Every year many thousands of people start their own business, and within the first twelve months, more than half of them fail. Within the next three years, another half of the ones left will cease trading, meaning that just about 25% of new startups succeed. There are many reasons cited for these failures, and the ones with determination just try something else and start again. Often the cause is a lack of finance, or just not having the strength of character to overcome the challenges you have to face if you want to be a business owner.
It takes a lot of hard work for long hours to get the business off the ground, but there are some technology ideas that could make it a little easier for you. Embrace has many of them as you can and your business will stand a much greater chance of success.
Technology is Changing Us
We all know that the way we live has been changed by technology, and so has the way we shop, the way we handle our finances and our entertainments. We even know how technology has changed the way we work, but do you know how to put that into practice to help your business succeed? If not, read on…
Many of the technological changes happening around us we are not even aware of. It just appears that sometimes the service we are getting has improved, and that is usually because of some new innovation.
There is very little you cannot do on a smart device now, and even young children have tablets to access the Internet and play their favourite games. High Street stores are closing because they cannot compete with online stores, and banks are closing branches because very few people use them any more.
All these changes are down to technology, and now you can do all your shopping online, pay your bills and be entertained. Why would you want to go out in the cold to do these things when it can all be done from the warmth and comfort of your own home?
Communications
The number of businesses that have landlines is reducing all the time. Business owners are beginning to realise they do not need to pay for line rental and then each and every call on top. Communications have changed dramatically thanks to technology and smart devices. Now you can get in touch with whoever you want on platforms such as Skype, which is a much cheaper option than the conventional telephone line deals.
When you start your business from home, forget about having a landline number, you don’t need it. If people want to get in touch they can message you on Facebook, WhatsApp or Messenger, they can email you or arrange a virtual call on your computer.
Part of making a business successful is keeping the overheads as low as you can, and this is easy with communications thanks to technology.
The Cloud
Cloud computing is a way of storing and accessing your data and programs over the Internet instead of on your computers hard drive. There are several advantages to this. It is very secure and if an accident happens with your computer you will not lose any of your information. It is up to date all the time.
You and other people you have allowed to sign in can all look at the same documentation. This results in less work being duplicated and the number of errors reduced.
Another advantage is that the cloud is everywhere. No matter where you go you will be able to access it, even if you are abroad on holiday. All you need is a device and an Internet connection to access all your files.
It is very powerful and can run programs for you that your computer might not be able to manage. Just as an example, Microsoft Office takes up a lot of space on your hard drive, but the cloud-based Google-Docs, which does pretty much the same things, will work even on very low spec computers.
Social Media
Technology has meant that social media has advanced greatly over the past few years, some saying this is mainly down to the development of smartphones. Whatever the reason, with Facebook alone having more than 2 billion users worldwide, it is not a technology that you can ignore when you want to get your business known.
We all have heard of the most popular platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. You should open business pages on all of them and make regular posts to see which brings you the best response.
The technology of Google Analytics will tell you where every viewer that links into your page has come from, and you will be able to see which social media platform is working the best for you. You should not stop posting in the others, but if Facebook, for instance, is producing more viewers, that is where you need to concentrate most effort.
Social media users will need to keep seeing your brand to build trust in it, but do not make all your posts promotional. Have some interesting ones and some funny ones, and then viewers will not just scroll past when they see it is a post from you. You should also include images and videos in your posts as these will catch the viewer’s attention.
Choosing The Right Technology
Choosing the right technology can be a nightmare; there is so much of it on the market. Do you need to have virtual reality to help your business or an automated email service provider? Would you like robotic software to be doing some of the mundane tasks for you, or maybe you would prefer to have your social media management dealt with? There is technology for just about everything, and next week there will be more to replace what is already here.
It is a minefield that you should not try to navigate alone, you need the help of experts to make sure you have the right technology for your business.
