The most important small business trends in 2014

The Most Important Small
Business Trends in 2014
According to the most important
small business experts

Thursday, January 16, 14

Categories:
1. Technology
2. Marketing
3. Finance & Business Management
4. Going Local


Technology


The internet showed its promise in the last few years. In 2014,
the divide between tech-disrupted sectors and those
unaffected goes away.
aaron levie, founder & ceo, box


The small business digital divide widens. A growing body of
research is showing a performance gap between small
businesses that successfully use technology and that don’t.
small business labs


Smartphone and tablet usage of web-based browser and
native apps surpasses that via computer browser.
rex hammock, founder, smallbusiness.com


This is the year that cross-platform development for the
major modern platforms will become increasingly challenging
and products will need to be developed with this in mind. It
will become increasingly unwieldy to develop for both iOS and
Android and natively integrate effectively and competitively
with the platform.
steven sinofsky, board partner, andreessen horowitz


With the resources available for sharing exceeding those
available in traditional ways, 2014 will be the year in which
sharing becomes normal and preferred for assets that are
infrequently used and/or expensive.
steven sinofsky, board partner, andreessen horowitz


Many small businesses are set to embrace cloud storage in
general.
gytis barzdukis, senior director, product management,
vmware


As the web becomes more crowded, small businesses looking
to build and maintain relationships with customers will need
mobile apps. Creating mobile apps and most importantly
consistently updating them with new content using tools like
mobile app content managers are how small businesses will
evolve in 2014.
patrick chukwura, co-founder, joppar


Mobile Based Retail Purchasing. 2013 Black Friday was
Mobile Friday with almost 40% of all online shopping done on
mobile devices. This trend will continue in 2014 as more
consumers are empowered to use their phones and tablets to
shop anytime, anywhere. Seamless browsing, saving, and
shopping across platforms will be crucial for any business
that wants to grow in 2014.
billy bauer, marketing director, royce leather


At the beginning of 2013, people said mobile phone use would
surpass desktop use by 2015. Well, it's already happened.
Many websites now report mobile traffic as high as 66% of
their overall traffic. People who think it's time to get ready
for mobile have already been left behind! The small
businesses that will see the highest gains in 2014 will be
those with a mobile website or a responsive design website.
From there, the most successful small businesses will branch
out to mobile advertising and more.
collin jarman, seo technician, click optimize


The ability to gather data continues to be revolutionized,
especially for small businesses who might not have been able
to afford the tools and technology to gather and analyze data
a few years ago. This will give small businesses the ability to
move away from 'gut feelings' about what's right and move to
measurements, KPIs and quantifiable data so everyone is
working with one version of the truth. Either through
capturing and reviewing their own data or purchasing data
resources from cloud-based providers like eVestment, at no
other time in history has so much information been available
so readily, so quickly and so affordably.
jim minnick, ceo, evestment.com


Less than 5% of business websites are mobile-optimized.
Ignoring mobile marketing is simply no longer an option for
any business. 94% of smartphone owners are looking for local
information on their mobile devices, and 70% of these
searchers have gone to a local business after a search. For a
small business, this is a golden opportunity.
zach cusimano, coo, bizness apps


The convergence of mobile, cloud, data & analytics. They’re
also leading to new forms of technology-based competition as
more small firms use capabilities developed through the
convergence of these technologies to outmaneuver
competitors.
small business labs


As businesses grow and demand for their products increases,
technology like Lettuce will assist business owners in
consolidating their back-end operations, allowing for more
time to be spent on sales and growth rather than inventory
management. The fast pace of the current marketplace will
push more business owners to utilize available technology to
make their business operations more efficient and lean.
raad mobrem, ceo & founder, lettuce


One of the top trends for 2014 is the widespread use of
analytics, allowing SMBs to make data-driven decisions. I
think as analytics become more and more accessible to the
layman, more SMBs will use them to tie online and offline
activities together.
andre pinantoan, marketing, getpocketbook.com


Small businesses will ditch traditional credit card terminals
and POS Systems at an ever increasing pace in 2014. In
exchange, they will swap out for tablet-based systems that
offer ease-of-use, better reporting, loyalty tracking, minimal
fees, cloud storage, and no contracts.
phillip parker, ceo, cardpaymentoptions.com


Marketing


I think we’re going to see fairly intense consolidation [in the
local marketing space]. As the products become more
complex, companies will need an in-house sales force to gain
traction, which will make it increasingly difficult for new
entrants to pop up. Working off that, we’re going to see even
more deal sites close, and a couple of leaders emerge from the
pact – we’ve obviously seen that start to happen. In addition to
the deals space, consolidation will also start occurring around
local marketing agency companies as well. The successful
companies will be the ones that choose to focus on one thing,
rather than the all-in-one approach.
howard lerman, ceo, yext


Decrease in success of Facebook advertising. People are
connecting and sharing more than ever. On a given day, when
someone visits News Feed, there are an average of 1,5001
possible stories we can show. As a result, competition for each
News Feed story is increasing. Because the content in News
Feed is always changing, and we’re seeing more people
sharing more content, Pages will likely see changes in
distribution. For many Pages, this includes a decline in
organic reach. We expect this trend to continue as the
competition for each story remains strong and we focus on
quality.
richard sim, performance product marketing manager,
facebook


Local small business advertising dollars flow to Twitter,
Foursquare, and as always, Google.


Mobile growth pushes Facebook to become number 2 US
digital ad seller behind Google, with increased emphasis on
Instagram as ad channel.
emarketer


Increase in mobile market for local ads. Mobility and the
near-ubiquity of smart phones amongst users with disposable
income focuses great entrepreneurs on this massive market.
jonathan ebinger, general partner, bluerun ventures


The average digital media usage among U.S. consumers is
estimated at nearly 15 hours per week, according to
researcher PQ Media. So even those small businesses that
have been social media hold-outs will be jumping on the
bandwagon in 2014 to engage their customers.
susan solovic, ceo, susan solovic media group


A study by Google Shopper Marketing Agency Council and
M/A/R/C Research found 84% of smartphone shoppers use
their phones while in a physical store. [For small businesses]
that have not already given serious consideration to a mobile
device as a means by which consumers are shopping, the time
has come.
christopher mccarthy, managing director, addison richmond
consulting


Small businesses with local customers will automate
marketing operations. Traditionally, marketing automation
technology was only available to larger corporations with the
budget, staff and resources to manage it. Increasingly,
businesses with local customers are choosing cloud-based
marketing automation technologies that empower them to
shift away from traditional advertising and toward digital
marketing and maximize new and repeat sales.
stuart wall, ceo & co-founder, signpost


[Content Marketers] will have to “pay” [readers] at much
higher rates just to keep the same number of readers in 2014
that [they] had in 2013. The global warming of content
marketing is in view.
mark schaefer, marketing consultant, college educator,
author


Reinvigorated feminism is another issue facing marketers. In
a recent poll by The Economist, 42% of all millennials said
they consider themselves "feminists," compared to just 32%
of Generation X.
jeff fromm, author: marketing to millennials


People are becoming more aware of the data being collected
about them online. And that's eroding the trust they have
with collecting companies, such as Facebook, Twitter and
Google.
tim peterson, digital tech reporter, adage


The Internet Advertising Bureau expects online video ads to
hit double-digit growth in 2014. Video is now the key part of
any brand's consumer research and 2014 will be the year
when online merchants finally recognize the value of video as
one of the fundamental sales channels.
irfon watkins, ceo, coull


Brands will move towards more advanced social success
metrics than traditional vanity metrics as brands steer away
from viral goals.
tara hunt, vp insights and social strategy, lime foundry


Acceleration in mobile, tablets and new technologies means
SMBs need mobile-optimized versions of their website across
devices, with mobile checkout, and better mobile experiences.
matt winn, marketing communications manager, volusion


Graphic design will become an increasingly important part of
the small business toolkit as companies realize they *must*
extend their brand across various platforms. No longer is a
well-designed website enough; it is rapidly becoming essential
to have a strong unified presence on mobile (responsive site/
mobile-optimized site/mobile app) and across social media.
lauren gard, marketing manager, 99 designs


As a small business owner, I fully expect small businesses in
2014 to accelerate their efforts in trying to win the top spot in
local search. This means that small businesses will implement
Microformats, hoping Google will index that metadata. I also
expect more and more small businesses to make video a part
of their online strategy.
pete abilla, owner, schmula


We will see a large increase in the use of responsive web
design for companies big and small to help with mobile
marketing and SEO. As the digital divide evolves and
segments web searches over different devices (phone, ereader, tablet, computer) there is an increased necessity for
adaptable websites that are cleanly viewed on each device. It
used to be enough to simply have a mobile site, but with a 55%
increase in smartphone usage in 2013, a mobile site is no
longer enough.
jayme pretzloff, online marketing director, wixon jewelers


We believe 2014 will be the year small business America
focuses on hyper-local marketing using technology that used
to be too expensive for them. Use of on-line or mobile
customer engagement tools such as mobile marketing apps,
text messaging, unique loyalty programs and broader online
marketing strategies will explode. Why? The cost for these
services has dropped to a point where a fairly sophisticated
marketing system can be implemented for the price of a
magazine ad or coupon mailer. The data rich tools let owners/
operators really get to know their customer at a personal
level and build a real relationship with them.
bob gravely, ceo, micro marketing strategies


In 2014, more small businesses will bring online marketing
in-house. A recent survey from eMarketer.com showed that
increasing market and brand presence is the number 1
priority of small businesses in the coming year, and as small
businesses begin to understand online channels more, they'll
see that it's not necessarily better to have an agency when
they can have a small, holistic marketing team that covers all
their needs while providing long-term value to the business.
dustin christensen, digital marketing manager, jackson
white law


Online reputation management becomes critical for small
businesses. 90% of consumers read online reviews before
making a purchase. Now more than ever, small businesses
need to monitor their online reviews and listen to customer
feedback. Small businesses will need to find a way to quickly
and easily aggregate all online reviews, from sites like Google,
Yahoo, Yelp, Trip Advisor and Angie’s List, and then monitor
and respond to them appropriately. Negative reviews and
feedback will of course need to be addressed. Positive reviews
can be promoted on a company website and social media
networks to encourage and assist in word-of-mouth
marketing.
rebecca roebuck, digital marketing manager, whiteboard
marketing


Happily for customers and customer service representatives,
2013 was the year that people finally recognized the
undeniable importance of customer experience. Marketing
efforts hinged on the swing of brand reputation and company
owners came to see the direct relevance of the customer to
the bottom line. This is a trend that we are likely to see
continue well into 2014.
sue ratcliffe, head of client services, alldaypa


I predict that a greater percentage of small businesses will
not dive solely into a social media-intensive marketing
strategy. I think more businesses will hire specialized
personnel to consult & manage their presence for them. It's a
time-intensive endeavor, so all the more reason they will pay
someone to do it for them & be able to stay focused on their
overarching business goals for 2014.
vin ferrer, social media strategist, graphic d-signs


In 2014, small businesses will need to handle and track
increased phone call volume in order to understand
marketing ROI. With mobile search volume soon expected to
surpass desktop, and 60-73% of mobile searches culminating
in a phone call, call buttons will become essential for any
website. Ease of contact will also become important for search
rankings. Adwords ads with call extensions already have a
ranking advantage; I predict this will happen in organic
results as well, pushing click-to-call to the forefront.
dorin rosenshine, founder, outleads


I believe 2014 is the year in which the tipping point shifts
around marketing green. Companies that have not gotten on
the train are going to get left behind by their customers, who
demand aware and responsive corporate participation in
saving the planet. Last year, Green America released its Big
Green Opportunity report. Among their findings: over a fiveyear period that corresponded with the recent recession, the
green building sector grew an astounding 1700 percent, while
the building sector as a whole contracted 17 percent.
shel horowitz, author, green marketing consultant


Finance & Business Management


The Affordable Care Act gains popularity among a large
segment of the smallest of small businesses.


Consumer and employee interest in [green] practices is
making a strong comeback with multiple studies finding
more people today considering sustainable business practices
important than prior to the recession. The meaning of green
has also expanded to include ethical business practices as well
as support for local businesses.
small business labs


Finding adequate cash to meet capital needs or fuel growth is
a challenge for small business owners. Although it’s getting
better, business owners will probably not find success at the
local bank. More likely, specialty lenders offering niche
options for specific needs like equipment financing, shortterm working capital, and commercial real estate along with
products like merchant cash advance and factoring are
making access to capital easier for business owners. In 2014,
traditional lenders will need to embrace a new paradigm
regarding small business lending or run the risk of
permanently losing marketing share to more aggressive
specialty lenders.
brock blake, ceo, lendio


Small business owners must learn as much as they can on the
fly if they hope to withstand resistance and to overcome any
setbacks standing in their way. More entrepreneurs realize
that they need to invest time in new skills if they hope to
make a splash. It's easier than ever to learn professional skills
online with sites like Skillfeed.com and others.
danny groner, manager, blogger partnerships & outreach,
shutterstock


While there are signs the traditional lending market is
getting better for small businesses, access to credit will
remain tight. Therefore, we’ll see a significant increase in the
use of crowdfunding.


As with the current proposed final rules for Title III,
(Crowdfunding Act), I think that the Commission will
continue to take a well rounded approach as related to
investor protection measures. However, two major concerns
loom; Financial Disclosures and the Imposition on Liabilities
for Funding Portals. Where will the industry net out on
issuers raising $500K & more with needing to provide audited
financial statements to raise capital on a registered funding
portals as the current rule proposes. Second, will the SEC
eliminate the imposition of liability against a Crowdfunding
Platform for the misstatements and omissions of the
companies that post to their website- specifically the
proposed language on Page 280 of the SEC's proposed Rules
for Title III, which were published on October 23, 2013. It is
important for the Commission allow for enough leeway in
developing a healthy ecosystem that will foster capital
formation and job creation.
kim wales, founder, wales capital


Multi-channel selling becomes more important as SMBs need
efficient ways to expand their presence and reach more
customers with shopping behaviors becoming more
fragmented.


The use of social media indicators to determine
creditworthiness.
stephanie armour, reporter, wsj


The Human Resources department will become more
important than ever. Many factors may significantly impact
the workforce in 2014, including different employee benefit
options (such as Health Savings Accounts, the Affordable Care
Act, etc.), Generation Y’s impact in the workplace, social
media and smartphones in the office, new PTO policies, workfrom-home expectations, and more. HR departments will play
a critical role in shaping how companies deal with these shifts
in communication, workplace behavior, and technology. Their
efforts in doing so will directly impact companies bottomlines in terms of employee engagement, recruitment,
retention.
chris costello, principal & founder, cbg benefits


The number of productivity solutions available to small
businesses has exploded over the last few years, allowing
business owners to move faster and get more done with less.
In the past, businesses were told to Hire Slow, Fire Fast and
what they've experienced is slower hiring and poor results.
2014 becomes the year that small businesses get access to
better hiring tools, allowing them to hire fast and hire better.
ben baldwin, co-founder, clearfit


Going Local


Fewer brick & mortar locations. An estimated 16 million
Americans currently work from home–a figure that’s
expected to increase by 63 percent over the next five years,
according to statistics from Global Workplace Analytics.
Technology lessens the need for small business teams to work
from one location.


Consumers have grown fatigued by the shopping experience
at big box retailers. Impersonal service, long lines and big data
breaches all are working to drive business to local, smaller
main street retailers, but consumers have also grown
accustomed to the convenience of technology. If they can't
find what they're looking for on their smart phone in 60
seconds, they're perfectly happy to move on.
bob wiggins, ceo, two minute mobile


Shopping local gathers steam in niches beyond food.


Small shops squeezed by larger merchants means SMBs need
to become more nimble in how they compete, both from a
price, customer service and marketing standpoint with big
retailers like Amazon.


The recent rise in construction company startups is a small
blip on a long-term downward trend in entrepreneurship in
the construction sector.
scott shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at case
western reserve university


As Amazon continues to crush big chains like Borders Books,
the market for independent local retailers opens up again, as
it has in the independent book industry. “Amazon may have
the bargains, but independent booksellers are trading in the
importance of real-life community–and are seeing an uptick
in business.
verne kopytoff, reporter, cnn


We’ll see a lot more course experiences combining offline and
online learning. Although massive online open courses have
also become more acceptable and popular, we’ll see workplace
course educators finding opportunities to create hyper-local
on-the-ground experience happen such as meet-ups, open
spaces, un-conferences and other activities. I see 2014 as the
year when this trend will hit that critical point and become
more identifiable in the market.
demetrio maguigad, strategic design director, limered
studio


Working with mostly professional services (doctors,
accountants, lawyers) I am seeing a rapid shift to local
expertise. Specifically a speciality to your region that is
showcased on social media.
bryan cush, president, tidal wave marketing


As small businesses seek to grow their audiences, drive new
customers and optimize marketing expenditures, we will see
an increase in alliances. Whether to put on events, offer
promotions, or share in advertising expenses, small
businesses will band together. I expect we’ll see both
complementary businesses and those with little in common
other than targeting the same geography or demographic
collaborating.
hillary berman, founder, popcorn ice cream


One thing that I see as a big trend that has been growing and I
believe will continue is humanizing a company. The old school
thought process of companies being the people behind them
will come back stronger than ever. People love knowing the
owner. I have a specific coffee shop I go to for meetings and to
get a little work done out of the office. I go there because of
my relationship with the own above everything else. Those
relationships are what will be most important in 2014.
ely delaney, automated marketing architect,
yourmarketinguniversity.com


We predict that more entrepreneurs than ever
will open small businesses in 2014.

Find out why.


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The most important small business trends in 2014

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