Business growth is the product of well-researched and productive hard work. Yet, it is challenging to find exactly where you spend excess time and how to maximize your workflows. If you've run out of ideas, you should look to technology to get where you need to go. Here is how you can be using a POS system to grow your small business.
What Is a POS System?
A POS system is the software and hardware that businesses use to manage their day-to-day operations. From customer engagement to back-of-house tasks, a POS system provides efficiency to managers and staff alike. As a small business, the faster you can accomplish tasks, the more effectively you can use your time. A POS system will streamline your workflow and simplify your work, all within a highly integrated and secure platform.
How Can It Foster Growth?
This technology may sound too good to be true, but the reality is that a POS system is the bedrock of successful businesses in many industries. Retail stores, restaurants, hotels—business owners trust POS systems to foster growth and simplify their work. These are the core functionalities of a POS system that can help grow your small business.
Transaction Processing
Your goal is to have customers purchase your products or services; but how do you process these transactions? If you run a brick-and-mortar operation, your customers could present any number of acceptable cash forms. From hard cash to credit cards to e-wallets, you must have a system to handle each of these payments. A POS system comes with an integrated payment processing software that will accept and categorize each payment type. This way, you'll never have to tell customers you don't accept cash or that they can't use credit cards at your business.
Inventory Management
Your inventory is critical to your ability to entice customers and keep them returning. As a retailer, you need new products every season and a significant backstock of popular items. If you run a restaurant, you need a well-managed inventory to keep food on people's plates. No matter the industry of your small business, you need a high-quality, accurate inventory management system.
A POS system can help! You'll undoubtedly have a person checking your stock day in and day out, but they need some way of tracking the items. POS software can handle these complex calculations and recordkeeping so you don't have to worry. Since a POS system integrates both the back-of-house inventory and the customer transactions upfront, it can automatically change your inventory numbers based on what people buy. For example, if you have twenty tilapias, a POS system can track how many customers order the fish and deduct the outgoing fish from your backstock. This way, you will have an accurate count every time you check. You can also set up low-stock alerts to reorder your items before you run out.
Employee Management
You couldn't run your business without your employees. But any staff size requires significant time to manage—time you could spend doing other business-critical tasks. A POS system can reduce the time you spend interacting with employees on matters they can handle independently.
One of the most time-consuming and challenging parts of organizing your staff is scheduling. Whether you manage a retail store or restaurant, you have shift-based employees who only work a set number of hours in the morning or evening. Since many people have changing needs and availabilities, you could spend hours putting the scheduling puzzle together. Instead, you can allow employees to schedule themselves through your POS system, removing you from the equation altogether. You can still see and manage the schedule, but you don't have to play the delicate balancing act of filling shift slots each week.
A POS system can also aid in new-hire training, especially on the sales system. From cashiers to waiters, you need staff who can competently and quickly use your system to meet customer needs. A POS system comes with training programs that'll help your team learn how to navigate your software's nuances. Additionally, POS systems can organize personal information and regulate payroll, both of which would otherwise require your oversight. With all this extra time, you can focus on business growth opportunities!
Loyalty Rewards
You value your customers, especially those that return for your products or services time and time again. If you don't have a loyalty rewards program, you need one—and one run by a POS system. This technology can manage customer profiles and track how many purchases people make at your store. It can then inform both the customer and employee when discounts and promotions are available.
Gift Cards
Gift cards are a simple way to boost brand awareness and profits simultaneously. A POS system can help you manage a gift card program and integrate it into your payment processing portal. With such easy-to-use software, you can maximize your profits with gift cards and encourage customers to use them.
Accounting and Financial Information
At the end of the day, you are in business to make a profit. Even if you love what you do, you began a small business around your hobby or idea to monetize your endeavors. Without an organized financial situation, you could lose money, improperly handle your taxes, or fail to stick to your budget.
A POS system will help you in all your financial tasks. Whether you or a staff member handle the accounting part of the operation, POS technology will seamlessly harness the information from your customer transactions and employee payroll into accessible reports. If you run a retail operation, you will want retail accounting software like ours at Business Software Solutions. Otherwise, you could have a difficult time organizing and understanding your financial data.
Once you begin using a POS system to grow your small business, you'll never go back. Who doesn't want an all-in-one platform to handle their business logistics? With the right technology backing your work, you can quickly improve operations and move towards growth. If you have any questions about POS systems or our products at Business Software Solutions, reach out to our team of specialists today!
