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Billing for SMBs: Small to Medium-Sized Businesses Face Big Business Challenges

By March 7, 2019August 15th, 2022No Comments

Ubersmith - For SMBs: Businesses and Business Challenges

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are simultaneously the most groundbreaking and most vulnerable businesses around. They are lean and agile, existing on the cutting edge of innovation, but they are also adversely impacted by things like cash flow and project management, something that large corporations can be less concerned with.

It’s a unique challenge for SMBs. In the busyness of cultivating a thriving business, everyone is often involved in everything, and efficiency and effectiveness are especially important.

The Challenge of SMB Culture

In many cases, SMBs rely on a small staff that embraces an all-in approach to business functionality but without a dedicated team to handle critical tasks like billing and record keeping. This arrangement is part of the SMB culture, but it also exacerbates some of their most pressing problems.

For example, as many as 82% of SMBs fail because of cash flow problems. While businesses of all sizes rely on revenue to survive, SMBs are even more sensitive to this issue. They cannot afford to lose earnings or to track down delinquent payments.

To put it simply, for SMBs, getting the bills paid on time is a big deal.
Making matters worse, outdated and inefficient billing systems can’t help solve the problem, and nearly a quarter of the average workday is spent on manual data input, something that costs money, often results in errors, and doesn’t improve the company’s financial prospects.

That’s not to say that SMBs desire to be stuck in this predicament. However, with 66% of SMB owners handling three or more areas of their business, it’s difficult to find the time or resources to develop a better methodology.

A Software-Centered Solution

Fortunately, SMBs don’t have to hire more personnel or master an additional specialty to solve this problem. Instead, flexible and comprehensive billing software that’s both easy-to-use and cost-effective is the solution for improving many areas of a business.

Here’s what choosing the right software can do for your company.

Streamlined Operations

Billing and invoices are critical components of customer relationship management (CRM), but this process quickly becomes complicated and convoluted.

Therefore, the best CRM billing software includes a unified customer view so you can have full visibility of relevant customer data. This feature saves time while reducing errors.

In this way, every component of the customer experience, from onboarding to invoicing, is accessible from a single screen.

At the same time, this feature can account for one of the most time-consuming business tasks – customer service, which ensures that business isn’t just recorded accurately but is repeated frequently.

Simplified Billing

Automation is the key to efficiency, and, when it comes to billing, it’s the tool that streamlines the billing process. Automated billing processes save valuable staff time, create more accurate invoices, and ensure that payments are collected on time.

When coupled with an order management system, order fulfillment and billing cycles are streamlined so that employees can focus on more intricate matters of customer success while having confidence in their software to support the business.

Empower Your Customers

Increasingly, customer success is predicated on transparency and clarity. Therefore, comprehensive business management software includes a client portal that gives customers full visibility, allowing them to manage their accounts and to make payments online.

This can significantly reduce the workload for SMB employees as ordering, invoicing, and customer support can be self-directed by the client.

Meanwhile, a software-based device manager provides a full view of company resources including location-based inventory tracking and customer service associations.

Taken together, this creates an empowered customer service experience that reduces the work for SMBs while fostering customer relationships.

Grow Your Business

When billing is conducted efficiently and customer service is integrated into an SMB’s platform, it’s possible to focus on growth and innovation, which is what SMBs do best.

The right business management software is scalable, so your business is adequately equipped for growth. The best platform will include:

  • Configurable and customizable product catalogs that can accommodate an expanding product or service offering.
  • API integration for third-party services like electronic payments systems, tax calculations, and other functions that address critical business components.
  • A sales management system featuring integrated sales quoting with lead and opportunity tracking.

These features make it possible for any business to accommodate growth while keeping an eye on essential tasks like invoicing and inventory management.

Conclusion

For SMBs to succeed, they need to use their resources efficiently. By empowering customers to self-direct their interaction with your business and by embracing a software-based billing solution, any SMB can improve their efficiency, productivity, and net returns.

The right business management platform can save your company time and money, streamline operations, and improve customer satisfaction so you can focus on cultivating your business.

Contact Ubersmith today to find out how our comprehensive and flexible business management solution can help you grow your business.

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