You may know of About.com, a database/website of helpful articles on almost everything. About.com runs an extensive section for entrepreneurs, which is a great resource for tools, tips and stories about everything involved with entrepreneurship. Included are articles about becoming an entrepreneur, drawing customers, marketing, as well as discussions, and examples of new and upcoming businesses.
In a recent discussion, small businesses contributed to the story “How Entrepreneurs Are Using Technology to Reduce Cost & Increase Profits.” Six company reps, including one from OfficeDrop, contributed to the discussion, resulting in a valuable list of ways web and other technology can be employed to benefit your small business. Below we outline the best tips we found in the discussion along with some quotes from contributors.
- Gaining customers through Internet and Social Media:
“E-mail newsletters, blog, Twitter, & Facebook have all allowed us to maximize our exposure and reach new audiences.”
- Using Google Apps:
“Google Contacts allows you to share your contact list with fellow employees.”
- Operating in the cloud:
“Moving your existing network to a cloud-based model is easy to do, and the cost is usually recovered within the first year.”
- Using Smartphones:
“Smartphones allow us to connect with each other and valuable customer data.”
In our contribution, which you can read here, we outline the technology we use to increase productivity and maintain low costs.
One of the technologies we use is our own service, employing a OfficeDrop online account to manage bills and other important documents that need to be organized and easily accessed later. In addition, we use other cloud-based SaaS providers for things like contractor billing, email marketing, and document sharing. See our post about SaaS marketing tools for small business for more details.
We hope that the About.com’s page for entrepreneurs can be helpful to you, and that your business can benefit from some of the technology discussed.
