Barely Business

Hey everyone, Today’s blog we will be discussing how small businesses can use Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to compete with big online brands. SEO is all about making sure your company is the first to be seen when customers use their browsers like google, this can be a free way for businesses to gain customers and sales. As most people don’t scroll past the first page of search engines it is vital that small businesses are ranked high on this list to compete with bigger brands who can afford to pay for the website to be shown at the top.↑ There are a few ways in which small businesses can improve their ranking: Improve website design: Making sure the businesses website is easy to navigate and user-friendly is vital as it improves customer experience and drives more customers to the website, adding call to action feature like “book a consultation” making it clear to the customers will also improve rankings.💻 Local customers: Using certain keywords can attract local custome...

Hey Everyone, This week’s blog will be discussing the evolution of internet technologies from web 1.0 to web 3.0. While researching this topic I realised how lucky we are with the internet technologies we have now compared to the last decade. If you are a like me, a Gen Z then you probably remember a small bit about the older internet generation, I remember the only internet I could access was on the giant desktop that would sound like an airplane taking off when I turned it on and would only have basic information. Nowadays, we have what seems like unlimited access and an abundance of information at our fingertips, so let’s talk about the stages the internet went through to get to where we are now; Web 1.0 – This was the first generation of the web from 1990’s to the early 2000’s known as the static web; this was like a read-only web where you could access information but could not interact with it.🖥 Web 2.0 – Introduced in the mid-2000’s, known as the social web. This web a...

Welcome back, This will be discussing cloud-based analytics for small businesses this week… I know sounds absolutely riveting but stay with me. We love small businesses here, (support local and all that) so let’s give them some time to shine. To start, cloud-based analytics is storing and analysing data on cloud computing platforms instead of having on-site infrastructure. So, what does this mean for small businesses? 1.        Customer data: Data on customer preferences, purchase history and browsing patterns are stored. Allowing them to understand their customer base so they can make changes to their business to mould around their customers. 2.        Finance: It stores data on products and sales, for examples best-selling/ least-selling products, number of items sold and trends. It can also track revenue, they can store financial information like total revenue, profits margins etc. 3.      Inventory: It all...

 Hey Everyone, Welcome to this weeks blog 🙌 I will be talking about SaaS ERP for SMEs, please don't leave yet I promise those random letters do actually mean something. The long-winded way of saying it is Software-as-a-Service Enterprise Resource Planning for Small to Medium Enterprises.  Basically, ERP software systems allow business owners to manage vital aspects of their business like HR, Finance, sales, etc all on one platform (very mindful, very demure). Typically, ERPs would be hosted on-premises, meaning substantial upfront costs for businesses, however, with the introduction of SaaS, ERPs can now be cloud-based. Some reasons why SaaS ERP are so beneficial for SMEs: Efficiency: Many SMEs do not have the resources to have designated employees for all these areas of the business, these systems help to automate certain aspects of the business such as generating sales invoices so that employers have more time to do strategic work rather than administra...

Welcome back, In today’s blog we will discuss the rise in digital payment systems and what happened for it to go from “cash is king” to “do you take rev?”.😕 Let’s start off by going through the reasons I think digital payment systems became so popular. Convenience and security, these are the main reason I personally use digital payments, because now I don’t need to carry a purse anymore I just need my phone ( which shamefully I have 24/7). I also don’t need to do that awkward thing when you have to count change in front of someone at checkout, lose count and get stressed (maybe that’s just me😖). There was also Covid-19, I hate to bring it up, but it is major reason behind why digital payments became so popular, no one wanted to risk getting infected, so paying for everything contactless became the norm.😷 The only negatives I can think of really is that extreme humbling moment when you go to tap your phone to buy a coffee, and you get “insufficient funds” popping up on the card...

  Welcome back,  It's me again! I'm back to talk about if the Southeast of Ireland is a good place to invest for a tech firm. Yes. Unfortunately, I must elaborate because its business and it's never going to be that easy.😔 The most obvious point to make here I think is that we have a multiple third level institution's like SETU Waterford, Wexford and Carlow, WCFE and Carlow college who offer educated workers (like me👷) with vast specialties from human resources to software engineers ready to join the work force. Another point to make is the proximity to international airports like Dublin, Cork and Shannon also the ports in Dublin and Cork, making business travel and logistics efficient and this is attractive for startups.🙌 Affordability is also a major factor as the cost of living is lower than places like Dublin and office space prices would be substantially cheaper than the larger cities. Everyone loves a bargain!!😅 They could also avail of the tax inc...