The modern, digital age affords us all many solutions to the trials and tribulations of daily life in the twenty-first century. We have more ways to solve issues and problems than ever thanks to the steady stream of idea generation as well as app development. There’s pretty much an app for any problem you can think of. Seriously.
From helping out with mindfulness training to assisting with your fitness training, there’s so much that software can offer in the year 2016 and beyond.
That doesn’t just apply to normal life, though. The internet and the tools it brings to the table can help out so much with running, or working for, a business. Business owners face daily issues that require solving to safeguard the future of the business and the employees that work for the company.
But like regular, physical, day-to-day business, you need to use the tools presented by the internet well to get the best out of them. We’re going to run down a few options below so you can solve a few problems with the web.
Payment
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Payment for businesses is usually processed when you send out an invoice or goods are purchased and traditionally this is in the form of cheques which are cashed or money which is placed within a cash register. The internet offers more ways to be paid for your services than ever. Paypal is an amazing tool which ensures instant payment and budget management for your business. Paypal can get you paid wherever you are in the world and acts as an online bank account for your business and yourself
Accounting
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Hand-in-hand with payment comes accounting. Why are you still scribbling in the margins of a battered old ledger? The times are changing so it’s time to get updated. Sites and apps like Quickbooks offer a quick solution to the problem of balancing the books. Accounting apps can link with your bank accounts and process your payments quickly. It can keep you on top of your money, tax returns and business expenses, so you don’t have to do all the work.
Communication
How do you talk to your staff? Messy email chains and attachments that get lost in translation? Do you ring them up at 7 in the morning and get surprised when they don’t pick up? The world wide web has many options, and you might not know that business communication actually happens in real-time now thanks to apps like Slack and Basecamp. Slack allows an ever-present mobile communication platform ensuring that you and your staff can talk about projects from anywhere in the world.
Marketing
Since the first business ever came about, marketing has existed in the commercial world. It must have had to. If people don’t know about you, your products, or your services, they will find it impossible to purchase them. That’s the stone cold truth as plain and scientific as you’ll need it. You can use a variety of tools to market your business online, but perhaps the best is via search engines. If you climb the rankings with well-utilized keywords and search engine optimization you’ll become the answer to the question of your target market. SEO and marketing services can give you a boost in this field. Be sure to check out these 10 free online marketing tools that every “hands-on” marketer should use to give yourself an edge on your competition.
Customer Service
Customer service is often underlooked in the commercial world, but it’s an absolute necessity. If you’re not treating your customers with the respect they deserve, they won’t come back to your business and buy your products or services. You need to treat complaints and questions from customers with the respect that the customer deserves. Thankfully, social media allows for interaction with customers on a one-to-one basis.
Lead Generation
A lead is someone who is interested in your business. That means leads are key to keeping your business, in business. The internet and your website can help generate leads in a number of key ways. If you offer services in exchange for data, you can better identify your target market and can a new lead each time to market your business at. It’s absolutely key and essential in the digital age to find ways of generating leads.
Selling
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The internet offers more ways to sell your products and services than ever. If you want to, you can use a cloud-based marketing platform to get your goods to the people who want them. This doesn’t require a physical presence at all and can work just as well as a storefront if marketed and maintained well. Of course, you can combine an internet based storefront with payment options like Paypal to keep everything clean and digital.
Creativity
The internet is a bulging hub of creativity, and there’s so much you can do with a laptop and a web connection these days. If you want to design a fancy website, you can. If you want to create amazingly directed promotional videos for your products, you can. There’s no end to the amount of collaborators to work with on the internet and the creativity is not limited. The internet offers you all the tools you need to customise your business and the services you offer.
Recruitment
There are no end to the sites you can use to find new employees for your business. This means you’ve got the biggest pool of potential employees in the entire world, thanks to the world wide web. That’s a great tool. You’re no longer limited to local listings and you can truly become a world-wide presence. That’s not to forget sites like ODesk which offer a large resource of freelancers to choose from.
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There are absolutely no stopping the tools that the internet offers to you and your business and if they are used correctly your business will become a force to truly be reckoned with in the digital age. There will always be new problems, but thanks to the web, some ingenuity and a computer – you’ll always have an answer and the internet should be the best friend of your business going forward.
