Small Biz, High Tech: 4 IT Hacks for Small Businesses

Running a small business is a constant dance between producing a product or service for people at a cost that compares to or beats your competition. One of the costs is information technology or IT. A small business that can find inexpensive and powerful options in this area can create an advantage for their business in their marketplace. Here are 4 IT hacks that can help your small business be more profitable.

IT Hacks: Organize Better Meetings

Increasing a client base can be a challenge for a small business. Meeting with potential clients face-to-face is limited by geography. With technology today, there are simple ways that a business can organize a meeting on teleconference that will allow for face-to-face interaction. There are individual video conferencing tools like Skype that allow for individuals to connect face-to-face across the world. There are also online meeting programs that allow presentations and ideas to be shared over an unlimited number of locations. Low cost products like Go To Meeting or Any Meeting are two meeting software suites that allow for powerful presentations.

Keep Your Office Running Smoothly

Organization is the key to success in any business. Fortunately today there are software suits that can help manage your schedules. For example AdvancedMD is a medical software suite that allows a small office to organize the scheduling of patients, their records, issue bills, manage patient care and measure the performance of your business. The best part is that once this type of system is set up, it runs with very little maintenance. A small office staff can all access the vital information and provide adequate care for all patients. There are similar management software products for almost any type of office as well.

Take Control of Your Web Properties

Managing and developing your own websites may seem like a daunting task but with the technology available today it shouldn’t be. Developing a functional and well-designed site can be done through the use of WordPress with a minimum of training. Having this skill available opens you up to make changes to a website quickly and at a low cost. It will require paying a hosting fee, but this cost is very minimal compared to paying someone to manage your website. HostGator is a great hosting program that is safe and responsive to questions. The investment in this area can save thousands of dollars over the long term and provide your small business with a website that is more representative of your products and/or services.

Build Relationships through Email

Connecting with you customers is vital for any small business. There are many different options available to help manage your email list depending on price and types of communication you desire. Constant Contact is one of the easiest email marketing suites to use although it has some limitations in function. Get Response and Aweber are high-functioning software suits that make it easy to create and run complex chains of marketing emails. The best part about these products is that once you have it set up, it runs on autopilot. Email lists provide a great opportunity to directly contact your customer base and a business can get their product or service in front of the customers.

Running a small business is an exciting endeavor that can become very profitable. Learning to decrease the IT challenges a company faces will clearly make things run more smoothly. All four of these IT solutions can be managed in house with inexpensive and powerful software programs. Allowing a small business to perform big is the goal of these 4 IT hacks for small business.

The post Small Biz, High Tech: 4 IT Hacks for Small Businesses appeared first on Small Business Can.

This post was originally published here - http://www.smallbusinesscan.com/small-biz-high-tech-4-it-hacks-for-small-businesses/ on
thinkbusiness

Start-up Story: SqueezeIT – The Home Straight

Read part 1, part 2 and part 3.

The next thing I needed, obviously, was my own website so more research, I eventually contacted Webbiz and met with them, they seemed to have their heads pretty much screwed on so I gave them the gig – I had written most of the text for the site anyway – and after much toing and froing they came up trumps and as a result they will be helping with some minor aspects of the mobile conversions which is great and this will add another dimension to the business.

I was also looking at ways to advertise for SqueezeIT and contacted Emergo and met with them too and they have also decided they want to actually partner with SqueezeIT which is absolutely fantastic as they are also based in Germany so that could be another possible market for the business going forward.

I am also in talks at the moment with a representative from Lyoness to provide the service to them by offering it to their client merchants both here in Ireland and overseas, especially in the USA and the UK.

Currently I am looking for a “home” for SqueezeIT and should have something sorted soon, fingers crossed!

So if anyone out there would like to avail of our service just visit SqueezeIT.ie and all the details are there and as an opening offer we are prepared to waive the 100 euros deposit for the 1st 5 businesses who sign up with us regardless of which of the three options you choose to use and we will feature your site on our site also from time to time to say thanks.

Written by Aidan Murray. As part of ‘Use SBC as a channel’ initiative, SqueezeIT has an exclusive offer for SBC members: “We will waive the 100 euro deposit for the first five companies that sign up for our service with us and will give a 50% discount for the next five businesses.”

For more information on this business visit Partner Site: emergo-online.com | Email: squeezeit@yandex.com |Phone: 087 261 7576.

The post Start-up Story: SqueezeIT – The Home Straight appeared first on Small Business Can.