It is said that time is our most precious commodity. Yet ask any small business owner about their top challenge and you will likely hear them say: Time.

The average small business has around 15 employees, prompting many small business owners to be balancing a lot, from the strategic and day-to-operational needs of building their businesses, to managing employees, keeping track of finances, marketing, finding new ways to grow, and more.

There often aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. Fortunately, digital tools for small businesses can help. While adopting new technology can sometimes seem like another challenge to overcome, these tools can be powerful resources for your business, providing greater insight into finances, simplifying processes, and helping you and your team to more effectively engage with customers.

How Digital Tools Can Help Your Business

Embracing and investing in forward-thinking technology can make a significant difference for your business in a number of ways.

Save Time and Reduce Stress

Digital tools can help business owners streamline manual and repetitive processes and speed up company workflows, saving time and improving productivity. For example, having a tool that enables easier management of payroll, time-tracking, and benefits can turn a once time-consuming process into something that takes minutes.

Connecting an accounting tool to your business banking account rather than managing books by hand can save time otherwise spent on preparing records manually or finding input errors. It can also help small business owners get a financial snapshot of the business by tracking spending, expenses and vendors in one place. Connect it to your Eastern Bank account to start monitoring.

Manage Finances in Real Time

Digital banking tools offer on-the-go access to company finances, with personalized recommendations and insights accessible anytime. Having cash flow, accounts payable and revenue at a glance can help businesses make better decisions. Eastern Bank's digital financial assistant Monit™ was created specifically with small business owners in mind and can help provide fully digital cash flow management and other personalized insights and features to help navigate opportunities and challenges.

Meet Customers Where They Are

Younger generations are among the most tech-savvy, so if you have a business that wants to appeal to customers of all ages, it makes sense to have the tools at your disposal to do so. For example, adopting electronic payment systems can help expand your customer base by enabling multiple acceptable payment methods via card, chip and mobile wallets.

Other resources, such as email marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) tools, can help to keep in contact with customers and track activity and new leads, offering a significant return on investment as your business grows.

Plan for the Future

Long-term growth is often on the mind of small business owners, but knowing when it's the right time to strategically grow can be challenging, especially without data and insights. Digital banking tools provide an easy way to share information with your banker, helping to plan for future growth. Eastern Bank has collaborated with EverFi to provide a robust online learning tool with modules to build skills on obtaining credit, managing a growing team and acquiring small business funding.

Common Hurdles to Technology Adoption

With many competing priorities, exploring the digital tools that best help a business often lands on the back burner. Common hurdles small business owners tend to face include:

• Too many options. Having a lot of tools to choose from is great, but the sheer number of choices often leaves business owners stuck in deciding which is best for the business.
   
• Knowing what exists. There are probably at least a handful of tasks where you think, "I wish there were a tool for this." Chances are good that the right tool does exist, but you might not know it's out there.
   
• Understanding the benefits. Small business owners keep a close eye on the budget, and every dollar counts, so it's critical to be sure a tool offers the ROI to justify its cost before investing.
   
• Adoption of the tool. Busy business owners may worry about a lack of knowledge or training to properly use a digital tool, or that it might have a significant learning curve that takes time to master.

With some help, you may find digital tools can positively impact your business and it's worth taking the leap.

Explore the Opportunities Digital Technology Can Offer

Here's the good news: small business owners don't need a lot of digital tools to organize their business—just the right tools.

For small business owners, adopting digital tools can help improve business efficiency, from staying more connected to your customers and streamlining workflows to getting better insights into the finances. Plus, using tools that save time and reduce stress gives you more freedom to make quick decisions and grow the business.

Working with a bank that understands the importance of digital technology and how to best utilize it is another benefit that can help improve your business.

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Learn more about how Eastern Bank can work with your small business and provide the financial tools to help you grow. Get in touch with us today.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Eastern Bankshares, Inc., Eastern Bank, or any affiliated entities. Views and opinions expressed are current as of the date appearing on this material; all views and opinions herein are subject to change without notice. These views and opinions should not be construed as any specific recommendation. This material is for your private information and we are not soliciting any action based on it. The information in this content has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but its accuracy is not guaranteed. There is neither representation nor warranty as to the accuracy of, nor liability for any decisions made based on such information.

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