7 Small Business Trends To Observe In 2018

The past 12 months have proved to be a period with a lot of technological and environmental developments. Whether we look at the rise of business automation services or at the ongoing interconnectedness of digital devices, such developments present challenges to their environment and undoubtedly impose requirements on the ecosystem of small businesses.

In order to be well prepared for the challenges and threats of tomorrow’s world, we compiled a list of 7 major trends that will have an impact on small businesses in 2018.

Dear Generation Z, let’s talk business!

According to market analysts, a new generation is about to enter the arena of the world of business. This generation change will affect the environment in two ways: on the one side, new groups of customers will appear. On the other hand, these customers will will also loom up on the future job market. Eventually, it will be important for any small business to understand this new generation both as an employee and also as a customer. Generation Z is considered to be the first generation of digital natives and fundamentally differs from its predecessors in a variety of aspects. Although Millennials still have the most spending power, it will be important for them to quickly adapt to the needs of their successors in order to secure a sustainable position and build a strong customer relationship.

Small businesses of the world, unite!

At the same time, this change of generations will create new opportunities with regards to data usage. With more and more people using smart devices and other data collection services in various aspects of life, we expect the future to disclose comprehensive datasets and precise personal profiles that businesses might use for a variety of purposes. With all the available information in today’s ecosystem, it will be easier to deliver campaigns and tailor these to the unique preferences of the target audience. Whereas these rich data fountains used to be exclusively tapped by large enterprises, the time has come for small businesses to make use of it and ride on the coattail of big data. The democratization of data will make it easier than ever for non-technical business owners to access the competitive advantage of tech giants and is not to be underestimated. Proper data management, powerful CRM systems and marketing analytics tools will ensure its effectiveness.

Reach your customers. Anywhere, anytime!

By using your customers’ data, you will be able to know a lot about their behavior and will be able to reach them at almost any time and place. New forms of data collection allow companies to run targeted and relevant marketing campaigns at a large scale. These have facilitated whole new ways of advertising such as hyper local ads (using real-time location to serve ads relevant to where customers are) and data-driven personalization (collecting behavioural data to develop customized targeting channels). However, at the same time you need to be careful in how this data gets used and not become too personal in order to avoid becoming “creepy” and losing customer trust, one of the most important assets. Customer data should be used to provide real value, but not lead to an unpleasant surprise. Eventually, your business performance will depend on your ability to skillfully make use of data.

Automation tools - the ease of doing business.

Another significant trend we would like to point out is the empowerment of SMBs. With ArtificiaI Intelligence & Machine Learning at the forefront of what can be described as a whole new technological age, we find a number of tools that simplify daily business routines, saving you time and money. At the moment, almost all traditional business sectors are being transformed by automation services that provide SMBs with critical business infrastructure at affordable costs. In this light, we have created Solomoto as a sophisticated software solution that helps people with any part of the Marketing funnel. Marketers will be pleased to learn that automation will become more popular with advanced technology enabling great support to previously human-exclusive tasks. Want to make sure it works for you? Just try it out!

Blockchain for breakfast and through the day.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ripple are on everyone’s blogs at the moment. Even though experts still have doubts whether these “cryptos” will become prevalent or whether they are part of a bubble that will burst sooner or later, we can be sure of one thing: the infrastructural frame behind them will continue to affect the way we do business. Blockchain technology which can simply be understood as a secure way of distributing and storing datasets through computer nodes, entails quite a number of technological opportunities for small businesses. Not only does it enable encrypted transactions and new ways of financing by Initial Coin Offering (ICO), but it also gives rise to the concepts of smart contracts and secure cloud storage which any kind of business can take advantage of. We strongly encourage you to keep informed with it to not miss the perks.

Don’t underestimate the cyber threat!

On the macro-level we detect a huge threat that you are advised to take seriously. A study that surveyed a number of small business owners revealed that only 13% feel at risk of experiencing a data breach. In view of the fact that almost every second small business is estimated to experience an attack in the next few years, this clearly demonstrates asymmetrical behaviour of business owners who tend to underestimate the risk of getting hacked. Small businesses have to understand that they are especially appealing for somewhat flat security barriers. Not only will the breaches harm businesses by stealing confidential information and money, but they will additionally harm customer relations who expect due care with regards to the storage of their information. Even though 2018 is expected to bring new technology systems, it will not prevent hackers from tapping your precious assets. We advise you to pay attention and follow these 5 fundamental proposals for heightened security.

Excuse me, do you accept mobile payment?

For a few years already, experts believe that mobile payment methods are about to achieve their long-awaited breakthrough and finally become adapted in everyday transactions. With improving security measures as well as increasing customer demand we are optimistic that they will eventually play a great role. Throughout the world, digital payment methods are expected to hit a total transaction volume of more than $3.5 trillion this year with an average annual growth rate of almost 15% in the next five years. These numbers were published by a 2017 Fintech Report and perfectly illustrate that contactless point-of-sales (POS) will continue to hit US outlets and gives rise to the presumption that payment application will see an increase in usage by small businesses as the preferred options of payment. We therefore advise you to not oppose the momentum of change, but instead to learn about the advantages and the opportunities that are implied.

Even though we could have expanded this list of trends with a lot more aspects, we prefer to leave it at that and stop here. Above, we drew up a short list of 7 major small business trends in 2018 that we find most important to disclose to you, in order for you to better prepare for the challenges and opportunities the new year will bring with it.

There you have it, you are now ahead of the business owner game, so enter the new year with increased confidence and motivation.

As mentioned earlier, there are various tools available to help small businesses in overcoming the complex challenges of the future. Solomoto is here to provide those tools!

Happy New Year on behalf the Solomoto team! May 2018 be a prosperous business year.