Technology in Your Small Business:

How technology can propel and empower you and your team

“What new technology does is create new opportunities to do a job that customers want done”
– Tim O’Reilly

The secret is out – optimising the technology you use can save you time, stress and wine. Business owners have embraced technology and all of it’s magic to operate, bill and manage their clients, but for many, there is still a level of manual handling that makes their overall systems time-consuming and frustrating.

The Benefits of Systemisation

Simply put, systemisation equals more time for business owners

Operating a business is difficult, and by minimising the amount of time owners spend manually completing processes leaves more time for more clients and less time behind the desk.

There are 3 main factors of effective systemisation in any business. They are:
- Sustainability: Ensuring your business can run without heavily relying on its owners.
- Scalability: Allowing the business to grow organically without operations grinding to a halt.
- Saleability: Ensuring the business is attractive for a future buyer.

Your App Stack and Why It’s Important

An App Stack is a collection of applications (apps) and software that you use to run your business. Setting up your App Stack can be time consuming but investing time in choosing and educating yourself and your staff about each of your apps is crucial to their success.

Your App Stack is essential for scalability and growth in your business and can directly impact your profitability. Not only does it make jobs easier, but a working App Stack can also increase team efficiency and customer satisfaction.


Choosing the right apps for your App Stack

A quick Google search can be daunting when creating or changing your App Stack. There are a lot of options to choosing technology for your business – and finding the right fit for you and your employees is important.

Start with the problems that you are currently facing – what is making them problems? Are there apps that you have that you wish would talk to each other? Are you paying for apps that you are barely using?

Finding what apps are available, reviewing them and comparing them can suck up hours of your time that could be spent growing your business or looking after your customers – and in many cases, there are thousands of options to choose from.

The first place to begin is your industry. See our breakdown of the things to look for in each industry for a great App Stack.

Hospitality

Retail / Wholesale

Building / Construction

Tradies / Services

Professional Services
  • POS connecting to Xero
  • Online booking system
  • Voucher and giveaway tracking
  • Loyalty program
  • Customer marketing management
  • Contract tracing
  • Employee scheduling, timekeeping and payroll
  • Regular reporting
  • Online / Retail / B2B Stores
  • Purchasing from suppliers
  • Stock management
  • Barcode scanning
  • Manufacturing
  • Shipping integration
  • Customer marketing management
  • Service / support management
  • Loyalty / gift cards, credits, discounts
  • Quoting system
  • Job management
  • Project reporting
  • Capturing photo evidence and documents
  • Managing project variation
  • Health and safety
  • Managing retentions / deposits
 
  • Quoting / online booking system
  • Job allocation and management
  • On-site billing and payment variation
  • Deposits
  • Expense and time recording
  • Stock management
  • Health & safety
  • Photo evidence and documents
  • GPS tracking
  • Knowledge database
  • Marketing and prospect management
  • Quoting / estimating
  • Job / project management
  • Job allocation and management
  • Expense and time recording
  • Profitability and management reporting
  • Debtor management

5 Phases to Develop Your App Stack

When you have a list of what your business needs to operate, you can start looking at apps that will fit. This is where a specialist can really come in handy. Each app will have specific functions that they do and don’t do. To get the most out of each app, you must map out your needs. Some examples may be needing job management, linking proposals and financial management, or wanting something that will fit everything together.

The best way to map out your needs is with a full-proof process!

Step 1 – List and understand what you are looking for, where your gaps are and what you need.

Step 2 – Map out what you already have and what it is doing

Step 3 – Narrow down your options and find apps that will suit you personally

Step 4 – Train, test, trial and implement – this goes for your staff and you!

Step 5 – Review success and ensure you have support


** PRO TIP: When finding your new apps, make sure to make the most of demo and free trial offers. This can help you test out an app’s capabilities without the long-term commitment if it doesn’t work out.


What now?

Changing the way you run things can be scary; but know that changing your App Stack can lead to less time behind your desk and significant increases in productivity and performance.

Make a clear plan – don’t jump at those bright shiny objects, i.e., the latest new piece of tech you’ve heard about. Find and work with products that suit your business’s needs.

Need assistance developing your App Stack?

Download our FREE App Stack Worksheet to begin planning your processes!

Download NOW! Download NOW!