Do you feel as though your business has been coasting at the same level for some time now? A lot of businesses experience this at some point in their growth. This is a feeling that’s felt by many SMBs, with over 75% of small business owners believing their businesses have stagnated.
Scaling your business in an upward trajectory requires a talented workforce, a knowledge of business, and most importantly, the right online tools.
Image SourceWith so many online tools to use, how do you know which ones to choose? Why invest in online tools in the first place? This guide will share all of the advantages that come with using online tools for businesses. We’ll also dive into the popular tools used by many businesses to scale up the company.
Any business faces tough competition with other companies, so having the right tools to leverage business growth is essential in 2023.
Table of contents:
- Advantages of online tools for businesses
- 5 tools to use for scaling up your business in 2023
- 1. Enterprise resourcing planning for eCommerce.
- 2. Testgorilla for recruitment and interview questions.
- 3. Travelperk to improve business travel booking.
- 4. Slack for collaborative communication.
- 5. Hubspot for marketing automation.
- Useful tips to help scale your business
Advantages of online tools for businesses
Why bother with online tools for your business? Isn’t it better to just do it all manually? Well, nowadays, online tools play an integral part in a company’s success and growth in the market.
There are many reasons why an online tool helps your business flourish and in many ways is superior to the average human being.
It saves a lot of time
Many businesses will use online tools as a way to streamline their business. Automation has become a beloved practice for those companies who need to level up their productivity but have limited resources to hand.
Businesses are adapting to automation with a McKinsey survey finding two-thirds of respondents are at least piloting the automation of business processes in one or more ways.
Improves communication
Communication within the business is essential, particularly when working in remote or hybrid working environments. There are plenty of collaborative tools and platforms that businesses use to help employees stay on the same page when working on the same task or project.
With better communication in place, it mitigates the risk of problems occurring and delays in timelines.
Cuts down resource costs
For a business, the number of resources that are available will vary from one organization to another. For SMBs, those resources may be limited. The use of online tools has helped make it more accessible for these companies to grow and scale up without needing to spend a fortune.
5 tools to use for scaling up your business in 2023
With an abundance of online tools out there, you will easily find yourself getting lost in this sea of potential. However, there are certain tools that are great for a variety of business industries and some are a little more niche.
Here are five tools that you could use to scale up your business this year and beyond.
1. Enterprise resourcing planning for eCommerce.
There’s been considerable growth in eCommerce businesses over the past few years. eCommerce sales are projected to reach a whopping $7.4 trillion by 2025, which means you want to scale up your own online business quickly to take advantage of the market.
Enterprise Resource Planning for eCommerce or ERP for short helps combine all of the processes of your business into one integrated system. Remember – streamlining is highly effective for all areas and industries to utilize.
Image SourceFrom warehouse management to IT services, it’s all managed under one roof. The use of ERP software helps eCommerce businesses to tighten the ship and unify all areas into one central hub.
With eCommerce being an online operation, it’s important to have a software system like this one in place to keep everything running harmoniously. It’s an investment that many eCommerce companies should be making if they haven’t already implemented it.
2. Testgorilla for recruitment and interview questions.
Your business needs to be hiring the right people for the organization. Part of that requires knowledge of what the company needs in order to thrive. Once that’s known, it’s important to process applicants carefully and to ensure your interview process is detailed.
Image SourceThe questions you ask in an interview will provide you with all of the information needed to make the best decision on which candidate is best. Interview questions need to be specific to the role you’re advertising to. While some questions may be broader, others need to be specific.
For example, if you’re hiring for a graphic-related role, then the right graphic design interview questions are critical to sifting out the good and the bad candidates. The people you welcome into the company are all influential in scaling up your business. You don’t want to waste the company’s time by selecting the wrong candidates.
3. TravelPerk to improve business travel booking.
Since the pandemic, booking business travel has slowly bounced back, despite a few setbacks along the way. Even with hybrid and remote working business travel is still required and in-person connections are still desired by many.
When you’re looking at how to book business travel, those responsible should take advantage of online tools designed specifically for booking travel.
A platform like TravelPerk is one that’s highly effective for scaling up your business and becoming more efficient in booking travel affordably. The online tool’s initiative functions help save money and retain data that are useful for future bookings made.
For any and all business employees that travel on behalf of the company, it makes it easier to navigate and get the help needed when problems occur. From accessing itineraries to processing expenses, it’s all done from one easy-to-use platform.
4. Slack for collaborative communication.
If collaboration is lacking – Slack picks up…the slack. Puns aside, when scaling up your business, collaboration is a helpful skill set to have within the business. From teams working with one another to employees working with outsourced services, an online collaboration tool for communication is key.
Image SourceThe benefit of this online tool is that like many others, it has a helpful mobile application for employees to access the channel from wherever and on any device. As long as they have a WIFI connection, they’re able to link up with their peers through this tool.
It’s quicker for responses than using email and is helpful for communication across time zones when calling might not be appropriate.
5. Hubspot for marketing automation.
As a business, marketing is an important part of scaling a business. Well-executed marketing campaigns make all the difference in thrusting your company into the spotlight.
Image SourceHubspot has become one of the most popular online tools for marketing automation and provides insight into marketing efforts being made.
With Hubspot, it acts as an insightful analytics platform for monitoring the performance of your content. Not only that but some of its other popular features include:
- Creation of blog content that your audience wants to see
- Build your search authority with best practices in SEO
- Ad tracking and management of advertising campaigns
- Social media management to stay connected to followers
Useful tips to help scale your business
In general, there are plenty of opportunities to help scale your business in an upward trajectory. Alongside these online tools, here are some other ways to boost the success and growth of your business.
Set realistic goals
Unrealistic goals are going to fail because you may be lacking the resources, the knowledge or it’s not manageable in the deadline you’ve set. Realistic goals are not only more achievable but they make for a more motivating prospect when employees know it’s within their reach.
Take advantage of a growth marketing agency
Extra hands lighten the load and when it comes to scaling up a business, it’s all hands on deck. If you’ve got a bit of extra funding available to go towards investing in the business, then a growth marketing agency is worth consideration.
Some of the best growth marketing agencies help businesses like yours to scale up with a data-driven approach. Using the pirate metrics, they focus on:
- Acquisition
- Activation
- Retention
- Referral
- Revenue
The AARRR method is a great way of speeding up the process when scaling your business in comparison to other traditional marketing agencies.
Offer training to all staff
Training is useful for all staff members who are willing to grow within their roles. Not only does it benefit the staff member but it also adds extra skills and knowledge to the company as a whole.
Regardless of their position or role in the company, training is helpful for arming your staff with the information needed to thrive in a competitive environment.
Scale your business in 2023 with online tools
If you’re looking to scale your business this year, online tools are definitely worth the investment. These tools don’t have to cost the world either, with many costing as little as a cup of coffee per month.
Make 2023 the year to scale up your business with the help and support of online tools for use in all areas of the organization.
Author Bio: Natalie Redman (LinkedIn)
Natalie is a freelance writer with two years of experience in web page copywriting for businesses across many industries. She’s also an owner of two blog websites and a Youtube content creator.
