How tech can help your small business improve operationally

Do you want your small business to operate more efficiently? Technology can take the strain of the everyday activities that bog down small business owners and prevent them from getting on with their core activities, such as selling, building clients and growing. In this session our experts share practical examples of how tech can be used to improve businesses operationally, from automating processes such as finance and resourcing, to processing tools to streamline every day activities.

Guests: Andy Bone and Jason Crawford, Solutions Specialists at Dell Technologies

This episode is the second of a three-part series brought to you in partnership with Dell Technologies. 

Transcript

Sponsored introduction: 0:00

This episode is in partnership with Dell Technologies. Dell can help push your business further, with innovative technology designed for small business. Visit dell.co.uk.

Jon Watkins: 0:11

Welcome to the latest edition of the FSB podcast, the go-to podcast for news, tips and important information for small businesses, and the self employed. This episode is the second in our three-part series brought to you in partnership with Dell Technologies to explore the ways in which technology can help small businesses innovate, improve, and advance. And the second

episode is titled: 0:35

'How tech can help your small business improve operationally'. Now, all small businesses would love their operations to be more efficient. So they have more time to focus on their core activities, and growing their business. However, there are plenty of other benefits to more efficient and slick operations too. And we will explore some of those in our discussion today. To do that, I am pleased to say I'm joined once again, by Dell Technologies experts, Andy Bone and Jason Crawford. Thanks for joining me both of you.

Andy Bone: 1:07

Thank you, Jon.

Jason Crawford: 1:07

Thank you very much for having us.

Jon Watkins: 1:09

Nice, good to get to speak again. And this series is nice, it's really kind of evolving, you know, starting off with the ways in which you know, organisations can really use tech to to innovate and find new ways to operate. And then I think today we'll talk quite a bit around sort of operational efficiency, and the benefits that can bring. Let's start by talking exactly what we mean by that. What do we what do we mean when we talk about tech for improving operations?

Andy Bone: 1:34

Well, I think the biggest thing, Jon is it's all about looking at what are the processes and operations we we actually do on a day to day basis. And then we look at how or which we can automate. Now that might sound really simple and straightforward, but you'd be surprised at the level of automation that we can actually we can drill right down to. So you know, it could be quite a simple automisation, such as the stuff that we do within our our financial packages, where our receipts or invoices get automatically pulled into our software, you know, the things that are in front of us, those sort of automisation processes are very simple, but they can go on and on and on. And what we tend to talk about really is like, where would you like to be in five years, you know, in the five-year approach, what sort of automation would you like, in place, then, and we can talk about, you know, if you're a sole one-man business, for example, and you're trying to get hold of a customer - they're engaged, happens all the time - they try to phone you back, you're engaged, so that conversation has got a pinch point straightaway. So how do we automate that, for example, how do we get get a resolution from that? So it's looking at ways in which we can automate all types of different parts of our organisations to actually come out with an outcome. And there are lots of workflow software packages out there that we can do this with and they're very, very simple, but obviously, those workflow packages will probably need, well they definitely need, some sort of hardware to actually sit on, and to actually run. So you know, the larger organisations, when we talk about workflow, we were talking about how their servers and their storage operate, to actually enable their workflow. So it's built into that, that higher level of infrastructure, if you like, that's where the workflow comes into the larger organisation. But that's more what it's all about, you know, having the software and the hardware that work together to enable you to automate. So what I would suggest is like, look at every single process and look at how those processes can be automated to actually cut out on that time. So it might be marketing, so okay, marketing might be, you know, how do I send emails? Well, I look through my customer databases, I send emails to people maybe manually. Well, actually, let's automate that, because that's taken a lot of time. How do I know what customers are buying? Well, again, we can automate that process. And we're going to look at some some examples of how that's been done by small organisations and small companies that we personally know, and especially, Jason's got a really good example that we'll look at a little bit later on.

Jon Watkins: 4:07

Thanks, Andy. And you mentioned sort of marketing there and how it can streamline that process. There are other areas presumably are there in when you talk about day to day activities, I'm thinking about sort of things like finance and resourcing and scheduling, just how broad is this guys?

Andy Bone: 4:23

It's as broad as the length of piece of string, it literally is everything and everywhere within your organisation. So you need to look at everything and set targets so you set those targets for automation, start small, don't don't think you're going to do them all at once. Just start and build them up, roll them up and roll them up. So that you know eventually, you know, every single part of these processes that you need, you need to automate will be covered and it is literally looking at them writing them down. It's like the old days when we we had to write all our, all our ideas and everything down on paper. It's the same sort of principle now, write it all down start from the beginning. I'll start a list, start at the top of list and start automating everything you possibly can, and work on it as a day by day process and add and add and add as you go through. And you'll soon realise that you're then cutting down the amount of time you're spending doing lots of manual processes, with these automated processes that you've actually put in place that technology are going to help you do.

Jon Watkins: 5:20

Yeah, and I think what often helps our audience kind of understand these topics and the opportunities of these topics is, is an example of you got, you don't have to name it, of course. But if you've got an example of a small business, perhaps you've worked with, or you've come across that has used tech to improve its operations and with real impact.

Jason Crawford: 5:40

Yeah, I've a very good example of that actually have a friend and actually started up his own craft beer shop. Now he started off very simply, he's actually from the US, but strangely opened a small craft beer shop in Glasgow. And it started from the ground up, literally started with one tap of draught beer, and a few cans. Now he's five years into his business. Tech has changed the way that he actually becomes productive, and to become productive for him. And he's got this very positive mental attitude of keeping going through, he came through Coronavirus, but the tech really helped him. And so what he's putting in place is a very good front end web page. Secondly, online ordering, driver pickup, collection, a booking system to be able to actually book people into his place, because he only has 20 seats. So managing that and having the calendar in place to be able to deal and handle having that many customers through, you have to have something fairly robust when you've only got a small space to serve to as well. It's great for me, everything's automated. So when he's taking orders from people, he can see trends and see things for the future and see, well, actually, there's a cute example of me, one of his customers, Jason, he likes a New England IPA, well, we'll make sure he orders regularly, we'll get that back in stock for next Saturday. And then it's the same with his ordering system for his draft system, he now has five types. So he needs to actually be able to get the stock back into place. And then for the customer experience as well. If you do go into the bar, and he can set up a tab on his automated tools, he can actually send you over receipt digitally as well afterward. So for him on all sorts of levels that's worked and with his platform integrated in social media, and he mentioned marketing earlier, and is able to drop videos and be able to keep people up to date on social as what's happening, what events he has on. So it's all about that integration of all the different things that you need from digital technologies. And I've found that's a very good example on a small scale. But who knows where it'll be in the future. And many organisations that we've seen started off small, and BrewDog is a good example of that. They just had a couple of bars, and no multinational. And I'm sure Andy's got a couple of examples of some of the big boys that started from the ground up.

Andy Bone: 8:21

I think it is really a case of thinking digital first. And if you start that, that sort of culture in the workplace, if you think about the technology and being digital first, looking at automation, what it will do everything, you start looking at well, you'll start thinking, actually, I can automate with the way I do that. And you'll then maybe look at some of the existing automations that you're doing and think actually, that's not really saving me time or making me more money. So how can I improve on that? So it is really developing that, that type of culture around what you do within your business to get that automation into place. So yeah, I mean, I like to talk about the real success stories. I think I mentioned Uber last time, you know, it's like it's a digital platform. You know, there's, there's nothing more to say really, it's a digital platform is massive. It came from a seedling. This time I'm going to mention Airbnb, I mean, Airbnb. I don't know if anyone knows the story behind Airbnb, and I didn't really know understand why it's called Airbnb. But it's all because three guys used to let three air beds out in their living room. And that's where the air came from an Airbnb. And that is just a digital platform. And again, it's all automated. So, you know from small seeds grow large, or small acorns grow large trees, and that that's exactly the sort of process from an automation process that Airbnb was seeing the success over the years. In fact, what is it 15 years? Sorry, 15, the last

Jon Watkins: 9:44

Yeah, I think that automation message is is really 15 years. good. And I think Jason, your example there sort of showed some of the obvious benefits whether it's kind of getting time back for you as a business owner, whether it's making your operation more efficient, you know, things like auto ordering and rip He orders and things like that. And the customer experience and the marketing element. Those are all things that obviously come out of that one, simple integration or deployment of tech, are there other benefits as well, I'm sort of thinking of, you know, we tend to think that if we automate things, we can set parameters that makes things sort of safer and a bit more sort of rigid and protected. Are there other benefits too?

Jason Crawford: 10:23

Well, there is, as you grow as well, the things that we have to think about are things like loss prevention. And as we start to grow in a small businesses, and as much as we'd love to have the most amazing employees, things, mistakes happen, things go wrong, and things go missing - that can then be then tracked actually, digitally. So that's something that we've seen as organisations are growing up from being one employee doing all yourself and then having people that you've hired to do different jobs. That can be as simple as a small bits of stock getting misplaced in the wrong place, if everything's checked digitally, and looked after in that way, and using scanners. And I know that's a little bit of investment and we'll talk about that a little bit later on. But it's just means that we can keep things in the right place and keep a track of where everything's going. And obviously keep our data secure as well, that's vitally important. Because when we talked earlier about customer data, the fact that people know what I like to have a drink in the bar, which style, I'd rather that that's kept secure, and is not leaked out there to the world, for everyone to share. So I'm obviously having that security and you're taking place is vitally important too.

Jon Watkins: 11:42

Yes and that's becoming a bigger and bigger issue, isn't it? You know, as regulation, increased regulation comes in and increased scrutiny over things like data. And you spoke a little bit about, you know, Airbnb, as an example, and BrewDog, and just how far this can go. But, you know, for small businesses, can you give them a sense of just how innovative and grand this type of sort of automation of processes and systems could become? I mean, just how far can we go with this?

Andy Bone: 12:11

Yeah, I think, as I mentioned earlier, the key to it is to start small. You know, it's, it's all about taking every day to day task, the things that you repeat, or your staff repeat daily, and just thinking, why are they doing this? Why are we constantly repeating ourselves on a daily basis? Why can't we just put that into a little box and get that automated and out of the way, so then we can concentrate on innovating. When we start innovating, that's when we can start growing. And I think that's the key, unless we've got lots and lots of resources to actually to expand our team rapidly, to enable us to innovate, you know, we need to innovate from within and the only way we can do that is making, again, is this isthe phrase we use in that first session so much, and we're so passionate about this - time. If we don't have the time to do this, we're never going to grow. And that's really key, you know, so it's time and money. If we haven't got the time or the money, how are we going to grow? And that's really where this is going to help you out. Because it's going to make both because it's going to save you money. And it's going to give you much more time by creating this this automated processes, again, with these automated processes, what we need is technology to enable us to do that.

Jon Watkins: 13:20

Yeah, we've talked a lot about time and the potential for time saving, you mentioned money there as well. Is there an angle here in terms of the period we're in right now, with the rising cost of doing business and the other huge pressures that small businesses are facing? Is there an angle here around how getting your operations more streamlined and finessed can can help you meet those challenges?

Andy Bone: 13:42

I definitely think so. It's you know, there's, there's a few pinch points, we like talking about pinch points. And we try to understand them so that we can help people out as an organisation ourselves. So that we've talked about the data, keeping it safe. That's, that's a really key pinch point nowadays. And because that can cost a lot of money, if we fall foul of regulations and rules, and we lose data. It's obviously very complicated for people to make decisions regarding technology because, you know, we're not, we're not experts. Well, as a small business, you're not gonna be an expert in what technology you should have. And you, you probably don't know what technology you need to need to acquire, and what services you need to acquire to enable that. But the financial support itself, you know, that's, that's key in today's environments. And again, as an organisation we're there to help people make those those leaps and jumps to enable them to thrive and grow. So it's, you know, we have got processes and systems and we've got our own bank in place to help people through this this era to put it more into an operating cost so that you know, in taking away that burden of of having to fork out massive amounts of capital expenditure, we can you know, we can help people just put it into an operating cost so they don't have to purchase it outright, you know that and that's quite quite key in today's climate is to be able to spread that cost over a longer period of time. So put a bit of certainty a bit of stability in that, that monthly that yearly cost of technology and how much it's going to cost in the future.

Jon Watkins: 15:10

Brilliant. And, Jason, any final thoughts on, you know, how tech can help small businesses improve their operations further and the benefits to them for the longer

Jason Crawford: 15:21

Yeah, well, I think we have covered a few in term? here. But I think the main thing is, don't be afraid of investing in technology. And I think Andy mentioned in our last podcast, it's like getting the right employee in your organisation. Don't be put off by that. Because actually, if you're running on older technology that maybe is three, five, and maybe even beyond years old, you'll actually find that you're costing your business not only in time, but also as well, as we currently look at the current energy crisis. The newer technology actually has less power consumption as well. So don't be afraid of that refresh, it may not look like you're actually getting a return immediately. It may actually be a few months down the line a year down the lane, maybe even a couple before you see it, it returns from it. But it is well worth looking at that refresh process, find out what you're using, find out how it can also save you time, find out how it can save you energy, and find out how you can get help to actually acquire that technology, as Andy mentioned there. So yeah, absolutely, lots of ways that we can go about this and have a discussion. Feel free to ask experts at Dell, we do have teams there as well to be able to actually help people out with that adventure. Our Dell tech advisors are available to have those conversations. And it's a free service. But it's something that's well worth that deeper conversation, because I know it can be daunting.

Jon Watkins: 17:00

Yeah, it certainly sounds like there are plenty of benefits. So thank you both that was really good. And I think it will help a lot of our small business owners understand just how they can use tech to drive more efficient processes that will deliver plenty of those top line benefits and enable them to grow in these difficult times. As I say that was the second in a three-part series of podcasts looking at how technology can help you innovate, improve and advance, brought to you in partnership with Dell Technologies. You can go back and listen to the first in the series by visiting firstvoice.org.uk and clicking Knowledge Centre and the third in the series will be live in the next month. Thank you also to our audience for listening. While I have your attention. I would just like to remind you that you can subscribe to the FSB podcast to receive regular updates and guidance on the big issues affecting small businesses. And do please also remember that you can find a whole host of additional webinars, podcasts and other content at firstvoice.org.uk and on the FSB website fsb.org.uk. Many thanks for tuning in.

Sponsored introduction: 18:09

This episode is in partnership with Dell Technologies, Dell can help push your business further. With innovative technology designed for small business, visit dell.co.uk