Whereas you could’ve got away with a home office complete with fax machine, dial up and landline telephone from which to conduct your business in the early noughties, time has marched on to become much more technologically advanced. While we don’t yet have driverless cars, teleportation capabilities or hoverboards, we are required to be more gadget savvy when it comes to running our startups. A successful twenty first century business has to possess certain qualities and traits. Read on to find out what they are.

Social Media

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past decade, you can’t fail to have noticed the emergence of social media platforms. The millennial’s communication method of choice is not only for personal use and the ultimate tool of procrastination, but it is also imperative for businesses worldwide. At the click of a mouse, a comment, post or link that you share can garner a global reach. The world is becoming much smaller, and it is vital that your business gets in on the action. Set up a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and an Instagram bio at the very least and begin finding your brand’s voice. You now have the opportunity to wave goodbye to the formalities of business for a more informal, chatty and relevant tone. Your followers and loyal customer base will appreciate being able to communicate with you in a more meaningful way and you can direct traffic to your website to generate more revenue, sales, and profits.

The Cloud

Storage used to be on a USB, external hard drive or even a floppy disk. Nowadays, physical storage is not wholly necessary if you are content to trust the powers at be with your data and documents. Files can now be uploaded online to a cloud based server system, meaning that you can access them from anywhere in the world so long as you have Internet access. Sites like ebecs examine the joys of Microsoft Dynamics closely, detailing how cloud based storage has taken over from more physical and less reliable storage systems. Never again do you have to risk a USB stick corrupting or an external hard drive getting lost.

Connectivity

You don’t have to venture to Italy every time your supplier in Rome requires a meeting. Instead of face to face rendevouz, you can now get in touch via Skype or WebEx to conduct your business in a more efficient and less wasteful way. You don’t have to spend money on a flight and have two days out of the office for a two hour meeting. Yes, the pasta is divine, and it's nice to catch some rays, but that doesn't help you prep for the conference in London that you need to attend. Instead, converse over your laptop. Oh, the joys of twenty first century technology.

Operating a startup in the twenty first century can be more stressful and demanding than ever, even though technology is more advanced. Competition is fiercer than ever, and you need to ensure that your business is ready to continually move forward and thrive.