Etsy has created an online marketplace that allows small businesses to reach a huge number of customers
All of us want to see our business grow, whether it’s a fully-fledged money-making machine or the very beginnings of a brand-new startup.
The Best Type of Tech To Help Your Business
There are loads of different ways to get us there, but some of the best shortcuts involve us taking advantage of modern technology.
Word of mouth is a brilliant tool that has been around for as long as people could communicate, but now there are applications, websites, programs that all claim similar results. We’ve cut through the waffle to find the tech that really delivers on its promises.
The Help of Others
One marketing tool that has proved incredibly successful is pooling your resources with others. Back in the dark ages, people would collect stones and firewood together, build bread ovens, share flour and bake bread for the whole village.
A task that a single person could not have done with nearly as much success. Although times have moved on, the idea remains the same; we are more powerful in numbers. Sites like Etsy, Wolf and Badger, and Folksy saw this predicament and solved the problem.
They now offer both hobby entrepreneurs and small businesses the opportunity to sell their wares on a platform that people have heard of, with a simple shop design that works. Whilst these group marketplaces are best for very small businesses, the same principle can be applied to larger companies as well.
If you don’t currently work closely with other companies, then this could be a good way to broaden your pool of clients and boost your income. See if you can find complementary businesses that work locally for you and collaborate with one another.
You could offer discounts to customers who are using both of your businesses, or pool resources together to create a truly special advertising campaign.
Being open to new businesses will not only help you reach a wider customer base, but it will also broaden your network of businesspeople in your field, which is never a bad thing.
A Well-Designed App
It seems as though everybody is shouting about how necessary it is for your business to have an app and there is a little truth in it. We have more smartphones now than ever before, so being inside someone’s pocket all the time is certainly a great marketing tool.
However, not just any old app will do. It’s important to really sweat the small stuff when you’re in the final stages of your app-making process.
Even apps that seem like they should be simple can fail or succeed based on tiny details. If we take a look at the best poker apps, for example, you’d think that there couldn’t be a great deal of variation in how you would make one work.
It turns out that in this case the reverse is true and all of the apps are distinctly different from one another. This hasn’t happened by accident, the developers have chosen the exact consumer that they want to target and have honed every aspect of their app to suit them.
Instead of trying to grab the whole market, they’ve identified their section of it and catered to their needs perfectly.
Accounting Software
There are hundreds of apps and websites out there that can do your accounting for you, but so few of us make use of it. If you have a large business already then it’s likely that a real-life accountant will be the best option for balancing your books, but if your business is still young then there might not be any need for that extra expense just yet.
Deciding on which accounting software is right for you is quite a personal choice, so looking through the benefits and drawbacks of some of the most common ones is a good place to start.
Whilst it might seem like a small piece of the puzzle, not having to worry about accounting will free up your mind for more money-making pursuits. As well as this, being able to really scrutinize your end of year accounts will help you to understand the finer details of your business.
We all assume that we really understand how our profit margins work, but in truth, there is always work that can be done to improve our results.
An Easy-to-Use Website
Now that we’re into the age of apps, as mentioned above, some of us have let our websites fall in quality a little. This is a mistake that you absolutely cannot afford to make.
Forbes reported some incredible statistics on just how important websites are. One of the key findings from this research was that 93% of people using a search engine won’t go past the first page to find what they’re looking for. It’s for this reason that you need to have a solid strategy for Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.
Conclusion
If you haven’t heard of this before then you might need to think about hiring someone to help you. Otherwise, make sure you’re using the correct tags in your posts, you’ve labeled your images, and you’ve got a healthy number of backlinks from trusted websites.
As well as this, think hard about the user experience. Make your website absolutely foolproof to navigate. Test it on as many people as you can, particularly those who are less tech-savvy than your usual customer. Being visible and accessible is everything.
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