How The Small Business Can Remain Competitive

Quick response, convenience, flexibility and excellent customer service, are all key elements used to describe a successful small business in the current competitive market. However, fulfilling the requirements for each of these needed elements, without the use of special applications or computer devices would be time-consuming, difficult and sometimes even impossible.

While there are thousands of business tools on the market, each addressing a certain business need, the following are three basic tools even the smallest of businesses should have.

Wireless Storage

As a small-business owner, backing up your data may be a challenge. You never know whether your main PC or laptop will break down, get lost or just stop functioning for some reason. Even when this kind of mishap doesn’t happen, you still want to keep sensitive data like customer credit card numbers away from prying eyes; and a wireless external drive of some sort can help you do this.

It’s wireless storage functionality allows you to transfer data from your smartphone, tablet PC, laptop or desktop wirelessly; making the process so much simpler than that required of the typical wired external drive.

Secure VPN

If you or an employee work remotely from public Wi-fi access points (hotel, cafe, library), even part of the time, you should consider some type of secure VPN. When you use free open public WiFi connections, such as those available at hotels, libraries, cafes or restaurants; you leave the data on your computer and your business network open to security infiltrations.

While you may not personally consider this a problem, if you keep important financial data or visit confidential websites like your bank, then you put this information at risk of being stolen. A VPN offers a secure encryption over the internet allowing you to surf securely from any location.

Kashflow

Cash is probably the most important aspect of any business and if you don’t know what your business cashflow is from one day to the next, then your career as a business owner can be very short lived. Applications like Kashflow can help you control your business finances; an easy to understand application that lets you easily send invoices, payment reminders, track bills and income tax reports.

Producteev

If you are like most small business owners, keeping track of time, projects and tasks can quickly become an obstacle. That’s why a task management app like Producteev is so important. This app syncs with your smartphone, laptop, computer and tablet, so you’ll always know what tasks need your attention.

You’ll find many more devices and apps that can help you offer a more efficient and complete service, and while the above apps, devices and services, are basic needed business tools, they may not be exactly what you are looking for. To better determine the type of tool you want, you should analyze the tasks you want help with, then conduct a search for devices or apps that can help perform that task more efficiently.