{"id":17602,"date":"2025-02-04T08:15:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T08:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heyerinc.com\/2025\/02\/04\/must-have-tools-your-southeastern-fl-small-business-needs-to-stay-ahead-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T08:15:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T08:15:04","slug":"must-have-tools-your-southeastern-fl-small-business-needs-to-stay-ahead-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/04\/must-have-tools-your-southeastern-fl-small-business-needs-to-stay-ahead-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Must-Have Tools Your Southeastern FL Small Business Needs To Stay Ahead in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pme-content\">\n<p><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">There are <i>so many<\/i> deadlines and requirements for business owners to keep up with right now. I feel your pain. Are you doing okay with staying on top of them (or at least keeping your head above water)?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">Obviously, the big one happening right now is tax season (which is open this week, as of January 27th). But you may also need to allocate some of your attention to your 2021 tax return if you claimed the Employee Retention Credit for that year. If you haven\u2019t yet amended your return, you <i>must<\/i> do that before March 15th (or April 15th if you extended your return).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">This ERC issue is a huge mess right now, with the IRS neck-deep in&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/newsroom\/national-taxpayer-advocate-delivers-annual-report-to-congress-flags-erc-identity-theft-victim-assistance-processing-delays-and-calls-for-adequate-funding-to-improve-taxpayer-services\"><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#1155CC;\">about a million<\/span><\/a><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\"> claims yet to be processed. Let us give you a hand here, so a sticky situation doesn\u2019t get stickier.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">But more about tax season. Taxes for business owners are never painless, I know. You&nbsp;<\/span>may even have a couple different tax returns to wade through (and maybe more, depending on the number of active entities you&#8217;re managing).<\/p>\n<p><strong>So if you want to get a jump on things&nbsp;<\/strong>(and as your Miami Metropolitan accountant, I\u2019m telling you: You definitely do) here&#8217;s where you can reach us:<br \/><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/ralfheyer\/30-minute-meeting\">calendly.com\/ralfheyer\/30-minute-meeting<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Even if you don\u2019t yet have all the documentation you need yet, it will still pay off to chat with my team. We can start the ball rolling for you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A few other <span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">quick reminders:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">Q4 estimated payments for 2024 were due back on January 15th. If you missed this deadline, don\u2019t panic \u2013 just get them taken care of as quickly as possible.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">W-2s and 1099s must be <i>sent<\/i> (not necessarily received by) your employees and non-employee workers by January 31st.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">Okay. Now we\u2019ve got that covered, we can talk about the more fun stuff.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color:white;color:#252525;\">The past few weeks, I\u2019ve talked a lot about dreaming and strategizing for your business. Today, I want to continue in that vein by putting some jet fuel into those goals with tools for you to consider. These aren\u2019t just cool gadgets \u2013 they\u2019re <i>musts<\/i> if you want to keep up in today\u2019s ever-evolving business landscape.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"text-huge\"><strong>Must-Have Tools Your Southeastern FL Small Business Needs To Stay Ahead in 2025<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span class=\"text-small\"><i>\u201cAdaptability is the simple secret of survival.\u201d \u2013 Jessica Hagedorn<\/i><\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">It\u2019s not a \u201cnew\u201d development that business is changing. Every entrepreneur has had to ride the waves of changing currents or face the consequences. But the current trends are challenging in their own way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">AI has its artificial fingerprints on just about everything, sustainable is becoming the new affordable, and cyber-attacks are surging to an all-time high.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">And while I can try to tell you how to navigate these trends, what you really need are the right small business tools in your hands. Believe me, I know the process of finding, buying, and adjusting to new tools in your business is clunky. I\u2019m with you on that.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">But it\u2019s a necessary growing pain.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Because in today\u2019s world, you only have two options: <strong><u>Adapt, or become irrelevant.<\/u>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"><strong>Smiles all around<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Want to keep up? Start with your customers. In a recent study,&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/khoros.com\/blog\/must-know-customer-service-statistics\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">86 percent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> of customers said good customer service was the <u>biggest determining factor<\/u> in deciding what to buy.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">The best upgrade here (as is the fashion these days) is to use AI. The numbers don\u2019t lie: Businesses that use AI for customer service see&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiceworks.com\/marketing\/customer-experience\/articles\/ai-in-customer-experience-cx-in-2021-impact-analysis\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">3.5 times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> better satisfaction rates than those that don\u2019t.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">How does AI make such happy customers? Because AI can deliver accurate answers <u>instantly<\/u>. And, it shows via hard data how you can better meet your customers\u2019 needs.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">For example: Say you own an online clothing store. An AI chatbot can help your customers track orders, handle return requests, and answer FAQs. Tools like&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tidio.com\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Tidio<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">,&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Intercom<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">, or&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zendesk.com\/service\/ai\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Zendesk AI<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> can be a great starting point.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Also, AI-powered tools for your small business like&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/getthematic.com\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Thematic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> and&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/welcome.ai\/solution\/monkeylearn\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">MonkeyLearn<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> can help you collect customer feedback (and know what to do with it).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"><strong>The Great Cloud Migration<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Storing data in the ominous \u201ccloud\u201d simply means uploading it via the internet to a third party\u2019s electronic storage.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">About&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.workday.com\/en-us\/top-4-small-business-technology-trends-in-2024.html#:~:text=SMB%20Group%20found%20that%2080,the%20forefront%20of%20new%20developments.\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">80 percent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> of businesses are cloud-based, and for good reason. Cloud tools make team collaboration smoother. They eliminate the need for expensive hard drives for data storage, and they put the burden of data security on your provider.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Once you\u2019ve sent your data to the cloud, you can start integrating cloud-based small business tools in pretty much any sphere of your business. Here are some ideas, though this list is not exhaustive by any means. Do your own research, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"><i>For storage and collaboration:<\/i>&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/workspace.google.com\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Google Workspace<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> or&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/official-teams-page?_tk=paid_sem_goog_biz_b&amp;_camp=1743710588&amp;_kw=dropbox%20business%7Ce&amp;_ad=704732156822%7C%7Cc&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAy8K8BhCZARIsAKJ8sfSNOKJmnkAU2nfjo8ZkQGNFhalvqTXHWED_iUFSFQePkyrorXiME64aAmGcEALw_wcB\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Dropbox Business<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"><i>For managing your customers (CRM)<\/i>:&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hubspot.com\/crm\/cr075\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Hubspot CRM<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> or&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zoho.com\/crm\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Zoho CRM<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"><i>For project management:<\/i>&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/asana.com\/?noredirect\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Asana<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">,&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/trello.com\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Trello<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">, or&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/monday.com\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Monday.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"><i>For customer service:<\/i>&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zendesk.com\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Zendesk<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> or&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.freshworks.com\/freshdesk\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Freshdesk<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"><strong>Stay safe out there&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">A cyber attack happens <i>every&nbsp;<\/i><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sentinelone.com\/cybersecurity-101\/cybersecurity\/cyber-security-statistics\/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20study%20by,1%2C636%20weekly%20attacks%20per%20organization.\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\"><i>39 seconds<\/i><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> (which means about 5 have already happened since you started reading this article). AND around&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.getastra.com\/blog\/security-audit\/small-business-cyber-attack-statistics\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">43 percent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\"> of cyber attacks are on small businesses.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">It isn\u2019t just financial loss you should be worried about here \u2013 you could lose your customers\u2019 trust <i>and<\/i> critical data for your business if you become a victim.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">But you don\u2019t have to be a sitting duck. There are tons of cyber security tools out there, like antivirus software, firewall solutions, and tools for password management, network security, and data backup. You might start by checking out programs like&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/us.norton.com\/products\/small-business\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Norton Small Business<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">,&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mimecast.com\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Mimecast<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">, or&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wireshark.org\/\"><span style=\"color:#1155CC;font-family:Georgia, serif;\">Wireshark<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia, serif;\">.<\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there are <i>way<\/i> more tools out there that could be the answer to your Southeastern FL business\u2019s specific needs, so make sure to do your own research on this. My aim is to show you what\u2019s available as you\u2019re navigating 2025\u2019s unique challenges.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Another 2025 challenge you\u2019re currently up against? Getting your taxes done. But the good news is, you don\u2019t need any fancy tools for this one. All you need is a spot on my calendar:&nbsp;<br \/><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/ralfheyer\/30-minute-meeting\">calendly.com\/ralfheyer\/30-minute-meeting<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Helping you stay ahead,<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0in;\"><strong>Ralf Heyer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0in;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>.pme-content {\n\tfont-size: 1.2em\n}<\/p>\n<p>.text-tiny {\n\tfont-size: .7em\n}<\/p>\n<p>.text-small {\n\tfont-size: .85em\n}<\/p>\n<p>.text-big {\n\tfont-size: 1.4em\n}<\/p>\n<p>.text-huge {\n\tfont-size: 1.8em\n}<\/p>\n<p>.marker-yellow {\n\tbackground-color: #fdfd77\n}<\/p>\n<p>.marker-green {\n\tbackground-color: #63f963\n}<\/p>\n<p>.marker-pink {\n\tbackground-color: #fc7999\n}<\/p>\n<p>.marker-blue {\n\tbackground-color: #72cdfd\n}<\/p>\n<p>.pen-red {\n\tcolor: #e91313\n}<\/p>\n<p>.pen-green,\n.pen-red {\n\tbackground-color: transparent\n}<\/p>\n<p>.pen-green {\n\tcolor: #180\n}<\/p>\n<p>.pme-content blockquote {\n\toverflow: hidden;\n\tpadding-right: 1.5em;\n\tpadding-left: 1.5em;\n\tmargin-left: 0;\n\tfont-style: italic;\n\tborder-left: 5px solid #ccc\n}<\/p>\n<p>.pme-content .image img {\n\tdisplay: block;\n\tmargin: 0 auto;\n\tmax-width: 100%\n}<\/p>\n<p>figure.image {\n    text-align: center;\n}<\/p>\n<p>.pme-content figcaption {\n\tcolor: #333;\n\tbackground-color: #f7f7f7;\n\tpadding: .6em;\n\tfont-size: .75em;\n\toutline-offset: -1px\n}<\/p>\n<p>.pme-content .image-style-align-left {\n\tfloat: left\n}\n.pme-content .image-style-align-right {\n\tfloat: right\n}\n.pme-content .image-style-align-center,\n.pme-content .image-style-align-left,\n.pme-content .image-style-align-right,\n.pme-content .image-style-side {\n\tmax-width: 50%\n}<\/p>\n<p>.pme-content .image {\n\tposition: relative;\n\toverflow: hidden;\n\tclear: both;\n\ttext-align: center\n}<\/style>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are so many deadlines and requirements for business owners to keep up with right now. I feel your pain. Are you doing okay with staying on top of them (or at least keeping your head above water)?&nbsp; Obviously, the big one happening right now is tax season (which is open this week, as of January 27th). But you may also need to allocate some of your attention to your&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/04\/must-have-tools-your-southeastern-fl-small-business-needs-to-stay-ahead-in-2025\/\">Read More<a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heyerinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}