25 Small Business Tasks You Can Do Better in the Cloud

No matter where you turn these days, people are talking about the benefits of “working in the cloud” including:

1. Saving time;
2. Saving money; and
3. Avoiding the hassle of managing technology yourself.

While all that sound great, it can often be hard to figure out where to start. That’s especially true if you’re a busy small business owner.

If this sounds like you, then you’re going to love this list of 25 business tasks you could do better in the cloud. To get the most from the list:

1. First scan the headings to find the tasks that cost you the most to manage, take the most time to manage, and are a hassle to manage.
2. Then, head on over to your favorite search engine and type the category name followed by the word software to find online tools to help you do that task better in the cloud.

1. Appointment Scheduling

Nothing can eat up more time than scheduling client appointments. Nothing that is except for canceling and changing client appointments.

Happily, there are a number of cloud tools that take the task out of your hands by empowering your clients to manage the whole process.

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Creating a relationship with your customers takes time and effort, including a ton of tracking. It’s so much more efficient however, if you have the right cloud tool backing you up.

CRM solutions abound in the cloud so if you want to cut the amount of time you spend nurturing customers without sacrificing current and future relationships, then go take a look.

3. Sales

Of course, the whole goal of building relationships is to make sales. Once again the cloud comes to the rescue with online selling tools such as Meylah online stores that help you organize and manage your sales process end-to-end.

4. Customer Support

Once you land a client, you’ll need to support them. Helpdesk solutions such as AzureDesk help you coordinate and manage customer complaints and suggestions.

They even let customers help themselves and other customers via a knowledge base and community, saving you both time and money.

5. Recruiting and Hiring

Recruiting and hiring is a complex, time-intensive process. That’s why you should look at the latest online tools for doing both.

These systems can handle everything for you from posting to several job sites at once to tracking the hiring process, and making the final offer to the winning candidate.

6. Hiring Freelancers

It seems that more companies are hiring freelancers these days than full-time employees. If you’re looking to jump into the gig economy, then you should check out the freelance marketplaces, such as Upwork, Guru, and Fiverr, online.

Not only do these cloud solutions help you find and hire the right freelancer, they also offer project management and communication tools as well as payment options.

7. Workforce Management

Once you have your employees and freelancers onboard, you need to manage the team. Cloud-based workforce management solutions can help you manage everything from onboarding to training, professional development, reviews, and even shift scheduling for hourly employees.

8. Payroll

Paying your employees and freelancers is a complex process, fraught with regulations and tax laws. Online payroll solutions often have all those rules built-in so you can rest assured that all your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.

9. Invoicing

Getting paid yourself is always a challenge. Cloud-based invoicing takes away some of the hassle by enabling your clients to pay directly from their email, automatically alerting clients when their bill is past due, and providing end-of-year reporting that makes tax preparation that much easier.

10. Accounting

Unless you’re an accountant, you probably did not go into business because you wanted to keep the books. Happily, there are tons of online options for bookkeeping, many of which enable you to give access directly to your accountant so they can handle the work.

In addition, these solutions are typically up-to-date with the latest compliance and tax regulations to you can rest easy knowing that you didn’t miss something that can cost you lots down the road.

11. Time Management

Let’s face it, you’re busy and it’s easy to lose track of what you should be working on, when. Online time management apps help you plan well, become more productive, and more importantly stay focused on your core business operations.

12. Task List Management

Aside from managing your time, you also need to manage your to-do list. Cloud-based task list tools will help you do just that with reminders, repeating tasks, and even re-usable checklists.

Check off a task never felt so good.

13. Video Conferencing

While face-to-face meetings are the ideal, geographically dispersed clients and employees often make that nonviable.

Online video conferencing is the answer. Long past the days when meeting online was a frame-by-frame experience, today’s solutions offer smooth video, clear audio, and all sorts of collaborative and interactive tools.

14. Collaborating

Speaking of collaborating, there’s no better place to work together than in the cloud. Whether you collaborate in real time or jump in and out to exchange comments and updates, you and your team will never feel more connected, even if they’re geographically separate.

15. Messaging

With the growth of tools like such as Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Project, it’s never been easier to stay in touch with your team. Online instant messaging has long been a favorite way for businesses to connect, and it’s still an efficient way to quickly communicate.

16. Cloud Storage

Your business produces a lot of digital documents. That’s why you need a place to store it all. Cloud-based storage solutions are the go-to tools when you need a virtual file cabinet.

In addition to storing, some tools also enable you to index and search more easily and even share your documents selectively. In addition, you can also move your entire server and applications to platforms such as azure. If you are interested in exploring solutions, signup for free advisory services.

17. Sharing

And speaking of sharing, even if you don’t have a cloud storage solution in place, you can still share your files, especially those that are too big for email, using online sharing tools.

18. Marketing Automation

Marketing is a essential to every business, but it can also be time consuming. Cloud-based marketing automation tools enable you to well, automate a lot of the tasks associated with your marketing campaigns so you can focus on the rest of your business.

19. Social Media Management

Talk about time consuming, social media can suck your whole day away. To avoid that pitfall, make use of online social media management solutions. These tools enable you to schedule updates far in advance, track your mentions on social networks, and get alerts when you need to respond to someone.

20. Email Marketing

Email marketing is alive and well, supported by a number of cloud-based solutions. You can use these tools to build a list of customers who are interested in your product, send emails manually or automatically, and track every detail like open, click-throughs, and conversions.

21. Project Management

The collaborative nature of the cloud makes it a perfect spot to manage projects. You can get the whole team on board with solutions like Microsoft Planner for Office 365 and track every step so you always know the status of a project in real time.

22. Business Intelligence

If you like numbers, then you will love cloud-based dashboards. Many of these solutions collect data related to your business, even from your own systems, and present it in colorful and easy-to-interpret charts and reports. These tools really help you stay on top of your business.

23. Automated Integration

In the old days, you used to need a team of programmers to make two solutions work together. Today, you can use online tools like Microsoft Flow to create chains of workflow that move between separate systems. The best part? No coding required!

24. Website Design

You no longer need to hire a web designer or developer to put up a good-looking, well-functioning website with eCommerce functionality. Cloud-based tools such as Microsoft ASP.NET and Visual Studio can be used to build and manage your site more easily and less expensively.

25. Back Office Management

Everything from logistics to supplies, shipping, and fleet management can be handled using online software. No matter what you need to run your business, there’s likely an online solution that will keep your back office purring along smoothly.

Cloud Photo via Shutterstock

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