{"id":17290,"date":"2016-10-20T12:55:45","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T11:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digileaders.com\/?p=17290"},"modified":"2018-08-03T10:28:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T09:28:20","slug":"start-smes-digital-transformation-small-relevant-plan-dont-afraid-ask-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/start-smes-digital-transformation-small-relevant-plan-dont-afraid-ask-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Start your SME\u2019s digital transformation small, relevant to your plan and don\u2019t be afraid to ask for help"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently attended my first Digital Leaders Salon in Manchester talking about why SMEs need to begin their own Digital Transformation now<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I am by no means an expert in digital technology, I\u2019ve been working in it for years and I rely heavily on the brains and intellect of experts in all the different fields that we engage with on a daily basis, but I am<\/strong> lifelong learner, and I will always have a go at understanding something and trying it out.<\/p>\n

In our case, we work with schools and business to connect and help inspire young people to engage with enterprise. I love doing this, as inspiring and helping young people to find what they want to do or, are good at, is amazing and an honour.<\/p>\n

Just as we teach in our programmes, we all have different skill sets and we can all find ways to help each other generate something better together.\u00a0There is just so much opportunity to connect and collaborate now.<\/p>\n

When I think back to how I saw businesses working in the past without access to so much and it was so much harder to find the right person to speak too when we hadn’t got Google or LinkedIn to help us find them! We used to have to go and book an appointment to look in a patent office to see if someone else had had our idea first\u2026 now we just search online!<\/p>\n

For SME\u2019s this means looking at their business plan, see where it is they want to go. What they see as their success, their targets and their growth ambition is a good place to start. This seemed to be the key – the confidence to know where and how to begin.<\/p>\n

Once you have an idea of what a business wants to do, where it sees itself and the scope of their ambition, they can set out small and effective strategies where using technology can help them.<\/p>\n

You can keep things very simple: emails, texts to let people know you\u2019ve had their order; social media accounts to engage with people; websites to help people know you exist. All of these are going to give your business an advantage over those without.<\/p>\n

Then what else:<\/p>\n