Small and mid-sized business propel the economy. These businesses contribute to the country’s non-farming GDP by employing majority of the country’s workforce. A survey conducted in 2014, revealed that in spite of the consumers supporting small businesses, there has been decrease in the growth of the small business sector. The study further revealed that one of the obstacles to growth is the time constraint.
The small business owners feel that there is not enough time to engage with the customers online. Also important things such as social media and online marketing suffer due to lack of time. In short, many owners spend their time working in their business instead of on their business.
The marketplace we have today is very complex and competitive. Apart from that the consumers are tech savvy and wish to browse, seek reviews and make purchases using mobile devices while on the move. Penetration of smartphones has transformed the way people search for products/services, interact with a firm and make payments when they purchase a product. Therefore, having a website that is compatible with both the desktop as well as the mobile devices and also having a business app is essential if a small business wants to succeed.
Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Use Business Software
There are many different types of business software on cloud available in the market. By automating your business process using the relevant cloud business solutions will surely remove the time constraint that the small business owners are facing. There are also added advantages of using business software.
Enhances Efficiency in Maintaining Accounts and Invoicing
When a small business uses accounting software on the cloud, it can be accessed from anywhere anytime by the employees who have been given the privilege to operate the cloud account. This will enable those employees who are in the remote geographical location to quickly submit the expense receipts to the office. Similarly, the invoices of a vendor can be checked in no time if the invoicing software is integrated into the system. The tedious tasks such as entering data, storing and organizing data becomes easier. Also the data can be retrieved at any point of time. This increases the efficiency of the workforce. Integrating a cloud-based invoicing software will do away with the redundancy of data.
Customer Relation Management Becomes Easier
Its a common knowledge that a customer is the king. If the customer has to return back, there has to be a strategy to lure him. For that the business needs his information that includes his tastes, preferences, contact details, geographical location and so on. This data should be stored in a centralized location if it has to be retrieved as quickly as possible. Only if the business uses a cloud software will the sales personnel on the move would be able to retrieve the data as well as enter the information of a new customer. By implementing a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management software, the sales team and marketing team can work in tandem for creating a marketing campaign, generating leads and closing the deals.
Backup and Recovery of Data
When the cloud-based software is leveraged, there is no question of losing your data. There is always a backup because you are no longer storing the critical data in local servers. The cloud-based servers are well insulated and protected and is well taken care off by the cloud service providers. Even if some of the critical data is lost, it can be recovered from the cloud. Therefore, a business should be aware of cloud-based storage’s as an alternative to local servers and tapes.
A Broader Suite of Secure Apps
Cloud applications such as invoicing, CRM, project management, expense management, enable access to data and other relevant documents from any device, anywhere anytime but also seamlessly integrate with other cloud-based tools. This makes it easier for a smaller business to extract as well as leverage data across various platforms and bring down the time spent on manual data entry.
If you have not yet migrated to cloud-based solutions, then it’s never too late. And now is the right time to do so. If you want to spend time “on” the business instead of “in” the business do so by leveraging cloud-based solutions. To know more about cloud-based business software you are welcome to join us for a demonstration.
