With multiple departments to manage and numerous regulations to adhere to, from taxation to local law compliance, running a business can be quite overwhelming. If the size of your business is small, it may be possible for you to manage various aspects on your own, but as it gradually expands, things can quickly get out of hand. Supervising various processes requires a lot of time and effort, which otherwise, could be allocated to more pressing tasks. However, modern technology affords us the luxury of automating various repetitive tasks and easily managing complicated processes. On that note, here is how you can use technology to organize and manage your business.
Effectively Manage Your Projects
As your business grows, your projects become more and more complicated to manage. With interdepartmental teams working on the same projects, it can get quite tiring to effectively manage them. Add to that the complexity of everyone working from home thanks to the COVID pandemic. There are, however, various software that you can use to effectively manage your projects. Software like Trello, Microsoft Project, and Wrike can simplify the workflow. These are cloud-based and allow different teams and members of the team to easily collaborate on projects by setting tasks, monitoring deadlines, and adding shareholders. They also allow selective access to content allowing you to provide transparency when required and maintain privacy where necessary. Further, they also allow you to manage your own calendar and also align it to that of other team members. By enabling sharing of calendars, it becomes easy to set up meetings and assign tasks accordingly.
Streamline Your Communication
Effective and efficient communication is critical to the successful execution of any project and the smooth functioning of any organization. This is one aspect that many businesses often overlook and continue using Email services for enabling communication. While email as a mode of communication has its advantages and cannot be replaced, it isn’t sufficient on its own. There are various features that email doesn’t provide and to make up for these, it is important to make use of other modes of communication. A reliable communication app or software offers great flexibility and many allow you to create different channels and groups for discussion and integrate third-party tools like dropbox. Other video conferencing apps allow you to create breakout rooms within a meeting for a private discussion. Some also offer screen sharing and recording features, making online meetings a breeze. You can also find apps with the unique feature of transcribing your meeting so you don’t forget a single point that was discussed.
Simplify Customer Relationship Management
A great way of keeping track of all your customers, from their address and phone number to their purchases, warranty claims, ongoing services, and feedback, is to use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. These are used by businesses across the world. Furthermore, such solutions are implemented over the cloud and the data regarding your customers can be accessed from any computer that has the software through your personal account. Such software programs allow you to have access to all the relevant information regarding your customer, allowing you to serve them faster and more efficiently. This in turn gives you the ability to offer customer-specific marketing material and serve them better.
Automate Your Payments
Various payments have to be made in a business; you’ll have to pay your employees, external consultants and contractors, and also pay for different types of utilities. While paying your employees, you also need to factor in the tax deduction at source, their working hours, and any additional leaves that they may have taken, and in some cases, you also have to factor in the overtime. Furthermore, this time-consuming task has to be performed month after month, which makes it quite a nuisance. However, you can save hours of precious time and effort by using an electronic payroll system that lets you automate this process. Such systems allow you to automate not just the distribution of your employees’ salaries, consultants, and contractors but also automates the process of calculating taxes and accounting for benefits and salary changes. They also offer the flexibility of integrating other services that you might have been using for seamless and effective payroll management.
Get the Most out of Your Tax Deductions
There are various tax deductions that you can benefit from while running a business. A major part of these deductions is the business expenses that you incur. However, keeping a track of the various expenses that you bear can be quite difficult. Furthermore, you also need to have the receipts and proofs of payments available in order to be able to get a rebate. In order to simplify this, you can use dedicated apps that not only let you organize your expenses but can also automatically notify you regarding the expenses that are deductible from your taxes. This makes sure that you get the most out of your tax deductions and do not pay a penny more than what you are supposed to.
Embrace Social Media to Level up Your Marketing
Social media is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal when it comes to promoting your business and attracting new customers. Many businesses are however slow on the uptake and lose a lot of potential revenue by not making the best use of social media. Those that do, often have dedicated departments that handle digital marketing, which include online advertisements and social media posts. Social media lets you interact with your existing and potential customers at a personal level, letting you cement a stronger relationship and understand their grievances and requirements. But in order to make the best of social media, you need to post content that is trending, relevant and impactful. Furthermore, you need to do this frequently and always be ready to reply to customer or fan queries. This process can be simplified using tools that allow you to schedule your social media posts and post them on multiple platforms automatically. They also help you analyze the impact of your posts and suggest changes that can help you reach a wider audience.
Adopting technology and using the latest software solutions can work wonders for your business. They can help you streamline, optimize and easily manage complicated processes, projects, and activities while reducing the amount of time and effort required simultaneously. This can provide your employees the opportunity to focus on more productive tasks and projects, consequently promoting your business growth.
