Today, when businesses talk about tools, they usually refer to conceptual tools; in other words, software. This is because these tools can make a huge difference in helping a small business grow.
Since the list of possibilities is overwhelming, let's confine ourselves to discuss the pros and cons of four popular tools that are commonly believed to progressively increase a company's growth over time.
1. Payment Processors.
Online transactions require merchants to handle multiple types of transactions. For this, they must appoint a third party to manage credit and debit card transaction associated with a diverse number of financial institutions. Additionally, since online businesses rarely just process money of a single currency but must be facile enough to convert from one currency to another, it's necessary for a merchant to work with a global payment processor.
Pros: It is easy for the customers to buy online, regardless of time and location, and it is highly profitable for merchants to offer this service. If merchants relied on an obsolete transaction process, like asking customers to mail personal checks or money orders before they ship out merchandise, they would lose a large number of customers because a large number prefer the convenience of using a credit or debit card to secure their merchandise. In short, payment processors make buying and selling online a streamlined and efficient process.
Cons: Merchants must be highly selective in choosing a reputable provider to protect their own business as well as to protect their customers. Consequently, they should only work with a service that can provide features like fraud prevention, top-level security, intelligent payment routing, and subscription billing.
2. Website Builders
Businesses that offer website building help people who are not tech savvy to create their own websites and blogs. Using drag-and-drop templates, users don't have to know coding or the multiple features that have to be considered when designing a website. These services allow anyone to create a fully customized website.
Pros: These website builders make it easy for anyone who desires a website, but can't afford to hire a website developer or don't want to take the time to learn the technical skills necessary to create a website.
Cons: While a website looks good, it has limited functionality compared to all the possibilities that a professionally designed website can offer. In other words, its functional, but not robust, and only superficially customizable.
3. Analytics software.
Analytics software can help a website owner gather essential information about the performance of their business. It helps them to use individual data to understand aggregate data. For instance, it can provide information about how much traffic the website receives, the demographics of the target audience, and the keywords they used to find the website.
Pros: An analytics program can provide a website owner with metrics that will help them improve their business. Without this feedback, it's difficult to understand how well or how poorly a website is performing. Without the ability to discern what's working and what's not working, a website owner would have to rely on guesswork to improve their business.
Cons: The main drawback to analytic programs is that they can become overwhelming for someone who is not educated in how to use them properly. In order to get the most value from this software, a sufficient level of knowledge and experience is necessary.
4. Outsourcing job sites for technical skills
A job site for freelance workers with different technical skills like graphics, video creation, web development, professional writing, etc, helps link up two different communities who would not otherwise find each other: employers and independent contract workers. Usually, the job site has an escrow and mediation system to make sure the integrity of the transactions.
Pros:This is a simple system that benefits entrepreneurs looking to temporarily hire people with high technical skills, say building an e-commerce website or designing customized software and technically skilled people who can't easily find project-based work on traditional job boards.
Cons: Entrepreneurs could end up working with someone who is not as good as their profile suggested and get a poor return on their investment. Meanwhile, for independent contractors, such sites can often pay far less than if they found their own clients because numerous other freelancers tend to make offers below-market value pricing.
The primary benefit of these four tools is that if used correctly they can help a small business overcome obstacles like limited time and manpower, a tight budget, and a high workload. However, as your business grows, you will want to use more specialized tools. For instance, if you are hosting a big event, you can benefit from using live interactive broadcasting.
