Nowadays, it’s a fool’s errand to even try to launch a business without thinking tech from square one. Before even getting off the ground, new companies must consider website and social media presence, analytics, and attention-grabbing gadgetry to stay afloat in the sharky waters of current business. However, those just dipping their toes in the water are often daunted by the seemingly preventative costs of making a new business truly hi-tech.
However, this reality is changing every day, as countless progressive-thinking designers make it cheap–or even free–for fledgling entrepreneurs to get empowered with apps and widgets for every need (with of course
Scalable website tracking
One of the most essential parts of CRM is knowing who’s visiting your website as well as what they do while on it. This might sound like a Big Data hassle out of the reach of the little guy, but several cutting-edge software companies such as Kissmetrics or Google Analytics are serving up options that can help generate strong sales leads for under $2 a pop.
Providing a free real time ticker tape, today’s website trackers will analyze any IP addresses popping up, and then look for the most promising matches in high profile industry databases like LexisNexis. Next, a company’s sales sleuths are empowered with a pre-crunched list of contact names available for purchase. Even on a modest budget, the days of low-yield cold calling are over.
Point of sale innovations
Anyone who’s susceptible to impulse-buying overpriced kale chips or Us Weekly while waiting in line at the grocery store knows the secret of effective point of sale strategies. The greater the opportunities there are to make a purchase, the more likely it is on-the-fence customers are likely to go in on a product or service.
While many megastores are dabbling with varying degrees of self check-out, businesses on the mom-and-pop end of the scale can use smartphone and tablet-based POS platforms in the place of conventional cash registers. The result? Convenient, fluid, and personalized customer experience.
A number of trendsetting providers are already leading the way in aiding smaller, quirkier vendors eager to reach out to customers in every nook and cranny of potential sales. Such providers empower brick-and-mortar vendors with robust software for cloud-based transactions to be carried out on tablets or even phones. Delivering the total package by delivering easy-to-use peripherals (credit card scanner, receipt printer), new POS companies make clunky, old school registers obsolete–a real advantage for pop-ups and similarly mobile outfits of today’s business.
Finally, because the new wave of POS can be synced with a company’s online sales, the nightmare of multiple-site inventory is untangled with ease, so making the leap is as great for management as it is for eager customers.
Made-to-order coding
In the past, one of the most deal-breaking challenges for small businesses has been keeping up with cutting edge software development and graphic design that will provide growing concerns with competitive functionality and design personality. Today, forward-thinking outfits such as TopCoder are out there bridging the gap between the big dogs and human-scaled businesses by hosting competitions that serve as meeting places for start-ups and ready-to-impress developers who can supply DIY yet eye-pleasing apps and webpages for little more than $1000.
Streamlined contact command centers
If you are a small business days, it’s likely you operate with separate cell, phones work lines, and potentially even more than one dedicated instant messaging programs. Especially in the start-up phase, it’s crucial for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing, so providers such as VoxOx let businesses keep all contacts in one place. All company staff will be assigned a personalized number, and all recognized users can enjoy computer-rolled calls, forwarding, and message centers that corral voice and text data alike.
The best thing about many of these applications and services and services is their amazing flexibility. Think of each tool as an interchangeable brick in a massive box of organizational Legos. Small companies can adopt and discard tools on a by-any-means necessary approach, interfacing different apps on a trial and error basis until an individualized recipe for success comes true.
Images: ”Man clicking a search button/ Shutterstock.com“
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