An incredible amount of innovation has taken place in the palm of our hands. We now rely on smartphones for so many things; from tracking our fitness to saving memories and buying daily essentials. In fact, the ever-growing range of features and capabilities found on our smartphones has in many ways led the digital shift taking place across the world.
Recent events have only served to further amplify this effect, with a recent study from Bain & Company finding that 30 per cent of consumers in Southeast Asia have increased their online spending in the last few months and contactless payment platforms have seen significant growth both in users and transaction volumes.
The study also found that consumers have been exploring what more they can do with their smartphones, with 77 per cent of respondents saying that they had tried a new app that they plan to continue using post-pandemic.
While many small business owners are readily adopting these new digital habits in their personal lives, often they aren’t as quick to adopt the same digital mindset when it comes to running their business.
They assume that digitising their sales channels and back-office involves massive investments in infrastructure and personnel when in fact, it may be as simple as turning to their smartphones.
Here are some quick and easy ways for business owners to bring their businesses into the digital era:
Set shop online
Research from Blue Corona found that 90 per cent of consumers will check a business’s website before calling or emailing. Yet, many small businesses often don’t go beyond setting up a Facebook page for their business.
While website development may seem daunting, many e-commerce apps have simplified the process of getting set up online. These services offer professional website templates that can be customised and set up in less than an hour. Some require as little as choosing a colour theme and layout and filling a number of information fields on the business. That information can be easily updated as it changes over time.
Connect with your customers
While print and out-of-home advertising can still be impactful, the cost of investing in those channels may be prohibitive for many small businesses. This is where social media plays an important role.
To ensure success on popular channels such as Facebook and Instagram, make sure you have a steady stream of interesting visual content. You don’t need an expensive camera for this –your trusty smartphone is likely to offer great image quality for social media posts with much less fuss.
Manage your costs
Business technology gets a bad reputation for involving costly equipment and implementation. In fact, many cloud applications for business charge monthly subscriptions at different price points allowing business owners to pay as they go and add on services as required. A business is able to optimise its investment by tailoring its add ons for its specific requirements.
Get paid faster
It may not seem like much when one small invoice is late, but many small invoices can add up to be a big problem for a small business, particularly a business that’s already operating on thin margins. Thankfully, technology such as automation and machine learning is being deployed to support small businesses in managing their invoices and to send out automatic payment reminders. Integrations with online payment providers also makes it easy for customers to pay.
Stay on top of business, anywhere
While many of us will not return to the office for some time, that doesn’t mean we can’t stay on top of business and consult with our employees and financial advisers with accurate and up-to-date data in front of us. Platforms such as Xero – which has integrations with an entire marketplace of apps – can provide real-time information.
Members of the team in different locations can input data that syncs automatically and everyone in the business can refer to that information through intuitive dashboards, even on a smartphone.
In summary, the shift to digital communications and consumption in our personal lives should be mirrored in the way we run our businesses. Small business owners can start out by tapping on the one digital tool they already know and have: their smartphones.
Source: e27
