Two technologies do the most for a growing business right now: automation that handles repetitive work, and a real IT security setup underneath it. Get the second one wrong and the first one never pays off. Here is how to think about both.
After 2020 and the start of 2021, owners aren't just looking to recover. They want to make up for lost time and bring in new customers. There's no shortage of growth strategies, but technology gives you the most options you can match to what your business actually needs. The trick is picking the right ones.
Automation does the boring work so your team doesn't
Plenty of businesses haven't cracked automation yet. They're not sure how to set it up or get value out of it, and that's fair. The hardest part is starting. It costs time and money up front. After that, it runs on its own and a big share of your daily tasks can be handed off to it.
AI-powered chatbots are one of the most useful examples. Old chatbots were useless. From a customer's side they never worked the way you'd hope. That's changed. AI has come far enough that a good chatbot now does real work.
A chatbot can be the first "person" someone meets on your website. It asks questions, sounds like a real person, and when a visitor has a specific request, it sends them straight to the employee who can help. That routing is where the time savings show up.
Automation also makes data collection easy. Apps can gather different types of data and feed it all into one place. Put forms on your site that capture a name, an e-mail, and whatever else you care about. Lock your free content behind that form: special reports, books, videos, demos, offers. A visitor hands over their details to get access, and you've got a lead.
Weak IT security will quietly cap your growth
A lot changed for businesses last year. The big one was the move to remote and hybrid work. Most owners had to figure it out on the fly, from getting employees up and running to keeping company data safe.
Smaller businesses had the hardest time, often short on resources, support, or know-how. They picked one priority and let the other slide, and data security usually lost. Growth dropped off the list entirely.
We're heading into Q3 2021 and many businesses are still behind on IT. Skipping network security and a real security strategy can hold you back and stall the growth you're after. Your data is exposed from the inside (hardware failure, data loss) and the outside (breaches, cybercriminals), and there's more to watch than that.
A few questions to ask yourself:
- Do your employees have strong endpoint security? Are their devices and network connections locked down?
- Are they trained on your security protocols? Do you have protocols in the first place?
- Can your network and IT scale with you, or are they stuck where they are?
That's a starting point. If you don't like your answers, close the gaps now and give your business the footing it needs going forward.
Where to start
If tech still feels out of reach, or you want to move to the cloud, automate part of the business, or tighten your data security, bring in a managed services provider or a firm that does IT for a living. You don't have to figure any of this out alone, and that's especially true when you have questions or don't know the first step. The right partner can put you on track to hit your growth goals.