Every business owner wants to grow to some degree. You may or may not have dreams of changing the world with your entrepreneurship, but even if you happily run a modest local business and mostly want to keep things the same, you need to be able to grow to keep up with new challenges, industry shifts, and higher costs of living. Technology can be a great tool in achieving that growth.

Planning

Although every business needs to grow to survive, growth without a plan can be fatal. You need to know why you're growing your company and what your goals are as well as how you will measure your progress toward those goals and how tech fits into it all. You can’t just implement the basics of automation and hope for the best. Know what you hope to achieve with your strategy so that you can review it periodically and see if it's working. This means having specific and concrete metrics. Planning also helps ensure that you have the staff and other resources to meet demand as you ramp up.

Better Marketing

While traditional marketing methods still form a sizable chunk of many companies' strategies, increasing your digital marketing can be an important element of your growth. It may seem old-fashioned, but this still starts with a great website. Too many companies have a page that is outdated or that doesn't provide the basic information that people need to see, such as contact information and pricing. One example is restaurants that do not provide even a sample menu. Another common error is companies that have only a presence on one or more social media sites but no website. This can mean their information is inaccessible to anyone who doesn't use the platform.

Depending on the type of business and the digital marketing strategy, the website may play a significant role or it might simply serve as a one-stop place for potential customers or clients to get basic, necessary information. Beyond this, companies should consider social media, e-newsletters and other options. You can use a number of different platforms and approaches, but they should all be part of a cohesive plan.

Use Software Wisely

The right software can improve your customer service, make you more efficient and help you cut costs, but the key word there is right. There's plenty out there that will only do an adequate job or that will be all wrong for your objectives. For this reason, it's important to do your research. The right software really can make an enormous difference. This is the case with something like telematics, which is essentially where telecommunications meet information technology.

Contemporary telematics is powered by an upsurge in the ability of telecommunications networks to transfer data in real time. Fleet management is one area where telematics can be an especially powerful tool, allowing managers to track many different elements of vehicle performance, safety, and costs. The right software can also improve project management, automate tasks, analyze data and perform many other functions that can help fuel growth.

Embrace Mobile Technology

The use of mobile devices continues to rise, and all businesses need to have their online presence optimized for mobile. Beyond this, however, they need to explore other ways that mobile can be useful for them as well. Apps can improve customer experiences and can also provide valuable data about customer behavior, allowing companies to tweak their approach or inventory in response. Embracing mobile technology is also about the workforce.

When a company is open to hiring remote workers, their talent pool expands exponentially. Businesses can save money when they don't have to provide a physical space for employees to work in, and staff that can work from anywhere may be more efficient and productive if they don't have to come into the office to accomplish tasks. Some companies may also want to look into cloud solutions. These are not right for every type of business, but they can increase efficiency and collaboration when they are.