Whether it happens to be apps, add-ons, or even hardware, there are plenty of technological triumphs that can help save your business money. For many tech-savvy entrepreneurs, finding new ways to cut costs is simply part of the fun.
Managing a successful business often requires a firm understanding of how best to secure your finances, streamline daily operations and nurture those profit margins.
If you have recently been looking for new ways to save your company some money and create some financial breathing room, here are some helpful additions to your toolkit you might want to keep your eye on.
Chatbots
Having an AI as a personal secretary might sound like a plotline plucked straight out of a science-fiction novel, but it is very much a real and popular possibility.
Chatbots can perform a wide range of functions, and they are superb for anyone wishing to cut down on some hefty costs when running a business, such as the wages for an in-house website manager.
You can program the chatbot to answer instant message queries, point customers in the right direction when they visit your website, and even cover your back if you are too busy to deal with customer emails immediately. They can pick up on keywords and, in many cases, use machine learning to better understand commands in the future.
They can be a good time and money saver, so it is worth taking a look at some of the best options available on the market at this moment.
Price Comparison Tools
According to research by Business Energy UK, one of the many hidden costs of running a business is perhaps the price of physically maintaining the office.
Rent, cleaning, and licensing fees can start to take their toll on the wallet, but when you take the cost of essentials into account, they can quickly accumulate.
In order to cut down on the price of your utilities, it is worth taking a look at a great price comparison site like Business Water Quotes, as they can potentially help you cut a huge amount of cost off your water bill.
The Smart Office
If you wanted to make your daily operations run as flawlessly as possible, implementing a few pieces of smart tech into your office might do the trick.
For example, it may be worth using an Alexa for business in an administrative role, as it might help you not only save money on hiring extra staff but cut down the amount of time you spend a day doing tasks that could easily be automated, such as booking meeting rooms and organising calendars.
Saving time is, in many ways, saving money, as you can better direct your efforts to more widely impactful work.
There are other options worth thinking about in this area, such as smart bulbs, smart thermostats, and smart sensors.
Outsourced Cloud Computing Services
In the modern world of business, digital dissonance can spell disaster for a company. Making sure that you have a solid digital infrastructure is essential in many ways for the sake of security, efficiency, and optimisation.
Sometimes, an in-house IT department can be incredibly costly, especially once you consider the cost of the hiring process, the wages, and the time it takes to find the ideal candidates.
If you were hoping to make sure your IT did not fall short of the mark, it might be worth outsourcing your efforts to a reliable and experienced company.
This has the potential to save you a great deal of money without sacrificing any quality whatsoever.
Opting for cloud-based computing services can be a good way to make sure your digital assets are being thoroughly looked after. It is important to read as many reviews as you can and meet the people behind your prospective service before settling on who to hire.
Collaboration Software
Some businesses are still figuring out what the future of their operations will like in a post-pandemic world. Many of them will no doubt go for a combination of both office work and remote work, as a host of home-based employees proved that they could get the job done efficiently.
To support this, collaboration efforts are needed. However, there are some great pieces of software to help with this, and they can be pivotal when trying to save money.
For example, there is evidence to suggest the autonomy and flexibility given to home workers makes them more productive than usual, so allowing them the option to work remotely might lead to your profit margins boasting a healthy rise.
Accounting Apps
Keeping your eye on money can be difficult, particularly for the busiest among you. If this sounds familiar in any way, there are some great accounting apps you might want to take a look at.
Expense management tools can take many different forms, from their user interface to their functionality, so it is worth thinking about what exactly you need it for, as having too many apps that essentially perform a similar function can be highly confusing and inefficient.
Browser Add-Ons
Possibly angled slightly more towards the individual user than a company-wide implementation, browser add-ons can help you save money as you go about your daily online travels.
There are some great options like Honey, which can save you money at the virtual counter by searching the internet for vouchers, or InvisibleHand, an ideal cost-cutter for anyone who frequently travels for work.
Using tech to save your business money often requires a little self-motivation and application to truly make the most out of the variety of tools on offer.
A Coffee Machine
For a vast number of morning-loving workaholics, coffee is less of a drink as such and more like fuel to power their ideas machine.
If you happen to be one such coffee lover, investing in an espresso machine can be a great long-term investment that pays off relatively quickly, especially if you spend way too much on takeout coffee.
For many smaller businesses, making sure that personal finances are in order is a must if they are hoping to find some semblance of stability and expansion in the future.
Cutting down the costs any way you possibly can is a good way to build finances that you can put towards the company.
Business Process Management Software
A lot of small business teams struggle to get on top of their workload. This can be for a variety of reasons, but often it comes down to a lack of efficient processes and unclear communication.
Business process management software (BPM) can help with both of these issues by providing a platform for you to map out your business processes and track progress. BPM solutions come in all shapes and sizes, so it’s important to choose one that will fit the needs of your business. Some things to consider include the size of your team, the complexity of your processes, and whether you need features like document management or workflow automation.
Payroll Management Software
Working out the payroll can be immensely time-consuming, yet it is a process that can be somewhat automated with the help of software.
The more processes you are able to automate, the more efficiency you can bring back into the business, especially if it is anything to do with large amounts of numbers that might otherwise require a whole team to monitor.
CRM Software
Customer relationship management software is extremely handy in helping you develop one of the most important parts of any business, the customer experience.
CRM software generally helps to optimise sales and marketing processes, which, when done right, translates to more profit.
This list should be enough to keep you covered for now, but it can be vital to always be on the lookout for new technological developments, as failing to implement could lead to some disastrous results, especially if your competitors are always striving to find a new tech.
To make sure you get ahead of the game and start saving money, spending a little on tech first might be necessary.