Save Your Business Money With Your Tablet – Here’s How…

Most people agree that smartphones are great. They have truly revolutionized our lives in terms of convenience for all sorts of tasks. The major problem with smartphones is one that’s never going to go away – they’re just too small for certain things.

This isn’t likely to change, as the ideal ultra-portable device has to be held in one hand and ideally sits in your pocket. This is where the tablet takes over. With the amount of power and battery life available now, tablets are replacing laptops for more and more tasks. Here’s the first part of our guide on getting the most out of your tablet.

Your Point Of Sale Can Be Anywhere
First chip and pin machines were at the counter. Now they are wireless. You can now do even better and take your tablet to events such as music festivals, markets or pretty much anywhere with mobile reception. If you add a credit card payment system (e.g. Square ) you can accept payments on the go. It is even possible to set up an online payment system using Stripe, so that you wouldn’t even need a credit card reader- the customer can just authorize a web payment on a secure web page. Apple have revolutionized their stores by making them checkout free and arming their staff with iPads to prevent congestion in their busy retail space. You could do the same.

Your Tablet Can Be Your Phone
Let’s be clear, we don’t mean holding up an iPad to your head while walking into work! Now, there are lots of cheaper and often more useful ways to speak than the traditional phone call. Skype, Google voice and others are all now meaning that a wifi connection (or a good 3/4g signal) and a tablet can now regularly replace the old style voice call. Of course you can add video, though this can still be unreliable, especially at peak times.

Useful tip: Using Skype on 3g for voice can sometimes work better than a wifi connection. Really? When using a wifi connection your signal is being relayed through many different machines (local exchange, home router, wifi router). Because of this, it can stifle a 2-way communication. 3g signals go direct from the local mast direct to your device, meaning that there is less room for the signal to be delayed in transit. In this case try to think that it’s not about the size of your connection, but the smoothness of it- a handy thing to know at the right moment.

You Have A Great Portable Training Tool
Diagrams, charts, audio, video….Yes, you can take them anywhere, and now in something you can use all day without a spare battery – and they even have those great little stands so you can position them conveniently for all to see. Training yourself to read or write Chinese? Those characters are much more beautiful on a good-sized crispy retina iPad screen for sure!

Portable Portfolio
For businesses this has to be one of the best on-the-fly uses of marketing material there is. If you are a freelancer you can make a sale after bumping into a stranger in a café. From artists and photographers to real estate agents, the quick and easy use of a tablet is invaluable. It’s pretty easy to link up a tablet to most modern monitors. If you’re going to a venue with a screen, call ahead to double-check  which connector you will need to hook it up successfully.

Look out for the second part of our article on the blog. In the meantime if you want to know more about how to maximize the use of tablets for your business, contact us- we’ll be happy to spread some portable know-how.