Here are a few simple ways to take the fear out of technology and use it to your advantage.
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You are a business owner but aren’t in the tech industry, so why would you need to focus
heavily on adapting technology in your daily workflow? Some people may say you don’t need to.
However, I’m here to put a bug in your head and prove how technology is critical to any
business across any vertical. And that includes you!
We know technology can be intimidating. It also can be complex, and there are seemingly
endless options. So, is it worth the cost, integration headaches and question if you are picking
the right ones? Yes! Here are my top three reasons to focus on technology, and I’ll explain how
to integrate it into your business:
1. Not applying technology means you could face a technology deficit
Let’s face it, not having a line item in your books for technology and software subscriptions
means your company will hit a point where you can’t grow any further. Whether your marketing
team will be missing major data points for essential customer acquisition or your efficiencies will
eventually put you behind, your competition could pass you by (we’ll get to this one more in the
next point). No matter the roadblock you will hit, the point is your growth will have to slow down
or halt. You don’t want to wait until that point to use technology once the train has left the station
without you!
2. Results are everything
No matter your business or vertical, your most valuable resource is your team. How can you
empower your team to work smarter, not harder, and ultimately produce the best results? The
answer is with the right technology! Even if your staff has been set in their ways and doesn’t
want to learn a new program, you must pick the right operational systems and offer proper
training. A minor setback in the learning curve will mean a huge uptick in productivity.
I once ran into a mid-sized company that was technologically behind due to not prioritizing this
aspect of its business. This inadequacy caused marketing and sales to lag compared to its
competitors. I likened their technological powers and abilities to taking a knife to a gunfight.
If a company can increase its operational automation in the marketing space, that would allow it
to understand its target customer and truly understand how to sell to its market in an efficient
and results-driven way.
A data warehouse and congruent CRM would allow this business to properly segment and hit
goals for its best marketing demographic more accurately. Identifying, understanding and
addressing low-hanging fruit, such as abandoned shopping cart funnels, is crucial.
When you are focused on results, technology almost always needs to be integrated to increase
efficiencies and drive sales in the long run. And it’s always easier and cheaper to integrate the
right technology early to ensure your team is trained and using it along the way!
Related: How Technology Is Shortening the Road to Fame
3. You’re increasing your footprint of liabilities without the right technology
I’ve seen every range of technology integration, from the tech-savvy millennial CEO who relies
on data and analytics for every business decision to the companies that don’t integrate it at all
and still use a pen and paper within every significant department. However, if you are closer to
the latter, you are potentially putting your team at a huge safety risk. If you have only minimal or
wrong technology, you could be putting your customers, reputation and finances at risk too!
I’ve even seen clients using only a single source for major bookkeeping and documentation, like
Excel. One wrong move or fat-fingered mistake can change your calculations completely. Or
worse, delete everything! If that isn’t risky, I don’t know what is.
Technology can feel overwhelming, which is often why we hear people stay away from adding it
to their daily workflow. However, there are simple ways to make that change. Start with finding a
company to give you a technical audit — which is often cheaper than you might expect. Take
their advice and then apply it in chunks.
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