Running a Company in the Tech Age: 9 Practical Tips to Follow

Starting a business today isn’t the same as starting a business ten years ago. A lot has changed. Businesses rely more on technology now than they did before. If you are not familiar with how to use technology to your advantage, then you will struggle to start a business. Learning to become more adept at using technology will help you to start your business and transform it into a success.

This post will cover this topic in more detail, explaining nine things that you need to know about running a company in the tech age.

Virtual Office

If you are planning on starting a business, then you need to think about your business’s address. Most consumers will consider a business that doesn’t have an official office or address suspicious. However, according to the experts from https://help.uniwide.co.uk/virtual-office-address-what-is-it-and-do-you-need-one/, you can just get a virtual office, instead of renting one. Virtual offices come with receptionists that can take calls and leave messages for you, as well as a post box that you can have mail sent to. Renting a virtual office will help to make your business look a lot more authentic.

Starting A Website

Even with a virtual office, you still need a website. Without a website, consumers won’t be able to find out about your products or services. You need to make sure that your website is professionally designed, ideally by somebody with experience in creating websites. You can use a template service to make your website, but this is not always the best idea. It’s a better idea to hire an independent web developer, who can make your site from scratch. Using a template service isn’t a good idea, because there will be a thousand other sites just like yours.

SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is one of the web’s most effective marketing solutions and involves manipulating search engine algorithms so as to rank your site higher than your competition’s websites.  However, SEO is a highly technical area of marketing. It isn’t something that you will be able to manage yourself, at least while you are simultaneously running a business. SEO takes months and even years of training before one can become an expert in it. Thankfully, SEO services are not that expensive to hire.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is something you need to spend a lot of your time and money on. The better your business’s marketing effort, the more exposure you will gain. Out of all of the marketing methods used today, social media marketing is one of the most effective. Advertising your business on social media allows you to reach out to your audience directly, notifying them of product releases, new products, and sales. You can also use influencers, who are social media personalities with large followings. You can advertise your business through them. Influencers will market your products or services to their customers for a fee, and ‘influence’ them into buying them.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is something else that’s worth considering. You don’t have to hire full-time staff anymore; you can just outsource tasks to third-party services. The use of outsourcing agencies has increased exponentially in recent years. There are various different things that you can outsource, from payroll to accounting. That said, it is usually better to use automation software for things like accounting because it is a lot cheaper. If you are going to outsource, then take time to research the agency you plan on working with, just so you can be sure they are experienced and employ qualified staff.

Using Chatbots

On your website, you may want to consider using chatbots. Having chatbots on your site will allow you to answer any of your customers’ questions quickly. You can program your chatbot to answer questions that you think customers are likely to ask. You may also want to outsource your live chat services, so if your automated response bot isn’t able to answer customers’ queries, they can then speak to a customer support representative who can. Using chatbots can be a very effective way of pleasing customers and resolving their problems.

Automation Software

Automation software might also be worth investing in. One type of software already mentioned in this post that is worth using is accounting software because it will allow you to handle all of your business’s accounting needs remotely, without a physical accountant. Accounting can be very expensive, but it is a necessary service. To save yourself money, use software. You won’t be able to sort out your business’s taxes if you do not have an accountant or accounting software. Also, not having accounting software can lead to you overspending. Some pieces of accounting software can be used to create budgets and financial forecasts.

Online Support

If you run an e-commerce business, then you need a customer service desk. As mentioned previously, you can outsource live chat to an external agency. However, if your business is small then this probably isn’t an affordable option. Instead, you should set up a ticket system on your website, so that when people report problems, they receive a ticket by email. You can then view your business’s open tickets and go through them one by one. 

A ticket system will help you to coordinate and arrange customer complaints and queries. You need to make sure that there is somebody monitoring your ticket inbox, so they can quickly resolve problems. If you cannot afford to hire somebody to do this, then you should do this yourself.

Researching Competition

Finally, make sure that you take the time to research your competition. Technology makes it easier than ever to get to know one’s competition. All you need to do is to type in keywords relative to your niche on a search engine, and you will see the names and contact information of all of your industry rivals. You can get to know these people by attending trade shows and speaking to them on platforms like LinkedIn. Here is a Guide on Scraping LinkedIn With Python.

Running a business has never been easier. Technology gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to start a business from the comfort of their homes and replace physical staff with software. If you are planning on starting your own business, then be sure to make use of the latest tech.