Advancing tech trends to empower the Entrepreneur

The world has changed, and the wonderful and ambitious era of tech has arrived. Its progress is increasing rapidly and if you keep up-to-date, you will see that blockchain, deep learning, neural networks, robotics, AR and smart AI-assistants can empower an individual’s professional aspirations.

There is a fresher and more innovative tech solution, to replace old-fashioned business processes and as a result of this, it is imperative that the entrepreneur of today, keeps up-to-date with the technology of today to cultivate a stronger business/management structure.

It is never a good idea to jump on the bandwagon without doing your research however, successful entrepreneurs make a commitment to learning about new tech trends and advancements.

According to the University of Exeter Business School,

In a recent study, conducted by by Salesforce, 68% of marketing executive’s state that customer experience is becoming the fundamental base of their competitive efforts. To have a thorough understanding of the audience you wish to capture, is critical when trying to stay ahead of competitors. “Customers are demanding personalized experiences that make every stage of the purchasing journey easier and more relevant to them,” said Daniel Wang, CEO of Loopring,

“Delivering intimate suggestions is virtually impossible without adopting newer technologies. That’s why competitive businesses are actively investing in big data, analytics platforms, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, among other technologies to deliver great customer experiences. Choosing to ignore the latest of these technologies may quickly make your business obscure and irrelevant as you are no longer delivering what the customers want.”

When a large business wishes to embrace technology, they have the necessary finances and resources to be able to integrate and implement this on a large scale. It is true, that small businesses do not have such an advantage, however, this is somewhere where entrepreneurs do have potential.

Entrepreneurs are required to go through substantially less steps to test and adapt to newer technologies and innovation. They are sprightly and have less administration and bureaucracy to deal with. They are able to jump on the bandwagon of innovation quickly and thus develop and create new solutions from scratch. This is why big names like Google and Facebook purchase smaller startups – to gain access to their tech and the minds behind it, before the new business starts to become a threat.

Larger and more established companies also contend with higher equipment and logistical costs and also need more time to implement and roll-out the new technology. As an example, if a large corporation wants to get new video conferencing software to improve project management they might be required to:

• Research the product
• Submit the request for departmental approval
• Get legal to ensure regulatory compliance
• Get a C level staffer to sign off on the initial expense
• Have the IT department review and approve the software
• Hire a trainer from the software company
• Roll the software out to a few departments for testing
• Present findings
• Obtain final funding approval
• Plan a staged rollout to the remainder of the company

By this time, a smaller company that is forward thinking in terms of tech, would have implemented the new software and made use of it to improve their processes and communication with employees and customers. If there is a formal procedure to follow, this more often than not, takes much less time.

Of course, entrepreneurs and small business compete against each other and not just the larger companies, as a means to gain traction and ensure growth within the market. If they fail to jump on to the latest technologies, they can easily lose business to companies of the same size that do. In fact 20% of all startup exits can be attributed to being out competed.

When a startup is launched it is imperative to monitor costs and stretch profit margins as far as possible. Thankfully, entrepreneurs are able to locate viable opportunities and streamline and automate processes and save money as well.

Entrepreneurs are also able to use technology to automate customer support through call routing systems or AI (artificial intelligence) chatbots. Project management software can also make sure that projects finish within the allocated time constraints and thus maximize resources. There is also automated invoices and financial management.

Entrepreneurs have to contend with tough competition, restricted finances, and the pressure to maximize every growth opportunity. Without staying on top of the latest technologies, this is virtually impossible. The entrepreneur must utilize tech advancements to further empower their position in an increasingly competitive market.