How to Grow Your Small Business to the Next Level
Small business owners saw personal computing as a blessing when it first became a reality 30 something years ago. Computer software could handle jobs that owners lacked the time or skills to do or the financial means to outsource. Small firms could gain confidence and professionalism by improving their basic skills in typing, filing, bookkeeping, and marketing.
However, it’s impossible to deny that the old software wasn’t nearly as robust as what’s available today.
Fast forward to now, when pretty much everyone has at least some basic computer skills. That’s a great starting point, but a mobile app for business today doesn’t even necessarily require a strong technological understanding. Mobile apps demonstrate computing at its most human. With a gentle learning curve and lower cost of entry, it’s no wonder small businesses are increasingly turning away from the old-school to the latest tech. Hence, app developers for startups are acquiring new skills to keep up with the growing technology landscape.
There are so many tools available, here is a list of what I think are some of the best and easiest to kick-off for small businesses.
- Finance & Accounting – QuickBooks, Freshbooks
- Communication – Slack, Google Hangouts
- Time Management – Deputy, RescueTime
- Marketing – Hootsuite, MailChimp
Mobiles have changed the landscape of technology for small businesses. It isn’t just that a mobile app for business is easy and affordable to use, in fact, applications built for the web, smartphones, and tablets are far superior to more traditional offerings. They’re designed not just to simplify operating, but with features aimed toward actually growing your business. Apps can help you reach your customers in more ways than once.
Whether you’re a freelancer wasting time on social media and manually sending invoices, or a restaurant that’s scheduling employees on a whiteboard while marketing with paper menus in mailboxes, you could be doing a lot more with your business.
Growing your small business with app development
There is no denying that technology is the best way of bringing people together. In a business world, every marketer seeks ways that can accomplish three basic targets – boost sales, build a reliable customer base and enhance efficiency levels.
As everything is getting digitized, most of the companies either have a mobile app strategy in place or are working on one. Besides, many startups have adopted this digital business strategy already, compared to the traditional enterprises. So, if you are running a small-scale business and still don’t develop an app, you are missing some incredible business opportunities.
Let’s face it. Scaling your business is hard. It takes considerable effort. In the beginning, it means wearing different hats. It means dealing with sales and marketing. It means understanding taxes and corporate compliance. It involves having to interact with customers on a daily basis and if you’re a business running on a remote model then keeping employees in the loop is also an added daily task.
Everyone is using a mobile app for business, irrespective of where they stand in their entrepreneurial journey. Building a mobile app is not just for the big conglomerates, the small to medium-sized businesses are catching up pretty quickly! The situation today is such that the customers of every niche and strata have come to expect a mobile app for just about any product or service they need. Building an app and including it in the growth strategy for your business makes sense, no matter which niche your business belongs to.
How can mobile applications help you grow your small business?
- New sale generation
- Enhanced customer retention
- Increased operational efficiency
- Reduction in operational costs
- Earn through the app stores
- Build on-demand marketplace
- Easy-to-access content
- Boost shopping frequency
Mobile usage has seemingly taken over our lives. People in the United States spend 5 hours per day on their mobile devices, 92% of which is spent on mobile apps, while just 8% is on web browsers.
This means that having a successful mobile strategy will require more than just a mobile-friendly website. Businesses are recognizing this and taking action as a result. In fact, 42% of small businesses already have a mobile app. An additional 30% of small business owners plan to build an app in the future. By successfully launching a mobile app for business, you can still have an advantage over your competitors as an early adapter.
Some common misconceptions about mobile app development are that they take too long to build and they are very expensive. That’s not always true. Traditional development isn’t always the best option. You will need to hire customer-centric app developers for startups to cut down app development costs and time to hit the market. App development framework allows you to build an app with a close focus on quality as well as customer satisfaction.
