While we are living in the digital age with new technologies entering the market every day, several small businesses still haven’t quite been able to keep up.
The reason? Might be a lack of funds, the right employees, or just insufficient resources.
However, a recent study has shown that digital transformation for small businesses leads to more efficiency, more satisfied customers, and more revenue. But to reach here, we need to understand what exactly digital transformation is and what it means for small businesses.
In this article we’ll cover:
- What is meant by digital transformation?
- How to drive digital transformation for small businesses?
- Benefits of digitalization for small businesses
- What is the purpose of the CDAP program?
What is Meant by Digital Transformation?
Simply put, digital transformation refers to the journey of a physical commodity or a service into its digital equivalent. After this is done, it is then used to enhance existing business operations.
For instance, the best example of digital transformation for small businesses would be shifting to a remote setup or workspace and then carrying out the day-to-day tasks virtually. Tasks such as operating cloud technologies, managing automation, and so on.
This helps in cutting down on the number of employees, freeing up money, and improving efficiency at the same time. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that just operating remotely can help you digitalize your business or pull off a “digital transformation”.
How to Successfully Carry Out Digital Transformation?
First up, as a business owner or someone who wants to start a business someday, you need to learn that understanding the different aspects of digital transformation is vital.
It has been widely observed that most digitally mature businesses started out with an extensive and well-thought strategy for the implementation of new technologies.
Of course, you will encounter several issues such as cybersecurity, unclear benefits, or steep costs. However, you need to know that’s where strategic planning and understanding the technology come into play and help you avoid these or other such roadblocks.
How to Drive Digital Transformation for Small Businesses?
The digitalization process can seem pretty daunting. Follow these steps to get started:
- Figure out what your business needs
Understand where you are at in your digitization journey by comparing your current status with your competition and learning about the areas for improvement. Do an internal assessment and list out the exact areas of improvement.
- Create a plan of action
Based on your assessment and research, create a plan with your team, and don’t forget to prioritize your goals. Target your biggest issues first. As you start working on the plan, you’ll identify certain areas of your business that need to be online sooner than others.
For example, helping your customers reach you faster with the help of a chatbot or carrying out online surveys to see what exactly your customers want.
- Analyze the results with the help of data
Learn how exactly your digitization journey is panning out by employing data analytics. Track how your customers interact with your business, where their interests lie, and how exactly you can work on improving your existing plans.
These three steps act as a loop that you can keep following to improve your operations each day and successfully carry out the digital transformation of small businesses.
Benefits of Digitalization for Small Businesses
There are several advantages of digitalization for small businesses. The four primary ones are:
- Most consumers are now digitally savvy and they prefer the brands or businesses they interact with to be the same. Therefore, it helps in improving customer engagement.
- One of the top benefits is the streamlining of processes. Earlier, tasks that used to take hours and required a lot of manual labor can now be completed by a single person in a matter of minutes.
- It also opens up new and varied avenues of income since digital products and services are the need of the hour. Just by staying aligned with the needs of your customers, you can stay relevant.
- Saves employees from having to do tedious and time-consuming tasks. It frees up their time to optimize their work and improve the overall efficiency of the company. Therefore, it leads to happier employees.
Therefore, digitalization is a journey that every business, no matter the size, needs to make in order to stay ahead in the ever-increasing competition.
What is the Purpose of the CDAP Program?
Introduced by the Government of Canada, the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) helps small and medium-sized businesses implement digital technologies to improve their operations and stay in the competition.
If you want to learn how you can take the help of this program to further your business, reach out to digital advisor CDAP and take the first step towards digitalization today!
