The vast technological change that we have witnessed over recent decades has reshaped and redefined every element of our world. From hobbies to entire industries, little has been left unchanged by the swift advance of new technology. Each new development, each small step, and each gigantic leap into the future, fresh opportunities are created for and presented to us all in innovative things, in fresh and exciting new ways.
Business especially can benefit from the new methods of doing things brought by advance technology. There are now more opportunities than there has ever been for anyone with a passion or an idea to put that into practice and become an entrepreneur. The limits of convention and the dominance of pre-existing giants have been swept away by the digital renaissance which gives each of us the chance to do something bigger with our lives.
New avenues, new tools, and new information make it simple and easy from you to start from nothing and find a space in crowded markets. Traditional barriers have been broken down, left in tatters by the white heat of the digital revolution, and it is now possible for you to make your passion a business. But you need to make sure you’ve got the right technology and the right strategy to make your startup a success. Here are some handy hints as to the sort of technology which will help you go far in business.
Consultant
Clueless on tech? Well, you’re not in this all alone. There are people out there who can help you embrace the positives of technology, and overcome its challenges, to make the digital revolution. These people are local technology consultants.
Their job is to help you on the tech side of your company, to advise you where and when to invest in new technology to further your business and harness the opportunities of advanced methods.
They can also help you with tech-related issues (of which you may have many, because, honestly, who doesn’t hate technology sometimes?) and are an invaluable part of your business’ core team alongside your lawyer and accountant, and will be instrumental in growing your business and making it fit for the modern age.
Hiring a technology consultant will be critical for your business’ long term success, and will play a key role in ensuring you get the next step (right below) just right…
Website and Social Media
The internet and the advancement in telecommunication has been the single most significant leap forward since the invention of the railways, joining together people across the world like never before, and providing all of us access to everything that has ever happened at the tap of the keyboard and the click of a mouse.
New choices and chances and entrepreneurs to get their message out, find clients, or find help and advice now abound. Correct and full use of the internet will get any business off the ground and allow you to harness fully the opportunities of the modern age.
It is easy and essential to have a high quality website on which to promote your business. This sells your product and message to lots of interested people very quickly and without copious amounts of effort. Producing a high quality website will help your business attract clients effectively. Meanwhile, not having a website, or having a poor quality one will lead to distrust and a loss of interest
Buying a website domain and putting together a website yourself, or hiring a technology consultant, is easy in the modern age. There are also companies that will host websites and provide lots of easy to use tools to put it all together.
Having a presence on social media presence can also be an incredibly effective way to get your name out there. The use of a Facebook page and twitter account, as well as online adverts, allows you to tailor your message to target a certain demographic group. You can use this to very efficiently spread events, sales, offers, and other things to a large range of people very quickly and show the face behind the company.
Franchising
This article thus far has been focusing on advice for those with a unique idea which they wish to set up their own company to focus on. That isn’t, however, the only route to managing your own business. If you want to become an entrepreneur and manage a small company, without the risk, you could consider becoming a franchisee.
A franchise is a huge company – often chains of restaurants – which allow smaller companies to run their branches under the name of the large business, providing a dramatic bonus to business for the smaller company, and, in return, the franchisee pays the parent company a share of the profits.
The adoption of new technology, and the opportunities it brings, as been notably slow in the franchise industry. In recent years, pioneering franchises have been reaping the benefits of early adoption, outstriping their outdated opponents.
Changes like fleet-management apps and innovative customer-loyalty programs are spreading, whilst the increased efficiency provided by cloud-based tools and new methods in training, i addition to streamlined back-end operations like customer retention and billing, are paying dividends to quick adopting pioneers.
If you want to run a branch, but don’t want the risk that comes with starting a fresh business, running a company as part of a franchise might be your way to entrepreneurialism. If that’s what you decide, then its important to bear in mind that the franchises that will be most successful tomorrow, will be those adopting new technology now – remember that and enter the world of franchising accordingly.
