Technology Levels the Playing Field Between Big and Small Businesses

Not long ago, there was a vast chasm between what Big Business and smaller, Mom-and-Pop startups could accomplish. Why? The biggest differentiation was the size of their budgets. Big Biz could easily afford to put themselves in front of potential customers on a grand scale. They could afford splashy advertising with celebrity endorsements in big name national and international magazines. They could afford to regularly market on radio and television.

Small business budgets were limited mostly to local publications, direct mail, flyers and bill boards. Most could not even afford a marketing specialist, so the owner took on that task. Small businesses were often relegated to only local marketplaces for customers. Finally, technology came on the scene, opening doors that had not been available before. Clearly, technology levels the playing field for small businesses.

Computer Technology Improves Productivity and Levels the Playing Field

Computers themselves came first on the technology scene. They replaced typewriters and improved word processors, adding machines and older versions of calculators. Software was developed to increase productivity levels on areas as basic as correspondence, financial records and customer contact management.

Tasks that previously had to be done over and over again could be turned into templates, saved for easy editing and duplication. Think: Microsoft Office and Corel Office software. Both were quite expensive at the time, but worth the investment. My first office suite allowed me to push back the need to hire an assistant for a few years. Cost back then was around $6,000.00 – a deal for buying through my husband’s company – for my first venture into the world of computers and technology. Productivity went sky high for basic administrative tasks like word processing, mailing lists and spread sheets of all types. Dirty, smelly carbon paper and mimeographed copies became obsolete with the birth of office printers.

Internet Technology Levels the Playing Field Even More

If that wasn’t enough, along came the Internet. The entire world of business exploded with so thousands of new options. Even the smallest businesses gained access to greater numbers of potential customers. Exposure to wider geographic markets became simple. Marketing and advertising costs plummeted. Small businesses were finally able to compete with Big Biz. The business playing field had become much more level.

Today, there are so many –free or low cost – technological options available to small businesses. New technologies that can help small businesses grow into high six- or seven-figure income levels in no time at all. Any small business not grabbing these opportunities to increase their productivity and profitability is missing out. What small business doesn’t want to find and reach broader customer audiences and markets? Not me! You may well be leaving significant amounts of money on the table that should be making your company more profitable. NOW is the time to start using technological opportunities to grow your small business.

Tech Program and Apps I Use to Improve Productivity and Profitability

Here are some of the tech opportunities I have latched onto for building my own business. Try them out. Most are free, but none are what I would consider unreasonable when it comes to cost. Any small business should be able to afford the investment in their success.

Image Editors: I use several different photo editing platforms to edit images for my blog and social media posts. Fotor and Canva both allow for the creation of eye-catching images for blog, social media and newsletter posts. Skitch works great to make notes and highlight areas on screen capture images. You can easily add notes, shapes and other clarifying markups to a page pulled from the Internet. All of these applications are free, but offer premium levels at reasonable costs. The saying that “A picture is worth a thousand words” still holds true today. You need to get readers’ attention first, and the right images can do just that.

Marketing: Social Media Rules! Social media is probably the biggest bulldozer that levels the playing field for marketing a small business. I develop relationships with potential customers using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. ( Connect with me!) Where would I be without social media dashboards like Hootsuite and Buffer? We can pre-schedule posts to most of the social media platforms I mentioned before. All have a free version and paid premium versions. So far, the free versions still meet my needs.

Website and Blog Platforms: Using WordPress.org as the platform for my Maurer Consulting Group website and ‘Designing Strategies’ blog lets me own and host my own online presence. I can do most updates myself when I need them fast. WordPress offers a vast array of plug-in applications to make any website look and operate at a highly professional level.

Miscellaneous online apps: I find Evernote, an online application, a gift with great value in organizing research for my writing and speaking. I think of it as my online organizer. I can create notes in a number of formats: formatted text, a full webpage, webpage excerpts, photographs, voice memos, or handwritten notes. What’s not to like?

I use both Dropbox and Google Photos (formerly Picasa) applications to help me keep the clutter out of my computer system. Nothing eats up computer disk space like images. With both Dropbox and Google Photos, I can store loads of images in the Cloud, and access them from anywhere when I need them.

‘Cloud’ Technology Levels the Playing Field for Small Businesses

‘In the Cloud’ is the newest technological advance to level the business playing field even more. With the advent of smart phones and tablets, mobile access is now available to everything on the Internet, The Cloud has become the new ‘place to be’. Software companies have begun moving everything necessary to run a small business out of our office computers and into Cyberspace.

The biggest benefit: everything is accessible from anywhere at any time. Sorry to say, I have yet to completely make that leap, but I clearly see that it is The Thing coming to all of our futures – very soon.

Office Suite Software: I still haven’t moved my word processing, databases and other basic office task software to the Cloud. But, I do use Google Drive, with its free basic office suite software for situations where I have team situations and file sharing needs. My co-author, Katie Weeks, and I used Google Drive to collaborate on our book: Interior Design in Practice: Case Studies of Successful Business Models. It was helpful to have all of our work in one location, accessible by both of us, from anywhere, 24/7.

Financial Management: I have been a QuickBooks financial management software user since I started my design business back in the 1980’s. I couldn’t find anything easier to use as a non-financial person. Their basic financial software has grown and expanded over the years, adding more and more features to make small business bookkeeping pretty simple.

Now, in addition to basic bookkeeping, users can prepare and send estimates and invoices to customers, track taxes, log billable hours and track mileage to name a few. The ability to create and send estimates and invoices ramps up the speed at which business happens and money changes hands. What’s not to like?

Safety and Security: With all of the Cyber Hacking going on these days, it is insane not to back up important marketing pieces like your website or blog. Even saving your administrative and operational data off your computer is wise. So long as you have your data safely stored, all you would need is a new computer. Reload your data and you are back in business.

What used to only affect big businesses with deep pockets and huge amounts of stored customer data now threatens even small businesses. Even small businesses and non-profits are finding themselves open to ransom demands.

Hackers access these websites and encrypt all of the company data. “IF” the company wants to regain access to their intellectual property and customer data, they have to pay the hackers a ransom. I upload my website backups to UpdraftPlus (a WordPress plug-in) regularly so that I can access it anytime, anywhere. If my back ups are done to my hard drive and the computer crashes, I’ll be OK. If hackers take over my site, I have all of the data backed up ‘In the Cloud’.

Conclusion

Technology levels the playing field between small businesses and larger firms with bigger budgets. With so many free or reasonably priced software applications, small businesses can now extend their reach. They can reach further when it comes to customers, marketing and sales. Basic office administration tasks are faster and easier to complete. Check out some of these programs and applications that can help your business run faster and more efficiently. They can help you increase productivity and profits, and make your small business operate more professionally. Start operating your small business on a more level playing field than ever before.