Every small business owner needs to utilize technology to some extent. It doesn’t matter what type of business you own. The world is now connected to the internet, and people use it to connect to local and online businesses. If your business is not using the latest technology to advertise and communicate, then you cannot succeed in the 21st century.

Your small business may have a tight budget, but it doesn’t cost much money to purchase and operate technology these days. If you have a laptop and internet connection, you’re already equipped with the most essential technology. Just learn how to use it to your advantage. You can do this by following the latest technology trends.

Let’s examine the top 5 technology trends for small businesses like yours.

1) Build a Website

Did you know that 50% of all small businesses have their own website? That is actually a very low percentage for 2020. When you consider that 9 out of 10 businesses end up failing within the first year, now you can see why. Many of those small businesses don’t even create their own websites.

How do they ever expect to reach anybody without a website? Don’t make this same mistake. Build a website for your business and market the URL address of the website on your business cards, email signature, and wherever else you can think of.

2) Smartphones and Apps

As a business person, you cannot do business without a smartphone. You need to be ready at all times to take phone calls from the various stakeholders of your business. They could be investors, potential customers, suppliers, maintenance people, and so on. Business people need to communicate quickly in order to stay ahead. Smartphones make this easy to do.

3) Cloud Technology

You no longer need to purchase hard drives and other storage disk drives to store your digital files and documents. In fact, you can eliminate all your storage hardware because it is no longer needed.

Cloud technology has made storage so much easier for small businesses. You can just upload your files and documents to a secure cloud server where they will be accessible whenever you need them.

It doesn’t matter if your computer crashes or stops working because the cloud is hosted somewhere else. But when you access the cloud, it is easy to send, share, and receive files with it. So, if your computer stops working, then you can still access the cloud files on a different computer.

Approximately 92% of all small businesses use some type of cloud hosting. That is a very high number. If you’re not using cloud hosting technology to store your company’s files and documents, then you need to catch up to your competition right now by using it.

4) Manage Financial Records with FinTech

Every business needs to keep track of their revenue, expenses, sales, invoices, cash flow, and all other business activities. A lot of small business owners don’t have the time to deal with these tasks. They aren’t in the financial position to hire an accountant to do it either.

The latest trend is to use FinTech, which stands for financial technology. Any type of specialized software that makes it easier to manage your finances would be considered FinTech. This could be accounting software, tax software, and so on.

5) Social Media

Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are not just for personal use. Many small and large businesses are using social media platforms to stay in touch with customers and keep them updated on the latest news and offerings.

Since social media promotions accounts are free, you can build a personalized connection with your leads, and you don’t even need to pay for it. That is why you should create a business profile on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Advertise your social media profile links on your website.

Conclusion

It is important to follow these technology trends because they can help you make your business more successful. You just need to follow the trends and incorporate the same technology into your business. The world of technology is changing by the week, so you need to stay on top of these trends before it is too late.