Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the American workforce, employing almost 62 million people, they are also among the most likely to fail after just a few years. According to studies, up to one in four SMEs fail within their first year of operations. According to estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, up to 70% will have closed by the ten-year mark. By that point, their failure is not only felt by the SME’s immediate team, but also by their community.
The most common cause for this failure is poor cashflow. In fact, Business Insider notes that up to 82% of all failed SMEs say it’s because of this factor. The good news is that there are ways that SMEs can address cash flow, and the bottom line, in particular, without overstretching their limited resources. Chief among these are digital solutions that can be rolled out remotely with little to no personnel intervention while still effectively targeting business pain points that can otherwise hold up the bottom line. Read on to find out more:
Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)
Communication, whether internal or with external third parties, is a critical foundation of any business. For SMEs, achieving clear and consistent communication can ensure that deadlines are better met, services are more superbly rendered, and potentially expensive errors are prevented. As such, it’s important for SMEs to invest in platforms that can help secure their communications.
Nowadays, there is no better way to do this than with a service like Monster’s voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). For starters, VoIP is much cheaper than conventional telephone services, so it won’t add further strain to a modest budget. Aside from this, because this service runs on the Internet, it’s much more reliable. As a result, key collaborations can be better supported, and overall productivity rates are better maintained since knowledge silos or miscommunication hiccups are less likely to occur.
Revenue management system (RMS)
A recent Forbes article reveals that late payments are considered the “assassins of small businesses” because they can cost the global SME market up to $3 trillion a year. On average, one in 10 invoices is not paid on time, and some remittance cycles can take up to 120 days to complete. To avoid falling victim to this struggle, SMEs can benefit from using automated digital tools that target this.
One such tool that’s currently popular is SOFTRAX’s enterprise revenue management solutions (RMS) software. Designed to automate all aspects of complex billing, this software does all the payment-related heavy lifting so SMEs can spend less time chasing payments and more time on projects that are especially sensitive or strategic. With this, you can secure multiple payment setups with consideration of the varying inclusions, billing setups, and dynamic pricing that each client may require. Since this software also covers contract renewal management and revenue recognition, SMEs can more easily secure their regulatory compliance and long-term business deals without having to waste precious resources on manually pursuing these.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Effective marketing is necessary to secure continuous and stable profit in the increasingly competitive business landscape. Given that the average American spends upwards of eight hours online every day, it makes sense that online marketing methods are among the most useful. In particular, search engine optimization (SEO) is incredibly valuable, as its benefits vastly outweigh any costs it requires.
Rock Content estimates that the average SEO campaign brings in 1,000% more traffic than the standard social media one. In addition to dedicated SEO professionals, SMEs can create their own SEO campaigns using tools like Local SEO or Google Analytics. Both of these can help assess relevant keywords and on-page elements that help ensure your content reaches your target audience. In the long run, Entrepreneur explains that SEO initiatives can give a cost-effective, competitive advantage that improves user experience without needing consistent long-term payments.
