You’re a small business owner, but most of the time, it feels more like you’re a one-person army. Every day, you check inventory levels, set staff schedules, man the front of your shop, review your finances and address any issues that crop up. Productivity is at the top of your list but some days, you feel like you’re falling a bit behind. It doesn’t help that your current point of sale (POS) system often seems as though it’s working against you, whether it’s through a clunky interface that makes it difficult to navigate or outdated capabilities that aren’t able to handle some of your essential reporting needs.
An overly complex POS system tends to bog down all of your business operations, making it difficult to accomplish tasks in a timely and accurate manner. This covers not just POS software and inventory management solutions, but also manual sales and transaction tracking as well. This should have you questioning: how you could benefit from switching to a simple POS software solution. To answer this question, you must first understand the limitations that your current POS is placing on your business.
Evaluating Your Existing POS System to Identify Pain Points
An owner of a small retail shop reached out to us seeking a point of sale solution to their sluggish business growth. The flow of customers was increasing, but their high expense rates had them barely breaking even. When we took a closer look, we found that they had created a Frankenstein’s monster of a POS with five software solutions, including a jumbled Excel spreadsheet, that comprised their point of sale system. As they outgrew the capabilities of one solution, the shop would add another piece of software to fill the gaps the previous solution could not cover.
Though this band-aid solution would temporarily fix the problem, none of the applications they chose integrated with one another. This only ended up creating more work for the owner who needed to make sure all their bases were covered, which slowed their productivity to a crawl.
It also made it much more difficult to handle training for new staff members. As you well know, employee mistakes are costly, but they happen. However, new hires are much more accident-prone than your more seasoned employees and combining inexperience with a complex, hard-to-use system makes it all the more likely that those costly mistakes will start to add up. With a more intuitive system in place, there should be little to no POS training required.
The fundamental issue of using outdated legacy POS or piecemeal software solutions is that, as they fall further out of date, the energy that could be used elsewhere is swallowed up managing the system. This poses perhaps the biggest challenge to a small business that is lacking a simple POS system; you lose modern retail conveniences such as mobile ordering and real-time inventory management.
It’s time to say goodbye to that POS system that’s holding you back and embrace a simpler, more modern solution that gives your business more breathing room.
Finding the Right Simple POS Software System for You
The bottom line: legacy systems, pen and paper ledgers, and traditional registers are bulky, outdated, and prohibitively expensive in the first place. Once they’re in place, they tend to continue siphoning off your funds through maintenance costs, lost productivity, and inaccurate reporting. In order to regain the edge, you need to make the switch to a simple POS software solution that handles all of your operational tasks seamlessly. A modern POS system will remove the chains of disjointed programs while getting you out from under hidden costs and climbing support fees.
One of the best simple POS software solution to turn to is a SaaS (Software as a Service) system. While traditional POS solutions are reliant on physical hardware, a SaaS POS is typically licensed on a subscription basis while also being cloud-based.
Many cloud-based systems also have the benefit of being “always on,” which means you have real-time access to your data and analytics anytime and anywhere. It makes it that much easier to review your business metrics and then push that data over to other systems as needed.
Maintenance, as well as 24-hour support, is typically included with a subscription and ensures that your software will stay up-to-date as long as your subscription remains current. This presents you a less expensive, non-proprietary way to implement and integrate a simple POS software solution into your business.
Let’s circle back to that retail shop owner we mentioned. We introduced them to the concept of a SaaS POS solution for their store and it was an immediate hit. While it was the basic concepts of SaaS POS such as free software upgrades and hassle-free hardware management that got the foot in the door, it was an interest in connecting their QuickBooks system into the accounting piece of this solution that really sold them.
Instead of spending hours staring at their messy Excel sheet, syncing their transaction data with an accounting platform was a snap, allowing them to focus more of their time and attention of growing their business.
You’ll also regain time in plenty of other areas. A simpler system means less time training new employees on current POS procedures. It eliminates the need for manual accounting, sales tracking, and reporting which reduces inaccuracy. It greatly speeds up inventory management by allowing you to set up automatic ordering as well as low stock alerts. Clearly, when it comes to your POS system, the easier it is to use, the better.
So, who should you rely on to find the right POS system for your small business?
Rely on an Industry Leader for Your Next POS Solution
A simple POS system is a must-have for a small business owner. Your time is a valuable commodity and should be allocated towards growing your business, and not running day-to-day tasks. Making the decision to replace your legacy equipment and manual processes is daunting, but it shouldn’t be difficult. While you have grown accustomed to it over the course of your business’s lifetime, it can be a major drain on all of your resources. Take back your time and energy with a POS solution that better aligns with your business goals and makes it easier to manage your daily activities.
talech can offer your business the right POS solution. When you partner with talech, you gain an experienced mentor that will work with you to achieve your business goals. We will help you select a streamlined, flexible POS solution that meets your business needs and boosts your productivity. The SaaS-based solutions we can offer present a greater potential ROI while minimizing your learning curve. Contact us today to sign up for a demo and to learn more about how talech can be your expert POS partner.
