You’ve probably heard the term “Tech stack” as a small business owner and thought “This is for big companies with a large team and a lot of operations”. While large companies indeed build tech stacks to optimize their process, small businesses have and solopreneurs have a lot to gain by building their tech stack.
As a business leader, it gives you a great edge to know the digital tools available in the market and how they can help optimize your operations and business as a whole.
In this article, we share what a tech stack is, its benefits for your business and how to build one for your business.
What is a tech stack?
Simply put, a tech stack is the set of digital tools that a business uses to optimize their daily tasks. A tech stack may comprise of software programs, web applications, and other tools that are essential parts of how a business operates.
With about 89% of companies adopting digital-first strategies, the power of technology is hard to ignore. Today, technology stacks are also used for a variety of reasons, from finance, digital marketing and operations.
Why your business needs tech stacks
Whether you manage a large company with a lot of operations happening simultaneously, a startup with a remote team or you’re a solopreneur looking to automate some processes; you have a lot to benefit from building your tech stack.
Your technology stack defines how the different parts of your business fit together and interact.
When done right, tech stacks can streamline all of your processes and help your team increase efficiency.
How to build an efficient tech stack for your business
- Identify your needs
To get started, you must identify what you need out of your stack.
Do you have a small, medium or large small, and what actions will your stack be performing? Think about what you’re trying to build and the functions that you’ll need to make that happen. Some examples include:
- Meeting scheduling (Calendly)
- Content scheduling (Buffer)
- Invoicing (Wave app)
- Team collaboration (Slack)
- Project management (Trello)
- Understand your customer journey
Once you decide what you need from your tech stack, take a step back to analyze your customer journey.
Who knows? This might reveal something you missed out when deciding your needs (from the step above).
Identifying the overall stages your customers go through and why they go through them. This will start to give you an idea of where opportunities for improvement exist and how you might leverage them
- Do your research
Before committing to a specific tech stack, weigh your options.
Don’t just settle for the cheapest tools or the most popular options. Select the tools that bring the highest value to your business and help you streamline your processes.
- Consider Scalability
Finally, your tech stack should encourage you to scale. As your business grows, your tech stack should have the ability to do the same.
Before you commit to a set of tools, compare your business goals and growth plans against the digital tools you’re considering.
Tip: If a tool continuously makes updates as their consumer expectations shift, this is a good sign that it will be beneficial to you in the long term.
How do your tools in your stack communicate with one another?
The simple answer is Integrations! Integrations help your tools communicate with each other – this makes them very important to your tech stack. Most tools offer built-in integrations (i.e., a direct connection between two or more applications) or integrations via third-party tools such as Zapier, IFTTT, and Automate.io.
If the tools you’re considering do not directly integrate, at the least, make sure the data from one application can flow into the other. For instance, ensure that the survey tool allows you to download data as Excel or CSV files so that you can feed it into your marketing automation tool.
Examples of tech stacks for small businesses
As you start to build a technology stack that works for your company, read through these examples to gather ideas for what your business needs.
- Operations
- Marketing
- Canva – to design graphics
- Buffer – for content scheduling and analytics
- Mailchimp – for email marketing
- SurveyMonkey – for survey and to gather insights
- Automate.io – as your integration
- Freelancers
- Google forms – to generate leads
- ConvertKit – to create your landing page
- Trello – for managing projects
- Calendly – for appointment scheduling
- Zapier – as your integration
- Online training
- Google forms – to generate leads and set examination questions
- Google classroom – to host your classes
- G suite – to prepare your course content
- IFTTT – as your integration
- Solo retailer
When it comes to tech stacks, there isn’t one size that fits all. Every business has a set of tools that’s unique to their needs and goals. By customizing your tech stack(s), you can optimize your business operations and increase productivity significantly.