How do you see small companies using cloud computing to get ahead of their competitors?
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. It Will Allow More Time for Growth
One of the top priorities in any small business has to be growth. As a small business owner, you have to devote as much time as possible to generating new leads and business. Cloud technology allows for business owners to make quick decisions and keep information organized for employees. Now, businesses get to save money and focus their attention on making more.
Like anything, cloud options are constantly evolving. The larger a company, the harder it is to train and adapt to the latest and greatest versions, and that’s where small companies really have the advantage. The key, of course, is in staying aware of new advancements and adopting them before the competition.
Cloud computing technologies have made it much easier for teams around the globe to feel more connected than ever before. If you leverage this in the right way, it can help you attract top talent outside of your company’s home base, and keep that talent because of a structure that’s easy to work within.
4. It Improves Reliability and Accuracy
Uploading project data and files onto the cloud gives companies an agile advantage, more reliability, and makes for less errors. When everything is stored in a centralized, secure location, there’s less confusion, miscommunication and data loss. Project managers won’t have to dig through files to find the current copy, and clients can access and edit information in real time.
5. It Reduces IT Overhead
IT services – specifically servers – used to prevent many small companies from competing with larger companies. In 2016, the need for IT services, and hardware (servers) has almost been eliminated due to cloud computing and seamless integration offered by many online services. Without these IT overhead costs, smaller companies can compete on a more equal playing field with larger competitors.
– Tim McHugh, Saddleback Educational
6. It Allows for a Faster Turnaround for Client Services
Cloud technology puts all of your resources, such as designs, files and strategy implementation in one place. Leveraging this to provide a faster turnaround for your services will help you take a leap forward in your business. When clients experience an easy-to-use, seamless process, they’ll definitely tell their colleagues and return to you for more work.
Cloud computing definitely increases the collaborative capability that allows you to become more supportive to your customers, as well as brings you closer together in your professional relationship. It also increases the collaboration among your team to get work done faster, speeding up what you can deliver to customers so they are happy to have a solution quickly.
If cloud services existed back in 2000, my first company could’ve saved over $10,000,000. Back in the early 2000s, it was normal to spend seed or early stage capital on data center assets if you wanted to create an online business. Today it is downright irresponsible to do that. Cloud services completely eliminated this barrier to entry for new and small businesses, and it allows for new levels of innovation. Money can be better spent on the core products and services.
9. It Allows You to Work From Anywhere
Using cloud-based software to run our company has allowed us to work from anywhere. We’re a completely remote team; our “office” is a company-wide wiki that allow us to discuss our projects and stay on top of our goals. It allows our employees to be anywhere in the world and cuts overhead.
– Brian David Crane, Caller Smart Inc.
10. It Improves Response Speed
A small company can use cloud computing to basically tap into information or respond to a client from anywhere in the world. This fast response time is one way to really impress customers or clients, where a competitor may need to wait until Monday morning office hours to respond, while a small company already answered on a Saturday morning or Friday night.
11. It Keep Costs Under Control
Startups no longer need to commit hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to web servers to test an ambitious idea. They can instead use Amazon Web Services, spend $10 a month to test it, and scale up if and when they need more capacity. This slashes the capital needed to enter data intensive businesses. It means you can test the water without betting the farm.
