Digital entrepreneuring for starters

Research by Deloitte shows that smaller enterprises that are digitally active have much better prospects. They realise a higher turnover per employee and are likely to create new jobs quicker as well. Still, four out of five starters don’t use all available digital possibilities. Those that do have a serious competitive advantage. If you’re thinking of starting your own business it’s best to take a closer look at the following aspects because it may be worthwhile to digitalise them to a more or lesser extent.

Project Management

Any business must keep its finger on the pulse of current projects. This is particularly true of starters. Especially if you’re working on several projects at the same time or with large teams. Email is not always the best solution. There are handy project management tools available that enable you to monitor every project, regardless of its stage of completion.

Discover more on: Trello

Communication

Communication between employees can be difficult if not everyone is using the same tools, especially when your team starts to grow. There are communication tools allowing you to chat and exchange files in an orderly fashion on a single platform.

Discover more on: Slack

Website

In the 21st century a website is not simply fun to have. On the contrary, it’s about as important as a front door in a physical shop. A website identifies you as a legitimate company. You can use your website to spread news and information about yourself. Don’t go off half-cocked spending thousands of euros on a state-of-the-art website because there are easier online programs you can use to develop a nice, mobile-friendly website in no time.

Discover more on: Squarespace

Website Performance Monitoring

Your website may look flashy but in order to maximise your online potential you need to know how people use your site (or how they don’t). Do they bounce? This means that they click away from your homepage immediately. What pages do they click on? Is there any data that can give you a boost?

Discover more on: Chartbeat

Customer Relations Management

There are no more excuses not to build good customer relationships. Leads that are lost, a lack of follow-up... These CRM systems will keep you from developing ‘ghost customers’. You know exactly how long it’s been since you had contact with loyal customers and who visited your website so you can do everything in your power to keep spoiling that customer.

Discover more on: Hubspot

Email marketing

Newsletters sent by email are the most popular and most effective digital marketing tools available.

Discover more on: Mailchimp

Social Media Management

Apart from a website your company also needs to have a presence on social media channels. Posting messages, reacting to messages from others and replying to customer feedback: all of these show your commitment as an active entrepreneur. There’s no need to waste hours per day updating your social media because a digital tool will let you do this from a single practical dashboard.

Discover more on: Hootsuite

Data storage

It’s best to save important documents in a safe location. This is the case in the physical world and it also applies to your virtual work environment. With file sharing apps you can both store and archive documents or share them safely with others.

Discover more on: Dropbox

Virtual Private Network

Cyber attacks also target small businesses so it’s best to protect yourself against phishing, hackers and other cyber criminals. With a VPN you can establish a safe network connection, even on public Wi-Fi networks in coffee shops and the like.

Discover more on: NordVPN

Video Conferencing Software

If you want to consult remotely with customers, employees or team members you need a platform you can log into safely with several people. Free tools are often limited in terms of the number of participants but subject to a small paying upgrade, large groups of people can hold meetings for hours.

Discover more on: Join.me

Don’t miss your digital start. We wish you the best of luck!