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If you are a business owner but not in the tech industry, why would you need to focus more on adopting technology in your daily workflow? Some might say you don’t need it. However, I am here to put a bug in your mind and prove how important technology is to any business in any field of work. And that includes you!
We know technology can be intimidating. It can also be complicated, and there are seemingly endless options. So, is it cost, integration headaches and the question of whether you’re choosing the right one? Yes! Here are my top three reasons to focus on technology, and I’ll explain how to integrate it into your business:
1. Not implementing technology means you could face technology deficit
Let’s face it, having no line item in your books for technology and software subscriptions means your company. Will Get to a point where you can’t move forward. Whether your marketing team is missing key data points for essential customer acquisition or your capabilities will outperform you, your competition may pass you by (we’ll talk more about this in the next point). No matter what obstacle you hit, the point is that your growth will slow or stop. You don’t want to wait until that point to use technology once the train leaves the station without you!
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2. Results Are Everything
No matter your business or workspace, your most valuable resource is your team. How can you empower your team to work better, not harder, and ultimately deliver the best results? The answer lies with the right technology! Even if your staff is set in their own way and doesn’t want to learn a new program, you should choose the right operating system and provide appropriate training. A minor setback in the learning curve will mean a huge increase in productivity.
I once moved into a mid-sized company that was technologically behind for not prioritizing this aspect of their business. This inadequacy caused marketing and sales to lag behind its competitors. I compared his technical powers and abilities to a knife-to-gun fight.
If a company can increase its operational automation in the marketing space, it will allow it to understand its target customer and really understand how to sell to its market in an efficient and results-driven manner.
A data warehouse and congruent CRM will allow this business to more precisely segment and hit targets for its best marketing demographic. It is important to recognize, understand and address low-hanging fruits such as abandoned shopping cart funnels.
When you focus on results, technology almost always needs to be integrated to increase efficiency and increase sales in the long run. And it’s always easier and cheaper to integrate the right technology early on to make sure your team is trained and using it along the way!
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3. You’re Increasing Your Footprint Without Liabilities Correct technology
I’ve seen every range of technology integration, from tech-savvy millennial CEOs who rely on data and analytics for every business decision to companies that don’t integrate it at all and still have a penchant within every important department. and use paper. However, if you’re closer to the latter, you’re potentially putting your team at a major security risk. If you have only minimal or wrong technology, you can put your customers, reputation and finances at risk too!
I’ve seen clients use only one source for major bookkeeping and documentation like Excel. One wrong move or a gross mistake can completely change your calculations. Or worse, delete everything! If that’s not risky, I don’t know what is.
Technology can feel overwhelming, which is why we often hear people shying away from adding it to our daily workflow. However, there are simpler ways to make that change. Start with finding a company to give you a technical audit – which is often cheaper than you expect. Take their advice and then implement it in pieces.
You may not need to go from 0 to 100 the first week. You can gradually add, integrate and manage critical technology across different departments as you feel comfortable. And as I mentioned earlier, the key to technical success is training! Empower your team to take the technological leap with you and work on it together. Everyone can learn a new trick, and it can be fun too! Lastly, make sure you have an infrastructure in place to create the ideal environment for success. This includes basic technology hardware and compatible systems.
Take this article as your pointer to take the first step and improve your business with technology!
