FOUR Ways To Improve Your Business At The Click Of A Button
18th January 20234) Ditch The Excel Spreadsheets
Not that there’s anything wrong with Excel, don’t get me wrong. It’s a very useful tool in the right situation. But it doesn’t scale. If you’re a one-man-band there’s nothing wrong with keeping a list of all your jobs in an Excel spreadsheet.
But what happens when you add a few more members of staff?
Perhaps Dave decides to help out and update a few of his jobs, so he copies the spreadsheet, makes a few changes, then copies it back. In-between, John opens the spreadsheet and adds a few jobs of his own. Whoops – Dave just overwrote all those changes!
A few years ago I knew a company who had created a great Excel spreadsheet for producing quotes. Every January they would increase their prices, and here lies the problem… Employees were always forgetting to download the updated template with the new prices, instead copying similar quotes from the previous year and sending them out – complete with last year’s prices!
I wonder how much they lost in revenue over the years because of this?
Recommendation: Replace all your spreadsheets with a custom designed software portal that replicates your process, but allows greater control by admin. Everyone is now able to work together without overwriting each other’s work, and admins can ensure everyone is using the same pricing model.
3) Control SaaS spend and ensure all current software is being utilised fully to ensure you are not paying for obsolete programmes
Many businesses have moved away from desktop applications towards cloud based, SaaS systems. This is a great first step towards digitalisation, but are you getting your money’s worth?
Many SaaS products have a pricing system that consists of tiers. This often results in users needing to pay for a higher tier just to get one key feature they need, while gaining several others that you will never use. What’s more, if you have a large number of users, the monthly fee can soon add up! Ask yourself, is this really worth the cost?
Recommendation: With custom software, you can build in only the features you need, creating a much simpler system with far less clutter. There are no ongoing user or usage fees once set up meaning that you can grow as quickly as you need without worrying about increasing licencing costs.
Furthermore, thanks to our new partnership with BlueStone Leasing, you can spread the cost of your system over three to five years meaning that the monthly cost can work much out cheaper than what you would pay for SaaS products.
2) Integrate Systems To Achieve Greater Automation
A user has seen your advert, clicked on your website, and filled out the enquiry form. What happens now? In most cases that submission ends up in someone’s inbox, only to then be re-typed into a CRM system to keep track of the enquiry.
After a few sales calls, they decide to place an order. Someone now needs to enter all the relevant details into a separate Project Management System.
Finally, accounts need to take the details off the Project Management System, and add it into their accounting system in order to create an invoice and send it to the client.
How much time does all of this re-entering take? Thankfully, there is a far more efficient solution…
Recommendation: Make sure your systems are linked. Once an order is placed, the CRM system should be able to create an entry in the Project Management System, which should in turn be able to auto generate invoices and create these in the accounting software.
Sounds good right? However, sometimes products from different vendors don’t always play nicely together.
This is where we come in. With bespoke software, we can reduce the number of vendors involved, and ensure every part of the system is designed to work seamlessly with the next. Imagine one single system, one logon, to manage every aspect of your business. It’s perfectly achievable and will free up your staff to work on more productive tasks rather than spending time unnecessarily copying data between systems.
1) Undertake a FREE software review
The best advice we can give is to speak to an expert and have them look over your processes.
Get in touch with us to and we will undertake a free software review of your business. Our team will review the software products you are using, and crucially, how much you are paying for them, and see if there are a better, more efficient and cost-effective way of working.
Whether that’s switching to a different SaaS product that contains better integration options at a more affordable cost, or switching to a complete bespoke system designed to fit your needs exactly.
Our report will set out how you can save your employees time, making your business far more efficient.
CLICK HERE to contact us for your free review today.
