Become A Self-sufficient Business By Learning These Digital Skills

Outsourcing can be a great way of saving time if you’re a busy business owner. But if you’re just starting up and you haven’t got the money to outsource, learning some of these skills yourself may be easier. Here are some digital skills for running a self-sufficient business.

Photoshop

When it comes to marketing, having knowledge in Photoshop can help you to create your own branding and logo, as well as designing posters and leaflets. There are many free blogs and video tutorials online that can help teach you the basic of Photoshop. For more advanced uses, should you need them, a course in Photoshop or a workshop may be more appropriate.

Excel

Spreadsheets are essential for many of businesses organisational matters including accounting, building rotas and keeping databases. Microsoft Excel is by far the most popular spreadsheet tool. There are many places that can offer Excel training, which could speed up accountancy by providing shortcut methods to calculations and handy ways of categorising information. Similarly there may be quick ways of dividing up hours when handling HR.

Cloud Sharing

The advantages of cloud technology make it a must-have tool for any business. Rather than clogging up your system or local server, you can store files remotely on the Cloud. Files can be accessed by two people at one time from any location, making it possible for two people to work on the same document remotely from different places. Cloud server also provide a safe backup for all your files – if your computer is hacked or your office has a fire, you can access your files from another location and continue business as usual.

Cloud technology requires no training and is like storing normal documents. Dropbox, Google Drive and Amazon Drive are programmes you can use.

WordPress

WordPress is a web platform that allows you to make your own professional website without any coding knowledge. This can cut out the cost of having to pay a web designer, as well as giving you free reign to update your website where and when you need to. WordPress is also a great blogging tool, allowing you to promote your business through blogs. It’s fairly user-friendly – online tutorials and training courses can help you out if you’re truly stuck or need to do something complex (HTML being an example).

HTML

This internet coding language can help you to further improve your web design skills. Basic knowledge can help you to embed Youtube videos as well as adding widgets such as social media links, search bars and other neat little features. You can learn a lot of HTML online or take a course. Understanding HTML can help to form a stepping stone to learning more complex coding languages. Who knows – in a year or two you could be creating your own PPC ads, business apps and custom software.