Technology is the engine behind your small business and one of the most important components to seeing it shine.
Alexis Cash joins us as host for today’s Evolve Small Advisor Series webinar. A Lenovo Evolve Small Ambassador, Alexis has been with Lenovo for over 7 years, sharing her passion for exploring the intersection between technology and education.
She’s also worked closely with several Evolve Small grant winners, including our guest today, Ashley Chatman, better known as Fit Body by Ashley. An online influencer and fitness coach, Ashley’s goals is to “[help] women feel good in their bodies and get fit with fun dance workouts, so they feel healthier, happier, and more self-confident.”
Alexis and Ashley sit down to discuss the importance of the tech stack for small business owners. As an Evolve Small grant winner, Ashley was able to work with Lenovo’s top teams who helped her build a tech stack that would best benefit her and her team in their remote working environment.
Before we dive into today’s discussion, let’s break down some of the basics, including:
- What is a tech stack?
- Why is building a tech stack important for your business?
- How can you build an effective tech stack?
What Is A Tech Stack?
Simply put, a tech stack is the strategic combination and integration of various technologies and software solutions to meet specific business needs. It’s about building a cohesive and efficient ecosystem of tools that work seamlessly together, creating a synergy that enhances overall business operations.
How Can A Tech Stack Boost Your Small Business?
- Enhancing Efficiency: Small businesses often face resources constraints, making efficiency a top priority. A tech stack allows them to automate repetitive tasks, manage workflows seamlessly, and optimize their operations. From project management tools to customer relationship management (CRM) systems, the right tech stack can significantly boost efficiency.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Investing in technology might seem daunting for small businesses with tight budgets, but a tech stack can actually be a cost-effective strategy. By carefully selecting tools that align with specific business needs, small enterprises can avoid unnecessary expenses and create a customized solution that maximizes their return on investment.
- Scalability: One of the beautiful aspects of a tech stack is its scalability. As small businesses grow, their needs evolve. A well-thought-out tech stack can adapt to these changes, accommodating new tools and technologies that support the business’s expansion. This scalability ensures that the tech stack remains a valuable asset rather than a hindrance.
- Better Collaboration and Communication: Effective communication and collaboration are vital for any business, regardless of its size. A tech stack provides small businesses with tools that facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among team members, regardless of their physical location. This fosters a more connected and productive work environment.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Today’s data-driven landscape demands access to insightful analytics. A tech stack allows small businesses to implement tools that gather and analyze data, providing valuable insights that can inform strategic decision-making. From sales analytics to consumer behavior, data-driven decision-making becomes more accessible.
- Competitive Edge in the Market: A well-crafted tech stack can set small businesses apart from their competitors. Leveraging the right mix of technologies means these enterprises deliver better products and services, enhance customer experiences, and ultimately gain a competitive edge in the market.
How To Build An Effective Tech Stack:
- Identify Business Needs
- Conduct a thorough analysis of your business processes and identify areas where technology can make a significant impact.
- Research and Evaluate
- Research various tools available in the market and evaluate their features, compatibility, and user reviews.
- Consider scalability and the potential for integration with existing systems.
- Integration Strategy
- Plan how the selected tools will integrate with each other. Ensure that data flows smoothly between different components of the tech stack.
- Training and Adopting
- Provide training to employees on using the new technologies. User adoption is key to realizing the full potential of the tech stack.
- Regular Review and Updates
- The tech landscape evolves rapidly. Regularly review your tech stack to ensure it remains aligned with your business goals.
- Update or replace tools as needed to stay ahead of industry trends.
Q&A
Alexis: What role has tech played in the growth of your business?
Ashley: I am a fully remote virtual business, so pretty much everything that I do is online. As a result, tech plays a huge role in my day-to-day. I need to be able to access the internet and computers and software to be able to connect with not only my broader community, but my clients.
So, it’s played a huge role. Before being connected to Evolve Small and being able to access the amazing tech stack that I have now, I was facing challenges in terms of my tech. I do have a team that’s virtual as well and they had workstations that were not as up to date to be able to help them with the work and processes that they take care of for my business.
In addition to that, I definitely needed an upgrade just in terms of my livestream set up. I wanted to be able to have better quality video and sound to deliver overall better product to my clients. In terms of the actual content itself, I had all my content scattered throughout these different places and because my team is virtual and they’re in different parts of the world, it was really difficult for me to be able to safely share content and information in a way that would allow us to still continue running the business effectively.
Alexis: What were some of the things that you were thinking about when you were with me and figuring out what we could help you with technology wise?
Ashley: It took me a second to go, “well, okay, what do I actually need?” I think I kind of came forward with, okay, well, I definitely know that I want to be able to help upgrade some of my team's workstations. I want to be able to have some type of cloud server to be able to host all of my content and be able to share that with my team more effectively.
I also wanted to be able to upgrade some of my video content. Those are just some of the things that came to me as I was going along. A big shout out to Alexis for all of her hard work. I also just really appreciated how you met me where I was in the process. You were hands on and didn’t just throw a bunch of products at me, you made sure the technology that was chosen would really benefit my business to fill in the gaps for what was going to support me best.
Alexis: Looking at your business today after everything's been installed and you've been using it for a while, what are some of the tech solutions that are making the biggest difference for you?
Ashley: I would say the server that we have has made a huge, huge difference for my team and I, because as I mentioned before, I had content and documents kind of scattered all over the place, and it wasn't as organized.
Not having that server slowed down the communication between my team and our workflow. And so now that we have access to that and my team is able to tap into the server, everything is safe and secure. My team is able to go in and just manage their tasks a lot better. It seems like we have a more productive flow now.
I really love the accessibility components of my tech stack. I have a tablet and a power bank that allows me to be a bit more on-the-go with my business. For my team members, I’ve seen an increase in productivity on their end because their machines are running faster. They're able to access software that they didn't have before. It’s helped us to operate in a more seamless way and just be more productive overall in our day-to-day tests.
Alexis: Looking at the future, what does expansion look like for Fit Body by Ashley?
Ashley: Wow, definitely expansion. I’m learning the importance of delegation and letting go and not feeling like you have to be the one to do every single thing in your business all the time. I really am seeing now just how important it is to allow other people to live in their own lanes and zones of genius, so that I can continue focusing more on CEO tasks and continuing to use the tech that we have now. I feel like that's [going to be] be one of the biggest drivers.
It has helped us to create more of a streamlined process on how we create, deliver, post, and publish content, as well as how we continue to work together. I think in addition to that it's going to be about really listening to our customers and our clients and saying, okay, here's some of the common requests or feedback that we're getting, and how can we accommodate.
Something that I like to do every single quarter is just send out surveys saying, "Hey, what are some things that you would like to see? What are some areas of improvement?" That feedback really helps to drive what decisions that we make and what we feel like we need to upgrade from there.
Alexis: This makes me think about some of the things that we included in your package, one of them being warranty support.
Lenovo premier support was created because we had customers that were saying we don't want to be stuck on the phone if something goes down – we need immediate help. At Lenovo, we want to be able to jump to level two and be able to provide that support.
We listened to our customers, and we created this service for them. It was important to me to make sure that you also had that because I know it's important to you to show up to your customers in the same way.
What are the core elements of your tech stack?
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