Dennis O’Keefe’s sold unique payroll software systems for years to companies all over the world first on behalf of TaxSlayer (prior to their January 2021merger) and currently for a spin-off company, “Workful”.
His message to about 15 business leaders at the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce yesterday was simple.
“Any software should save employees time, create efficiencies and drive more revenue,”.
He made recommendations besides payroll software including the following: Calendly, based in Atlanta works well for scheduling and syncs up with Outlook and Zoom. “It saves users time usually spent texting and emailing,” O’Keefe said.
Hotjar is a good option for web analytics and customer feedback.
Mailchimp is great for email and your CRM system. “There are some free options,” said O’Keefe who added that the Atlanta based company was recently bought by Intuit.
In terms of keeping track of various projects, O’Keefe had two recommendations:
- Clockify for project time tracking
- Basecamp for project management
O’Keefe also referred to a recent survey he studied, indicating that small business owners are spending about 2/3rds of their time working “in their business” and 3/4th of those surveyed wished they had more time working “on their business”. He believes software can save the time to give executives more time to strategize and have a better work life balance.
Both O’Keefe and AMCC President Sue Parr agreed software has to be carefully considered because of many factors.
“If you lose a big enough deal or start losing customers it may make sense to buy software,” said O’Keefe.
“Don’t chase technology for sake of technology. We chased a lot of technology when we were virtual. Go through the processes on what you are trying to solve. One of the things technology drives is business intelligence. Technology can give you more information about business,” Parr added.
The next Third Thursday Business Builder for the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce is October 21st when Cherry Bekaert CPA’s will present a discussion about potential tax law changes coming in 2022 as a result of the new administration.
For more information about this story and upcoming events, visit www.workful.com or www.augustametrochamber.com.