A recent post at nvonews.com got me thinking about the amazing and rapid changes in technology we’ve seen recently, and how important these may be for small business operators.
The author lists these 5 tech tools. I don’t completely agree with all of the author’s reasoning, but they are all worth of consideration.
- Social Media
- Cloud Computing
- Tablet Computers
- Business Intelligence Apps
- Video Calls
My thoughts on these 5:
Social Media
There is no doubt about it, people are watching much less free-to-air TV than they used to. Some of that time is being spent on Pay TV, some is being spent in front of computer screens. And I’m sure you can guess some popular websites that people are using. (If you can’t, try Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for a start.)
It’s a mistake to treat these websites like an advertising platform. Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter) are more like a cocktail party or a networking function. Being there is what’s important. You don’t have to “talk shop”. If the opportunity arises, then great, but if you just go in with a full-on sales pitch you’ll quickly find yourself alone in the corner of the room.
YouTube has slightly different rules – it’s a platform for you to create useful, educational content and share it with people. Obviously this is much harder than using Facebook, but the number of hours of video streamed via YouTube every day is astonishing. If you can create (or have access to) video content, you should have a YouTube channel.
Cloud Computing
This is one of those buzz words that has become so overused recently it now means something totally different to what it meant originally!
So I’ll go with the new, broad, buzz-worthy definition: Instead of spending large amounts of money on server infrastructure and buying your industry-specific software, you can now in many instances rent the service from a provider and access it over the web, usually via your Web Browser (think Internet Explorer or Firefox).
No internal servers to maintain, no initial large cash outlay, and it’s totally portable. Access your software/business systems/files in your office, via your smartphone, or anywhere you have internet access.
No system is perfect and there are downsides (if your internet connection dies then you lose access to it until your connection is restored) but we’re using this model for most of our internal systems, including:
- Email, contacts and shared calendars
- Job and project management software
- Time tracking and budgeting software
Tablet Computers
I was initially a skeptic, but am now well and truly a convert. I don’t take my laptop with me any more – be it client meetings or just away – the tablet does everything I need. (In my case an iPad, but there are some very nice Android tablets now made by Samsung, HTC and others.) The battery lasts forever, they start quickly, most have a built-in sim card slot so you can access the internet wherever you have mobile phone reception, and the list goes on. Extremely useful if you’re away from the office in the course of your business.
Business Intelligence Apps
This ties in to the Cloud Computing topic above for me – there are plenty of options out there for keeping records of your customers/clients, what they bought, and a plethora of other datasets that relate to your business.
There’s no doubt it requires some effort and commitment to set up and get some systems in place – but this is one thing that separates smart businesses from the rest of the crowd.
Video Calls
It surprises me how little I use Skype. It’s running down there on my computer, but I just never think about it. A face-to-face meeting is almost always better than a phone call, and Skype (or any video calling application) can facilitate that face-to-face interaction quite easily, but nobody calls me on Skype and I don’t call anyone else on Skype.
We really should use it more often. Is that my new year’s resolution?