Starting a business requires a lot of focus and attention. From finding funding to hiring employees, investing in R&D to setting up payroll, there’s an endless list of things to tend to.
This over-saturation of responsibilities can make it easy to ignore potential tech solutions while you focus on the tasks at hand. But the truth is, if you’re willing to invest in tech, it can not only improve the health of your business — it can reduce your workload, too.
The important thing is targeting your tech efforts. You don’t want to waste your time on things that aren’t helpful. Instead, consider things like these four tech options to enhance your startup in the here and now.
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Find Tech-Powered Benefits
Benefits can be an intimidating word for entrepreneurs. The idea of offering a solid set of comprehensive benefits to your employees can be challenging — especially in a stage when your business may be struggling to pay its bills, let alone turn a profit.
Managing benefits can also be overwhelming, at least that’s been the case in the past. However, nowadays, tech can come to the rescue.
For instance, if you’re thinking of offering retirement benefits, there are tech options to help with a small business 401k. These can streamline the setup process. They walk you through picking out a plan, especially if you’re looking for something specific to startups or smaller companies.
From there, a software solution can help with plan management on a per-employee basis. Onboarding new workers, filing necessary documentation with the government, and other red tape activities are all taken care of in a hands-off manner.
The modern employee landscape is becoming more competitive all the time. If you want to put together a good benefits package to attract better talent to your startup, look for the right tech to make it happen.
Build Remote Infrastructure
The modern work world was already evolving in the direction of remote work before the pandemic started. Then the stay-at-home and quarantine orders accelerated the transformation within a matter of months.
Now, business owners great and small are facing remote and hybrid work scenarios. The good news is that tech has already laid the foundation to make this possible even for the smallest of organizations.
However, as a business owner, it’s wise to set up your remote infrastructure tech ahead of time. That way you’ll be ready the first time an employee comes on board who wants to work from home. There are several areas of tech that can make the remote work setup as painless as possible, such as.
- A good workflow platform to stay organized online.
- Effective communication channels (from text to audio and video).
- Data sharing options that help your team work on things at the same time.
- Scheduling and calendar apps to keep track of meetings.
By setting up remote technology, you create a work environment that is attractive for your employees. This can help you recruit the best candidates — and even save some money on office space expenses, to boot.
Reign in Your Data
Data is the heart and soul of the modern business environment. If you don’t have a firm grasp of your data, you’re going to have lots of missed opportunities — opportunities that your competition will likely be capitalizing on.
Good data analytics doesn’t just involve collecting data. This is a good start, but it too often leads to large data lakes (collections of data) that sit unused. This ends up costing you money to store without actually doing you any favors.
Instead, invest in technology that doesn’t just capture data but analyzes it, as well. Data observability is a critical aspect of good data management.
The idea of observing your data doesn’t just mean looking at the numbers and drawing abstract takeaways. It’s a structured, mathematically sound approach to your data that yields real-world results. It correlates events that take place across your data, considers your data pipelines, finds flaws and fixes them, and much more.
The ultimate goal of data observability is to create a healthy, reliable company infrastructure for your data. By getting software that can accelerate this process, you can rest assured that you’re getting the most out of one of your fledgling enterprise’s greatest assets.
Start a Branded Podcast
Marketing is all online at this point. This makes tech an essential part of your marketing investments. This starts with common things like gathering data, utilizing social media, and building a website.
But there’s another aspect of tech that you should tap into, as well: podcasting.
Branded podcasting has become one of the premier ways to market a brand. You can use a branded podcast to offer a simple, user-friendly form of content for anyone interested in your organization. Setting up a podcast for your company can also help you build brand awareness and establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
The good news is that it doesn’t take much to get a good branded podcast up and running. Start by defining goals and conducting a little competitor research.
Then create a podcasting strategy, get some basic tech equipment, and hit the record button. If you’re concerned about back-end cleanup, there are plenty of tech-friendly podcasting companies out there that can help you create a polished final product.
There are many ways to use tech in a small business, even in the startup phase when money is tight. Rather than ignoring tech until you have more cash to work with, take your options seriously right from the get-go.
You may find that software solutions for things like podcasting, data observability, benefits packages, and remote work are more than worth your while.
The important thing is that you make the effort to gauge your new company’s needs. Once you’ve defined those shortcomings, there’s a near-certain guarantee that there will be some form of tech to help you meet them.
