An Experiment in
Business Resilience
2020
2020 was a pivotal year in human history. Pandemics are typically viewed as an equalizer since they affect everyone, but the COVID-19 pandemic had the opposite effect. It created a great disparity between people of various classes and socio-economic groups.
The pandemic of 2020 did cause major disruptions for business owners and corporations of all sizes. As a small business owner with less than 5 employees, I remember that time and know firsthand the challenges of trying to grow a digital business while juggling multiple responsibilities.
We don’t know when the next major disruption will occur, but 2020 taught me as well as many of my peers that preparation is the most valuable asset we can have in times of uncertainty.
In this article, I want to share with you three ways you can prepare and improve digital business growth using productivity tools.
- Streamline communication and collaboration
As a small business owner, itโs crucial that all team members are on the same page and can easily communicate and collaborate on projects. This is where productivity tools like Slack, Teams and Pumble come into play. These are just a few examples of communication platforms that allows for real-time messaging, file sharing, and collaboration. These tools enable you to stay connected with your staff and customers no matter where they are.
When it comes to collaboration, Trello, Planner, Asana and Monday are project management tools to keep your team on track to meet project deadlines and customer needs. All of these tools are easy to use and are free or inexpensive.
By using these productivity tools, my team and I have been able to streamline our communication and collaboration, which has led to increased productivity and efficiency. During the pandemic, we were able to quickly address any issues that arose and stay organized and meet our deadlines. This has ultimately helped us to grow our digital business by allowing us to focus on what matters โ delivering great work to our clients.
The second way to improve digital business growth with productivity tools is by automating repetitive tasks. As a small business owner, itโs easy to get bogged down with repetitive administrative tasks that take up valuable time. This is where productivity tools like Zapier and IFTTT can come in handy.
Zapier is a platform that allows you to automate workflows by connecting your favorite apps and services. For example, you can create a โzapโ that automatically sends a follow-up email to new leads in your CRM system, saving you time and ensuring that no potential opportunities fall through the cracks. IFTTT, on the other hand, stands for โIf This, Then Thatโ and allows you to create custom automated tasks, or applets, that can help you streamline your digital business processes.
By automating repetitive tasks, my team and I have been able to free up valuable time that we can now dedicate to more important aspects of our business. This has allowed us to focus on business growth initiatives and providing better service to our clients. By using productivity tools to automate tasks, weโve been able to scale our business and take on more clients without feeling overwhelmed.
The third way to improve digital business growth with productivity tools is by analyzing and optimizing your business processes. As a small business owner, itโs important to have a deep understanding of how your business operates and where you can make improvements. This is where productivity tools like Google Analytics and Microsoft Power BI come into play.
Google Analytics is a web analytics service that allows you to track and analyze website traffic, user behavior, and more. Itโs a great tool for understanding how your audience interacts with your website and where you can make improvements to drive more conversions. Microsoft Power BI, on the other hand, is a business analytics tool that allows you to visualize and share insights from your data.
By using these productivity tools, my team and I have been able to gain valuable insights into our business processes and make data-driven decisions to optimize our operations. Weโre able to see where our website traffic is coming from, which social media channels are driving the most engagement, and where we can make improvements to drive more conversions. By analyzing and optimizing our business processes, weโve been able to improve our digital business growth and drive more revenue.
In conclusion, as a small business owner with less than 5 employees, I can attest to the power of productivity tools in improving digital business growth. By streamlining communication and collaboration, automating repetitive tasks, and analyzing and optimizing business processes, my team and I have been able to scale our business and take on more clients without feeling overwhelmed. I highly encourage you to explore how productivity tools can help improve your digital business growth and take your business to the next level.
