by Chelsea Lamb (courtesy of BusinessPop.net)
Owners and managers of small businesses oftentimes end up with a hand in everything — marketing, accounting, payroll and more — in addition to ensuring the product or service they provide is of the utmost quality. You can work the cash register while sending out emails and getting managerial duties handled at the same time.
With smartphones and online tools now readily accessible, the work can seem never-ending. However, if you use them correctly, these devices offer plenty of opportunities to simplify your business. A smartphone or desktop and internet connection are all you need to access online tools that can help with the aspects of your business below.
Online Presence
Every business needs an online presence these days, specifically a website. No matter how small or large a company, it should have a modern, professionally designed website to help capture an audience and boost credibility.
Unfortunately, about 40 percent of small businesses are missing out on engaging with and drawing in an audience through the use of a website, according to HRDive. If your business is one without a customer-facing website, hire a contract web designer to construct a useful, sleek and easy-to-use site to promote and claim your business.
According to Upwork, good web designers should understand HTML, CSS, JavaScript and the fundamentals of UI/UX design. Perhaps most importantly, this designer should be capable of creating a responsive website that looks great across all screen sizes, from phone to desktop. Find a designer online, and leave it to a professional to create a site that fits your overall brand.
Once the brand is captured, it’s time to start promoting it on and offline.
Marketing
You’ve probably been marketing your business without realizing it through social media, but a business can only be helped by a more robust marketing strategy. A quick search online provides hundreds of resources to streamline your marketing processes.
Create a free CRM through a website such as HubSpot to quickly send emails out to entire contact lists or specific emails. This tool can be upgraded, too, bringing your marketing email campaigns to the next level. Once your audience is intrigued, keep them engaged with beautiful visuals and worth-the-read content.
While Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are used to create graphics, you can use free tools like Canva, Gimp, or PicMonkey to throw together all kinds of graphics. Make standalone infographics or original graphics that will accompany your written content.
Whether the text is on a static site page or blog, incorporating search engine optimization into the writing process will ensure that your target audience and more are finding the information they need about products, services and more. Google Analytics and Ubersuggest are a couple of available resources that help analyze keywords, audiences, and rankings.
Marketing doesn’t have to be the monster it’s sometimes portrayed as. Spend a weekend or more getting familiar with marketing tools, and start putting them to good use. Take advantage of what’s already available to make things happen quickly for your business, and make sure your accounting software can keep up with the growth.
Accounting and Payments
With a great website and shop available for customers to use, you have to provide a way to take payments online. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of online payment methods and eCommerce tools available for business-to-business or business-to-consumer transactions.
PayPal is a go-to platform for taking payments and monitoring invoices for consumers and businesses alike, but there are others available to meet your specific needs. Others offer an in-depth tool to manage all of your accounting and payroll duties from a desktop or mobile app. So, do yourself a favor this upcoming tax season and start using an automated online accounting tool for all business financials.
Save time and money — and turn a profit — with the help of online tools. Whether you need a site, help with marketing, or reminders to collect overdue invoices, look to accessible, online applications and programs for solutions. Take action and tackle the web-based problems surrounding your small business so you can find a clear path to continued success.
Image via Unsplash
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