If you’re a millennial, the chances are that you don’t remember the accounting books and filing cabinets of ye olden days. This was a time when scientific calculators and ‘doing the books’ literally meant opening your accounts book, working out your sums and writing down your tax obligations. Nowadays, things have shifted dramatically. Technology has enabled businesses in all industries and of any shape or size to become more efficient, more profitable and more successful. To make your startup a viable money making venture, you need to compete with your rivals using the technology available to you. Take a look to see if your business is fit for the twenty first century.
Finances
While you might still keep the hard copies of your receipts and you have a ring binder full of invoices, you don’t need to become bogged down in paper. While this might serve as giving you peace of mind should the cloud one day disappear, you needn’t worry. Even the government is welcoming the twenty first century with open arms with its Making Tax Digital scheme. This means that by April 2019 every single entrepreneur, freelancer, and small business will need to send its updates to HMRC digitally. This makes your business more efficient, it helps record keeping remain streamlined and it’s also good for the environment. Accounting software ranges from the basic and free software to the lucratively expensive advanced pieces of kit. Find one that suits your venture and stick with it.
Analysing Data
With the range of free online analytical pieces of software now available, you are able to monitor your website from anywhere in the world. Google Analytics allows you to track a multitude of useful pieces of data relevant to your site’s traffic and visitors. At the click of a mouse, you are able to see the most popular pages on your website, the country where most traffic is coming from, what is referring this traffic and the sorts of search terms that your visitors are using. This helps you reinforce and adapt your search engine optimisation strategy accordingly. If certain search terms are being used, you can replicate these keywords on more pages and start to embed them into your social media posts.
Social Media
The explosion of social media has been one of this century’s major advancements. Your online presence is now easier to craft than ever with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all offering something to the entrepreneurial market. If you work in a visual sector such as graphic design or photography, Instagram could be perfect to showcase your work and attract new clients. Facebook business pages and Twitter feeds allow you to converse with your customers on a more meaningful level and can allow you to communicate to a global audience. If you are a prolific social media user, transfer this into your business persona and seduce your potential market with your wares and services.
The twenty first century is seeing business technology developing rapidly. Ensure that you are at the forefront of this expansion.
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