Today I want to highlight an article from another site that I found interesting, 11 Small Business Trends of 2023 on Business News Daily, written by Neil Cumins. Neil points out 11 technology trends that he sees as being important and useful for small businesses in 2023. I think he points out a lot of good things, my favorites from his list include automation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.
Automation
I see automation as being a huge potential for small businesses. Several advances in this field and new tools have made a lot of tasks easier and cheaper to automate, which means a lot of your repetitive processes are likely low hanging fruit and can free up your time to focus on more impactful activities. If you want to learn more about the benefits of automation, head over to my post from ealier this week on that topic. I agree that this is definitely a trend that will see a lot of growth in 2023.
Artificial Intelligence
There have definitely been a lot of advances in AI over the past couple years. Recent tools such as ChatGPT show a lot of promise. Ultimately, I believe the key here for small buisnesses will be in finding a place where this really makes sense to utilize and make sure you don’t get swept away in the hype. Trying to do too much with it too soon, or using it in areas without fully understanding the impact could be a recipe for wasted investments. Make sure you partner with someone knowledgable to identify where artificial intelligence can really add value to your business.
Cybersecurity
The shift to new working practices has spawned new forms of fraud, with malware evolving in response to greater virtual communication and the rising domestic use of workplace hardware.
Cumins, Neil, “11 Small Business Tech Trends of 2023”, Business News Daily, https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10469-business-technology-trends.html
As Neil points out, the shift to new working practices is creating new types of threats and fraud. This is an area that many new companies and the smallest of small businesses tend to put on the back-burner. However, it’s an area that can cause a lot of pain for a small business, or even cause the small business to fail. I believe this is something small businesses should be aware of and consider from the beginning. The increase of cloud computing and software-as-a-service offerings has definitely helped in this area as those solutions often have security and backup/recovery plans built in. However, at a minimum, small businesses should consider some sort of training and awareness for employees on cybersecurity as well as ensuring you have backup plans for all of your data, especially the most critical data to your business.
Conclusion
Neil points out a lot of great trends to keep an eye on as a small business owner. There is very likely one or two things on this list that would be a good idea for you to consider investing in this year. Enjoy the article, and if you would like to sit down and discuss any ideas you have on any of these topics we would love to buy you some coffee and hear what you have in mind, or jump on a video call with you and get your thoughts.
