Many business owners are trying to find the best upgrades for their business in 2021 so that they can grow, improve and kick on from the pandemic. There are many different ways to upgrade your business right now that could have a big impact on your success this year and beyond, but you also must be careful when making changes to your business and make sure that it will end up being a positive upgrade. To upgrade your business well, you need to be on the lookout for new emerging trends, innovative technology that can aid your processes, as well as a few other intangibles. There are a few key areas that are worth focusing on right now that should help this to be a positive year for your business and allow you to grow.
1. Upgrade cybersecurity
 It is important to be aware of the threat of cybercrime right now as this is an issue that has become much more prevalent during the pandemic. Online businesses and companies with staff working remotely need to make sure that they have adequate protection in place in the form of cybersecurity products and know the best ways to protect the company and customer data. With a business no longer operating on a secure network, with a lot of staff using their own home WiFi to access work documents, it makes things far more vulnerable. Ensuring that your team has up-to-date antivirus software downloaded, as well as a firewall to protect their endpoints, is essential to ensure your business stays safe online.
2. Chatbot
Customer service is always important, particularly when consumer confidence is low, as they are likely to have questions that need answering. It is difficult to always be available to provide support and to answer questions, which is why a chatbot is a smart upgrade to make in 2021. The technology has improved in recent times, and now chatbots can be a great tool and a way to convert more visitors into customers. Chatbots can be integrated into a business website and are there to help answer common issues and queries automatically. They can be powered by AI, or you can write a script for them to follow, but either way, they’re great at pointing customers to important information quickly. This technology may sound futuristic and expensive, but it’s actually pretty simple and cheap to implement and is becoming a standard that your customers will grow to expect from you.
3. Switch your business water supplier
With the water market deregulated, it provides businesses with the ability to choose their own water supplier, but many are not aware of this, which could be costing them. Switching business water suppliers could save you a huge amount on your bill over the longterm, and this is a process that will have no negative impact on your business whatsoever, so it is always worth checking out, and you might be pleasantly surprised at how much you could save. This is also true on all your other energy and essential suppliers. It’s very easy for a business to renew contracts year in and year out because that’s the hassle-free option, but it pays to spend some time looking for other options, as finding a provider for cheaper might be able to free up some cash that can be used in other aspects of your business. For example, saving half a grand a year and being able to put that into your marketing budget is much more valuable than just wasting it on energy expenses.
4. Influencer marketing
 There are many types of digital marketing that businesses should be utilising in 2021 to increase brand awareness and improve their reputation, but few are as effective as influencer marketing. Getting those with influence and reach in your industry to recommend your business and products/services can have a huge impact on your sales, reputation, and brand awareness and is certainly an area worth investing in. The reason this works is that these social leaders have built an audience that trusts them and their recommendations, so they have a lot of sway and pull in their niche. Now, it’s always going to be hard and expensive partnering with a global influencer with millions of followers if you’re a small to medium-sized business, but it doesn’t mean that you should discredit smaller influencers. Accounts with 1K-10K followers are much more attainable and can be convinced to showcase your product in exchange for a free gift, so partnering with a lot of them can be sensible and help get your product infront of more people.
5. Automate as much as possible
 You should also be looking to automate as much of the business as you can in 2021, as this can help to improve efficiency, reduce costs, eliminate errors, and increase your output while reducing stress for you and your team. There are many processes and areas of the business that can be automated by software, and as we move out of the pandemic, this could be helpful in maximising performance while also reducing stress if you are feeling overburdened. Automation can help staff members claw back more time to work on other projects or even give them an opportunity to work on themselves. For example, sometimes organising the finances can take a member of staff hours to process. With a dedicated piece of software up and running, this same staff member will only have to input a few variables to get a deep analysis instantly. The same is said for an HR staff member creating a work calendar manually. Getting scheduling software can help them instantly make a company-wide calendar easily, giving them more time to spend on other tasks, boosting productivity.
 These are a few of the best business upgrades that you can make in 2021, and hopefully, this post will inspire you to make a few positive changes moving forward that, when implemented, can really help give your business the boost it needs to thrive this year and in the future.
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