Businesses today use software tools a lot. There’s a huge range of tech products that help automate processes and create cost-saving efficiencies.
But for small business owners who aren’t tech savvy, how do you find these products? How do you know what part of your business to get software for, and how do you know which is best for you?
It’s almost mandatory for small businesses to use some sort of software these days. Small businesses are less likely to hire specialists in certain areas, which is where software has perhaps the greatest benefit.
Not an accounting expert? No worries - get accounting software.
Struggle with task management? That’s ok - get project management software to do it for you.
Hate managing your payroll? Too easy - payroll software has your back.
Small business management is complicated, but you can take a lot of the hassle out of it by essentially outsourcing specialist tasks to software.
Software frees you up to focus on the things you actually enjoy, and often keeps your business compliant in key administrative areas.
Firstly, the size and type of your business will influence what kind of software you need.
Small businesses aren’t necessarily better suited to particular types of small business software, but perhaps a service tier within one product. For example, a piece of software may have payment tiers for businesses with up to five users, 6-20 users or more than 20.
Look into the payment plans different software offers so you don’t pay for more capabilities than you need.
Secondly, the industry you work in will impact your software requirements. All businesses have universal needs, such as payroll, finance and communication, which you can get software for.
But beyond that, you will likely have a few repetitive tasks that are central to your operations that can be automated or streamlined with software. This could be with specific industry software, or you may be able to apply a generic tool.
The best software for small business can streamline processes, improve communication and increase transparency in a number of ways:
Software tools standardise processes to enable consistency in results. This kind of reliability is often sought after but hard to achieve when resources are stretched, as they often are in small businesses.
This is one of the greatest benefits of business software for small businesses. Time is a valuable commodity, and things like business administration are often seen as distractions from your core work.
Fortunately, software for business admin is widely available in different areas, so you can automate tasks and spend more time doing the important stuff.
Tracking progress is hard if you don’t have an ear to the ground, and even then it’s based on gut feel rather than actual data. Software helps to monitor key areas of the business to provide insightful information and enable better decision making.
This is another way of saying “it saves you money”. Software reduces labour needs, streamlines processes and creates efficiencies that can have a significant impact on your bottom line.
The faster you complete pieces of work, the more impressed your customers or clients will be. Rather than demanding more from your staff to get things done quicker, software completes repetitive tasks in no time.
Regardless of what type of small business you have, these softwares tools have genuine impact that create the benefits discussed above.
Small business owners are typically not payroll experts. If you don’t have a dedicated finance or admin staff, this tedious task can take up valuable hours in your day. However, payroll software for small businesses makes payroll easy.
Rather than setting aside full days in your diary to do payroll every couple of weeks, payroll software can help you to work through all your payroll tasks in just minutes.
Tax time often involves a lot of paperwork, and it’s not a whole lot of fun. Invoicing software for small businesses tracks vital information that makes it much faster and easier to keep up with your tax obligations.
Tracking the time it takes to complete tasks gives you hugely valuable insights for your business. You can identify bottlenecks and your best and worst performers, and keep track of projects for billing and quoting purposes.
Project management can be incredibly complicated, with many moving parts, resources and people to organise. If you have multiple projects on the go at once, it’s easy to lose where things are at, and this is where mistakes creep in.
Project management software is a central hub for resource booking, task allocation and real time tracking so project managers can monitor multiple pieces of work and make informed decisions with the latest data at hand.
CRM software has become hugely popular in recent years as a way of documenting all customer interactions and keeping customers satisfied.
It becomes the home of all communications and monitors engagement, helping to gain insight into customer relationships, increase retention and drive more sales.
Internal communication can be messy, but software such as Slack actually makes it fun. With universal communication channels as well as one-to-one messaging, it’s easier to manage than emails and makes collaboration much easier and more engaging.
New websites are a blank canvas, with a world of opportunities to create something engaging and interesting. In fact, with so many options, it can be hard to know where to start.
Website building software takes users through a set process to enable you to create a unique website without being overwhelmed by all the choices you have to make.
Streamlining transaction monitoring is often high up on the to-do list for business owners. It’s an important task but again, it’s not a whole lot of fun.
Billing software for small businesses can automate invoicing and payments, saving you time and presenting the most important information in one engaging dashboard so it’s easy to keep track.
Sales and marketing are core growth areas in your business, and it’s vital you know what techniques work best for you. Software standardises processes and gives you insightful feedback so you can optimise your efforts and grow your business efficiently.
Small business owners have considerable expertise in their field, and unless you’re an accountant, that field probably doesn’t include tax.
Using software to manage and pay your taxes not only saves you time doing tedious bookkeeping, but it also keeps your business compliant.
Traditional manual bookkeeping is error-prone, and if you have an accountant who helps you at tax time, it takes them longer to work through pages and pages of spreadsheets. This makes the process more expensive, and increases the risk of incorrect tax payments.
There are two places you can start when it comes to getting small business software.
You can look for repetitive tasks that you do often. By using software to automate these tasks, you’ll create the biggest impact on the efficiency of your business.
You can also target things you’re not an expert in. These are often tasks that you don’t look forward to and take you longer than they should. Unfortunately, they’re also often vital admin tasks such as payroll, invoicing and tax that are critical to your ability to trade.
By using software for these tasks, you stay on top of your obligations and avoid having to lock yourself into a room to painfully work through everything that’s involved.
When it comes to payroll, Smartly makes it easy. We help you to pay your people on time, accurately and in line with legislation. Find out more about how Smartly works.
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If you want to learn more about how your day-to-day tasks can be made simpler, you can chat to us to get some insight on how payroll software could benefit your business. Smartly can make the complex tasks seem simple including payroll, timesheets, leave and more! Smartly takes care of most of the faffing, so you can focus on the important stuff.
