Starting a business means investing in a checklist full of essential tech, and that list can be a long one. From the essentials such as an online business account to those things that you might not know you needed, you can end up having a long list.
If you’re not careful you can find yourself spending more on tech than the office you’re working in or the staff you’ve hired and kitted out with it. Worst of all, you’ll never find a use for many of these items and they’ll just gather dust until you move office.
If you’re not careful you can find yourself spending more on tech than the office you’re working in or the staff you’ve hired and kitted out with it. Worst of all, you’ll never find a use for many of these items and they’ll just gather dust until you move office.
Sometimes though, a particular piece of tech can completely transform your business. It may not stand out in the market, but it will make your working day much more efficient and remove the need for more useless junk around the office or cluttering your desktop. One of the first things you should do is think about starting an llc. Let’s take a look at a few pieces of tech your business may not have realized it needed, but should absolutely invest in. One of the best options is to check out email finder by name which will save you lots of time and we all know time equals money.
Fuel cards
It’s not just fleet managers and delivery drivers who benefit from fuel cards.
Fuel monitoring has become an essential part of running a modern business, whether you’re eco-conscious or not. Fuel cards make paying at pumps across the country easier, allowing you to process all fuel payments with one single card.
This doesn’t just streamline things for your drivers or colleagues out on business trips, it allows your admin and accounts team to process expenses faster, accumulating all fuel costs into one easy-to-understand document. For the green-minded business owners, this clear receipt outlines exactly how much you’re spending on fuel each month, allowing you to implement better measures to curb the extent of your carob footprint.
Fuel cards are available for a range of vehicle and fuel types from suppliers such as iCompario, so there’s no reason for a business that does an exceptional amount of driving to not invest in one. Through iCompario fuel cards, you can save yourself time and money, whatever you drive.
Communication platform
Communication is of enormous importance for businesses of all sizes.
Without proper communication, how can you expect your business to run smoothly? Communication goes beyond just being to hold meetings. It’s about clear messaging that gets across the importance, scale, and requirements of a task. Sometimes to achieve that you can’t rely on shouts across the office, you need a specialist online communication platform. For your important documents to be transmitted safely, using an online fax solution would bring security and convenience in handling information and proper communication.
Platforms such as Slack have rendered mass emails pointless. Those emails with cc lists longer than the message were rarely read and taken in properly anyway. By investing in a real instant messaging communication system you allow your team to stay in touch, give them constant access to a history of tasks and communication around them and can monitor how a project is developing in real-time.
You can’t run a business effectively without having an idea of how your operations are progressing and making sure everyone is working towards the same goal. A messaging platform helps you sort out internal comms and keep everyone in the loop.
Cloud storage
Do you still have all your important company files stored on a shelf somewhere? Or when you need to show someone a file do you have to email it over to them? Is there a USB stick going around the office with all the important company branding guidelines? If any of these are true of your business, you need to invest in cloud storage.
Much like with communication, there’s no room in modern business for outdated storage methods. They only hold your business back from progressing. Cloud storage packages allow you to seamlessly share and access files across the business, creating a virtual database for your company. When working on creative, large scale projects this type of access is essential, and giving staff the freedom to access them alone saves significant amounts of time.
No more asking people where they put a client file or dragging people away from their desk to view the latest iteration of a report. They can easily log into the cloud and view whatever files you need them to have access too. Best of all, it’s a highly secure system and much less likely to be damaged by a spilled cup of
Password storage
Think about how many passwords your business realistically uses.
Passwords can be a pain to remember. You don’t want to use the same one for everything, but did you add a 1 or a 2 to the end of that one you just set up for the business banking account? As your business grows you’ll be making many more new accounts for tools and services you invest in or require. You can’t let these important passwords get away from you or take up significant time in your day. Let software sort that for you.
Tools like LastPass allow businesses to securely store all of their passwords behind one master password, making the process of logging into accounts for everything from Photoshop to Hootsuite simple and instantaneous. It’s both a productivity tool and security one, giving you peace of mind that your employee’s time is being spent effectively and there is a strong layer of security to your processes and sensitive information.
You may think you have all the tech you could ever need. However, to properly scale your business you need to find tech that both streamlines your processes and creates new opportunities. All of these suggestions do just that without upending how you do business.