Some form of technology is used in every single company or organisation around the globe, for business owners, employers and employees, to scale out their operations. Not only are these different technologies used in work, but also in everyday life and we are sure you’ve probably used one without even realising the full extent of what it does because that’s exactly what has happened to us at KKC.
As a team, we sat down and listed the technologies that we use to run Kiki Kirby Coaching + Consultancy and were surprised to find out that we actually use at over 13 different ones. It’s not until they are all out on the paper in front of you, that you realise how many systems and apps that you rely on to make a business work. Dubsado, Kartra, Paypal, Zoom and Hubspot are just a few of the technologies that we use, some of which are very well known and others are more sector-specific.
To make it easier for you to understand, here is a list of 5 typical technologies that we use and what we use them for:
Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) – it allows you to store your contacts or leads, to create a database of consumers or customers. From this, you could send automated emails such as newsletters or highlight and identify the correct people to sell to. (Dubsado, Hubspot, Kartra)
Email – a tool that the majority of us use and have access to, to communicate with each other. It’s easily accessible and you can send them free of charge from all around the world when you are connected to the internet. (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo)
Financial apps – These are used for accounting, which covers all of your earnings and expenditures. You also use these to track payments, set up payment of staff and reimburse company expenses. (Pay Pall, Xero)
Creativity – These types of technologies are used to create things such as social media content, banners, quotes, business cards etc. They are usually free to try but most either have in-application purchases or monthly membership costs to enhance your experience. (Photoshop, Canva)
Content writing/storage –You typically use these tools to plan your social media, articles and any external communication, which is common across a lot of businesses. This is where you can write all of your content, notes, ideas etc in one place and store it to use in the future. (Evernote, iPhone notes, Google docs, Word)
These technologies contribute to building a path, to cater to the needs of a growing business however what we sometimes fail to remember, is that these technologies are ever-changing and so are the needs of our business. This could mean that we aren’t using a particular technology to its fullest capacity or that the technology has become outdated, for the purpose in which we originally started using it.
Some of these technologies can be quite costly and some of them are free however, regardless of the initial purchase price, these technologies all cost us somehow. You might be questioning my previous sentence, because you and I both know that some technologies are in fact free but despite this, you still have to spend out on training your staff, the maintenance costs of the technology its self or upgrading the purchase/membership at some point to have better access – most of which has a price tag attached to it.
So why do we use them?
To save money – Probably one of the most important reasons why we use these technologies is to save money. Even though there might be a cost to use it in the first place, these technologies allow us to save money in the long run. For example, we are able to create our own communication materials instead of charging ours externally for it.
Communication – We can use these technologies to communicate with not only each other but also our consumers/customers. Communication can be in many forms such as email, sales, marketing which all require different tools, techniques and technologies.
Speed – These technologies allow us to speed up a lot of different aspects of our business including social media posting, mass-marking emails, payments etc. It requires less human resource and increases the output – so it’s a no brainer.
To track attendance/timing – Using technology to track our time is essential to running a business as it means we can work out costs per project, how effective our staff are, what our daily schedule looks like, who is doing what at certain times etc. It’s the backbone of most businesses and it is important that this is an essential part.
Quality – We want our customers/consumers to have the highest quality so whether that’s having a personalised email, high-quality webinar, updated website information or seamless payment process, we use technology to ensure this is right. Again, I’m sure many other businesses feel this way and this is a huge contributing factor to using technology within business.
After we compiled our list of over 13 different technologies we thought it was best to narrow some of these down and just have KKC operating from fewer. You know the saying ‘less is more’ – well less really is more!
It became apparent that some of the technologies that we were paying for, were providing the same services as others that were free. Other apps that we had downloaded and used were no longer necessary and finally big CRM systems were now all competing with each other to provide the same service. Therefore, by emailing the different providers and working out which ones were best for us, we have not only saved ourselves money but we have managed to minimise our overall list to under 10.
I wanted to write this article to not only be transparent and honest about the real-life day-to-day of running a business but also in the hope that it creates that lightbulb moment for someone else and either saves them money, increases their efficiency or simply makes there day that little bit better.
So finally, I’d like you to ask yourself these questions:
1. Does the technology you’re using still serve its purpose? (Think about why you invested in it in the first place)
2. What are the benefits of it? (Write a list – this may spur you to write the negatives too and this is an important step!)
3. Can any other technologies do this? (Think hard about this one, do your research and email your providers to answer your burning questions, just like we did)