Member Article

Why there’s never been a more important time for SMBs to grow online

Kai Feller, CEO and Founder of Bark.com:

Last month saw the introduction of the job retention scheme by the government, with a view to support the UK small business landscape during the current outbreak. Despite the roll-out of this scheme, there are still around 4.8 million self-employed people in the UK, which means millions of people won’t be getting sick-pay or tax breaks during the coronavirus crisis.

For this part of the workforce, shutting-up shop is simply not an option in order to keep food on the table. But, that doesn’t need to mean compromising safety.

Our mission has always been to make it easy for freelancers and self-employed workers to reach customers and run their businesses online. Many of our professionals from lawyers, tradesmen and personal trainers have adapted their model to offer virtual sessions and this approach can be applied to many other businesses too, such as tutoring and bookkeeping.

We’ve also seen a huge spike in demand for web designers as businesses are taking the transition from offline to online. In fact, demand for web designers on Bark.com has increased exponentially by 97% this March, compared to the same time last year.

At Bark, we’ve launched a dedicated website and 24/7 helpline to support these businesses beginning their journey online. We will continue to offer as much support, in terms of mentoring, digital skills training and business advice as we can to all of our sellers making this transition, as well as to businesses that do not use Bark.com.

Small businesses often stick to traditional business practice and don’t realise how easy it is to digitise their business - we’re encouraging everyone to explore this option to help keep Britain’s self-employed workforce active during this time, and beyond. Businesses in the service industry in particular need more access to digital platforms and better guidance on how to make the most of them. While services make up 69% of national consumer spending, just 7% of services are primarily digital. Services are complex and diverse, making standardisation trickier. What’s more, many could be missing out on a wealth of opportunities simply by not having the digital skills to take advantage of the online tools available to them. The digital economy is built on the same solid principles as traditional business: delivering excellent customer experiences and quality service. Service providers and entrepreneurs shouldn’t be afraid of updating their business to the digital age, migrating their knowledge and expertise to the online world. Many small-business owners still do things traditionally, relying on word-of-mouth without digitally getting in front of potential customers and without realising the benefits of creating an online presence for their offline business. The time is now. The on-demand economy is designed for the time-poor and tech-savvy consumers. Services businesses need to get on board with this trend in order to thrive, particularly in a world that is currently dominated by physical distancing. There’s a surprising amount of unexpected opportunities when we encourage our users to use the technology available to them to think more creatively. For instance, we’ve seen tradesmen pull together a quote by carrying out assessments and measurements over video calls, rather than in person. At Bark, we’re working with all of our users and professionals to try and accelerate their digital capabilities and online business skills so that they can adapt to a new way of working as quickly and smoothly as possible. Just last month we launched our services marketplace into three new global markets: Australia, New Zealand and Singapore to further support small business around the world. One of the many benefits of a virtual business is that we won’t be restricted by aspects like border control or limited to servicing one country. Bark already operates in the US, Canada, South Africa and Ireland as well as the UK and since launching, we have successfully operated in these markets and run everything from our London office in Paddington. We’ve seen significant year-on-year growth in all of our markets so we know this approach works. We have also seen huge uptake in our recently launched markets, showcasing that demand for services and the rise of the gig economy in these areas lends itself to the need for an online marketplace where we can connect businesses with customers, especially in such huge areas geographically! Given the current outbreak, there has never been a more important time for businesses to safeguard themselves and respond to customer demand, by being online. We want to help on a global scale, so there has never been a better time to launch into these new markets and do what we can to support professionals around the world.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Bark .