Last year about this time I wrote a post from OPENForum titled 5 Trends That Will Shape Small Business in 2010 – I’m thinking I pretty much nailed them, which on the surface might seem easy because small business are often late to jump on trends. The tricky thing about understanding small business though is that when they do jump on a trend it’s often in ways that run counter to what the mainstream media reports.
Small business don’t care about a trend so they can get out in front of something, they care about things that seems obvious, practical and worth the scant bit of time they might be able to allocate to it. If you’re trying to sell to or understand small business, take a look a look at this year’s 5 Trends That Will Shape Small Business in 2011.
Here’s a quick look at what they are, but you’ll have to go read the entire piece to get the full view from a small business vantage.
1) Social simply is
2) Mobile finally lands
3) O2O becomes strategy
4) Networked referral automation
5) Apps over Web