Top Services and Tricks That Your Small Tech Start-Up Should be Using
This article lists online services and apps that can help businesses to work faster and avoid disturbing their workflow.
One of the biggest benefits of running a tech start-up is undoubtedly the fact that you are likely to be familiar with the latest developments in technology. Technology is your industry, so that means you should be able to take advantage of all the latest software, hardware, services and movements in order to make your workflow easier and more efficient and to save yourself time and money in the process.
That said, even the hippest and savviest tech company won’t be familiar with every opportunity available to them, so there’s a good chance you could still be missing out on some powerful strategies that could help you to improve your output and efficiency. Here are some of the top services and strategies you should employ to speed up your workflow and do more…
VAS
A VAS is a ‘Virtual Assistant Service’ which is basically a highly affordable assistant that you communicate with online and who can complete a number of jobs that don’t require too much specialist skill.
Using a VAS allows you to outsource jobs that take up a lot of time but which don’t require a member of your team to perform – such as hunting down contacts for your press releases, or moderating forums. Many entrepreneurs and start-ups use virtual assistants very effectively and find it saves them a considerable amount of effort and time.
Reducing Paper
Another job that you can and should outsource is paper shredding. If you have a lot of documents that you are working with and you want to ensure that you don’t allow any sensitive information to fall into the wrong hands, then you’re going to need to find a way to destroy that paper without spending ages shredding it yourself.
Also useful is simply reducing the amount of physical documents you’ll be working with in the first place. You can do this by using digital statements from your bank, by using the cloud to work on documents and by communicating more through e-mail.
IFTTT
If you want to use a service to help manage your social media, then IFTTT is one of the most powerful tools you can adopt into your workflow. This is a site that allows you to set up relationships between your different online accounts, meaning for instance that your tweets on Twitter can be shared automatically with Facebook, and that you can get e-mailed everytime someone mentions you on Reddit. This can save you huge amounts of time and mean you only have to manage one site rather than hundreds.
If you aren’t already using a cloud storage service then you really need to get with the times and set up an account. Dropbox is one of the very best options for doing this, as it is supported by so many other apps, programs and services – IFTTT for instance. Once you start using Dropbox, you’ll then be able to share folders with business partners so that they can access files, you’ll be able to quickly transfer files between devices, and you’ll have plenty of backups to ensure that you never lose an important file or folder.
ShareKM
If you use an Android phone, then a great and little known app worth installing is ShareKM which can help to avoid interruptions to your workflow. Essentially this app allows you to share your PC keyboard and mouse with your phone, so that you can glance down and just start typing to answer texts without having to break your concentration. Set this up for your staff and they’ll be far less distracted by incoming messages.
These are just a few of the amazing tech services you can use to improve your workflow and increase efficiency. Many more will be specific to your particular business, so identify the jobs that you do regularly and that take up more time, then see if you can automate them with a handy service or application.
Author bio:
The author of this post, Nancy Baker, is a freelance blogger who currently writes for Papersavers, providers of leading shredder services in Toronto. An audiophile, Nancy likes to listen to artists and music from different genres. You can also follow her on Twitter @Nancy Baker.