With 2017 just around the bend, it is time for small business owners to take stock of their current situation:
Where is your business currently?
Where do you want to be in a year’s time?
What is needed to get your business to that point?
These are not the most exciting questions to consider—usually because they result in greater business expenses—but the end of the year is the best time to tackle them.
Regardless of whether you only just launched your business this year or you are a few years in and ready to scale, growth is of the utmost importance. To grow, you know that you need to rein in the chaos and improve productivity. This is where those end-of-year purchases come in handy.
If you have any reservations about spending money before the new year starts, take a moment to check out the Section 179 tax code. This IRS tax code was built specifically for SMBs, allowing you to write off qualifying purchases of software, hardware, and other property that help you build and grow your business. Pretty sweet deal, right?
Make these end-of-year small business purchases to boost productivity
If you are serious about growing your business in 2017, then let’s talk about those end-of-year purchases that will help you streamline operations and promote sustained growth.
#1: A New Computer
Every business serious about investing in their future growth needs a solid base to work from. Without a high-performance computer on your side, you can kiss productivity goodbye.
#2: Accounting Software
You are a business owner, not an accountant. However, that does not mean you need to hire an outside source to manage your finances. Accounting software will streamline, organize, and help you manage a number of finance-related activities, like payroll, benefits, expense tracking, invoice management, and more.
#3: Sales & Marketing Software
Business owners no longer need enterprise-level budgets to execute marketing plans or track sales leads. With sales and marketing software, you can stop living in the day-to-day and plan ahead with predictive technologies. And the best thing about this software? You can manage customer relationships, automate sales forecasts, create email marketing campaigns, and capture e-commerce transactions all in one place.
#4: Project Management Software
As your business grows, you are going to need a more efficient and effective way to communicate, collaborate, and centralize the work you do—for yourself, your team, and your clients. It does not matter if you are a solo entrepreneur or working with a team, project management software is the lynchpin to boosting business productivity.
#5: Premium Website Theme
Your website is the key to boosting your brand’s identity and generating online sales. If you are currently relying on an outdated design or a sluggish theme for your website, now is the time to invest in a premium one. They usually don’t cost more than $80 a year, and the investment in a high performing, high quality, and modern looking website is totally worth it.
#6: Content Management Software
In the current business landscape, your customers want something more meaningful. This is why you will see many businesses putting less emphasis on advertisements. These days, it is about becoming a trusted expert that wants to build genuine relationships. By using a content management planner, you can create thoughtful and helpful content regularly, and, in so doing, demonstrate your real value.
#7: Social Media Management Software
Your audience is on social media, so you need to be on there, too. Social media management software will help you plan your engagements in advance, create multi-platform posts in bulk, and interact with your audience in real time.
As a small business owner, you probably feel overwhelmed with everything you need to do just to maintain your business. When it comes to growth, you have got to improve efficiency, gain better insights into your operations, build better relationships with customers, and find a way to get everything done without sacrificing sleep… or your sanity.
That is why now is the perfect time to assess your business’s current state and plan for the purchases that will drive business growth and boost productivity in the new year. For more cost saving tips check out this article.
Ramon Ray, Marketing & Publisher of Smart Hustle Magazine and Small Business Evangelist, Infusionsoft. He frequently blogs about tech at SmallBizTechnology. Full bio at http://www.ramonray.com/ . Visit his Small Business Solutions Blog Author Page to get in touch on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.
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