Tag: Small Business

  • An Easy Process Of Creating A Website For Your Small Business

    An Easy Process Of Creating A Website For Your Small Business

    The world has undergone tremendous transformation over the last few years, thanks to advancements in technology. The business industry is not immune to such changes. If you have a small enterprise, you should also think of embracing these changes.

    Having a business website comes with many benefits, but you have to ensure it holds a place on different search engines by procuring the best link building service. Creating a business website may sound hectic, which is why this article is here to guide you.

    Select the platform you will use to build the qebsite

    There are several platforms to create a website for an enterprise, but some of them will require you to have outstanding coding skills. This is why many businesses hire professionals in information technology.

    Fortunately, you do not have to worry about that because some online platforms allow you access to excellent features and give you complete control over your website. Moreover, some of these platforms provide some of the best web designs, and they allow you to customize these designs as you wish.

    WordPress is one of the appropriate to-go-to places if you want to create a website free of charge. Nonetheless, you will be responsible for looking for a provider of web hosting services, which comes at a fee.

    Choose a unique domain name

    You should never forget when choosing a domain name that it should be in line with your business title. However, several websites can help you generate the best domain name for your enterprise’s website if that feels overwhelming.

    You must remember some specific tips to follow when creating a domain name for your website. You must ensure that the name is short, easy to spell, and connects directly with your business’ keywords.

    Looking for an ideal hosting provider

    Unfortunately, you can avoid this step if you decide to go with an all-in-one website builder. Nevertheless, if that is not your decision, it is time to pick one of the best web hosting companies available today.

    Since you have a small business, it is advisable to focus on cheap packages offered by the web hosting company. Nonetheless, if your budget allows it, you can move to more advanced packages, especially once your business grows.

    Pick a template or theme

    The best thing about creating a simple website is finding lots of themes and templates to use, most of which are free. You even stand a chance to access premium themes, which may come with outstanding features, such as an integrated page builder, e-commerce pages, and pre-built portfolios.

    Most of the themes are templates you access on these platforms and are customizable. That means you can play around with them if you wish to ensure that they give you the image you desire to see on your web page.

    While customizing, do not concentrate on what you want. It is advisable to have your target audience in mind because the goal of your website should be to increase traffic as much as possible.

    Create enticing content

    The main reason for having a business website is to have many people looking for your goods or services. In that case, the content you display to them determines how many people you attract and how the conversion rate will be. There are a few sectors that should never lack in your content.

    These include a contact page, an about-us page, a homepage, a page describing your products and services, and a blog. Some of the free website-creating platforms you find today will allow you to make the relevant pages and add whatever blog posts that you want to include on your website.

    Embrace SEO and publish the website

    SEO allows your website to rank above your competitors’ websites on different search engines. Once you are done with search engine optimization, make the website public by publishing it.

    Operating an enterprise means being updated on the current trends, especially to remain relevant and fight your competitors. Creating your online presence may seem like a challenging task, but it is not. Several online platforms allow you to create a free website for your business to ensure that you market your products to a larger audience.

  • 4 Things Your Small Business Is Missing without Cloud ERP

    4 Things Your Small Business Is Missing without Cloud ERP

    In the past, the best business technologies have been reserved for only the largest companies. A small business, for example, can’t afford a high-tech assembly line or hundreds of employees to facilitate quick growth.

    This is changing, however, as more products and services move onto the web. Since cloud technologies require relatively little infrastructure, they are allowing more businesses to become competitive. Here are four things your small business is missing without cloud ERP software to boost its game.

    Small Businesses Can Scale Quicker Than Ever

    Cloud ERP software is one of the most effective tools for small business owners trying to grow their companies. This is because cloud ERP allows for fluid scaling on a level that has never been possible before. In the past, business assets have been highly physical. Buildings, machinery, hardware—the list goes on.

    Depending on the industry, many businesses today still require these material objects. Cloud ERP software, however, allows for small businesses to only use small amounts of services that otherwise could be too costly. This can also save money for seasonal businesses that only need to utilize services during certain times of the year. For more information checkout the TEC 2019 Cloud ERP Buyer’s Guide for SMBs.

    Cloud Computing Allows Universal Access

    Small business ERP software also allows companies to enjoy the benefit of location flexibility. There are many reasons why this is a powerful tool for small businesses. The most obvious of these advantages is being able to work from anywhere there’s Internet.

    Any device that can access the Internet can also access your company’s cloud ERP. Small businesses can ditch the need for a physical location since all workers can operate remotely. This feature also is extremely useful for companies that need field workers.

    Cloud ERP keeps them seamlessly connected at a job site.

    You Can Save Money with Cloud ERP Software

    Saving money is always important to businesses, no matter their size. But especially for small businesses, which inherently have less capital, resource allocation is critical to long-term viability and growth. Cloud ERP software can provide small businesses with a wealth of money-saving opportunities.

    One way cloud ERP can reduce costs is by automating certain tasks. This is most prevalent in the payroll and accounting departments.

    Comprehensive cloud ERP software can perform repeating tasks in these areas without committing errors. Not only are mistakes mitigated, cloud ERP keeps your company compliant by automatically updating protocol to satisfy regulations.

    Cloud ERP software also saves small businesses money because they don’t need to purchase hardware to build a local server or hire an IT staff to run it.

    Back-end security issues are handled by the ERP provider. This reduces upfront costs and the long-term costs related to system maintenance and employee payroll.

    Cloud ERP Is More Secure Than a Local Server

    For a long time people have been living with the assumption that things are less safe stored on the Internet. This fear is exacerbated by news stories about data breaches. Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually safer to store information on cloud ERP than on a local server.

    You don’t want your small business’s critical information to be available to hackers. Neither do the companies that provide cloud ERP services.

    It’s in their interest to keep client information discreet. In order to do this, they hire top data security talent to keep their systems free of vulnerabilities. Users also typically have to create individual accounts in order to access information secured on the cloud.

    This ensures that access is only granted to those who have proper credentials.

    Running a small business can often feel like an uphill battle when there are so many competitors with more money and better resources. Cloud ERP software can help level the playing field, so small businesses can thrive in the modern economy.

  • Pipedrive vs. Salesmate vs. Nimble – What Should I Use for My Small Business?

    Pipedrive vs. Salesmate vs. Nimble – What Should I Use for My Small Business?

    Cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solutions have been gaining traction at a considerable pace. This can be seen from the fact that in 2008, only 12% of businesses used cloud-based CRM and this figure has now climbed up to 87%. According to a forecast by Gartner, CRM market will reach $37 billion by the end of 2017.

    CRM adoption has been quite rapid in small businesses. 50% of companies with less than 10 employees now use CRM. Small businesses can choose from a plethora of options available in the market.

    However, there are certain factors that should be considered before deciding which CRM to use. Here is a comparison of three business sales CRM software based on their features and prices, which will make it easier for you to choose one.

    1. Pipedrive

    Trusted by 50,000 sales teams around the world, this sales management software is one of the most popular CRMs in the market because of the features it offers. It comes with a clear visual interface that shows your pipeline, which makes your sales process look less complicated.

    You can easily pull out any stats that you want and customize it. The tool also connects email with your contacts and deals so that you don’t have to sift through them every time.

    Pipedrive makes analysis really easy as it shows your sales results in a graphical form. With Pipedrive you can easily keep an eye on your pipeline metrics and pinpoint any problems in your sales process.

    It’s best feature perhaps is that it allows you to make effective forecasts, plus it shows you which deals are lucrative and which activities you should focus on.

    You can also integrate a number of apps with the platform such as Google Drive, Google Maps, and Mail Chimp.

    Pipedrive is SOC 2 certified service provider, which means that your data will always be secure and confidential.

    The company has an excellent contingency plan in case of any mishaps.

    It backs up all data in real time to a separate server that can be used in case the original one goes down. Also, the entire database is backed every night and encrypted.

    This useful software comes with three pricing plans: Silver, Gold and Platinum. Silver plan is the cheapest one and costs $10, but comes with limited features, while Platinum plan costs $63 and gives access to advanced features.

    2. Salesmate

    Salesmate allows you to plan and track your sales activities, and delegate tasks to your subordinates. Based on your activities, it generates a personalized to-do list that syncs with your calendar and mobile.

    Salesmate takes the burden off your shoulders by automating your tasks so you can focus on closing deals.

    Salesmate automatically creates activities and assigns them to your team as leads start pouring in. The software also sends you personalized notifications whenever your team takes action on the delegated task.

    Moreover, it will also remind you of any meetings once you set your preferences.

    With Salesmate, you can never lose a contact in your email thread. The software will suggest contacts to be added whenever you email them. ‘Profile Enrichment’ is its coolest feature.

    You no longer need to dig information on your potential customers, as the software automatically looks up for contact information, addresses, and social profiles as soon as you add a contact.

    The sales CRM management software shows you insightful reports that can help you improve your sales processes. It also shows you monthly sales reports with pipeline conversion.

    You can easily analyse it in any way you want to. It also shows you how much revenue you have generated, how far you are from your target and how many sales you are likely to close.

    Moreover, you can analyse your sales results based on users and channels so that you know which marketing channels generate the most revenue.

    Salesmate comes with only one pricing plan. However, you have the option to select monthly or yearly payments.

    Monthly payments cost $15 per user per month, while yearly payments cost $12 per user per month. Before finalizing it, you can try it for free for 15 days.

    3. Nimble

    Nimble is an intelligent CRM that makes sales processes pretty simple. With Nimble you don’t need to spend time on manually entering your contacts’ information.

    Nimble will automatically update all the information including shared relationships, mutual interests, experience and education. It also makes it easier to manage events, contacts and delegate tasks to team members.

    With Nimble’s sales intelligence you can find out what activities you need to focus on to improve revenue. It also shows your team’s projected and historical revenue and informs you of activities that need your attention.

    Smarter Email prospecting is one of its most interesting features. The software tracks how many times your message has been opened and clicked so that you know how your customers react to your emails.

    It also shows you detailed analytics of the number of times contacts have opened your email.

    Nimble will cost you around $22 per user per month if billed annually and $25 per user per month when billed monthly.

    The package includes sales automation, contact management, 100 group messages per day, 2 GB storage per user, and email tracking among other features.

    Before deciding upon any software, you should know what your needs and objectives are. For example, Pipedrive offers you a lot of features, but its features are not as advanced as Salesmate or Nimble.

    However, if you have just set up your business, Pipedrive can be an ideal choice for you. In case if you have an established customer base that you need to manage, Nimble can be a great choice as it is more of a social sales CRM.

    If you want to focus more on automation, you can opt for Salesmate. All CRMs have more or less the same features, but your choice should depend on what you really want out of the software.

    Author bio

    Erica Silva is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs.

    Currently, she is associated with Airg Team for development work. Check out her firm’s performance reviews.

    Find her on Twitter:@ericadsilva1

  • Small Business: Why Go Digital? What’s Wrong with the Paper?

    Small Business: Why Go Digital? What’s Wrong with the Paper?

    You might ask the following questions: what are the benefits of getting my business digital? What’s wrong with paper and why should I use technology instead? This article will convince you that a digital document management solution makes your everyday work much easier and time efficient as you no longer need to deal with tons of paper documents.

    The more society grows, the more complicated and slow the document exchange process becomes. Immediate access to information stored on paper is getting more and more difficult. But new technology is offering a variety of tools which can be used to transform paper documents into digital format which is more reliable, safe and organized. Having a paperless office doesn’t sound weird anymore: fewer and fewer business owners are likely to use paper and printers in their workflow. More and more modern businesses prefer to work “in the cloud” or use other document collaboration options offered by information technologies.

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