Let’s face it, running a business can be the most time consuming endeavors anyone could take on.

Many of us run multiple businesses and it is a constant challenge keeping on top of things. It is often very difficult/impossible to be present at all your businesses/outlets making it tough to monitor sales and inventory, as well as make accurate business decisions on the fly.

We have interviewed several merchants and this keeps coming up as one of their biggest challenges and prevents them from affordably expanding their business.

This is precisely why I am a serious advocate for businesses of all sizes to embrace cloud-based software.

There’s no need for business owners to be trapped in a back office dealing with clunky IT solutions or spending hours backing up data to an expensive server. Cloud-based solutions are cost-effective and work behind the scenes, which means less headaches and more time to spend growing your business.

Here are the greatest benefits growing businesses can expect when making the switch to the cloud.

Cloud-based software has effectively shifted the way businesses can be managed. Business owners no longer have to be in-store to check if an unreliable employee reported to work or to monitor inventory levels and sales figures. This information can be accessed from anywhere with the right software. This means that you can finally take that long-anticipated vacation knowing that all will be well when you return.

Reconciling your books or running payroll can be extremely time consuming, leaving you limited time to engage with your customers and grow your business. Using cloud-based tools you can free up significant time each month by using an automated, online accounting service. Try out a cloud-based service yo handle your taxes, invoicing, accounting and payroll. You will spend minutes — not hours — running the numbers. Which means more time doing what you love when it comes to your business.

Cloud-based systems empower businesses of all sizes to think big. With online software, even small business owners can have access to the same types of tools larger companies use to make daily business decisions to run a smarter, more profitable business. When your sales, customer relationship management and other business metrics can be automatically measured, you can save time and earn more money. Who doesn’t want that?