Every small business depends on technology on a daily basis. From laptops to printers to websites and so on. Yet, some businesses aren’t engaging with technology and are becoming very redundant as a result. They are wondering why their businesses aren’t moving forward and it seems like the world is passing by them.
This happens because we don’t fully know the importance of engaging the changes in technology that have been made and are being made daily.
Below are ways technology impacts our businesses positively and how we can utilize them properly.
- Collaborations
Unlike before when physical presence and a lot of factors were needed for businesses to collaborate with each other, it’s way easier now. Businesses can now connect with each other at home and abroad and partner together to add value to their customers. Even within a business, the employees and management are able to collaborate with each other instantly, at any time of the day, from any part of the world and share feedback that is instrumental to the prosperity of their business. What to do? Start compiling names of businesses you can collaborate with and reach out to them.
- Flexible work conditions
Technology gives your business and employees the option to work from home, from the office or anywhere across the world. This gives SMEs the advantage of hiring talent from anywhere in the world. It also gives their business a good edge in the face of its competitors. As an SME, you don’t have to be so rigid and unreasonable about your work conditions anymore. This will just make your employees feel unsafe, under valued and lead to high turnover. Be flexible, try letting them work from home on some days, put out adverts to hire talent from all over the world and so on.
- Constant communication with your customers
SMEs are now able to connect with their customers via e-mail, through blogs and social media platforms. Small business owners can take advantage of this connection by getting feedback from customers. Not only that, they can apply these changes to their businesses immediately which will lead to more progress on the path of the business in achieving its goals and objectives but most importantly, in satisfying its customers. Technology has made it possible for you to access your customers all around the world. Take advantage of it, engage your customers and implement their feedback.
- Going online with your business
Technology allows businesses to sell their goods and market their products online rather than having physical stores. This doesn’t mean that physical stores are not important or considered by customers. This just means that you can have a physical store as well as an online one. As a matter of fact, most people would see your online store and then visit your physical store. It’s better when you have both because some customers have trust issues because of bad experiences with scammers and so they prefer knowing you have a physical location and coming to confirm themselves. But technology has made it in such a way that you can have only an online store and still make huge profit.
Customers nowadays always try to avoid stress and so most of them would rather shop for stuff on the internet. Businesses with storefronts can create online stores to expand their visibility and reach target markets beyond their neighborhoods and surrounding communities. It’s important. I’ve had several experiences of wanting to get to particular restaurants or stores and the fact that they had no online presence was a serious turn off for me and I would just go ahead and shop from some other store who has an online presence. So you might be making millions from your store but it will cost you nothing to set up a social media page or website or any online front for your business as well.
- Training processes made easy.
No longer do you have to spend millions on halls, projectors and all those other equipment needed to pull a training off. The truth is that training is important and it’s worth spending on, yet technology has made it better and easier to train your employees. You can provide free online courses to them, give them deadlines to engage them, assignments and so on. You could also have online training processes as well. This helps them to be comfortable and assimilate better.