Big business doesn’t always mean a business with thousands of employees: we all know that some of the most agile and creative businesses are small ones, and thanks to the power of the cloud, they can now duke it out with organizations many times their size. In fact, one of the beauties of Salesforce is that it gives even solo business owners the same tools and the same clout as the biggest enterprises. Let’s look at how.

1. You’re a solo business owner — not a solo IT department

Technology may give you the tools to do more with your business, but you don’t want to spend your day working with that technology instead of with your customers. Avoid lengthy installs and messy upgrades by getting a solution that’ll work on any device wherever you are, and that gets enhanced three times a year without CDs, downloads, or calls to an IT helpline. Want to extend it? Try the AppExchange, where there are hundreds of apps that will let you add even more capabilities, whether it’s integrating with your e-commerce storefront or capturing feedback from your customers.

2. Your customers are at the center of your business — and of Salesforce

What’s common to all businesses is that they need a way to track who their customers are and how they’re engaging with them. So why use pen and paper or spreadsheets for this when you can get the same account and contact management tools as your biggest competitors? That's coupled with the ability to slice and dice all that data so you can easily report on who your biggest spenders are, who’s due a call from you, and what deals are in danger of slipping beneath your radar.

3. Time is money, so get smart with how you invest it

Time is always in short supply when you’re running your own business — there’s no one to delegate to, and the boss is always on your back! But just as Salesforce gives you great features for managing your customers, it also gives you great tools for managing yourself. It’s easy to track activities and see whether you’re spending time on the people and deals that are going to make you money. Want to dive into more detail? Use the platform’s easy customization features to set up custom objects to track projects, or install one of those AppExchange apps to manage timesheets and billing.

4. Salesforce is as mobile as you are

Chances are, your smartphone is already an indispensable business tool: you store your contacts and appointments on it, and it’s your customer conduit wherever you are. Chances are, you also spend precious time syncing those contacts and recording the day’s calls and meetings. So why not make your mobile phone work for you? With Salesforce1 you get instant mobile capabilities and instant links from today’s events and contacts back into your CRM system. And those are exactly the same mobile capabilities we give our biggest enterprise customers!

5. With Salesforce, sole traders never need to fly solo

Being a one-person army can be hard work, so we want to make sure Salesforce shares the load with you. Customer success is such a big part of how we deliver value that we’ve designed our Success Community to be a one-stop shop for everything you need — from local User Groups, where you can connect virtually or in-person with Salesforce users near you, to our Success - Getting Started collaboration group, where you can access resources specifically designed to help smaller organizations get up and running faster. You may be the sole employee of your company, but you’ll have the knowledge of thousands of others to help you.

For more tips on how best to use Salesforce in a small business, join the Success - Getting Started group and sign up for our Thursday Getting Started webinars.

To learn more about leveraging the Salesforce advantage for your business, visit our website or download the free e-book.