What’s a basic tech skill that small business owners must have to oversee day-to-day operations?
These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Public Cloud Navigation
The on-demand servers available from public cloud platforms can host websites, business applications, collaboration and communication tools, analytics, data and a lot more. A basic understanding of what the cloud is and how to deploy and manage cloud servers can help small business owners access infrastructure that was once only available to much larger companies at an affordable price. – Justin Blanchard, ServerMania Inc.
2. Email Marketing
Email marketing has become increasingly more important in day-to-day operations in both online and brick and mortar businesses. If you want more customers, you need to start generating leads on your website by creating content and strategically placing opt-in forms throughout the site. – Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster
3. Remote Access
Not all small business owners remain in their office through the working day, although access to data held in your office computer is often the need of the hour. Thanks to technology, logging into your office network using a remote connection is easy, and this is one tech skill that can give you insights into your operations even when you’re not around. – Derek Robinson, Top Notch Dezigns
4. Online Research and Source Vetting
The internet has made creating and sharing information easier than ever. Do you know how Google works and why a result is number one? Probably not, but in most cases, you’d trust the top Google result and take it as the truth. An understanding of what sites are legitimate and being able to spot ‘red flags’ when it comes to consuming information is key. – Karl Kangur, MRR Media
5. Automation
Every time I review a process in my business, I am always looking for ways to improve it with automation. I am constantly looking for ways to streamline a process or add technology to solve an issue that may happen repeatedly. I look for patterns and strive to simplify everything our team does. By being on the lookout for ways to continuously automate our business, we can scale. – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors
6. Coding
Knowing a bit of coding helps to communicate and understand what your developers are doing or how you might be able to tweak something in your product. – Cynthia Johnson, Bell + Ivy
7. Social Media
Every CEO should learn to manage multiple social media accounts. Believe it or not, there are still companies with old-school bosses who don’t understand the importance of the social media communication channels. It’s not only humanizing to be on social media, but it allows prospective clients to get insight on said CEO, and to truly learn whether it’s worth doing business with them. – Andrew Namminga, Andesign
8. Mobile Intelligence
A small business owner must understand how to use their mobile devices beyond just a few apps. They need to know how they can conduct more of their business processes from this device, and how they can leverage it for more marketing with their customers and prospects. – Zach Binder, Bell + Ivy
9. Google Analytics
You don’t need to be a Google Analytics expert. However, having basic knowledge of the platform is crucial for small business owners to know how their company is performing online. Small business owners should be able to monitor their key performance indicators on a daily basis using Google Analytics. – Duran Inci, Optimum7
10. Efficient Browsing and Navigation
Being able to quickly move between programs, email, apps and web browsers is so useful to quickly navigate tasks. Answering client questions, researching prior orders, reviewing project progress, monitoring company financials — all of this involves navigating different applications. The ability to quickly juggle these seems very simple, but it costs a lot of productivity if you’re not efficient. – Shawn Schulze, Names.org
11. Effective Use of Email
Effective use of email not only helps you reduce the time you spend on it during the day but also improves the effectiveness of messaging to your recipient. The best emails are short, focused and use bullet points to communicate an idea. My tip: write your emails so the other party only has to answer one thing and can do so from a mobile device in less than a few words. – Michael Averto, ChannelApe
12. Document and Data Sharing
Know how to share documents and use collaborative tools like Google Docs and online spreadsheets, where everyone can contribute to updating information for a more efficient workflow. – Murray Newlands, ChattyPeople
