5 Questions Every Business Owner Should Ask Themselves
Running a 21st-century business is a complicated task. Rather than simply providing products and services to customers business owners and managers need to be aware of the variety of ways in which they can augment the revenue of their companies. As technology makes running a business more accessible there will be an increase in competition in each sector, which puts a lot of pressure on the business to innovate and improve in order to perform at an optimal level.
If you answer ‘yes’ to any of the following questions, it might be time to consider custom software for your business.
Is there an abundance of paperwork and manual task load?
The crux of this issue is one of time and effort related to particular tasks. Paperwork is an unfortunate reality of effectively any business venture, and so is the presence of many repetitive manual tasks that are key to the business function. An important question to review periodically is whether or not the amount of paperwork and the duration and effort of manual tasks is busy decreasing the overall productivity of the company. If the answer appears to consistently be ‘yes’, it may be time to consider software that can expedite those areas of the business’s activities to allow more productive time to be allocated elsewhere.
Are there common issues that need to be managed daily?
This question will be particularly relevant to smaller businesses where one or two individuals are responsible for the majority of all the tasks; specifically maintaining customer and client information and dealing with daily tasks like arranging meetings, sending notifications, writing up invoices, and storing contact information. If a small number of staff continuously have to concern themselves with these activities, it means that there’s less time to spend on effective marketing, sales, and lead generation that leads to additional business. It could be far more effective to invest in developing some software that can streamline these activities, because the time it saves will substantially increase the business’s ability to open and close more transactions with clients.
Is it getting more difficult to manage and keep track of clients?
In this day and age, the quality of customer tracking and customer relationships is often what separates an average business from one that’s going to grow at a significant rate. One of the problems that smaller businesses have when they’re attracting more clients is that their business processes that may have been effective for a smaller client load become a tad obsolete – but they’re not sure how to bridge the gap between the smaller client load and their increased one. Having a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in the background to handle some of the more rote aspects can help to maintain good client relations but also requiring less effort on the part of the business’s employees.
Are you handling an increasing amount of data and information?
Most companies are handling a lot of data in their day-to-day operations. Whether it’s client information, product info, documents related to their service provision, or data related to their sales and revenue generation. If there isn’t an existing system, digitised or otherwise, to manage this influx of data, it’s only a matter of time before the amount of it becomes overwhelming. Having software that can provide order and structure to data management is worth its weight in gold; firstly because it shaves time off the task, and secondly because you’ll always know where to find what you need – no more searching endlessly for vital bits of info.
Is your business growing or likely to begin growing soon?
Many entrepreneurs and business owners are massively concerned with their company’s operations before it’s well and truly running, but they don’t plan for the business’ growth and how they’ll need to adapt when it arrives. Growth for a smaller company is an amazing thing, but with that growth comes additional complexity that has to be accommodated for. Something that’s worth considering is projecting how operations will change when the business grows. Will you need an additional branch? How will the new branch communicate with the first one? Will all the tasks from the current office have to be conducted at the second one? A strategic business owner will need to ask all these questions.
Luckily, with the amount of fast-growing tech more readily available to small and medium business owners managing a business is theoretically much easier now than ever before. What is crucial, though, is that owners plan to install measures that make them more productive, and that is synonymous with having software or some digital assistance. Custom software that can improve the tasks specific to your company can enhance productivity, and therefore revenue, massively.
If you’re considering taking your business to the next level and need to set up your digital footprint the team at My Online Presence has well-established experience in building software to give companies the edge they need in the market. Getting your company’s digital systems to help you grow won’t be a daunting task with them guiding and assisting you through every step – and when your business is ticking over smoothly you’ll wonder how you ever managed without your custom software!
