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4 Tech Tips for Small Business Owners

By: Joseph Akintaju on April 22, 2013 @ 3:47 pm

Running a small business is a stressful venture, especially when it comes to maintaining healthy relationships with family and clients. Fortunately with new technology, there are tools that have the potential to make our lives easier and can be used starting today. Here are some of the most important tools worth looking into for small business owners.

POS System

While many small business retailers are still using the old school cash register, many have embraced technology and upgraded to a point of sale system (POS system) to capture useful sales data for inventory and sales tracking. There are many affordable cloud-based POS systems available today that are actually made specifically for small businesses. Some of these systems can provide inventory support, profitability analytics, accounting integration and live customer service with just the swipe of a credit card.

Marketing Efforts

Embracing technology has allowed millions of businesses to reach out to customers in a very simple way. Social media has proven to be an incredible tool in communicating with your key demographic and growing awareness about your brand. These tools are here to stay, so why not embrace them? Creating Facebook and Twitter pages will not only help bring your customers together in one centralized place but it will also allow you to communicate with them effectively and easily. Another great reason to use social media is that it’s free.

Whether you can handle social media on your own or need to hire someone to do it for you, having a positive online presence will help your business tremendously and help you reach customers that you might not have been able to otherwise.

Website Design/Content

Having a fully functional website is crucial when operating any size business, but especially a small one. If your website is shoddy or takes forever to load, you’re going to lose viewers. Make sure your website can handle high traffic peaks seven days a week, 24 hours a day. If you’re unsure of the traffic your site has been receiving, you might want to consider tracking it using Google Analytics or a similar program. It’s a free tool and offers a simple snapshot of your customers’ experiences on your website along with letting you know how fast your pages load.

Making sure that your website is properly optimized is also important. Search ranking can determine the amount of traffic your site receives each month, and in turn how many viewers turn into actual customers. Take the time to learn SEO or hire a company that understands it. The benefits will blow your mind.

Computer System Protection

Viruses are everywhere and if you’re not properly protected, your company’s information could be in jeopardy. Be aware of what viruses are and be familiar with the way viruses work. Learn the ways viruses can travel to your computer system and how to avoid them. To protect your computer, install system updates and make sure you have anti-virus software. These programs work by scanning your system every so often to make sure there are no signs of viruses or hackers, and if there are, they will alert you and lock down your system.

In order to compete with other small businesses and move forward, you have to take advantage of technology and what’s available to you. By embracing what is mentioned above, you’ll have a better chance of performing at your best and giving your customers the best possible experience they can ask for. Be educated in what’s new and what can help your business thrive and you’ll see a difference.

Guest post contributed by Olivia Boluva a freelance writer and small business owner. She is interested in studying business with the ohio online mba school and has owned a small business for several years now. Her goal is to be educated as much as she can to continue owning and growing a successful business.

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