S3 Blog

In business there are always going to be ups and downs – but what would happen if the unthinkable happened? To really be able to answer this question it is a good idea to firstly decide what this unthinkable event is – so let’s say that it is severe economic crisis, even more so than the current credit crunch. So how would a business function?

Firstly, a business would need to make sure that they had some sort of strategy in place to be able to weather the economic storm. Without this a business simply would be able to stay afloat. So if you are the owner of a business make sure that you plan for the bad times as well as the good times or you could finds yourself in a very difficult position should the economic climate turn cold.

Secondly, it pays for a business to get the very best deal when it comes to the CRM (customer relationship management) software that it uses. Doing this will help to keep costs low so that should the unthinkable happen the business would still be able to function and not have to lose any software. Too many businesses spend vast amounts of money each year on keeping up costly software licenses and this can run into thousands of pounds, especially if the business has many employees.

Thirdly, a business owner needs to be on top of the businesses cash flow and know exactly what is being spent and where. Having this kind of knowledge will enable a business owner to quickly and accurately identify where money could be saved within the business. If you are a business owner who cannot say that they know exactly where money is spent it is time that you found out. Whilst you are doing this consider giving your business a financial makeover and see if you can highlight any areas where money can be saved or better spent.

Fourth, find which areas of the business are the most profitable and concentrate on those. Doing this will focus attention on more profitable areas of the business which will help to keep money rolling in, something which is crucial during a financial crisis. Forget about any ventures which were on the backburner, they can be looked at when things start to look brighter. Similarly, look at any areas which require a great deal of work and are not very profitable. When they have been identified consider dropping them as they are not working for the business.

No business owner wants to think about the unthinkable – but planning for it is essential as it can sometimes happen. Having strategies and procedures in place to deal with it should it happen is what every business needs. Failure to do this will result in the business folding and folding fast. So if you value your business and want it to survive should the unthinkable happen start to put measures in place to deal with it, should it happen, right now.

Today the number of people with internet access in their homes is staggering when compared to even 15 years ago. Mobile communication has meant that even when a person is on the move it is possible to communicate with people all over the world at a fraction of the cost and it is all due to the fact that new technology is becoming cheaper. Desktop computers, laptops, notebooks, mobile phones etc are all getting cheaper by the day and this is increasing the potential for businesses to reach more customers than ever before via the internet and mobile communications.

Traditionally, new technology was only available to those in business or people who were wealthy enough to afford it as it was so costly. Now everyone is basking the glow of the internet at home, at school and even when travelling. With the advent of social networking sites keeping in touch has never been so popular or so easy. In order for people to connect to such sites electronics companies have realised they needed to make new technology cheaper and therefore more accessible for everyone. They realised that doing this would increase their profits tenfold and keep customers wanting the latest technology at low prices.

Gone are the days when only a handful of people had mobile phones and laptop computers, and instead in their place are people of all ages and abilities who are all wanting to have new technology for themselves. This increased demand for new technology means that more items are being sold, so more are being manufactured, bringing down the cost of new technology for the consumer. So now there is no reason why anyone who wants to keep up to date with new technology can’t do so for a very reasonable price.

As well new electrical technology getting cheaper software applications etc are also getting much cheaper as companies can design and implement new technology cheaper and faster than ever before. CRM (customer relationship management) software for instance used to be incredibility expensive for a business to buy and run and now the smart businesses are recognising that many companies are providing this cheaper than ever. To put this into perspective it now means that there is no reason why a small to medium sized business should not benefit from using CRM software to assist them.

Using a good CRM software solution is not only cost effective (especially since new technology is getting cheaper) it can also increase a businesses profits substantially. Making these savings for a business means that new technology can be seen as even cheaper as it can pay for itself in just a few months, rather than being seen as expensive and unattainable. New technology is constantly being developed and as it is now so cheap and so widely available there is no logical reason why consumers and businesses can’t embrace this new technology and enjoy it.

Finding a software solution that you can virtually run your business from can seem like an uphill struggle and that is why a great deal of businesses wind up using several different software applications. This is not only hard to work with (no one likes to have to have four or more applications open at one time and have to flick between them constantly) it is also very expensive. Due to this many small to medium sized businesses find that they have to cut corners or decide which software solutions they can afford to run at the expense of others. If you are the owner of a small to medium sized business that wants an amazing all round CRM solution S3 CRM really is a one stop shop. Here is what you can expect from S3 CRM the most flexible, accessible, comprehensive, cost effective and user friendly CRM solution available:

- Customer contact and employee contact information storage – here users can store all customer and employee contact details in different categories for easy retrieval.

- Storage features – quickly and easily store all information relating to a customer with their contact details so no information will ever go missing again.

- Quoting and invoicing tools – create quotes in moments on multiple lines and with VAT added as standard. When a customer accepts a quote users can easily turn these into invoices to be sent at a later date.

- Employee calendars – this feature allows a business owner to see which employees are available, on holiday or away sick.

- Project tools – use this feature to plan and implement projects, assign projects to users and see which users are in charge of which projects. Using this means that no project deadline should ever be missed, even if the user in charge of a project is absent.

- Email marketing – create email marketing campaigns in minutes and send them to your email marketing list.

- Reporting tools – see which invoices are outstanding, who has replied to email marketing, which customer has the most repeat orders and much more.

- Easy to use dashboard – users can create their own dashboard with all their regularly used features and tools on it. Business owners can tailor theirs so that they can see their business at a glance.

- Accessibility – as S3 CRM is web based users can log into their account from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection which means that business owners can stay in touch with the office even when they are not in the country.

- Easy to use – S3 CRM is so easy to use that anyone can learn how to access and it’s features in just a few hours – so say goodbye to long and expensive training days for employees. Just sign up a new user and they can be using S3 CRM in well under one day – without any intensive training.Cost effective – S3 CRM costs £4.99 / $9.99 per month which makes it one of the most reasonably priced CRM solutions on the market.

In addition to these features S3 CRM also offers – document storage, meeting planning tools, route optimisation tools, recycle bin – the list is endless, proving that S3 CRM really is a one stop shop.

For any business to succeed and be able to compete alongside other businesses that offer similar products and services it is a good idea to generate strategic partnerships with others. Strategic partnerships are a formal alliance that is normally between two commercial businesses with a contract involved. Such partnerships however are not legal partnerships as neither party wants to internally develop the other and vice versa.

Instead these partnerships are formed when each side has an asset or more that will assist the other, a good example of this is the relationship between a manufacturer and a developer. Typically the manufacturer would be a larger company and they would provide the product, capital needed for growth, marketing and distribution and the developer will provide the technical knowledge and expertise to enhance the product.

Another example of a strategic partnership is that between a supplier / manufacturer and the distributer. By creating a close relationship between the two separate and very different businesses enables them both to share the marketing, development, branding and so on of a service or product.
It is essential that strategic partnerships are formed as there are few business that are large enough and wealthy enough to be able to complete the entire cycle for a product or service alone. There are of course many who think that they can and this overestimation of capabilities is one of the reasons that a lot of businesses fail – they do not have strategic partnerships.

So how does a business go about generating strategic partnerships? One way is to look at your competitors and see if they can do something that your business can’t, then see what your business can bring to the table and get in touch with them. Speaking to competitors in this way can sometimes help to build a strategic partnership which can be mutually beneficial to both sides.

Are you involved in a business to business industry? If so you might already have relationships with other businesses, so why not see if a strategic partnership between yourselves and them might be in the interests of both sides? That way both businesses could drive customers to each other and reap the benefits. Say you sell gardening supplies and you form a strategic partnership with a business that sells electronic gardening equipment, a simple link to each other’s sites can provide huge traffic to each other that would not necessarily have been there otherwise.

To generate successful strategic partnerships it is also worth noting that all transactions between the two businesses need to be open and honest – as without these fundamentals trust will quickly be lost and this can be difficult to repair, if not impossible. So when generating these partnerships make sure that everything is out in the open as this is the only way in which partnerships like these will work. So follow these hints and start to make positives steps to creating and generating strategic partnerships that will benefit your business and raise your revenue quickly.

Everyone in business knows that there are ups and downs that have to be faced each year, some are financial or economic challenges and others are from other sources such as a growth in competition or changes in the market. One thing is for sure when your business is facing an economic storm you need to make sure that your CRM solution is up to the challenge that lies ahead.

S3 CRM is a new and revolutionary web based software application that can easily be integrated into any small to medium sized business and will enable business owners to make their processes and service more efficient and therefore will not only save but make money too. For any business to function correctly it’s employees need to use various software applications to record contacts, create invoices and quotes, keep track of projects, store documents and files, keep contact information for employees and customers alike and much, much more. As you would imagine purchasing, updating, running and implementing different types of software not only takes time, but it also costs money, and money during an economic storm is usually in short supply.

Using S3 CRM will help you to weather the economic storm in the following ways:-

S3 CRM is cheap to purchase – S3 CRM only costs £4.99 / $10.00 per month to set up and run, this figure is per business not per employee so as you can see there are huge savings to be made as many similar customer relationship management applications actually charge on a per user basis, something which can be very costly if you have a more than a handful of employees.

S3 CRM cuts down on the need for many different types of software applications – with S3 CRM you and your employees can do everything from creating invoices and quotes to planning and setting deadlines for projects as well as storing documents and even checking calendars – so say goodbye to having to buy different software applications just to run your business, with S3 CRM you can do it all.

S3 CRM is easy to use – if you need your employees to be working on generating more custom the last thing you need is to have them learning how to use a new application. S3 CRM offers total usability to everyone – simply log in and start working! It really is that simple, if by any chance you do find that you are unsure of how to use a certain feature click on one of the ‘Help at Hand’ sections found on each page and you will be given hints and tips on how to get the best out of S3 CRM.

S3 CRM can help you to identify customers who have outstanding invoices sooner – no more searching through files to see who has paid and when, with S3 CRM you can see all outstanding invoices at a glance and act upon them. This results in more invoices being cleared faster which adds to the businesses profits!

Everyone who has a business knows that increased productivity and lower costs bring about a healthier bottom line, but what are the best ways in which to do this? Here are the Top 10 ways in which you can do just that-

1. Utilise your staff correctly – one of the biggest mistakes in business is not knowing what your staff are doing, this does not mean spying on them but making sure that there are not too many people working on a project that doesn’t require them.

2. Use project planning tools – these can make all the difference to your business, by keeping an eye on all your projects and being alerted when deadlines approach you will find that productivity is increased.

3. Have all relevant documentation to hand – by having all documents related to a particular project or customer you or your staff will never waste time, and ultimately money, searching for missed invoices or other paperwork every again.

4. Record all customer contacts – by recording every time you telephone, email or send a letter out to a customer you will not waste money be repeatedly contacting someone who has already heard from you.

5. See all unpaid invoices at the click of a button – being able to do this means that you can see at a glance how much money your customers owe you. Add to this a feature which shows you which are the oldest invoices and you have the perfect tool for chasing up outstanding debts which will make your business more efficient.

6. Choose a fully integrated software solution – doing this will enable you to run all aspects of your business from one easy to use application which will cut down on time spent using slower and less efficient software programmes.

7. Be able to connect to your business from anywhere in the world. By using a web based application to run your business through you are able to access all areas of your business from staff calendars to project planning from anywhere that has an internet connection.

8. See all approaching deadlines and act upon them. If you are aware of deadlines you will be better placed to make sure that they are met, even if this means moving extra staff onto a project if it looks as though it might not get completed in time.

9. Store information in one place that is easy to access. Once again this will cut down on time spent searching for documentation for various tasks which frees up more time to work on the important aspects of your business.

10. Use good customer relationship management. In business nothing is more important than your customers and having good relationships with your customers is crucial to create profits. Use a software solution that allows you to record details of your customers from last contact to ongoing projects so that when you speak to them you and your staff have all the information you might need right there at your fingertips.