What can you, as a small business owner learn from the democratic powers of technology?
Technology today has completely revolutionized the lives of individuals. The political circles often point out that technology has helped democratize populations, as it has given every person (with an internet connection) a voice which was previously not there. And therefore we see many dictatorial regimes face tough times, simply because of the existence of hashtags on twitter.
However, the question in focus here is, can anything be learned by small businesses from the Arab Springs and WikiLeaks. Such businesses often operate under the dictatorial market conditions ruled by monolithic multi-national monopolies.
Small businesses have the potential to equip themselves with a wide variety of tech-enabled tools (from cloud-based servers to mobile-run devices) that enable them to stand on an equal footing with the economic giants of the marketplace, who previously could annihilate any competition they would face by reaching into the deep pockets of their financiers.
Now if you too are a small business owner, we tell you how to streamline your operational processes and make room for growth and expansion in the future.
Improved Communication
Technology has helped businesses improve their communication processes across the board. Emails, WhatsApp and Text Messaging, Google Ads and other smartphone enabled apps have facilitated to increase the communication channels between firms and their existing and potential customers.
And in the realm of internal operations, the new development of in-house apps have allowed business processes that were once supervised by managers and recorded on log books to be measured by the all-seeing eye of mobile technology tracked by network data.
For instance, sales reps and field officers can now communicate and record their second-to-second activities on mobile software that keeps them on track with targets and also syncs their expense information with the accounting software in the finance divisions.
Impact on Operating Costs
Small businesses can use technology to reduce their operational costs. Automation is one of the key areas that have helped small business owners achieve this. With the ability to delegate many activities of various scales, such as book-keeping, payroll maintenance, record storing and retrieving, etc., businesses can cut back on human errors and inefficiencies in their systems, and also increase their scope without having to rely on additional staff.
Increased Productivity
Technology has also helped increase the productivity of employees and has played an important role in making business processes more efficient. There are some fundamental changes in operations through implementation of effective technological solutions that lead to several efficiency benefits.
For instance, SMART goals have long been considered a valuable tool that works to increase and measure employee performance. By developing day-to-day objectives of individual employees and setting target metrics for separate units and divisions, businesses can match the goals of employees (through performance appraisals) with that of the company, with the help of an online framework.