15.08.2023
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: FIVE TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEW TECHNOLOGY
Nowadays, almost every business is technological. Emerging technologies enable critical insights, automation and efficiency across a wide range of business functions, from human resource management and efficient operations to marketing. Technological developments also make many solutions more and more suitable and affordable for small and medium-sized enterprises.
In a recent Inc., Fast Company and Dell Women's Entrepreneurs Network (DWEN) webinar, the moderator spoke with Venus Quaits, president and CEO of integrated technology provider Launch Tech, and Katina Kenyon, CEO of Tree3, an e-commerce platform commerce for content creators. The two talk about how small business organizations like them can make the most of technology.
Fast Company takes the main takeaways from this conversation.
Kenyon comes out of the technology sector - her first job was at Dell, where she says she had the opportunity to "learn from great leaders under the corporate umbrella". She combined her love of technology with her interest in fashion and content creation to build her own company that uses artificial intelligence and visual machine learning to help creatives connect with brands.
"Find something that excites you," Kenyon says, because it will fuel you and "mitigate some of the challenges that we all face as entrepreneurs."
Quaits has been a serial entrepreneur since childhood. When she was old enough, she began reading magazines to find out what the hottest jobs of the year were and what certifications and skills she would need to acquire for them.
"I paid for myself to go to training if my employer didn't send me. The money mainly went to upgrade my qualifications."
There is too much information about new technologies for any entrepreneur to find, but Quaits is adamant that one should not overdo it.
"Just yesterday I was looking at something on the internet about artificial intelligence and machine learning for the back office of restaurant platforms. It's so cool! It's the future. But can you imagine that a mommy-daddy-me restaurant could apply this now? Probably not."
She advises entrepreneurs to spend 30 minutes a day perusing news based on keywords related to their business goals, so they stay on top of trends without getting overwhelmed by the overwhelming amount of information.
Rather than trying to offer "everything," Kenyon says a business is best off letting customers show it what they need from it.
"This means participating in forums with your early adopters, giving advice to customers and generally listening to their opinions," she says, and suggests that entrepreneurs always accept calls from potential partners trying to sell them new technology. .
"Ask them to tell you about what they offer and how it can solve your business's problems, so they save you research time," she emphasizes.
The costs of starting a business can be burdensome, but there is no shortage of ways to make technology more affordable. Kenyon advises budding entrepreneurs to always compare offers from different startup providers, as they sometimes offer discounts.
Coates says, "I always type in the name of the software and then add 'vs.' because there are always people who have done useful comparisons of the different products for you. This helps you compare the prices and features of competing products."
And even if there isn't, there's always a way to do the research yourself, albeit at the cost of some time.
