IC in the Blogosphere Presents:

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The State of the Tech Union for Small Business

Welcome to our very first blog post! We hope that if you are a small business owner or employee you will join us right here in creating a conversation about how technology affects small business. As a small business that has continued to grow since 1999, we can appreciate where you are, where you want to be, and all the struggles in between. As a tech-based company, we also have additional insight into the often overwhelming and ever changing world of technology. Our goal is to bridge small business and the tech world. We aim to bring you the best of what we know about how technology can help your business and what new tools, apps, devices, social media sites, and software are worth your attention and investment…or not! Don’t worry, we won’t bombard you with information just to leave you in the dark when it comes to implementation. We’ll be sifting through all that is changing and new to share the what, why, and the how with you while breaking it down in the easiest way possible.

But enough about us, getting to the matter at hand and the reason for this post: the state of the tech world today and what it means for a small business. Not assuming that you aren’t tech savvy, there are definitely a few things you should be utilizing today to assure that your business is at peak performance and getting maximum exposure. Even if you are not currently looking for new customers, a solid and established client base can only go so far and, ready or not, that client base is already changing. Consumers and clients of all age demographics are more mobile than ever and are shifting the way they access information and choose products and services. The game is continuing to move faster than it ever has, even for those of us that consider ourselves to be on top of the latest and greatest technology. To break it down, some crucial “must have” things should already be incorporated into your business foundation and a few other “should have” concepts will provide a portal for moving your business forward.

The “must have” list includes:
* A website (might seem like a no-brainer, but some businesses are still not online!)
* Tracking your online presence and brand (even if you’re only using a Google search on your business name from time to time)
* An efficient way to organize and access your business information through software and web tools (including client stats, internal filing, and bookkeeping)

To put it bluntly, if you are not implementing these things, you are already years behind the game. We’ll explain in future posts.


The “should have” list promotes:
* Going mobile and providing easier solutions for client interaction
* Considering influence and establishing the influencers of your business

These are just a couple of things that you should at least be thinking about, if not already taking action to implement. They are some of the keys to growth going forward and in future posts, we’ll break them down.

Maybe you are already doing all of these things. If that’s the case, that’s good news, because it’s not enough to just keep up anymore. It’s crucial to be ahead of the game and forward thinking has become the key to maintaining the competitive edge. If you are already doing these things or have them in place, then you have a great base to build from and can focus your energy on improving and evolving. We will be bringing you ways to do just that, so stay tuned!

You’ve heard a little bit from us, but now we’d love to hear from you! Let us know what you think and what tech topics you want to know more about. The tech arena is a big one, but even little steps can make a huge impact when applied to business. So go ahead and ask us some questions, share your tech experiences, and recommend this blog to anyone you think would find it useful. I have a feeling this is the start of something great.

You can also connect to us on Twitter and Facebook.



About the Author: Jandee Ferland is the Social Network Engineer at IC. She is an avid fan of any technology that makes life a little easier and can often be found checking out new apps, posting on Twitter (@ICtweet), or learning how to podcast.