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Technology is moving at an incredible and almost overwhelming pace. Technology has the potential to disrupt industries and create real threats to existing businesses. To avoid becoming obsolete and left behind, entrepreneurs should have a strategy to aggressively embrace and use technology to their advantage.
The challenge is that there seems to be an endless stream of advice and recommendations for entrepreneurs on how to leverage these cutting-edge technologies, but very little explains specifically what entrepreneurs should do to implement these tools. Here are some practical ways entrepreneurs can start embracing new technologies today.
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1. Stay up to date on new technologies and trends
Part of the reason many small business owners have difficulty implementing new technologies is because they don’t take the time to truly understand what these technologies do, how they work, and what trends are emerging in the tech industry. As a business leader, it’s important to start consuming information about emerging technologies on a regular basis. This can be as simple as committing to reading an article about technology every day or attending technology conferences focused on your industry.
If you’re not tech savvy, that’s totally fine. You can also ask someone on your team to take responsibility for researching and recommending ways you can incorporate technology into your business.
2. Implement standard solutions first
Too many small business owners and entrepreneurs shy away from innovative solutions because they have the misconception that advanced technology is only available to large companies that have billions of dollars to invest in research and development. This might have been true 20 years ago. Today, there are numerous affordable and free technology solutions available to small business owners.
While the opportunity exists to create custom technology tools and platforms, small business owners should always look to off-the-shelf solutions first. Not only can you deploy them faster, but they have undergone extensive testing and are often backed by a team of technical experts to support your business.
3. Leverage generative AI
Generative AI is a technology that leverages artificial intelligence to create visual and language-based outputs such as text, music, images, and even entire conversations. Companies like ChatGPT have revolutionized this space and brought this technology to the masses.
Small business owners who are new to generative AI should focus on two key areas: content creation and customer interaction. AI can easily create content for your blogs, marketing materials, and email campaigns instead of having to put someone on your team through the painstaking creative process. Additionally, generative AI can simplify and automate how you interact with your customers through tools like chatbots or automatic email responses.
Related: Small Business Owners: Don’t Run From Technology – Embrace It. Here are 5 strategies for success.
4. Simplify processes and tools with automation
One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs is the limited number of resources working alone or with extremely small teams. There are only a certain number of hours in the day to get all the work done. Technology can help streamline your workflow, allowing you and your team to do more through automation.
The good news is that you likely have access to a number of automations within your existing tools. For example, your CMS might have built-in automations that your team can leverage without implementing new systems.
When implementing automation, it’s important to quell employees’ fears that their jobs will be eliminated. While this may be true in some cases, as a business owner, you can leverage automation to free up your team’s time to work on more valuable tasks like creating a new product offering or building face-to-face relationships with your customers .
5. Focus on data and intelligent analytics
Data analytics is another area where technology offers huge benefits. Tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) can help small businesses leverage data quickly and efficiently to identify new opportunities and trends to better understand their customers, what products and services need improvement, and what is happening in the market.
Business owners should start by evaluating their data collection process. If you don’t have a good process for collecting data about your customers, their purchasing habits and preferences, analytical tools will be useless. Fortunately, many of the tools used by companies today collect data; you just need to know where to find and access this information.
Once a good data collection process is in place, companies can leverage tools like Domo or Google Analytics to interpret the data and highlight opportunities.
6. Personalize customer interactions
Consumers no longer want to be treated like a number. Instead, they want experiences that are personalized, unique and built around their needs, preferences and interests. This is where small businesses still have a small advantage over large corporations.
Small businesses should focus on leveraging technology to provide a personalized experience to each of their customers. For example, email marketing tools can segment your contact list to allow you to reach different audiences with different messages. You can take it a step further by offering personalized advice and information based on their past purchases and behaviors.
New technologies create unique experiences and ways to interact with your brand. It is up to each business owner to determine how they wish to implement technology into their business. We are at a pivotal moment where technology adoption can differentiate your business and create unprecedented opportunities.
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