It’s an ongoing challenge for any business: Deciding if the technologies and tools that worked for your company several years ago are still the best options as it grows, transitions or even just strives to compete in a changing market.

Maybe the accounting software and collaboration tool that made sense in your start-up operation isn’t scalable as you expand. Excel may have met your needs for years, but now your business expenses, reporting and analytics are more complex. Perhaps you have a growing number of manual processes that are hampering your efficiency or your business goals have changed in the face of a dynamic business market.

The need to maximize technology is the same for all businesses, small or large, start-ups, evolving enterprises and even non-profit organizations. It can be prompted by the launch of a new product or service, or an overhaul of your business operating model.

For example, when one of our team member’s small, family-run brewery grew and evolved into a restaurant, she needed to evaluate the technology and tools that would support that new direction. Like most smaller businesses, the brewery kept things simple with minimal technology—point-of-sale software through its bank, basic QuickBooks and email to keep in touch with its handful of employees. Adding a restaurant brought a major shift in technology, including restaurant-specific point-of-sale software; HR tools to schedule and communicate with an expanded workforce; and automated cash flow and invoice processing. It is clear that all businesses need to consistently evolve their technology to meet their goals.

As with the brewery transition, it takes recognizing changing needs, researching options and optimizing your technology platforms to scale with your business. As a small business owner it’s not always easy to know where to start, so we’ve compiled five steps that our team has successfully used to set up the technologies and processes for a wide range of businesses.

1. Define business goals and processes

  • Always start with defining the business goals. Are they to grow revenue, introduce a new product or service, increase customer satisfaction, or increase productivity of the team? Clear business goals provide the north star for how to build the operational processes and technology platforms that will support the organization.
  • Outline the core business functions involved (e.g., sales, marketing, finance, operations).
  • Map out work flows and identify inefficiencies or bottlenecks in the core processes.

2. Select small business technology tools and software

  • Focus on scalable solutions in each category to grow with the business.
    • Financial tools
    • Collaboration tools
    • Sales/CRM, Marketing, Web, Social Media management
    • Business operations tools for inventory, project management., point-of-sale, HR, Legal, etc. (depending on the type of business)
  • Use tools tailored to the business size and industry (e.g., QuickBooks for accounting, HubSpot for CRM, monday.com for project management, etc.).

3. Standardize, automate and document procedures while centralizing information

  • Develop clear standard operating procedures (SOPs) for essential tasks.
  • Create templates for recurring tasks (e.g., proposals, invoices).
  • Automate routine tasks like payment processing, email campaigns, and inventory updates using small business platform tools or no-code, low code tools like Zapier for custom features or workflows.
  • Use platforms like Notion or Confluence to store and share documentation.
  • Use secure cloud-based solutions (e.g., Sharepoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox) for document sharing and easy access.
  • Centralize core data and implement basic dashboards to track key business metrics and progress across the organization.

4. Manage the change

  • Engage key stakeholders along the way and ensure they are part of the process.
  • Provide training for new systems and tools to ensure adoption.
  • Assign ownership for maintaining and updating processes.

5. Continuously refine and optimize

  • Collect feedback from employees and clients to identify areas for improvement.
  • Regularly review systems for relevance and efficiency as the business evolves.

As you tackle the process of maximizing your tools and technology, there are also some pitfalls to avoid:

  • Spending too much on tools that you don’t really need. Be careful not to overbuy, whether that means buying too many licenses or buying a tool that’s much more powerful than you need.
  • Avoid unnecessary complexity that can result from leveraging tools that are too complicated for your business needs.
  • Choose tools that cover multiple functionalities and work together instead of multiple point solutions that don’t talk to each other. Too many disjointed solutions make information harder to manage and can lead to fragmented data and a higher instance of errors.
  • Once you identify prospective tools, compare functionality, cost and ease of use between them to see which ones are the best fit and will scale with your business.

Finding the right tools and technologies for your business can be a daunting process. We can help, regardless of what stage you are at. Whether your business needs overall help optimizing processes, wants to automate repetitive tasks, or is looking for better ways to organize your operations as you scale, we would be glad to chat about the best approach and how to get there.

We want companies to focus on their core business and on doing what they need to get done, not spending a lot of time on small business technology decisions. We have the expertise to identify the right strategies and solutions, put them in place and make sure you stay ahead in whatever line of business you are in.

— Jennifer Oliveira, Sr. Consultant; and Kathi Gorgas, Director of Operations

Find more information on our services or contact us to discuss your business tech needs.