Company, and small company in particular, has always been in a condition of constant change. What is deemed lunacy quickly turns into genius; what works one year, doesn’t work the next.
If you look closely enough, you will undoubtedly discover that new technologies are the fundamental cause of one of the biggest changes the small company ecosystem is going through right now: new technology.
For example, you would not assume that new technology had anything to do with declining employee loyalty, yet that is precisely the case. Thanks to modern technology, people have access to more alternatives and knowledge, and they just do not have the same type of loyalty that their parents had.
Now that we know why there are new rules for small company success, let’s look more closely at what these rules are.
Everything Driven by Data
Small company entrepreneurs used to take great satisfaction in acting “on a hunch” and “listening to their gut”. It had a romantic quality, and although some small company owners continue to believe in this fantasy of the past, astute ones have long understood that the reason it was successful in the past was that SMB owners had no other option.
They have now.
Business analytics technologies that were once exclusive to the largest companies are now readily accessible to small business owners. The largest firms could only afford business analytics teams and computers that took up whole rooms and floors of buildings back in the “good old days”.
Small firms may now readily obtain market research, marketing analytics, cost efficiency studies, and future predictions that will aid them in making more informed decisions in the future, thanks to new technology and the rise of the SaaS business software model.
Naturally, one does not just dive in; research and education are necessary. However, if a small business owner can acquire and use these insights, their enterprise will undoubtedly achieve breakthroughs that will leave their rivals in the dust.
The Modern Office
One sequence from Billy Wilder’s masterwork The Apartment (1960) just sticks in your memory. This image offers an impression (albeit a rather inflated one) of what the workplace was like in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Please take note of Jack Lemon, the maestro, at work as well.
Believe it or not, for decades we lived with the type of isolation and work-centricity that that film so brilliantly lampooned, and we came to terms with it.
Nevertheless, things are shifting these days.
The workplace is finally evolving, mostly due to technology, and small company owners must recognize this if they hope to succeed.
They must realize that the ability to work remotely and flexible work schedules are two of the most cherished benefits for employees worldwide. Workers are aware that they can complete all tasks just as well from the comfort of their own homes and do not need to spend their days at an office. Owners of small businesses must comprehend this.
In addition to being welcoming and varied, the new workplace does not tolerate archaic office practices that cause discomfort or undesirable behavior to anybody.
Employees in the new workplace may be working from thousands of kilometers away, but they are contributing their skills to the organization, which would have been impossible ten years ago since they were not local.
The new workplace is something as inventive as coworking, where the firm shares “its offices” with other tiny companies whose owners see that sometimes it’s entirely useless to spend money on offices. This is what the genuinely creative and astute business owners see as the new workplace.
Naturally, when the firm expands, it will require offices, to negotiate, to take into account commercial real estate, and all the other associated costs.
A laptop and a free desk will be more than plenty to begin with.
Above all, adaptability
Entrepreneurs want to solve problems, establish a functional system, and then make little adjustments while this well-built apparatus produces outcomes.
To like such a situation is just human.
It makes it possible to occasionally unwind and focus on fresh ideas and significant actions that will elevate this company to new heights.
Sadly, the current economic environment just does not support small business owners that want to operate in this manner. The environment in which we live is too fluid for any kind of achievement that does not need a high degree of adaptation.
Consider the impact that American retail is seeing from internet retailers. Each year, hundreds of businesses close their doors, and tens of thousands of jobs just vanish. And these are big-box retailers, businesses with massive marketing budgets and teams of analysts trained to forecast just this kind of thing.
You never know who will become your next rival or what new trend may destroy your previously flawless company plan. You never know how the availability of talent may be affected by a seemingly little political move made halfway around the world.
Variables in a linked universe become constants instead of just being variables. Nothing should be taken for granted, and no strategy can be assured to succeed in a year or two.
The globe is getting smaller and new technology has made business ruthlessly Darwinian.
Not the strongest people make it through. It can be adjusted the most.
Final Word
It’s a strange world, and small business owners must begin implementing some new strategies. They need to be alert, begin using facts, and acknowledge that The Office took place more than ten years ago.
