{"id":1758,"date":"2021-12-03T03:42:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T19:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2021-12-03T03:42:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T19:42:30","slug":"5-steps-to-modernize-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/5-steps-to-modernize-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Steps to Modernize Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here\u2019s something that every business owner needs to know: modernizing your business is a piece of cake. Sure, it requires a little effort and financial investment, but it\u2019s not even <em>close<\/em> to the challenge you think it is.<\/p>\n<p>No matter how big or small your business is, it\u2019s time to bring it into the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century. No more fax machines, no more dated website designs, and no more bad customer service. It\u2019s <em>out<\/em> with the old, <em>in<\/em> with the new.<\/p>\n<p>So, when you&#8217;re ready, let&#8217;s examine the five steps you need to take to modernize your business. And don\u2019t worry, even if you\u2019re an \u2018old school\u2019 type of businessperson, you\u2019ll soon get the grasp of everything!<\/p>\n<h2><strong>1.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>Screen Job Applicants <em>Before<\/em> Hiring Them <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As every business manager and HR department can attest to, hiring the right employees is difficult.<\/p>\n<p>On paper, a candidate could seem incredible. However, after hiring them, you could soon discover that they&#8217;re a troublemaker with a history of causing problems \u2013 which is a nightmare you don&#8217;t want to happen.<\/p>\n<p>This is why thoroughly screening your job applicants is essential. You can\u2019t afford to cut corners: <em>every<\/em> employee must be screened. The reasons for this are simple:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You reduce the risk of fraud and theft<\/li>\n<li>Your staff remain safe<\/li>\n<li>Your public reputation won\u2019t take any damage<\/li>\n<li>You avoid any costly lawsuits<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, as you might already know, screening job applicants is difficult. Sure, you can examine their social media pages, but that\u2019s not enough. Instead, you need to do a fast <em>and<\/em> detailed background check.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, you can get help with job candidate screening from <a href=\"https:\/\/datacheckinc.com\/\">DataCheck<\/a>, which are industry experts. They will make life easy for your HR department \u2013 ensuring that you only hire the most talented employees.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>2.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>Use a VoIP Phone System <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The next step in your journey is to use a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/360-reviews\/business\/business-phone-systems\/best-voip-business-phone-systems\">VoIP phone system<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you and your team members spend a lot of time making phone calls in the office or remotely, a VoIP phone system (which is basically a digital phone system where you can make calls over the internet using your laptops and smartphones) is going to take your communications to a <em>whole<\/em> new level.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>3.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>Market Your Business on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Pretty soon, traditional marketing strategies \u2013 such as radio advertisements and leaflets \u2013 are going to become obsolete. This is because digital marketing \u2013 specifically, social media marketing \u2013 has taken over.<\/p>\n<p>Now, to be a modern business, you need to have business pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These three platforms allow you to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Communicate with your customers<\/li>\n<li>Quickly post company news and updates<\/li>\n<li>Promote your products and services<\/li>\n<li>Provide customer service<\/li>\n<li>Save costs compared to traditional marketing methods (after all, social media is free to use)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, if you don\u2019t already, make sure to join these platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Also, don\u2019t forget about LinkedIn, which is essentially the professional, business-based version of Facebook.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>4.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>Collect Customer Email Addresses and Phone Numbers <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Email and SMS marketing are also incredibly important. This is why you should collect customer email addresses and phone numbers at every opportunity. For example, you could start a scheme whereby, in order to get product discounts, customers need to register their email addresses through your website.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>5.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><strong>Invest in Reusable Packaging <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Lastly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/culture-council\/panels\/barriers-businesses-eco-friendly-1255459\/\">being a modern business is all about eco-friendliness<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, you should be using reusable packaging. This way, customers can recycle your packaging and (when they aren\u2019t satisfied with a product) use it to send their returns back to you.<\/p>\n<p>This way, you can save the planet <em>and<\/em> cut down on your business costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1761,"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions\/1761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hitsteps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}