1. The internet allows geographic independent sales and marketing. For most businesses, you and your customer can be anywhere and still do business together anywhere in the world.
2. The movement to reduce costs and commuting by working at home. Your office is wherever your phone, computer or PDA is. Work has become ”location independent”.
3. Mashing of work and home spaces. You no longer leave work at 5:00 PM and go home (see #2). Home looks more like work and work, well it looks alot more like home. As a result, we actually work a lot more hours than we did a decade ago. Thank you automation!
4. We are more easily able to network and keep in touch with people from our past. Reconnection with the friends and business associates has never been easier through Facebook and other social media. They are there whether you want it or not. But remember, business is basically about people!
5. Size no longer matters. It is mostly impossible to tell the size of the company you are doing business. Technology enables small companies to look big and for most of us, the size of the company is no longer important for most of our purchases. What people say about the company in peer reviews is the key (See #6).
6. Customer Service makes a comeback. Big companies can now become “human” as Chris Brogan says. With web site personalization, recommendations, and customer chat, companies can handle your problems more quickly. They need to since it is a lot easier tell how satisfied or dissatisfied you are with that company on Twitter, Facebook, Yelp or Youtube.
7. Less credit, more cash is king. Businesses are financing their own start up or growth through personal savings, family or friends. Banks are no longer risking their capital, not even on real estate purchases.
8. Less benefits, higher deductibles. Your employer paying 100% of your health care premium is a thing of the past. You are paying a larger share with a higher deductible and supplementing this with health savings accounts. If health care legislation passes, small business may be carrying an even higher burden.
9. A new class of employee appears. It used to be that you were either employed or unemployed. Now with the economic downturn, some people are working but not getting paid by their company as a result of cash flow issues. The promise of getting paid is better than being unemployed and well…not getting paid at all.
10. You are your own brand. Working for one company for a long period of time died in the 80′s. In order to find work, people now form loose collaborations to accomplish a task for a single or multiple clients. Since these form and change frequently, the only brand you promote now is your own personal one.
What do you think the most important small business trends of the past decade have been?
Posted via web from Bryan’s Blog
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