Big Opportunities for Small Business: Six Predictions for 2017
Small business owners are cautiously optimistic going into 2017. According to the PNC Economic Outlook Survey, 71 percent of business owners are optimistic about the U.S. economy — the most since the fall of 2005. When asked what term best describes their feelings about their business prospects, 55 percent chose “hope.” The positive attitude should bode well for small businesses who want to seize opportunities and prosper in the New Year. Here are some of top trends that are destined to give small businesses a boost. 1. Cloud-Based Software. The use of technology to accelerate small business growth will continue in 2017. Cloud-based solutions give small firms the ability to access sophisticated software programs affordably, allowing them to compete more effectively with larger entities. Many of the SaaS providers are designing programs specifically for the SMB market. New data from Intuit and Emergent Research reveals that by 2020, 78 percent of small businesses will be “fully adapted” to cloud computing. That’s more than double the current 37 percent adoption rate. 2. Mobile. Once a “nice to have”, a mobilized Internet presence is a “must have” today. More and more people are turning to their mobile device than ever before. The adoption rate for mobile use is 8x faster than web adoption in the 1990s and early 2000’s. The number of small businesses with a mobilized presence should nearly double in the coming year. 3. Big Data. Big Data is another hot trend for small businesses in 2017. Once considered a resource only available to large companies, small businesses can now access big data and use it to make wiser business decisions. There is big data in the broad sense in terms of what is trending, demographics, etc. which is accessible via resources such as Google Trends or TrendHunter.com. Small businesses can also compile and mine their own data for decision-making. Leveraging opt-in email programs, social media platforms and surveys, small firms can gather critical information about their customers’ buying habits and needs. 4. Crowdfunding. Access to capital has long been an issue for small businesses and crowdfunding was a new way for small firms to circumvent traditional lending. In May, 2016, the SEC issued regulations to allow unaccredited investors to make equity investments in crowdfunded businesses. As such, 2017 will bring a burst of activity in this market, significantly increasing access to capital. 5. Online lending. Another area of growth in 2017 for small businesses is online lending. In this environment, small companies can go to one website, fill out an application and get responses from a host of traditional lenders. This gives a business owner the chance to shop for the best option without going to each financial institution individually. 6. Benefit packages: As we reach full-employment in the U.S., small businesses who are ready to hire are finding it more difficult to compete for the talent they need to grow. As such, during the coming year I believe we’ll see more firms making an investment in comprehensive benefits packages that feature non-medical must-haves, such as dental, vision and life insurance. Not only will these programs attract new employees, but they will also retain existing talent. According to “The Benefits of Benefits for Small Businesses” from MetLife, benefits are an important reason why employees stick around. The report...
read moreHave questions lost their power to engage?
Engage. Persuade. These are two things we are always trying to do with the people around us. And in business, when our livelihoods depend on engaging and persuading, the stakes are especially high. That’s why I wanted to share with you the results a recent A/B test as it was reported on the Behave website. Two versions of a simple sign-up form were tested against each other. The goal was to capture the prospect’s email address by offering a free three-part guide on investing. All the type and graphics were the same, except for a handful words at the very top of the signup form. Here’s how they differed: One version started with a question. (Do you trade shares?) The other version simply instructed the prospect how to sign up and get the guide. I was expecting the version that asked the question to produce more signups by a large margin – demonstrating the power of a question. However, in this case, the simple instructions beat out the question by 41 percent. The experts at Behave attributed the instructional copy’s win to the “Trend of Convenience.” I hate to say this, but the Internet is making us lazy. Instead of wanting to engage our minds and think for ourselves, we’re taking the attitude of “Just tell me what to do!” Further, I think it’s well documented that when we’re surfing the Internet, we won’t stand for anything that slows down our speed. If a page takes too long to load, we click to go somewhere else. If an e-commerce checkout system is too lengthy, we abandon our shopping carts. This is also, I believe, why one-page scrolling websites are all the rage today. We can’t get people’s brains to say, “That looks interesting, I think I’ll click on it” and navigate to a new page. I don’t want to give up on using questions to engage people, but today I’m less confident in its power. Sometimes a short and simple instruction is all that’s required to get prospects and customers to take...
read moreCreate a small business focus group for insights, loyalty, and profits
Would you take our online survey? How many times have you seen that question lately? It seems to pop up for me a few times a day and I virtually always click “NO” or simply navigate to another website. It’s unfortunate for the business because it’s not getting valuable information from me. But consider this alternate question: Would you join our online focus group? You use this question differently. It’s targeted mostly to your existing customers and you explain that joining the focus group will result in additional loyalty rewards. I know a major newspaper that asks subscribers to participate in its online focus group. Reward points are added for every focus group survey completed and these points eventually add up to an Amazon gift card. This focus group strategy has excellent benefits above and beyond what can be accomplished via a quick one-off customer survey: It keeps your business top of mind. Honestly, many of us get numb to receiving sales emails. We receive too many of them day in and day out. However, an email with the subject line, “Please join this week’s focus group survey!” will differentiate your business email from all the other email your customers or prospects receive. Participation is also boosted by the knowledge that there will be some kind of loyalty reward associated with participation. Focus groups give you actionable information. You can use these surveys to find out what you’re doing right, and better yet, what customer needs you aren’t yet fulfilling. The information you can gather is limited only by your imagination. Focus groups can influence your customers’ behavior. I mentioned the newspaper focus group survey above. There are certain questions or topics that it comes back to often. About every second survey asks focus group members if they saw the Sunday paper. If they did – and looked at it in some depth – they are given more questions to answer and they receive more reward points. It’s a true Pavlovian strategy: They are teaching subscribers than when they read the Sunday paper, they get rewarded. Is there an area of your website you would like to promote to your customers? If so, ask about it in your focus group surveys. We know that major corporations (and politicians!) have been using focus groups for years. Today, with all the online tools we have, even small business owners can pull together a focus group for little or no money that has the potential to increase sales and profits. One of the cheapest ways to do this is by using Google forms to create online surveys. Andy Wolber wrote an excellent “how-to” article on this over on the TechRepublic site. Give it a...
read moreA lesson from the Second Law of Thermodynamics you can use in your small business
“Same old, same old.” Have you said that, or used similar words, when you’ve been asked what you have been doing lately? We tend to be creatures of habit. By itself, that’s not bad. If we had to consciously think about every step we took each day, everything we had to do, we would go mad. However, there is a law in physics that I believe applies to human systems, and a small business certainly falls into this category. It’s the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Entropy. Some synonyms for entropy are decline, degradation, and breaking down. The law says that the total entropy of an isolated system always increases over time, or remains constant in ideal cases. This means that the rate of decline of any system left alone will increase over time or at best, its rate of decline will stay the same. The important part of this law is the word “isolated.” In physics, an isolated system isn’t receiving any energy from an outside source. For example, the batteries in our electronic devices entropy (even when they are not in use) so we must periodically replace them or recharge them, i.e. provide new energy from an outside source. Keep your business energized In the same way, we need to add energy to our businesses or they will gradually decline. Let me give you an example that we have all probably seen at one time or another. It’s when the owner of a business gets it up and running and thinks that he or she can walk away and let it run by itself. Invariably, this small business owner gets a rude awakening at some point, realizing that the business is about to tank. The challenge for the small business owner is to provide those infusions of energy that keep the business healthy, growing, and moving forward. One way to approach this is to key on a word that is somewhat the opposite of isolated, and that word is “new.” Almost anytime you add something new to your business, you’re pumping in a kind of energy. Let me start the list of strategies and items that could be new to your business: A new hire. A new product. A new territory. A new building or office. A new machine. New positions/challenges for current team members. This list is far from complete. I have no doubt that you could think of many new initiatives or new items that would give your business an injection of fresh energy. As I’m writing this, the New Year is right around the corner. (Hey, there’s another “new” you can leverage in your business.) However, you should be thinking about adding elements of “newness” to your business all year long. Finally, don’t just take my word for the importance of battling entropy. Here’s another business expert who has something to say on the subject: “I think you should always bear in mind that entropy is not on your side.” – Elon Musk...
read moreAvoid these ‘graphic’ mistakes on your social media pages
Even fairly good social media marketers often make some very basic mistakes on their social media pages, especially with their cover art. Let’s take a quick tour of some of the most common social media account artistic blunders. Bad photos For many businesses and individuals, using a headshot is a natural strategy on your “home page” on most of the major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and even Periscope. Doing a headshot session with a professional photographer is a small expense that will upgrade your presence tremendously. Don’t settle for images like those below recently grabbed from the social media world. (By the way, the one with the words “Social Media” in it, is part of the name of the person’s company; it got clipped when forced into the little square.) Tip: Whenever you use a headshot that is a profile or partial profile, you want the person to be looking into the page, not away from the center of the page. When the subject is looking into the page you want the visitor to see, the visitor’s eye is naturally drawn in that direction. Bad placement With Twitter, you’re given a large, rectangular cover photo as well as a smaller, square inset that can is most often used for a head shot or personal portrait of some kind. Be sure that each piece of art is tailored specifically to meet the requirements of Twitter – or any other social media platform you’re using. With Twitter, problems arise because the two images overlap. Many small businesses take a piece of existing art and use it as the bigger image and then put in something else in the small inset square. Often the small square blocks out important type on the bigger image, as I’ve illustrated below. Lazy image choices If you’re going to use social media for marketing or customer service, do it right or don’t do it at all. I’ve seen many business sites on Facebook where the second small image is the same or similar to the larger cover art. That looks bad and shows that you didn’t really think about or plan what you wanted to do, and that’s not the impression you want to make on visitors. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and in the social media, your first impression is often visual. Take the time to create graphics and take photos that will wow visitors with your style and...
read moreThis week in small business: The tips you need to finish 2016 strong!
The end of the year and the end of the holiday season is within our sights, so grab an extra handful of practical advice this week from our collection of curated content and finish strong! Leadership, management, and productivity Do you have all 10 free productivity tools in this list by Ivy Guerrero? Can’t beat the price! The Forbes Coaches Council gives us 11 stress management tips for entrepreneurs and certainly ’tis the season when we need to reduce our stress levels. Attention harried parents: Help is on the way – 10 productivity hacks for busy parents, by Pete Cataldo. Marketing and sales I like Chris Abraham’s attitude in this article of his, The More the Messier for Content Marketing SEO Success. We all know how popular TED talks are, so it should be no a surprise that Krystal Covington believes every marketing executive can learn something from giving a TED talk. It can be hard to be noticed above the marketing “noise” so Nicola Brown’s 5 tips for creating a video that stands out should be useful. Victoria Heckstall offers advice on how to get your website SEO-ready for the holidays and the tips really apply to any special season. Are you marketing a book? If so, Chris Syme’s 4 Steps to Selling More Books with Less Social Media will deliver some good insights. And, many apply to other products as well. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation Barb Stuckey’s Forbes article talks to three women who have had great entrepreneurial success in the food industry and they encourage other women to follow in their footsteps. Even Millennials will get encouragement from Daniel Richard’s blog on the Virgin website: Confessions of a late-blooming entrepreneur. I suppose the 12 killer qualities of a true entrepreneur in this Blog Talk Radio broadcast apply to both the young and old. Here are six things a fresh-out-of-college kid should expect when signing on with a startup, according to Suzana...
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