7 Quick Technology Fixes to Boost Your Small Business

9 min readSep 28, 2021

benefits of technology for small business

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Technology has the power to make you swim when you are sinking. A business has no bounds if it uses the technology correctly. Small businesses often need a jump start to accelerate their growth, and using the latest technology is the answer to it.

For the business owners who think they are noobs when it comes to technology, you have come to the correct place! From setting up simple customer service to working on a mobile office, the upcoming piece of text will be your ultimate guide to boost your business to its fullest potential.

This article will tell you 7 quick technology fixes to boost your small business even when you are on a tight budget.

#1 Smart Payments

In this beautiful era of technology, mobile phones are the new bread, and the internet is the fresh butter. With leading companies like Oppo, Samsung, Vivo, and a ton more offering decent quality Smart Phones for Rs 5000 onwards, it is elementary to own a smartphone these days with EMI options.

Smart Payments — best tech for small business

With companies like Reliance Jio making unlimited data accessible at very nominal rates, many people are gaining internet access.

This easy internet access has resulted in more and more people spending money online. Cashless is a new reality, and we as a society are moving very fast towards it.

As a business, it is necessary to adopt this change. A company should offer a maximum number of options to the customers to make payments.

Few Tips to incorporate Smart Payments in your organisation –

Enable use of apps like Google Pay, PhonePe, etc., to receive payments. Another option is to go for Paytm for Business. Paytm for business is a fantastic app for businesses. The best part is that it transfers the payment received to your bank account within 24 hours with zero commission.
Another way is to create a single page website with a payment gateway incorporated into it. Single page websites are very cost-effective to create and maintain, and a good payment gateway offers all security options to the customers for a small commission fee. The best option is to go for Razorpay if you are looking for the best quality service. You can also go for Paykun for the lowest commission rates.

#2 Setup Customer Service

Customer Service can be a great way to solve your client’s problems. Good customer service ensures that customer satisfaction is maintained at high standards, which builds trust for the business in the customers’ eyes.

Customer Service also acts as a feedback loop. Your customers will tell you what is going wrong, which opens the opportunity for you to improve.

Setup Customer Service — best technology for small business

Few Tips to incorporate customer service in your organisation –

Establish a process of regular follow-up about products and services with the customers. Follow-up can quickly be done by using bulk messaging, bulk whatsapp messaging and bulk emailing software.
Having a dedicated person to answer customer queries on the phone. The best experience for a customer is to get his/her issue resolved as soon as it occurs. And knowing that the customer is just a phone call away from resolution is deeply satisfying.
Incorporating Live Chat Options may take customer service to the next level. These days AI-based Chats Bots allow answering common customer queries without the need of a customer care representative.
Developing a knowledge-based where customers can self-serve them is also prevalent these days. These knowledge bases save time as this involves one-to-many knowledge sharing as against one-to-one knowledge sharing.

Suppose you are starting with technology and don’t wish to spend much money. In that case, I recommend you start using basic tools available for free — Mark specific times in Google Calendar to call or message your customers. Use any spreadsheet software like Google Spreadsheets or MS Excel to keep an account of the customers you contacted and their issues. Don’t forget to resolve those queries on a timely basis!

Once you are confident with the benefits of technology in customer service, go for paid plans of various service providers that provide bespoke software for managing your customer queries.

#3 Project Management Apps

Be it a multi-million dollar thriving business or a startup; everyone has to take care of many projects. From writing a proposal for a potential client to a whole marketing effort of the marketing team, several projects are running in a business simultaneously.

Imagine it is Monday morning, and your essential files are missing. Moreover, the email is so cluttered that it has become impossible to keep all the project members on the same page.

Project Management Apps — digital technology for small business

Using Project Management Software is the answer to it.

Project management apps keep you and your team on the same page. Some apps even have the feature of budget tracking, which means the app will keep track of your budget.

Another significant benefit of a project management app is time tracking. The app will regularly notify which team member or which particular task is consuming the most time. Another advantage is the automatic online documentation of all the work that is done.

One of the best Project Management software is BaseCamp. It has many features, including simultaneous management of different projects, uploading commonly accessible data, to-do lists and much more. Its free trial allows you to use it up to a certain number of team members. You can try the free trial to determine if the software serves your purpose.

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#4 Go Paperless

Overflowing cabinets, files upon files and unorganised sheets of paper are a business owner’s worst nightmare. Moreover, messy data reduces your productivity and increases your stress.

Cloud Storage is the answer to this problem.

Go Paperless — how can technology help small businesses

The main advantages of storing your data online are –

It will save a lot of money that you would spend on ink, paper files and cabinets. And it’s great for the planet, too, as less paper consumption will result in fewer trees being cut.

There is no harm in doing good to mother earth and save some money on top of it!

One can easily create a backup of existing data in internal and external drives. This backup makes your data redundant, thereby making another backup available in case original data is lost. This is much better than keeping photocopies of all your data.
The data available on the cloud is available online; therefore, available on the go!

#5 Social Media Marketing

Marketing a product is as important as manufacturing an excellent quality product. Imagine making a fantastic product or offering top-quality service, and the intended customer doesn’t know about it.

Marketing means creating awareness about a product or service and its benefits, which eventually will result in sales

Social Media Marketing — essential technology for small business

Social Marketing is the new way of marketing. People like to socialise over the internet. They consume so much content on the internet, be it videos on YouTube, or images on Pinterest, that it creates an opportunity for us to socialise with our potential customers. And the best part is that it is FREE.

Depending on the nature of your business, choose which social media marketing platform is best for you. For example, Instagram is great for new trendy products and apparel, while LinkedIn is for more sophisticated and professional people to interact with.

Regular, relevant content posting and interacting with the potential customer base gives you many opportunities to promote your products.

There is a lot of software that enable you to schedule your posts. This scheduling saves a lot of time as you can organize all your week’s posts in one day itself. A great example is Hootsuite for Twitter which allows you to schedule a week’s post in advance, and the best part is, it is free!

#6 Using Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence is the future. A lot of large companies are adopting these technologies rapidly.

An example of this is an algorithm that Gmail has designed to filter out spam emails. This algorithm is based on keywords and the content of the email. Over time, the algorithm starts identifying keywords and odd messages even more precisely and keeps your email free of spam emails.

We understand incorporating AI and machine learning requires immense resources, which are out of bounds for small businesses.

But small companies can use the AI-based software that huge companies make and offer them at a nominal price in every industry and every vertical.

A great example is the AI-based app Grammarly. It is a writing assistant that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement and delivery mistakes in real-time. It uses AI to identify and search for an appropriate replacement for the error it locates.

#7 Mobile Office

These days, especially among millennials, it is common to run their small business on the go, on autopilot mode.

An autorun business requires proper management and monitoring.

Mobile Offices are the answer to this. Setting up a mobile office is very simple if you know your requirements well.

Few Tips to set up a mobile office are –

If your business needs a powerful laptop, opt for a MacBook Pro. If you think you can work with something lighter, Google Chromebooks are a fantastic alternative as well.
Another thing to keep in mind is a steady internet connection. Internet is the lifeline of any technology business. It is wise to use the internet from 2 service providers, as one will act as a backup of another.
Keep all your data on the cloud to be accessible in one place from any device.

importance of technology for small business

Congratulations! You have successfully read the seven tips that will take your business to the next level.
You have earned yourself a helpful bonus tip!

Bonus Tip: Security

Every coin has two sides, and so does technology. Using all the 3rd party software and apps revolves around the theme of trusting them with your information. For example, uploading everything on the cloud will require you to keep all your essential data on the cloud. Or receiving payments digitally will require you to trust that the user data is transmitted and the amount is transferred securely.

Security — how to use technology for business

To ensure complete safety, go with only reputed and well-reviewed software and apps. Do not get lured by the extra discounts that some companies offer to sell their digital products. A greedy attitude of saving few pennies might become the cause of a significant loss in future. Don’t let that happen to you.

Conclusion

This era is ruled by technology. The faster you understand and adapt, the more you will benefit. Each day new technology releases which is faster, cheaper and much more effective than the previous one.

Introducing a new system in your company is not an easy task, but anything is possible with proper planning and effort. All the methods mentioned above are pretty standard and trendy right now and come along with the promise of bringing success to your business.

Build a five-year growth plan and choose the tech accordingly. To take the lead in your game, you must be on your toes to be familiar with the latest technology. You will be surprised to see how fast your business grows when you take the help of technology.

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