We previously talked about The Joy of Building Side Hustles while working a day job, and it’s no secret that many people are starting new businesses and sidelines to be able to work faster towards gaining financial independence. For your side business to succeed, you’ll need to keep up with the times. Here are some essential technological features that every business (old and new) should have:

1. Cybersecurity Measures

ITProPortal recommends having effective cybersecurity measures in place in order to prevent cyber attacks on your business. Hackers can steal the sensitive information of your customers, which can be a large problem if your company isn’t equipped to handle data breaches. In particular, they state that small businesses often tend to underestimate their vulnerability to cybersecurity threats. However, as bigger companies have increased their security measures, hackers have begun to target smaller businesses more. More worryingly, “Once attacked, more than half of small businesses shut down within six months. Earning back customer trust is tricky and fixing the damage just costs too much for most companies.” That’s why it’s so important to educate your workforce about these threats and put the necessary measures into place.

2. Credit Card Payment Processing Technology

In this day and age, your business needs to have the capacity to process credit card payments. At the end of 2018, the European Central Bank reported that card payments accounted for 46 percent of the total number of non-cash payments in the EU, which is almost half of all non-cash payments. However, this process doesn’t need to be complicated, as there are now a variety of ways to accept card payments. FIS Global’s portable card machines page shows that most machines only need a Wi-Fi connection to be able to process payments for all major credit and debit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, China Union Pay, Diners Club International, and Discover. Some machines are even equipped with the capability of processing contactless payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.

3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

As your business grows, you’ll be working with a larger number of clients. That’s where CRM software can help meet this growing demand, according to an article exploring crucial business technologies by Tech.Co. This software can reduce the number of employees you need to hire by automating menial and manual tasks. It can keep track of your interactions with customers, record sales, track data and services while providing you with highly detailed and insightful business metrics to help boost your sales or service performance. The bottom line is that “these systems will completely take care of many repetitive tasks, so you’ll have more time to focus on improving your business strategy, instead of wasting your time with unimportant and tedious assignments.”

4. Cloud-based Software

Lastly, cloud-based software gives you peace of mind by storing data securely on the Internet for you to access anywhere, anytime. Unlike software and hardware that can only be accessed from one location, working on the cloud encourages the spirit of collaboration, while providing greater efficiency, scalability, and flexibility. Furthermore, they enable you to save space on your hard drive and offer the option of creating automatic backups to safeguard your sensitive data.

By implementing these technological developments into your business, you’ll experience an overall boost in productivity and growth in a short time, as well as be able to face any challenges head-on this coming year.