Small-Business Owners Expand with Home-Grown IT Solutions

Small-Business Owners Expand Their Businesses with Home-Grown IT Solutions For many small business owners, IT solutions are a huge struggle, mainly due to budgetary restrictions, see how they’re coming up with their own solutions.

Gone are the days when our technological solutions were limited to email, Microsoft office and other basic apps. For the last few years, we all have observed a drastic shift in our technology. Today, we are using advanced cloud computing, SaaS and fast mobile devices. These small changes have contributed a lot to the way we work and earn. The advancement in technology is not slowing down. Every year, we experience a new boom in technology and it is expected that this advancement will keep on rising with each passing day.

However, this advancement in technology is normal for many small business owners. They put their budget in this technology to reap the benefits in their business. Business owners are more concerned about the customized IT solutions so that they can resolve their specific problems in minutes.

However, some small business firms do not have their own IT department. They are unable to maintain an in-house team of IT. The other solution for them is to go for an external consultant but it is expensive and small businesses usually do not have this much budget.

Resolving issues with visual programming

Now, there is only one solution to the problem and that is having a non-technical person to resolve this issue with a customized software. This is possible because we have the solution of visual programming today. With the help of visual programming, we can develop our own software to cater to own specific problems. Visual programming enables us to rebuild and restructure things in the same way as a technical person could have. It does not mean that your laptop’s screen will show lines of codes that are unfamiliar to you. As the name “visual programming” suggests, the codes will be visual. You just need to drag and drop things that you must have already done on social media sites, websites and many other apps.

Small business owners can easily resolve their specific issues or even run their entire business with the help of visual programming even if they have zero knowledge of the field of programming. For instance, a carpet cleaners London outlet had four employees in the beginning and the outlet was managing the work with the use of Microsoft office and cloud. The owner used One Note for their own records and business deals. However, the business grew fast and the number of employees increased. They realized that Microsoft Office and One Note are not enough to run the business anymore and searched for some accounting software that was available online but it was unable to resolve all of the needs. Besides this, this software was expensive as well. The owner had heard about visual programming and knew that it is ideal for those who have minimum knowledge of IT solutions. They visited one of the platforms of visual programming and decided on developing their own customized software that will address the customized needs of the small business.

In this way, they did automatic lead management, managed to send letters and e-mails automatically and used the built-in forms in the most effective manner. Thus, with the passage of time, it became a home-grown IT solution for the cleaning business.

Visual programming can resolve every workflow challenge

Visual programming platforms are so easy to use and they can resolve every work-related query. For instance, if a company has started growing, it needs to hire new employees and managing these new employees is not a simple task. The HR department has a big responsibility on its shoulders. There is a lot of paperwork for the new hires. Besides this, the training material required for each employee is different. Similarly, there is a need for safety equipment and the verification process is also complex. In order to make it simple, small businesses can make their home-grown IT solution. They can develop an app that can list the requirements of the new hires. By combining multiple steps into one portal, things can become easier and streamlined.

In the same way, the visual app builder can help in expense reports. One can use the visual application to automatically attach the bills and receipts to the reports. All this can happen with just a single click and the manager just needs to sign it after giving confirmation.

How to build your customized solution? 1.     Try to solve a simple problem in your first go

Think and see what the problems are that you want to solve with a custom solution. Select the basic problems in the beginning. Pick the ones that can be resolved in a couple of weeks. It can be a spreadsheet issue, a Word documentation problem or a file transfer thing. Once you get successful in resolving the basic issue, you will get the courage to resolve the complex problems.

2.     Use free trials to build prototype

The tools of visual programming allow you to do free experiments. Once you sign up, you can start assembling a data model, custom process and interface with a simple drag and drop solution. Start practicing and make use of prototyping.

3.     Take help from multiple online platforms

If you are facing any problem in learning the basics, you can simply search for an online video. There are tons of videos on YouTube to guide you. You can join webinars or be part of multiple communities. If you are having a specific problem, you can post it on the community to get a quick response.

In short, developing a customized solution is a process of trial and error. It might take some time in the initial stage but you will learn a lot of things through it. Keep on prototyping until you get the desired thing. Share the results with your team and make recommendations. If you stay consistent with your efforts and keep on tweaking the app as per your needs, you will definitely get a good product at the end. These are the benefits of visual programming that are helping thousands of businesses around the globe.

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by Chris London of Pixel Productions Inc. The Everything Design Company