It\u2019s a great time to be an internet-based business in the UK. The digital economy is worth about \u00a31 billion worldwide (and growing quickly), and the EU is one of the most digitally forward regions in the world, with 72% of Europeans using the Internet weekly and 60% of using it daily. There are huge opportunities out there for businesses that work digitally, but despite this\u2026<\/p>\n
Only 2% of businesses take full advantage of digital opportunities.<\/strong><\/p>\n Studies show that in the UK alone, small businesses could have as much as \u00a318.8 billion in incremental revenue if they improved their digital skills \u2014 not surprising when you consider that businesses grow 2 – 3 times faster when they use digital technology than when they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n We\u2019re hugely into online business here at Clear Books. We\u2019ve been supporting businesses in going digital from day one, and we\u2019ve seen amazing things happen for those businesses as a result. So if you\u2019re thinking of going digital (or even just a bit more digital than you are now), we\u2019ve got three suggestions for you.<\/p>\n Little changes, big wins<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Set up one or two social media profiles and actually engage with your customers.<\/p>\n The second part is the most important here. Small businesses have a huge opportunity to differentiate themselves from bigger ones on social media, because almost no big businesses actually use social media to build one on one relationships with their customers. For instance, 54% of the top 100 global brands send less than one @ reply tweet on Twitter a day. (Meaning they directly engage with less than one follower per day.)<\/p>\n 2. Use easy digital solutions for things you might otherwise outsource.<\/p>\n Outsourcing can be a great way to get things off your plate so you can focus on your business, but there are a lot of online programmes that you can use for everyday stuff. Just like you\u2019ve got Clear Books for accounting, there are programmes for everything from decluttering your inbox to creating images for your business, so have a look around to see if there are any you might benefit from.<\/p>\n 3. If you\u2019re just starting out, start small. It can be overwhelming to try to create a huge digital presence if you\u2019re new to it. The good news is, you don\u2019t have to. As long as you can get a halfway decent website up (and there are lots of free programmes to help with that) and a few social media channels, that\u2019s already a good start. The important thing is to start, because the online business isn\u2019t going away \u2014 and even a basic digital presence can do wonders for your business.<\/p>\n Your turn: how has going digital helped your business? Or if you\u2019re not there yet, how do you want your business to change after going digital? Tell us below in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a great time to be an internet-based business in the UK. The digital economy is worth about \u00a31 billion worldwide (and growing quickly), and the EU is one of the most digitally forward regions in the world, with 72% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":21555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n