn out to be more profitable and productive.
1. Time and Expense Tracking Tools
Whether or not you bill your customers per hour, small business owners can find major value in keeping track of where their time is spent. This has several advantages, such including making more accurate estimates of the project and helping you boost your own productivity.
Expense tracking help you systematize your owed payments, apart from actively monitoring your daily expenses, screening your budget positions in detail eventually teaching you to supervise money and learn to budget your monthly spending.
Time and expense tracking are two far-fetched strategies that saves money and time for any of your small business. There are plenty of time and expense tracking tools available over the internet, including desktop applications, online services, tools, and also integrated into project management or accounting software. These tools are precise, speedy and user friendly, you will find that all the complications in your business related to time and expense management.
2. Online Invoicing Services
Accounting applications are available in many shapes and sizes. But depending on your needs, you may not need a full set of accounts to manage your books. In fact, an online billing service simplified, is a suitable alternative for your business that you can manage your billing information faster and more skillful.
When it comes to getting paid, this technology also offers a wide range of payment options online.
3. Online Payment with Online Payment Gateways
For small businesses, accepting payments on-line offers considerable advantages. Customers anticipate more and more of this facility and it can improve cash flow drastically. There are some steps you can take to help customers to pay on time and in full. One of these measures will make it easier for customers to make payment through online payment services.
It is easy to accept checks/invoices for your online sales and processing payments in the conventional way. But because buyers frequently use the Internet for fast service for which most sales are paid with credit cards and debit cards. Paying your bills online or using the payment services, eChecks or direct bank transfers can look as if a little creepy at first, but as long as security is concerned, this form of payment may be better for businesses and customers. For online payment, there are loads of online payment gateways available over the internet and even some of the online billing and time tracking tools that integrates with multiple online payment gateways which makes tasks even easier.
4. Teleconference Services
So much of what we do as small business owners has a virtual element. Ability to make conference calls with a group of team members and / or customers in different locations is an example of this. There are many teleconference services, some free, that provide small business owners the ability to carry out negotiations over telecommunications between the parties – anytime they desire without requiring any special telephone or bridge line equipment.
There are also a number of online conferencing tools available in the market that let you communicate with team members around the world, almost as if you are discussing face to face.
5. Remote Desktop Applications
Again, technology hardens the link between small business owners and mobility. Have access to your main computer and all data about this when you are away from your desk – and be able to see or modify from your smartphone or iPad – can give you an improvement when it comes to manage your business.
6. Help Desk Applications
Customer service is important to all business owners. One of the ways you can integrate the customer service into your business and your site is in a help desk / customer service application. These tools enhance your ability to meet customer needs and can make the process of relationship management much smoother.
7. Online File Conversion
If you need to convert an unusual file format and do not have the necessary tools, or if you work from another system, online tools for converting files to make the process relatively quick and painless. There are services to convert documents, audio / video and even graphics in a new file format.
Author Bio: This is guest post by Invoicera, an online invoicing and time tracking software which is specifically designed keeping simplicity and online invoicing convenience in mind, while at the same time offering many striking invoicing features like multiple payment gateways, invoice scheduling, late fees payment etc.
Thanks for the article!
I’m using remote desktop software to built a connection between my offices which are settled in diferent countries. Of course thats saves a lot of time and makes management much easier.
If you are interested,I have a great experience in choosing a reliable remote support ,so I would love to share it with you.
LogMeIn and Teamviewer are great. Good functional set,nice design but the only repulsive thing is their price.I work at home and the price is way too high for me.So if somebody’s facing the same problem I made a research and found several cost-effective tools. ShowMyPc,InstantHouseCall or real VNC. My favorite one is Techinline (www.techinline.com) which I’m using at the moment.
Hope,this might be helpful.
Oh I definitely agree with you. An online business needs real-time monitoring to make sure that the site is always functional. Here is a great site that offers web monitoring service . It’s
very reliable, tests from multiple
locations, has a good alerting system, a good reporting system
and the customer service is excellent.
The company is called Periscope IT and has been around for quite some
time. Definitely worth checking out.
Nice Article, I’m currently looking into the customer service modules for my small business at the moment 😛