5 Types of Tools Entrepreneurs Can Use to Innovate Their Business Through Technology

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5 Types of Tools Entrepreneurs Can Use to Innovate Their Business Through Technology

Since the invention of the internet, businesses have consistently adopted digital solutions. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic showed that even in the year 2022, many businesses were unprepared to undertake a digital-first approach and faced steep challenges. Digitization is the need of the hour for all businesses across industries and niches. Not only does it streamline day-to-day operations, but significantly reduces costs and increases productivity. For entrepreneurs trying to find the best innovative tools for their business, this article by Mobile PC Clinic will explore all the best options.

1. Time Management Tools

These types of tools come in many types, the most commonly used are project management tools, using which businesses can manage all their projects from a single dashboard. Additionally, it makes it simple for managers to assign tasks to employees and track their progress. List-making apps are another good example. As the name suggests, these apps help individuals plan their day, resulting in minimum wastage of time and high productivity.

In addition, time management tools provide the following benefits:

• Create Accurate Quotes: Mapping projects will provide a clear idea regarding completion time and manpower, resulting in the creation of accurate financial estimates.

• Accurate Billing: Time management tools help freelancers and business owners accurately track the time taken for completion and bill clients accordingly.

• Reviewing Team Performance: Project management tools provide the option of creating on-demand reports, which can be used to review team performance over the short and long term. These reports can also be shared with employees to help them understand areas of improvement and provide guidance on how to schedule their day better.

Asana, Click Up, Active Collab, and Proof Hub are some of the best options to consider.

2. Cloud Storage Tools

As reported by the Web Tribunal, 94% of companies already use cloud storage solutions for their business. Such high adoption rate points to the importance of the cloud for any business in the current market. Storing data on the cloud provides various benefits such as:

• Any Time Access: Data stored on the cloud can be accessed anytime, anywhere, as long as you have a good internet connection. Those who want files on their physical devices always have the option to download the data.

• Ease of Sharing: Data, whether documents, images, videos, or reports can instantly be shared with various stakeholders such as investors, employees, customers, etc.

• Reduces Storage Costs: Printing and storing paperwork is an inefficient practice for a business as it can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a year. In comparison, storage on the cloud is cheap and can always be expanded as per need. Most applications have special offers for businesses, further reducing its cost.

Dropbox and Google Drive are two of the best cloud storage solutions currently on the market.

3. Digital Accounting Tools

According to BusinessTech, implementing accounting software for your business will result in a strong hold over company finances leading to good money decisions and a positive cash flow.

Manually managing business accounts is a tedious process prone to human error. Instead of committing hours of your time daily balancing the books, delegate the task to accounting software. This software can complete complex calculations within seconds and streamline business finances. In addition to creating financial statements such as a balance sheet, you can use the software for calculating important business metrics such as inventory turnover ratio, gross margin ratio, cash flow to debt ratio, and more. Entrepreneurs planning to grow their businesses can utilize this software to create financial projects, which can be used to secure funding from banks or private investors.

4. Payroll Management Tools

Whether your business has employed a small team or a large one, as the owner you’re responsible for practicing good payroll practices. This involves tracking work hours, making necessary withholdings, managing tax forms, and much more. Managing all these duties is certainly not a one-person job, especially if you’re doing it alone. The best way to streamline your payroll is to use payroll management software that provides the following features:

• Time-tracking: Employees can be provided access to the software for logging work hours. These can then be used to calculate salaries, deductions, and withholdings.

• Leave Requests: Similarly, the software can be used to submit and approve leave requests. This will provide clarity regarding the number of available staff based on which schedules can be created.

• Tax Filings Come tax season, you won’t need to go through the hassle of calculating how much you owe to the IRS, as the software will do it for you in just a few clicks. You can be sure the numbers are accurate and in line with local or federal level requirements.

5. Business Process Management Tools

As we see in this article, every small business currently requires more than one digital tool to manage all important projects. While using specialized tools is good as they provide the functionalities needed to manage the select aspect of the business, such as marketing or accounting, they end up creating the problem of having no interoperability.

Each of these individual tools cannot communicate with each other, which leads to delays in sharing information and collaboration issues among teams. But, this issue can be solved by using a business process management (BPM) tool, which serves as a bridge between all software used by the business. Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, BPM creates an end-to-end process map of all business processes and highlights areas of inefficiencies.

This map can then be used to promptly solve bottlenecks and seamlessly share data across teams in the organization. The other benefits of using BPM include:

• Increased Efficiency: Accurate resource allocation for projects will keep costs in check and help the business achieve positive cash flow.

• Transparency of Data: Using a BPM, employees can access any data they need in an instant, resulting in transparency among teams and accurate goal setting.

• Reduced Chances of Human Error: Given that the software will scan business processes in real-time, any bottlenecks will be highlighted in an instant. Once the problem is isolated, it can promptly be fixed without the loss of resources or project delays.

There are many digital tools available on the market that businesses can use to streamline processes, improve productivity, and reduce costs. Additionally, using these tools helps to create a competitive advantage over businesses that don’t. While all types of tools are important, when implementing, prioritize accounting, cloud storage, and business process management software.