Whether you’re a merchant, service provider, or another type of entrepreneur, there are always ways to improve your odds against the competition. Often, this means rethinking your technology integrations and streamlining outdated processes.
From your relationships with financial institutions to your incorporation of virtual private server (VPS) technology, by rethinking how you go about your business day, you can make major leaps and bounds in both visibility and client retention. Here’s what you need to know to get started.
Streamline your accounting processes
Do you still issue a paper check to each employee? Are you potentially too reliant on your traditional payroll processing platform? If so, you’re not alone. A lot of entrepreneurs still rely on a more outdated payroll model that often takes up valuable time, resources, and finances. Luckily, you can rethink your payroll operating system without cutting ties with existing financial institutions. Often, this is done through check processing companies that are helping refine the payroll industry.
Unlike other payroll providers that work with echeck payment, check processing companies make it easier to navigate online payments through a payment gateway with an existing money-back guarantee in the event of bad or fraudulent checks.
They often offer ACH and direct deposit services and help with check payments, printing, and mailing. Paired with electronic check images, near real-time financial data, and assistive technology for tracking payments to a customer’s bank account, sometimes rethinking your relationship with the payment industry can change up how you view your accounting processes.
Learn to incorporate a VPS
The VPS – the virtual private server – may seem intimidating but holds so many potential benefits for businesses that operate in a virtual environment. Unlike traditional dedicated server setups, a VPS hosting service is able to use one piece of hardware to function like several separate virtual servers. The word “private” is important to VPS setups, as well. In many VPS server setups, the one piece of physical hardware is shared amongst several users. Without privacy, even a simple data transfer could be at risk.
VPS hosting places a virtual layer on top of your operating system which is much more sensible than an unmanaged VPS or other VPS solutions. Your VPS service organization creates a more secure container for your website that has dedicated resources.
These VPS resources include disk space, memory, CPU cores, and, often, full root access via the control panel. VPS often offers a smart blend of shared hosting and dedicated hosting. What it all boils down to is that a VPS plan can give you more bang for your buck. Plus, with the benefit of backups, a support team, and hosting in secure data centers, it’s easy to see why VPS solutions are growing in popularity for domain name hosting and free domain registration. Ditch the dedicated server and opt for a VPS that provides your brand and your clients more security than the competition.
Rethink your marketing strategy
While adding a VPS service organization, relying on data centers, and setting up a free domain can be beneficial, sometimes you need to think back to some of the basics. When you look at your marketing, are you chasing trends? Are you hyper-focused on email address capture? Do you have a direct relationship with your clients in the first term of a nurture campaign?
Sometimes, incorporating a live chat can help a customer down the sales funnel. Knowing your control objectives can help you rethink your marketing strategy and determine what you can do better and what needs to be pared down. If your marketing efforts look identical to the competition, you’re doing something wrong.
If you want to stay competitive, you need to be flexible and adaptable. Sometimes, this means reassessing the critical services your business uses. Other times, it’s catering more to what a business customer needs. Whether you’re considering web migrations to a virtual machine or are trying to gain more technical knowledge of the payroll industry, keep looking future-forward. It’ll help you in the long run.
Interesting related article: “What is a Marketing Strategy?“