Partner Article

Technology Advice for #MicroBizMattersDay 2015

Small businesses continue to be absolutely vital to UK prosperity. While independent groups are increasingly calling on the Government to make it easier for small businesses to flourish, it’s the rise of micro and home-run businesses that continues to catch my attention.

To celebrate the UK’s first annual #MicroBizMattersDay – a day that aims to demonstrate the massive contribution independent business owners and the self-employed make to our economy – I wanted to share a few thoughts on how technology can help micro businesses to thrive and grow. Today Canon will be sparing 9 minutes for #MicroBizMattersDay, sharing 9 pieces of tech advice to help make life better for micro enterprises everywhere.

Figure out what’s essential to your business

Many businesses are unaware of the range of features they can access on everyday office devices. For example, Canon research[i] revealed that 48% of small businesses aren’t using their printer to its full potential. Deciding which features are essential to your business and which are perhaps ‘nice to haves’ will help you make sure that you’re not overpaying for office equipment, such as a printer, that has functionality that you’ll never use.

2. Think longer-term when buying technology

There are already 4.5 million micro enterprises in the UK, making up 95% of all businesses. In today’s digital world, with technology advancing at a significant pace, it has never been more important for a small business to think longer-term when buying technology, which is why it’s vital that every small business has a view on what the future will look like and to plan accordingly.

3. A new wave of wearables, apps and cloud based business tools can help improve micro business operations

In recent years, we’ve seen the dominance of tablets over PCs, the emergence of connected watches and a whole host of wearable tech, apps and cloud-based tools. For micro businesses in particular, the challenge comes in distinguishing the tech trends that will support them in the longer term as opposed to the ones that may fade out in the coming years. For example, office devices that aid productivity but have additional features, such as the ability to connect, will be more likely to serve the business into the future. A great example would be a printer that connects to cloud applications such as DropBox™, to save and secure important documents.

4. Technology advancements are allowing for more e-commerce start-ups

The digital economy has created a range of sole traders and micro businesses that are communicating with customers and selling their products and services through an array of emerging platforms. Charles Baden-Fuller, centenary professor of strategy at Cass Business School at the University of London, has estimated that 90 per cent of businesses are not on the high street and that in a digital world, many start-ups are starting as e-commerce-only ventures.

5. You don’t have to leave your living room to be run a successful small or micro business

A recently launched Home Business Report from Enterprise Nation identified that there are 2.9m ‘homepreneurs’ in the UK delivering £40bn to local economies and more than £300bn annually to the national economy. Technology plays a vital role for these businesses. For example, choosing reliable services from your broadband provider so you’re always connected, to office equipment can allow micro businesses to remain in control of their day to day operations.

6. Technology efficiency should be a top priority for micro businesses

In the months and years ahead, we expect to see a range of new technologies appear that are designed to revolutionise the way businesses operate and help employees become more efficient. A business printer is a great example of an evolving technology. Printers today can do far more than print; they are intelligent, connected machines that are becoming office hubs in their own right, from connecting straight to cloud services to providing features such as mobile printing to support agile working, productivity, and efficiency.

7. Save energy in the office

While investing your own time and energy into a business may not seem to be an expense, the associated energy costs can often add up if you’re spending a lot of time in the office, on the road or even working at home. Technology is often seen as a barrier against keeping energy costs down, however with the internet of things creating smart devices for energy use, businesses can keep track of their daily activity and help reduce costs. The latest office equipment is also designed to run on as little energy as possible. In addition, using a single device to print materials, scan materials, access materials online can be more efficient and help to prevent multiple devices from eating into your electricity bills.

8. The blurring lines of B2B and B2C are an important shift for SMBs

Our employee habits are also evolving, to the extent that Gartner research vice president, Matthew Cain, has coined a new term, that of the ‘business consumer’. He suggests that business consumers “often make more consumer-like choices in their workplace computing tools and styles to increase efficiency.” Don’t be afraid to make simple changes to the technology your business uses if you feel the product or service is not right or the price is too high. Modern applications can help you organise your finances, paperwork and marketing adding real value to a small business

9. Digital finance can make raising capital easier for SMBs

Small businesses are receiving record levels of funding (some £1.25bn was lent to small firms in September, up 55 per cent on the year before according to the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers) as a result in a surge of new lenders on the market. Popular methods include peer to peer lending, crowdsourcing and equity based finance. Technology is a driving force in opening up the market to small and micro businesses. Digital platforms such as Seedrs and Crowdcube are able to provide finance to start-up, small and micro businesses through online peer to peer platforms.

[1] Research conducted by B2B International, July 2014. Results based on sample size of 208 UK SMBs (1-10 employees).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Robinson, Market Business Developer, Canon .