3 Hot Demographics Your Business Can Profit From in 2012 |  |
- 3 Hot Demographics Your Business Can Profit From in 2012
- How Small Business Can Benefit from Time Tracking
- 4 Reasons Customers Prefer Your Mobile Web Site
- Timely Questions for Every Small Business
| 3 Hot Demographics Your Business Can Profit From in 2012 Posted: 11 Apr 2012 11:30 AM PDT Remember when the Baby Boomers were the hottest consumer group to target? The Boomers are still pretty influential, but this year, three different age groups are making waves with their size, influence and purchasing power. Here's a closer look.
Children If you think the baby boom is over, think again. There are over 83 million children age 19 and under in the U.S. From 1987 to 2010, close to or more than 4 million babies were born in the U.S. each year—the official designation of a "boom"—and the trend is likely to continue for at least. There are many entrepreneurial opportunities when it comes to children, but education is a particularly hot area. Faced with state and local budget shortfalls, school districts nationwide are slashing their budgets. At the same time, it's much harder to get into college than ever before, yet parents consider a college education essential to make their kids competitive in the job market. As a result, they're eagerly spending on extracurricular programs that help their kids get better grades or learn skills like music and art that schools have eliminated. Language instruction is a major growth area here as well, as a more global workforce and more diverse U.S. drives home to parents the importance of children learning a foreign language. AnythingResearch.com reports that language instruction is already a $1 billion industry, and has a 13 percent annual growth rate. Twenty Somethings Remember that new baby boom I just mentioned? Well, the oldest members of the boom that began in 1987 are turning 25 this year, and the rest of those echo boomers are right behind them. Meanwhile, the median age at which people first get married has been on the rise since the 1960s: In 2010, it was 28.2 years old for men and 26.1 for women. Next year, a whole generation of women will reach prime marrying age—creating a huge market for wedding-related products and services. Although a recent Pew survey found 40 percent of Americans say marriage is "obsolete," there are plenty of people for whom weddings not only are still in fashion, they're also big business. Based on population data, America is on the verge of a wedding boom that's expected to last for the next 23 years. If you already own a wedding-related business such as a catering, floral design, videography or photography company, it's clear how this trend relates to you. There are also new opportunities, such as those created by the legalization of gay marriage in a growing number of states, and the plethora of overweight Americans who need stylish plus-sized formalwear and wedding gowns. Seniors Remember those original baby boomers I mentioned? The oldest of them turned 65 last year. According to the 2010 Census, 13 percent of Americans were age 65 or older in 2010, but by 2030, that percentage will jump to 20 percent. In other words, the U.S. as a whole will look a lot more like Florida. But baby boomers aren't the big story here: The real boom will be in Americans aged 85 and up (the boomers' parents). The number of Americans 85 and older doubled between 1990 and 2010, reaching 6 million. One of the biggest trends with seniors is that they overwhelmingly want to "age in place" in their own homes instead of going into a senior living facility or nursing home. As a result, services and products to help them do so will be hot for the next 20 years or more. These could include in-home medical or nonmedical care to assist with activities of daily living; senior day-care programs to get seniors out of the house and socializing; products or services to retrofit homes with grab bars, wider doorways and other features that allow older people to move about safely; and monitoring services that let adult children check in on their senior parents' health and happiness via webcam, email or text updates. How will you capitalize on trends? Generations Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| How Small Business Can Benefit from Time Tracking Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:30 AM PDT As a small business owner, it can be hard to justify going through the motions and controls of the larger corporations. Your time is already limited and enterprise software can be quite expensive. So when I say that you really should be comprehensively tracking employee time, you might be skeptical. Let me tell you why you shouldn't be.
Timesheet software is not just for payroll. Increasingly, operational process accounting and project accounting (often for client billing) is becoming important to professional organizations of all sizes. As a growing small business, it's time to start thinking past paper-based or homegrown timesheet systems, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, or multiple installed time collection systems that produce inconsistent data. Without timesheet software, it is very difficult to understand project costs. How can you be sure you'll get a system that works for your company and is immune to common problems experienced when buying a timesheet collection automation system? Here are a few things to consider: Have a Buying Process Too often–in large and small companies alike–the key statement in the buying process is "Look at this cool thing I found on the Internet." The result of this is usually wasted time and money. Timesheet software will touch everyone in your company. Nobody likes to track their time, so it must be simple to use, have a friendly interface and encourage accurate data collection in every way possible. The system should serve as a real accounting system with double entry methodologies and approval processes, and have automatic reminders for the procrastinating, busy, forgetful executive (you know who you are). First, you need a requirements list. This will enable you to eliminate scads of vendors that pop up when you Google “timesheet.” To assemble your requirements list, ask all the different departments in the company that will be affected by the system for their input. Here are a few potential requirements:
There is No Magic Fix I recently saw a statement on one vendor's site that they can "implement in 2-3 days." Not going to happen. You can't roll out your time tracking system in two days unless your problem is simple enough to only include one of the above requirements. And if you think your requirements are that simple, you're probably wrong. But if they really are that simple, don't spend your money on software; stick with Microsoft Excel. The technology is powerful and it can help your company become more profitable in a number of ways. It can lower your payroll processing cost while increasing accuracy. It can also speed up your billing and convert more A/R to cash; automate travel expense reimbursement; and most importantly, it can tell you which projects are broken before you would ever have known it before. Vendors that claim two-day rollout times are just plain lying. Don't let them fool you. This is not a complex process but is one that requires time and energy to accomplish it correctly. In part two of this series, we'll cover questions to ask to make sure the demo is rock-solid, and the advantages of software-as-a-service versus installed software. Time Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| 4 Reasons Customers Prefer Your Mobile Web Site Posted: 11 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT Sixty-one percent of smartphone owners are using their phones to conduct local searches. Forty percent of them are doing it at least once a week, and nearly half are using local business-related apps. With numbers like that, no one should be ignoring the mobile explosion happening. But is the only reason for the mobile boom the appearance of smarter phones and tablets? Or are there other lessons in why a customer may log onto your mobile Web site more often than your desktop site? As always, I believe there may be some hidden lessons at play here for SMBs. Below are four reasons a user may prefer to access your Web site via their iPhone instead of their iMac, and what you can learn from it.
1. A stronger user-center design I have a confession to make. I don't read my local paper, The Troy Record, via my laptop anymore; I read it on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Why? Well, look. This is how the desktop site appears:
This is the mobile site:
The mobile version of Troy Record's Web site is easier to skim, to digest, and to find exactly what I'm looking for than its desktop alternative. The full site may have more bells, whistles and flashy things, but it's harder to use and navigate. The condensed site is designed around specific user habits and interests, which makes it easier for me to complete my task. The mobile version is more aligned with my needs, so that's the version I use. How about your own Web site? Is the focus centered around your users and their needs OR is it centered around showing off a funny video or your fancy Flash navigation? If you're not sure how user-focused your site design is, you may want to use free user testing capabilities that will let you look over a customer's shoulder and find out. Because if extra features are actually getting in the way and making it harder for a user to navigate your site – why do you have them in the first place? 2. Fewer distractions Let's be honest – it's a fight for real estate when it comes to your mobile Web site. You can't fit everything on that first screen so you're left with what's most important. You give users one way in and one way to accomplish tasks. Believe it or not – most users actually prefer this. It makes it easier to complete the task we landed on your site for because there are fewer distractions vying for our attention. When you show me everything, I start to think I need everything and then I hobble around your site unsure of where to go. On your mobile site, you get to the heart of the matter and I get to heart of my visit. This helps both of us having a higher ROI. Go back to your desktop site and give it a once over. Are you clearly setting up a distinct for your user to follow or are you letting them choose their own adventure? If it's the latter and you notice that your conversion rate isn't as high as the norm, this may be something you want to take a look at. 3. Faster loading times Hallelujah! Native apps have finally given users the speed times they want. We don't want to sit around waiting for your fancy site to load features we don't even care about. We want to go to your site and have it instantly appear. We want to click a button and have it bring up a new screen. We want to scroll fast, to move around and to have full mobility on your Web site. And this is exactly what having native apps on our mobile devices allows us. How quickly does your Web site load? Is it lagging and hindering a user's experience? If you haven't tested it, Google will help you analyze your site, let you know how it stacks up, and then offer some recommendations for improvement. Users don't want to wait. They want what they want now. 4. Quicker access to social goods Most mobile Web sites are set up with socialness in mind. They give me the company's Twitter account, the ability to Like them on Facebook, and they even give me links to maps and direction. For a user trying to do business with you, this is really valuable information. I know it's the information I'm most looking for when I look up a local business. However, on the company's traditional site? You practically need a map and a flashlight to navigate your way to their Contact Us page which may or may not even include this information. For a customer trying to find you or who may be using your social presence as an indicator of trust, not having this information readily accessible hinders their experience and may prevent them from doing business with you. No one can deny that mobile is exploding and it's changing the way that customers relate to your business and interact with your site. But are there lessons in the new mobile sites being built? There are if you're looking for them. From Small Business Trends |
| Timely Questions for Every Small Business Posted: 11 Apr 2012 02:30 AM PDT To create and sustain a successful small business, it’s helpful to ask yourself some key questions. As you continue operating your business, those questions never stop. Here are some timely questions we’ve posed to get the ball rolling. What questions dominate your small business today? Tax QuestionsAre you getting all the deductions you can? As time ticks away for filing small business tax returns in the U.S., small businesses here should be sure you’ve considered all the possible deductions out there. Do you have a small business retirement plan? The Christian Science Monitor Is your state’s tax policy good for you? No one state tax policy is best for all entrepreneurs. Still, if you’re trying to decide where you should launch you’re latest new venture, look for the tax structure that benefits you most. Bloomberg BusinessWeek Growth QuestionsHow is your small business on job creation and innovation? Another reason to be proud to be a small business owner comes in the form of these stats from the U.S. and around the world. The impact of small business globally is huge! How does your business do in these areas? Forbes How are your marketing efforts? Marketing drives sales and so essentially everything else in your small business. Here is a resource you might want to consider, if your company could use more happy customers. Marketing HQ Marketing QuestionsHow service driven is your small business? You’ve probably heard that customer service can be a powerful form of marketing. So how service driven would you say, is your small business? Here are some tips to improve in that direction. Small Business Marketing Strategies What role does email still play in your business? Some experts say it’s still a critical form of business communications, especially when it comes to promoting your small business. Are you using email to its greatest advantage? Small Business Trends Operations QuestionsWhat alternative funding options exist for your small business? In the seemingly never-ending series of options out there to fund your small business, here’s one that should never be forgotten. How can community ownership offer opportunities for entrepreneurs? Small Biz Survival What social media channels are best? Social media may be a great way to get the message out about your business, but are all these channels created equal? What are the downsides to some possible social media offerings? Create Hype Tool QuestionsWhat innovative solutions are you employing. In this interview with Mike McGrath of Supply.ie, we see another great service that can ease the strain on small businesses when looking for the right supplier. What options are you using to give your business the edge. TweakYourBiz Do you use virtual computers? These tools offer a way to boost the number of computers your company uses without as much cost by doing the processing on another server. Here’s why it might be an idea to explore for your business. SmallBiz Technology From Small Business Trends |
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