Understanding how technology helps in generating solutions for small businesses
By: Aditi Iyer
Small businesses face various challenges in successfully establishing themselves, promoting their products or services, and becoming medium-scale enterprises. Changing market patterns and consumer demands are an obstacle for small businesses that haven’t been able to introduce variations in their products/services and cater to these changes. Gaining a competitive edge against more prominent firms in the market has forever been a challenge for small businesses.
Big businesses have a higher budget for marketing, which ends with their products penetrating the market better. They also tend to have a much more significant online presence through e-catalogues and social media marketing. This helps in making it easier for people to discover their products. Many small businesses don’t have an excellent social media presence or do not have an established website. More recognised corporations can sell their products with smaller margins as they mass-produce them. Small businesses tend to have slower-moving products that are not mass-produced, so they tend to fall behind in their sales.
Integrating technology in operations is a significant problem small businesses face. People are willing to invest in a business. But many business owners don’t have the proper knowledge about recent technology that could help them simplify their operations and help the business grow. They also aren’t in a position to access technology to promote their products. Many small businesses pay freelancers, but that ends up being expensive. Many local and small businesses end up shutting operations as they haven’t been able to adapt to the current environment by leveraging the advantages that technology provides.
Business owners’ aversion to adopting new technologies mainly stems from either the lack of knowledge of the tools available or are unable to compare and choose between numerous technology options. Another factor is that they feel that their current solutions are good enough (even if new technology might help them do better). Or they tend to fixate on the risks or short-term losses they may face when procuring new technology while ignoring the potential gains in terms of increased efficiency.
Technology helps to improve operational efficiency- business owners can effectively plan and stock up on products according to market demands and trends, avoiding over-stocking or under-stocking. This will also help in saving costs and drive-up return on investment. Productivity also improves with using tools to complete repetitive or redundant tasks. This gives business owners more time to focus their time and energy on more critical studies.
When businesses adopt new technology, they can anticipate changes or trends and adapt to them with the technology they have equipped. They can also create a better customer experience by ensuring their services are provided on user-friendly platforms and readily available. Incorporating technology into business strategies helps business owners to tap into the potential gains the online market offers and promote their products or services more effectively.
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