CM2 Software - Blog #No Code

The Future of StartUps

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 14:44:52 -0500

The world faced a catastrophic change when the COVID 19 pandemic hit in early 2020. Governments scrambled for resolutions, while businesses looked for short and long term staffing solutions. Many companies chose to send their employees home to work remotely, while others fought to remain open. Unfortunately for many Americans, a large number of businesses began furloughs and layoffs. All in all, the year 2020 was turbulent and has changed the work landscape forever.

As businesses have recalled workers back the office, they have faced backlash and disgruntled employees who have seen the advantages of working from home. Many did not want to return to the office and chose to end careers in favor of starting out on their own. According to the US Census Bureau startups rose from 3.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2020, equaling a 24% increase.

Here we are at the end of 2021 and the startup trend is not slowing down. Millions of people are continuing to turn away from traditional careers and focusing on their own success. As the business world continues to change and adjust to the new climate the pandemic has created, startup trends have emerged. I recently read an article, Startup Statistics (2021): 35 Facts and Trend You Must Know, by Artem Minaev (https://zurl.co/QCFa ), which has some interesting statistics and facts about startups across the globe.

Some statistics that stood out to me include:

19% of startup leaders agree that competition is the greatest challenge when starting a business
The vast majority of companies need at least $50k in annual revenue to be sustainable for a long period of time.
No-code startups reach a 100% increase in searches in 2018
60% of entrepreneurs agree that AI is currently the most promising innovation technology.

To me these statistics show clearly that the world needs more small businesses, and those businesses need support that fosters their technology needs while supporting their financial status. We all know that 9 out of 10 startups fail within the first year, 20% of those fail the following year, with 30% failing in the next year and so on. Reaching the 10 year mark is an accomplishment, but one that is hard fought as the roadblocks are many.

Finances will always be a struggle for small businesses as they navigate the difficult decisions of re-investing in the company and driving business. It is becoming more and more clear that technology needs to be at the forefront for small businesses. Investing in these technologies has to be important for growth and sustainability, especially when these businesses are fighting against the conglomerates with the resources to out-compete small businesses.

However, no code and low code software continues to be the shining light in this fight for dominance. Small businesses have a greater ability to pivot and change direction quicker with the use of technology. Giving them an advantage as the needs of consumers change over time. Low code makes this easier by giving these businesses tools that are affordable and easy to use. Small businesses now have access to the same tools that the larger enterprises are building themselves. Low code offers the framework of software that is customizable and dynamic for each individual business. Simplicity in software is important, so is cost – especially for small businesses working to be part of the 1%.

As time continues and more startups enter the marketplace, these businessmen and women need to consider how they will invest their capital. Technology HAS to be a main focus for businesses to compete. The technologies available make it easier for these small businesses to succeed, but they cannot be afraid of the investment costs of software. The long term solutions that they offer can be the difference between success and failure. Further, the initial cost is less prohibitive than it has been in the past. Low code software tools have everything that small businesses need to ensure that they have a place in the market.

Source

US Censes Bureau https://www.census.gov/econ/bfs/about_the_data.html

Minaev, Artem, Startup Statistics (2021): 35 Facts and Trend You Must Know (Oct 13, 2021) https://firstsiteguide.com/startup-stats/

Task Managers keep you Organized

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 14:17:31 -0400

As business owners it is easy to become overwhelmed by all of the tasks that need to be completed every day. Remembering to follow up with current clients, potential clients, and employees can become overwhelming, along with all of the day to day operations. Small things start to slip through the cracks where they can easily be forgotten or overlooked. It’s a lot of pressure to keep all of the wheels turning and not missing a beat. In other words, being a business owner is exhausting.

As the work keeps piling up, it becomes more and more stressful and overwhelming to keep juggling all of the business’s operations. Not to mention, the pressures and responsibilities at home. Spending time with family and friends, enjoying hobbies, taking care of ourselves, and taking care of our homes are all important facets of life that should not be overshadowed by business. However, too often our personal lives get put on the back burner in favor of squeezing in a few more hours at the office. But how productive are those hours?

An essential component of running a small business is finding a method of remaining organized and keeping track of all of those tasks. When your business is small you can rely on programs like outlook calendars to keep track of your appointments, excel spreadsheets to keep track of expenses, and Hootsuite to monitor social media. But what are you using to keep track of all of the tasks that need to be completed?

Many times, developing a good system to keep track of all of the little tasks is overlooked. It doesn’t seem important when there are only one or two tasks in a day, but as you grow and begin to serve more customers the number of tasks that need to be completed each day, week, and month continues to grow along side it. Further, you might begin to outsource some of those tasks to employees and business partners as you continue to grow.

So how do you ensure that all the tasks are being completed without turning into the dreaded micromanager? Project Management task trackers. We highly recommend looking into this type of software that can offer your company an easy method of tracking the progress of a project without the added cost of a full time project manager. Further, you will save yourself from becoming the boss who only ever asks “Are you done yet?” Give access to your employees and empower them to complete tasks on their own and to update the tracker as necessary. Now you can check in on the application and know exactly where your team stands.

A good project task manager will give you the ability to assign tasks to individuals, give them timelines for completion, and have tasks reoccur every day, week, or month. The more automation you build into the platform the better off you will be in the long run. Automation works to eliminate the physical tasks that you have to complete over and over. Making you more efficient and giving your team a more consistent work environment. Do some research, see what task managers can do for your business.

Talk to an expert about Task Manager Software

Low Code Software is Taking 2021 by Storm

Mon, 24 May 2021 12:19:28 -0400

There is no doubt that businesses need software tools to help them compete in today’s marketplace. We need to be faster, smarter, and more efficient in everything we do to compete in this global market.

But software is expensive, and it doesn’t always work the way we want it to. Often times, out-of-the-box software can give us solutions that come really close to being helpful, but they don’t always give us the functionality that we want or need.

However, today there is a new trend, No Code and Low Code software. These platforms offer drag and drop solutions that allow customers to create software applications that perform the way they want them to. They are customized to fit a single business. You can send automated email messages to customers, add new sales data to third party solutions like Quick Books or Salesforce, or track invoices and purchase orders. All of this and so much more can be done with no code and low code software.

The biggest benefit of this new trend is that anyone can do it. You do not need to be a software developer or have any coding experience at all to use these applications. (I might work for a software company, but I have 0 coding experience, and even I was able to use low code software.)

Drag and Drop is the biggest component of these platforms. Simply identify the field you want, drag it onto your form and away you go. Forms are what holds your data and where you put all of the information that you will use to create your reports and other data tracking methods. Typically, you can import data from a spreadsheet, or you can manually enter the data yourself. You can create workflows that are designed to initiate tasks after data is entered, edited, or deleted. You can create reports and dashboards that display this data in helpful ways, all without writing a single line of code. The low code or no code platform, holds all of the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or other programming language that defines the layout and functionality of your software application.

All of this is pretty simple, and something that I would highly recommend to any business that is trying to simplify their processes. Use these platforms to give your business better access and flexibility to your data. It is worth it. On Google, you can find plenty of reviews and commentary on the different no code or low code platforms available, at CM2 Software we use and recommend Zoho.

However, there are limitations, especially if you are not a programmer. If you have never written a line of code in your life, you are limited by the drag and drop capabilities and pre-written workflows of low code or no code platforms. You will be able to create beautiful reports and collect all of your data in one place. But you might be missing out on the added benefits that a software consulting service would be able to offer.

For example, data gathering from outside sources. What if you wanted to know the exact traveling distance from one location to another, would you use Google Maps? What if you wanted to know the current day’s exchange rate for USD (US Dollars) versus GBP (British Pound Sterling), would you know where to find this information without manually updating the data daily? How would you be able to incorporate this data into your new application? If I told you that you could use an API to find this information, would you even know what that means?

I don’t ask these questions to belittle because the truth is, that I don’t know the answers either. But CM2 Software has software developers who do.

There are many consulting services (CM2 Software included) that use low code software and take it to the next level by integrating APIs and developing code that allows the application to talk to itself and outside sources in new and dynamic ways. They are able to create reports that dynamically change based on inputs, search the web and gather data from all different sources, integrate applications across multiple platforms, and customize all solutions to your business’s specific needs.

Could a developer do all of this without using low code software? Yes. But it is significantly more expensive and time consuming.

They would need to create all of the back end code and structure for the application before they even begin the process of customization. Think of a simple application like MS Word (yes, I picked this example as I write this post on Word), a developer created code that defined the size of the application, created the blue header, defined the tabs, created all of the buttons that change the formatting, view, and design. Someone developed code to identify how many lines can fit on one page before moving to the next, how large the font is, the style of font used, and how each change would effect the entire document. The scroll bar was designed to be dynamic and grow with the page as you write. All of this and so much more had to be visualized, designed, and written in multiple programming languages before anyone could write a single line on a word document. Further, one tiny error in the thousands of lines of code (as small as a missing period, or capitalization of a word) could cause the entire application to fail.

Low code removes all of this back end work for the software developer. Now they can focus solely on your application, on the customizations that you need to be successful, and do it all in a timely and cost effective manner. To me, it is a no brainer, low code platforms work – and if you are willing to invest the time into learning how to use it, you can have great success. Consulting services and programmers make low code even better, faster, and more intelligent. The possibilities of software are only limited by imagination.

I recommend that you take the time to look at low code software platforms, sign up for a 30 day trail, and see how easy they are to use. Get creative with your ideas of how software can solve your biggest business problems. See how it can help you to grow and be more successful, and then tell us about it. We want to hear how software has changed your business.