Small businesses have to work within limited budgets. Their smaller footprint gives them the ability to make money saving decisions on their feet and cut down on their overheads whenever needed. In earlier times, such businesses could afford to take a decision limiting their growth in an effort to bring down their operative costs, but this is something that is no longer feasible. The competition is tough out there in every domain, and if small businesses don’t grab an opportunity for growth, it might never come their way again. This is why they are forced to look elsewhere for reducing business spending and have found an answer in tech innovations.
It’s increasingly being seen that it’s the use of innovative technology that is helping businesses curb spending. Let’s take a look a closer look at how tech innovations are helping small businesses.
Leveraging Mobility
Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have made mobile technology more accessible for everybody. Businesses are now able to leverage its immense potential for varied purposes like branding, and selling. Rapid advancements in mobile technology means businesses no longer have to worry about issues like reliability or security. One of the ways that businesses can benefit from this technology is by making use of mobile payment systems. You can use a device like the Apple iPad or even the iPhone to accept payments for products and/or services. As can be imagined, this offers you a very cost effective way of taking your business to your customers, and allows them to choose and pay for your products from wherever they are. This also improves customer engagement and services at very little cost. A win-win situation for any business, irrespective of its size!
Blogging for Building Authority and Marketing
Small businesses need to compete with the big players in their niche and for this to happen they not only need to improve brand awareness but also build brand authority. This becomes expensive, if you use traditional marketing avenues. But, if you explore the non-tradition avenues whose doors have been thrown open because of tech innovations, your businesses can save a lot of money and yet reach out to a wider audience and build brand authority. Blogging is one of the ways that helps you hit both birds with one stone. Blogging helps you market your products and services in an indirect manner. If your blog is good, it will grab eyeballs, also if it gives useful information, it will help build brand authority. And all this at very little extra cost!
What’s more, even if your business doesn’t have a website; your blog could be your online presence. Once it becomes popular, you could actually use it as your online business center that allows people to look at and buy your products and services.
Paperless Office
Sometimes we fail to realize that even the most harmless expenses go on to burn a huge hole in our pockets. The fact remains true for small businesses as well. The use of paper in offices is huge and if these businesses adopt a zero paper policy, imagine the savings! A paper here and there doesn’t make a difference to the overheads but cutting down on the use of paper all together is going to make a massive difference. So what’s the relation of a paperless office and innovation? It’s innovation like electronic invoicing, BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) and other systems that facilitate seamless collaboration between employees, that help small businesses make the transition towards a paperless office.
Focusing on User Defined Product Innovation
No this is not a technology innovation, but a way of thinking prompted by an increasing focus on using technology to create products that are user defined. By knowing the needs of the user, small businesses can create a range of products and services that their potential customers want. With the use of social media and their profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, small businesses can interact with potential users to understand their needs and requirements for a particular product. This will allow them to come up with necessary ideas to craft a user defined product or service. In the long run, this ensures they save a lot of money on product innovation. They know what the target users want and bring forth products they know have a readymade audience. If this won’t help them save money, nothing else will!
This is just a very small sampling of tech innovations and their impact on business spending. As technology evolves, it will throw up even more opportunities for small businesses to bring down their overheads and improve strategic growth.
Author Bio: Gianna Clark loves helping out people who are looking for expert advice with respect to saving money and living on a budget. She is associated with WomenSavings.com, a website that answers the essential question for women, “How to manage your money”. She loves writing articles on the ways and means to save money, yet lead a highly satisfying life.