From finding the right employees
to carrying out administrative tasks, startups and small businesses can
leverage technology to secure a competitive edge.
Contributed By:
Nancy Harris
Source: Entrepreneur
Businesses
of all sizes are under constant pressure to keep pace with innovation -- and
ideally, to stay ahead of its trajectory. But many business owners
struggle to understand their own pain points and manage operational issues.
This negatively affects both current and future business growth.
A
recent survey conducted by our company, Sage, found
the top challenges for small and
medium-sized businesses included domestic competition, new
economic policies and regulations, hiring the right talent and finding time to
focus on business growth. The people and products needed to overcome these
hurdles exist today. Small- and medium-sized businesses just need to know where
to start.
Build trust and an authentic company culture during the hiring
process.
The
most important thing a small business can do is cultivate a core mission and
stay true to those values. Leaders must be comfortable inspiring other
people to embrace that core mission. Business owners need to be transparent and
open with colleagues about where they want to take the company and how
employees will play an important role. It all starts with the initial
hiring process.
Our
survey found that nearly 60 percent of respondents from small- and
medium-sized businesses plan to hire anywhere from two to five positions this
year. The biggest challenge: hiring the right people.
Indeed,
hiring goes beyond the job description. It’s about finding people who
fit the company's needs and believe in the company’s broader
mission. To build trust, business leaders must be honest about the state
of the company, where they see the company heading, how they want to get
there and which skill sets are needed to round out the team during the
early talent-recruitment process.
Adapt operations to a mobile-first workforce.
Projections
from analyst firm IDC suggest increased adoption of mobile technology in the workplace will
accompany big data and cloud migration as central short-term technology
investments for business around the world. This includes small businesses
right here in North America. Our own survey findings back that up. In fact, 62
percent of respondents told Sage that access to digital skills (including the
ability to operate mobile tech) would have the most impact on their
businesses through the next year.
There’s
no doubt the use of common, trusted apps in a work context can
significantly reduce overhead costs and make businesses more efficient.
Consequently, small businesses should embrace staff members' use of mobile
devices and apps for business operations. This might include conducting
training, recording timesheets or facilitating basic team communication.
Business owners should explore relevant, business-focused mobile and web
applications that support the activity of mobile-first employees. These
workers already use popular apps such as Spotify, Uber and Venmo in their
personal lives.
Tap into automation to enable growth and innovation.
More
than 50 percent of small-business owners who took part in the Sage
survey believed artificial intelligence will be a big trend in 2017. Nearly
half -- 46 percent -- felt comfortable with AI and bots running elements
of their business or professional lives. Surprisingly, the survey also
found 41 percent of small-business leaders would be skeptical of
artificial intelligence’s ability to accurately help with their administrative
tasks, even though the majority of them spent two or more hours per
day on admin work.
Embracing
automation can reduce overhead costs and free up small-business owners to focus
on areas that matter most, such as perfecting their craft or spending time with
customers. As the auditing firm KPMG points
out, automating repetitive
administrative tasks has the potential to reduce operational costs by as much
as 75 percent.
Small-business
owners are keenly aware of the time they devote to such tasks and the
availability of new AI solutions to reduce this strain. But a gap exists
between awareness and trust. While the onus is on AI builders and developers to
create trustworthy technology, small-business owners must also understand and
embrace AI’s true value, just as many of their competitors already have
done.
Looking to 2018 and beyond.
As
entrepreneurs head into 2018, they need to connect business goals to current
operational approach. Leaders must think critically about how technologies such
as AI and mobile enhancements can help them navigate a new regulatory
landscape, cut costs, focus on business growth opportunities and hire the right
people. As our recent survey confirmed, small-business owners should recruit strong talent and turn to
technology with strong potential to decrease the time
spent on administrative tasks.
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