Whether you own a small business or you’re just trying to tighten the family budget, different digital tools can help maximize your time and energy. It’s not always easy – or financially viable – to do a complete tech makeover. But with a critical eye towards improving efficiency, productivity and cost utilization, a few “smart” solutions can go a long way in terms of boosting your savings each month. Read on for a few tips on where to start.
Embracing Business Automation
At the helm of a small operation, you’re tasked with finding a way to go the extra mile without spending extra money. Consider the benefits of different digital tactics – don’t waste time and resources trying to manage social media, marketing and customer engagement across different platforms using traditional methods. Software automation can reap great rewards; try automated email marketing or automated customer recommendations to start. Take advantage of systems that post to social media, respond to emails and assist customers with basic questions and concerns. You’ll never be able to replace an entire staff, but you can automate more menial business tasks to free up valuable employee time to devote elsewhere.
Fabulous (Mostly Free) Digital Solutions
“Free” is a penny-pinchers favorite four-letter word. By doing a little online digging, you can find a full suite of digital productivity tools that don’t cost a thing. Cloud-based services, for a nominal fee, can host part or all of your IT needs and eliminate the expense of purchasing and maintaining hardware equipment.
Open-source software – not to be confused with freeware, which is typically licensed and costs money – enables you to download a variety of products to help you run your business, manage and edit family photos, send out invoices and plan your weekly dinners. VLC Media Player, GIMP and LibreOffice are just a few examples of excellent open-source platforms.
Digital Assistants
In the past couple years, AI-driven virtual assistants and chat bots have gained greater prominence across both business and consumer markets. This summer Microsoft and Amazon announced a collaboration between their two voice platforms, indicating some pretty serious movement in the “voice as interface” space. Whether you’re arranging business meetings or organizing a family get-together, hands-free assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana can offer a vast assortment of voice-activated “skills” and aid. Operated by ever-improving natural language processing algorithms, these tools allow users to speak directly to Internet’s listening ear. If you need to order more office supplies or want to set up a daily work calendar, Alexa can put those plans into motion. “She” can also act as a digital banking assistant, a yoga coach, a DJ and more, with new skills constantly in development.
IoT Efficiencies
There are many avenues to reduce wasted spending. Trimming your energy use at home and in the office is an easy way to see smaller utility bills. Known collectively as the “Internet of Things,” smart “things” communicate via the Internet to share data about just how much power they’re pulling from the grid. As an energy management tool, smart thermostats remain the most popular with consumers. They help cut heating and cooling costs by as much as 10% on average. An Internet-enabled thermostat reads your activity to adjust the temperature settings in your home, but you can also set timers for periods when you know you’ll be away. Combining this technology with “smart lights” and other automated devices to find further savings in any season.
On-the-Go Payments
If you want to get ahead financially, the best way to do so is to add some additional cash flow to your monthly budget. With more digital banking and payment options available, small business owners can push paying customers through the checkout lane with greater efficiency than ever before. These come in the form of next-gen payment platforms, particularly mobile apps. Apple and Android Pay already allow customers to pay via smartphone, eliminating the need to carry physical payment methods such as cash, check or even credit cards around. As a business owner, you’ll spend less on traditional POS systems and gain the advantage of being able to accept payments from a broader customer base.
