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CREDIT: Vichaya Kiatying-angsulee | Dreamstime.com
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What's in store for small business in 2012? We asked small-business
owners nationwide to tell us what trends and big ideas they think will
take center stage next year. Here's what they had to say:
Gesture-recognition technology. Voice is only the first step, according to Microsoft. The company envisions an interactive landscape that involves touch and
gesture recognitionas
well as voice input. In fact, Microsoft is also beginning to bake that
functionality into products such as the Xbox Kinect, where the user's
body functions as the onscreen controller. –
Ilya Bukshteyn, Microsoft's Tellme
No boundaries. Forward-looking brands and retailers
are creating a new, universal shopping environment for consumers, giving
the green light for their customers to shop across all channels. You
wanna buy online? No problem. In-store? Certainly! You wanna shop online
while in the store? Of course! Buy it online and pick it up at the
store? You can do that, too. This whole division of online shopping
versus brick-and-mortar will slowly fade into memory. –
Mark Grondin, Shopatron.com
Cyberinsurance. We started to realize: When it comes
to data breaches, small businesses are as exposed and, at times, even
more exposed than large businesses.–
Matt Cullina, IDT 911
Proximity-based social networks.Talking to strangers
will become a big trend in 2012. Proximity-based social networks will
allow you to identify like-minded individuals who are near you. As you
ride a bus or attend a seminar, your smart phone will identify
individuals nearby you should probably know. Our smart devices will thus
evolve to become a way to meet new people in realtime, taking
networking, hiring, marketing, dating and other human-to-human
interactions out of the Stone Age and into a new and much-more-efficient
era. –
Ken Gaebler, Walker Sands Communications
Public/private partnerships.2012 will see the
strengthening of a decades-long move away from government providing
basic services, in favor of private or nonprofit entities. Government
has spent its funds so badly, at all levels, that it has to shed some of
its load, and the private entities provide those services better and
price them more wisely. –
Dan Biederman, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures
Business rollups. Look for an uptick in companies that
acquire small- to mid-size businesses and consolidate them into larger
entities. Baby-Boomer business owners that want to exit their companies
will have few other viable options than to sell out to rollup firms.
That's because one-off acquisition financing will remain scarce and
because there are not enough Gen X or Gen Y business buyers to consume
the fast-growing supply of Baby-Boomer businesses for sale. Moreover,
valuation multiples, the numbers used to determine how much a business
is worth, are generally higher for larger firms. As such, simply by
merging into a larger firm, a business owner can increase the valuation
of his or her life's work, possibly allowing the business owner to exit a
business that might otherwise be unsellable or sold for a
less-than-optimal price. –
Mike Handelsman, Bizbuysell,Bizquest
Strategic technology consulting will be an innovative
service offering that gains traction in 2012. As more and more
organizations start grappling with cloud computing models, technology
scatter, virtualization, managing remote workers and branch offices,
etc., the necessity for a company to come in and assess the current
network environment and make recommendations for technological
improvements that can provide significant business advantages will
become apparent. –
Heinan Landa, Optimal Networks
Local and mobile search is a trend gaining lots of
traction in both the organic and paid search-optimization and
digital-marketing worlds. Statistics show that consumers prefer to shop
locally within 10 to 20 miles of their home or workplace, and 45 percent
do not have a particular business in mind when searching. Many of these
searches are conducted with some sort of smartphone. It is imperative
that businesses understand the dynamics of local and mobile search to
capitalize on these growing consumer trends and habits. – J
oAnna Dettmann, tSunela
Social media for hiring. More than 80 percent of
surveyed HR professionals said they are using social networks to help
them recruit candidates. Specifically, 79 percent search LinkedIn, 65
percent have a company page on LinkedIn, and 63 percent have a dedicated
Facebook page established for jobs and careers. –
Anne Berkowitch, SelectMinds
Outsourcing IT functions.There is compelling evidence
that managed services, even when implemented on a small scale, can
deliver significant cost savings, freeing up cash for other
businessneeds. More importantly, these savings are accomplished without
impacting the availability and reliability of the technology solutions
the company relies on to conduct business. –
Carolyn April, CompTIA
Personalized business software. The last generation of
business software was meant to optimize your back office, make
accounting easier and keep up with tax rules. The new generation of
business software is going to focus on creating value for your business,
connect your customers and suppliers in a network and make it easier
for you, not your accountant, to do business. –
Christian Lanng, Tradeshift
Increased franchising. The franchise industry, which
has been going strong, will see a big uptick in franchises with very low
overhead costs and low start-up costs. For example, fitness boot camps
require basically no overhead, as there is no facility to pay for. With
successful franchises having a proven business model, many looking to
start their own business see franchises as offering more of a guarantee
than starting their own business from scratch. There are many franchises
that can be started for less than $10,000 and I think we will see a lot
more of those springing up in 2012. –
Dan Martin, IFX
Reputation reviews for business servicesand software
will become the driver for accelerating adoption, especially for the
business buyer. The fact is that business owners are using more online
services to grow website traffic, members and sales. A lot more of these
growth services will be purchased online via the B-2-B group-buying
sites when the reputation of the site and its suppliers shine through. –
Van Jepson, GroupPrice
The deals space will continue to expandin the next
year. While we have started to see some consolidation in the industry,
we're now seeing growth and expansion through specialization, and
offerings in other verticals.
– Tom Aley, RapidBuyr
With more than 50-million smartphones in the United States and the
tablet market really taking off, companies will find it more effective
and efficient to do more with less.
Mobile learning is
just beginning to grow, and companies will find that these mobile
devices and tablets will allow them to help their employee learn, no
matter the location or the time. –
Chad Udell, Float
The
expense management of mobile applications, cloud
computing and SaaS subscriptions (salesforce, LinkedIn, etc.) are three
areas that we feel will significantly challenge many organizations in
2012. –
Kurt Brown, Quickcomm
Companies investing in
"bolt-on" acquisitions to their
current company. These bolt-on acquisitions are typically new business
niches or companies that would provide added strength to the core
business. However, if the small bet does not end up working as intended,
it would have a low risk of polluting the core company. Entrepreneurs
who have mastered this small-bet approach often prototype their small
bets, letting their mentors and customers give them feedback on how to
morph and design the final bolt-on concept.
– Dennis Stearns, Stearns Financial Services Group
This year was all about the power of group purchasing, in which
consumers band together to receive better deals from retailers. For
2012, we'll see this concept evolve from the opposite direction:
group incentivization,
with retailers, developers, and merchants banding together to offer a
singular, more rewarding incentive for engagement. And just as Groupon
defined a new vertical, companies that incentivize, like Swagbucks.com,
can do the same. –
Eron Zehavi, Swagbucks
Firms in industry after industry will see the competitive landscape shift
as Chinese companies become a force in global markets.
These firms will first be seen in emerging markets in Asia, Latin
America and Africa, but shortly thereafter will begin to compete in the
developed-country markets of North America and Europe. A common
characteristic of these new competitors from China is their ability to
offer "almost-as-good products at a very attractive price point,"
reflecting their fast-follower and fast-learner competencies.
– George F. Brown, Jr., David G. Hartman, Blue Canyon Partners, Inc.
The focus of marketers in 2012, as involves social media, is going to be on
understanding chatter
(those billions of data points being created by people every day as
they interact online, with each other and with a multitude of websites
and social networks), and understanding how chatter can be used to
improve customer relationships and drive sales.
– Neil Rosen, eWay Direct
More ad measurement.Measuring the success of
advertising and marketing campaigns has historically been a challenge
for marketers, most notably with print campaigns. With social media
emerging as an appealing channel for many brands today, marketers are
likewise faced with similar challenges in regards to tracking campaign
success. In 2012 you'll see more marketers tracking the ROI of campaigns
like these through call tracking. –
Irv Shapiro, Ifbyphone
Websites being more accessible on televisions and the ability for users to be able to
navigate the Web using voice command.
It is rumored that Apple is coming out with a television and the
interface might be more streamlined for your living room. Additionally,
accepting and processing payments on your smartphones will be a growing
trend in 2012.
– Kevin McNally, Interactive Palette
Consumer products and technologies will start to make
their way into businesses. Tools and technologies that started as
consumer products or look like consumer interfaces will become more
popular, as the adoption rates increase when employees need less
training to use the tools. This will also provide businesses with a
competitive advantage for bringing in and retaining younger talent. 2012
will be the year of consumerization and consumer-friendly business
applications.
– Rob Bernshteyn, Coupa
Innovative workspace services. 2012 will mark an
inflection point in the consumerization of real estate. Tools that put
power directly in the hands of individuals will give them the autonomy
to choose a workspace that optimizes their productivity by the hour,
day, or month while increasing flexibility and reducing risk and overall
cost for their companies. Workspace-as-a-service is the concept of
providing a variety of workspaces on a subscription basis by the hour,
day or month in facilities like business centers and co-working
centers.
– John Jordan, President, Global Workspace Association
With employees increasingly moving toward using three to four different
devices to do their jobs, the term "endpoint" is becoming more complex.
The new endpoint, the user (versus the old endpoint, the device), will
require more
friction-free mobile-device management strategies
as environments become more distributed. To provide the flexibility
needed for employees to maintain productivity, IT will need to operate
with more transparency, without losing control over the environment.
– Steve Workman, LANDesk Software
There will be a rise in the building of
customized enterprise application stores.
Smartphones and tablets have little value without applications and the
increased use of these devices creates demand for more applications that
IT groups need to manage. An application store makes that process
easier. –
Dan Croft, Mission Critical Wireless
The
disintegration of "channels." Shoppers, especially
those under 35, don't think in terms of channels. Consumers are
beginning to expect the same story, assortment, and prices no matter how
they are consuming content. Their brand and transactional experiences
blur across channels. We can see evidence of the disintegration on our
news shows, as they now frequently pull from social media channels and
evaluate the trending topics. Even retailers such as Walmart are using
Facebook as their primary localization tactic for in-store promos.
Brands and retailers that align their organization and budgets around
brand, editorial and product content, not individual channels, will gain
market share in the very near future.
– Jeremy Gustafson, KSC Kreate
Cloud-based documents and information resources. After
decades of being a resource primarily accessible to the wealthy and/or
those with serious problems, specialized advice and situational training
will go mainstream through a combination of on-demand experts, social
graphing and mobile devices. Think of it as OnStar for your personal and
professional life.
– Jason Nazar, DocStoc
2012 begins the year of the "
Digital Coupon Book."
Discount directories empower the consumer by allowing them to search for
interesting deals, transforming passive discount recipients into active
couponers. Digital "coupon books" will dominate within the next two
years, offering small businesses an engaged, active audience and another
way to leverage their existing consumer relationships with hyper-local
offers.
– Jerry Nettuno, Schedulicity
By the end of 2012, making a website will not be something you pay
thousands of dollars for, it will be something you create and maintain
yourself. As a result,
the small businesses that do not currently have a website will be able to get online.
Those businesses that do have websites will be able to develop
something modern that attracts clients, works with search engines, and
helps build their business. - David Rusenko, co-founder and CEO of
Weebly.com
