Starting a business can be a challenge, but maintaining it can be an even bigger challenge. There is a myriad of things to worry about when it comes to running a business. What is it that keeps you awake at night? We’ve compiled a list of some of the most significant obstacles that face business owners.

Increasing Profitability

Over 3/4 of businesses fail due to a lack of cash flow.  The number 1 challenge businesses face is managing money or cash flow issues. There needs to be enough revenue coming in to cover bills, overhead costs, unexpected cost, etc. One solution may be to put some money into reserve. Another solution may be to use a money management tool or create a budget.

Many businesses face clients stalling payments or outstanding bills.  Using an online invoice system, such as Freshbooks, may be the answer here. Sending an invoice can be a friendly reminder to clients that their payment is now due.

Improving customer service is key to increasing profitability. A CRM enables you to provide clients with the seamless customer service by allowing you to

• better follow-up with clients.  Interactions with clients recommended actions, and general notes can be documented in Dynamics 365, and your whole team can see it.
• reminders to follow up with a particular lead, opportunity, or client. In this way, Dynamics 365 provides you with a 360 view of your client

Another key to increasing profitability is digital innovation. “86% of CEOs say digital transformation is their number one priority,” reports a recent Price Waterhouse Cooper study. We hear about digital transformation all the time, but what exactly does it mean?  Microsoft defines Digital Transformation as ” re-imagining how you bring together people, data, and processes to create value for your customers and maintain a competitive advantage in a digital-first world.” To learn more about digital transformation, download our free whitepaper entitled What the Heck is Digital Transformation and What Does it Mean for Your Business?”.

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To read some concrete examples of some companies that enCloud9 recently collaborated with and how exactly we helped them on their Digital Transformation, click here.

Finding and Retaining Profitable Clients

Another challenge businesses face is finding and retaining valuable clients. Customers are the heart of any business.  Without them, businesses would cease to exist.  Clients are not dependent on us.  We are dependent on them.

Unfortunately, in many businesses, it’s not WHAT you know, it’s WHO you know. Now with the integration between LinkedIn and Dynamics 365- LinkedIn suggests contacts, leads, and possible connections that could introduce you. 

•  Microsoft Relationship Sales allows you to foster your customer relationships by combining LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Dynamics 365 for Sales. 

Hiring the Right People

• LinkedIn TalentSource in Dynamics 365 allows you to
  • hire the right people. You can expand your searches beyond your own personal connections and you have access to over 500 million LinkedIn members. You can also search faster with the many easy-to-use search filters and recommendations. The “Find more people like” feature lets you create a search based on ideal candidates you might already know.
  • contact any candidate via InMail.  You now can reach out to candidates quickly through InMail – LinkedIn’s trusted messaging environment.
  • manage your talent pipeline. Keep track of the candidates you want to hire now or in the future with folders, reminders and smart to-do lists.

• Once you have hired the right people, you need to onboard or train them. Dynamics 365 CRM has a great add-on available to install from the Dynamics Marketplace called Coaching. Coaching enables organizations to quickly onboard new employees by combining two favorite Dynamics 365 features – Business Process Flows and the Knowledgebase
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To learn more about the coaching add-on, click here.

Marketing

There are many marketing challenges businesses face. We’ve chosen some of the top concerns, and offer followed by some solutions.

• generating traffic and leads– There are many things to consider.
  • Are you producing quality content?
  • Are you producing content that your audience is interested in or wants?
    • More consumers today want to see videos, rather than another blog.
  • Are you producing unique content? In today’s market, content inundates people’s inboxes.  You want your content to stand out and get someone open and read it.
  • Are you putting your focus on the right social media platforms? With so many platforms in which to publish content, it can be difficult to know where to focus your efforts. You need to really look at which platforms have been the most prosperous for you.
• measuring the ROI of their marketing efforts
  • By establishing links between marketing activities and sales results, you can directly see how many leads and customers are generated through your marketing activities.  You can establish these links by using marketing software and a CRM solution, such as Dynamics 365 and tying them together with an SLA (service-level agreement).
• securing enough budget for their marketing campaign.
  • How much of an ROI do you see as a result of your marketing efforts? The biggest indicator of how much to allot for your marketing campaigns is the measurement of your ROI.

Tiredness or fatigue

As a result of being pulled and stretched in many different directions, most business owners experience tiredness or fatigue. Fatigue can lead to being forgetful, cranky, making careless mistakes, lack of focus, or not paying enough attention to existing clients or prospects.

With Dynamics 365, you can

• delegate tasks.
• automate simple tasks.
• create schedules to keep you on task.
• segment your day by prioritizing tasks.

In Conclusion

There are many challenges and obstacles business owners face every day.  A CRM, such as Dynamics 365, can help alleviate some of that stress.  We’d love to hear about your business and how we can help you to be more productive.