Small Businesses Not Innovating Risk Obsolescence

As technology continues to transform business and society, it is no longer enough for small businesses to improve or work on getting better. Small businesses today must find ways to innovate by adopting new technologies that can make them smarter, faster, more responsive, more visible, and more productive. The new mantra for entrepreneurs and small business owners should be:

“If you aren’t innovating, you are becoming obsolete.”

Today everything advances at digital speed – better and new competition, evolving customer needs and preferences, processes and delivery times – to the point where businesses that aren’t constantly focused on innovation will almost certainly struggle for market share. The good news is, with their intimate knowledge of their customers, small businesses are better positioned than large companies to innovate.

Here are ways small businesses are innovating to improve performance, maintain a competitive edge, and win market share in 2023.

Going Mobile

Mobile technology has dominated business innovation in the last couple of years. More than 6 billion people worldwide use at least one mobile device. More than 60 percent of website traffic is estimated to come from mobile devices. Payments are increasingly being made with mobile devices, and small businesses are learning how to increase revenue using smartphone apps. That makes moving towards mobile technology essential for business growth.

The strategic thinking that goes into your business model and marketing plan must incorporate mobile technology, including creating a mobile version of your website; creating a mobile app to connect with your customers; and converting to mobile payment systems, such as Apple Pay or Google Wallet.

Add Marketing Automation

Businesses must always be working to improve their marketing. With marketing automation software, there’s no need to hire a dedicated marketing professional. The software does the heavy lifting in performing marketing activities with greater efficiency. Marketing automation software can be used to generate leads, segment messages, and create processes that trigger tailored responses to consumer online actions. When linked with a CRM platform, it creates a robust sales and marketing platform.

The Dawn of Virtual Collaboration

An increasing number of small businesses are moving toward a virtual workforce, finding they can save costs while increasing productivity. Collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams enable team members to chat, share documents, and collaborate in real-time.

Moving to the Cloud

Small businesses are increasingly moving away from using on-premise software and hardware towards cloud-based solutions that offer greater scalability, efficiency, and security. Cloud migration is not a DIY project, but with software-as-service availability, it can be done gradually, with costs spread out over time.

Ultimately, the transition results in a multitude of benefits. As your business grows, you can scale up your technology on-demand in real time. Cloud storage solutions have much higher security and data integrity levels than on-premise solutions. Your business can operate remotely, accessing what it needs when and wherever it can access the cloud. Because it eliminates the cost of purchasing and maintaining on-premise servers, essentially paying for technology as you go, your business can save thousands of dollars a year.

Cyber Security Now

You probably can’t move everything to the cloud, such as legacy applications, mission-critical workloads, or sensitive data, so your business will still be vulnerable to cyber threats. Cybersecurity ranks as the number one challenge for small businesses. The need to protect your business’s computer endpoints, detect threats and respond to security breaches more quickly is greater than ever. This should be the year your business implements a true, end-to-end, rules-based cyber security solution.

Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum or as a one-time occurrence. Identifying and adopting innovative ideas and strategies to create more value in your business must be integral to your planning process. Businesses that focus on innovation as part of their planning are more responsive to change and more when it comes to adopting new technologies. What are your innovation plans for 2013 and beyond?