Recently, I upgraded my Samsung watch to the latest version. My old one has been with me since 2013. It's fair to say I got my money's worth! My old watch still works today and has no problem. While I was getting used my new watch, I found so many features that were useful that weren't available on my old watch.
- Better screen
- Better fitting wrist band
- More options for watch faces (I like the ones I can put family photos with info like steps, date, etc.)
- Sleep analysis
- Snore detection (I am a snorer)
- Vibration alerts during navigation
- And more to come
Some of these features I sought out. While others, the navigation alerts, I found accidentally. Actually, it was the navigation alerts that made me think, “Wow, that’s pretty useful.” A little bit of background, I have my navigation set to “Alerts Only”, not each turn or exit. I do this so it doesn’t interrupt the audio books I listen to! This made the vibration alerts from my watch work perfectly and it was something I didn’t even think of. I probably could have used my old watch for another 2 years without issues, but now I’ve tasted it on the other side.
That’s when it dawned on me, business owners can take their personal beliefs into the business too. One of the things prospective clients often say to me is, “Well if it’s not broken why fix it?” While I do agree to a certain extent, given the fact I used a smart watch for almost 10 years, at some point, you want to see what changes can benefit your business. There are 3 major functions of business you should be focused on improving:
- Sales/Marketing
- Attracting and gaining new customers
- Operations
- Delivering the product/service
- Finance
- Driving profit through AP/AR, internal IT, and budgeting
While most of our clients don’t may not need the latest and greatest, you want to see if new technology/services benefit one or more of these major functions. This will help drive growth, efficiency, and profitability. A good, growth-oriented entrepreneur will always look for ways to grow and improve. And a good, honest technology consultant should be able to provide real technology solutions to solve real problems.
So where do you start? Only you can answer this question. There is no shortage of things to fix in every business. You must look internally and see where your business is seriously lacking. For small businesses, that’s typically sales/marketing. Their operations and finance parts of the business work great but they can’t seem to get people to buy. Or maybe your sales/marketing and finance parts of the business are strong but your operations is constantly overworked, dropping the ball, and under delivering on the product or service. Maybe your sales/marketing and operations are strong, but your finance is weak, so you take in $10 million but pay out $10 million. Or worse, take in $10 million and pay out $10.2 million.
While I can’t help you decide on where you need to improve, I can help with the next step. Technology, if employed correctly, can help all parts of business. But it’s a double-edged sword. It can work against you if implemented correctly. That’s where having the right technology partner comes in. We created this guide specifically to arm Kansas City business owners with the knowledge and questions they need to choose their next technology partner. To access this report, fill in the form on the right on the page!
