There will come a time wherein your small business will need to evolve from doing manual tasks to software that cuts down time, improves overall business profits and margins, gathers pertinent information for detailed reporting and even help your employees with tools that can assist them in performing tasks efficiently.
Since running a business can become very demanding and time consuming, the trick is in determining when your company need to have a PSA software. Not all organizations know exactly when it happens until they start to see the impact on the business. So when you ask the question, “Do I need a PSA software for my business at this time?”, here’s what you need to look out for:
- You’re still using Word and Excel to invoice clients/customers. A lot of small businesses use this system as they are understandably cutting costs but once your business expands, it gets more challenging to track and manage data properly, which means that you would be sacrificing traceability so it would be best to start investing in a software that can give you the best solution in managing resources effectively.
- You’re under-staffed or in some cases, even over-staffed. Small businesses don’t have an HR department where they can forecast the right staffing for the organization. Even if you’re hands-on on the hiring process, you will need to closely keep track of your forecast to ensure that you got just the appropriate number of employees in your business. You will have more success when you automate this process to avoid miscalculations.
- You are unsure how you can get the most out of your people. There are people out there who are skilled and might even excel with proper training. Once you have an automated system in your business, you can minimize bench time and have the right people assigned to the right project and even track their progress. No more finger-pointing or hearing excuses when a project was not completed on time. This is one of the benefits of automation.
- Your business has expanded into several locations but you don’t handle each skill set. You will need a software specifically designed to keep track of who among your employees have what skills and in which particular area – this can be a huge task, if you still manage this the old school way. Communication within the outlets is also important and having the right PSA system can assist without wasting too much turn around time.
- You are possibly over-servicing your clients. Ensuring client satisfaction and client success is the main goal of any business however if you are spending double the hours on a project that is supposed to be accomplished in a lesser amount of time just to make sure that it is accurate, then it can be a massive cost overrun and it can even be a huge loss of opportunity cost for those people who are doing billable tasks. The best PSA software will be able to track several aspects, not just how much a client is spending on the project but also how much work is being put into it, as well as identification of the most profitable client for the business.
These are just a few aspects where you will need to consider automation for your business – there might be also a need to automate your financial system. As a business owner, you will need to search and find out which automation system will benefit your company to ensure that you can stay competitive, efficient and deliver quality services to your clients.
Is it time for your business to automate?
Kara Perez is the original founder of From Frugal To Free. She is a money expert, speaker and founder of Bravely Go, a feminist financial education company. Her work has been featured on NPR, Business Insider, Forbes, and Elite Daily.