5 High-Tech Strategies for Scaling Your Company’s Growth

Small businesses are struggling with technology implementation, according to reporting from Allstate. It appears that some businesses simply don’t have the human capital to commit to identifying technology solutions and figuring out how to integrate them. Time and money are also factors in applying new technology to small business solutions.

Growing technology like cloud computing has helped change the small business landscape but still doesn’t offer quick scaling on its own. Small businesses also need actionable solutions that impact their every day from marketing to finding the right support staff. Fortunately, there is technology that can help. Here are five ways using technology can help you scale your company.

24/7 Selling Platforms

Despite a recovering economy, brick and mortar retail stores are shuttering their doors and could soon be obsolete. Today’s shoppers are looking for a 24/7 retail experience where they can shop from their devices and receive their merchandise within a few days, if not a few hours.

There are plenty of selling platforms to scale your business beyond your own digital storefront. If you’re already using Shopify, integrate with buyable Pins so shoppers can buy as they peruse Pinterest. Expanding your business to Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), Etsy and eBay can also help get your products seen on a wide variety of platforms to command buyers’ attention.

Instant Purchases

Teams working remotely or in the field need the opportunity to make instant purchases for your business. Whether they’re picking up office inventory or paying for goods and services, they need a way to quickly buy and go. A company credit card is still a popular choice, but a service like Samsung Pay can keep things moving quickly without credit card approvals and complicated expense reporting. Smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 already come equipped with Samsung Pay and business plans with unlimited data.

Automated Marketing

Do you ever feel like you’re drowning in your marketing? According to a survey by HubSpot, marketers spend around 16 hours a week on routine tasks. While some tasks are probably unavoidable, you can spend less time on some of your marketing efforts by automating them.

Tools like MailChimp and ConvertKit can help organize your list and automate your emails. Set-up a campaign to welcome new subscribers, send them information on new products and keep in touch about promotions by scheduling everything in advance. You can also set up Facebook ad campaigns and post social media updates in advance with tools like Buffer or Post Planner to streamline the marketing process.

Virtual Staff

Hiring full-time staff comes with staggering overhead for office space, a competitive salary, benefits and vacation time. Meanwhile, you can hire a virtual team on a contract or part-time basis for a few hours a day. Sites like UpWork can put you in touch with experienced virtual assistants, marketers and even business managers. And if you’re just looking to hire for data or research, consider hiring from an overseas location where experienced assistants are highly qualified at a reasonable hourly rate. The extra savings can help you keep more money in your business to scale faster.

Analytics

Technology can help businesses weed through high volumes of data to make the right decisions. This can be crucial when scaling quickly and trying to stay on the right track from how much inventory to order to what types of marketing channels to target. More companies are leveraging artificial intelligence to help understand their data and what their customers want. For example, IBM’s Watson AI can study data to figure out how to communicate with customers and keep them engaged and purchasing more of your products and services.

There is really no question of whether or not to use technology to scale, but what to focus on first. Start with the areas that matter most to your business, or where you spend the most time, to help scale quickly and smoothly. At the end of the day, technology should be an asset to your business, not a deterrent to moving progress forward.