So Many Technologies, So Little Time!

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Such is one of my favorite lines in Phil Simon’s book “The New Small” – How a New Breed of Small Businesses is Harnessing the Power of Emerging Technologies. (not an affiliate)

This is my second time around with it, I read books quickly, jot down notes, then go back to expand and internalize if the content is unique and compelling enough.

His conclusion: “All else being equal, is better to be small”

I wasn’t surprised nor in conflict with that conclusion. For a while now I’ve come to believe that a “boutique shop” in almost any industry or sector, has a better chance to thrive, innovate, service their customers and fail faster with a much better chance for a strategic comeback than a large less nimble company.

The reason for this is “technology”, and how these small companies use it to gain a competitive advantage by:

• Reaching new customers more effectively
• Reducing costs in the process
• Increase internal collaboration and communications … and,
• Create flexible work environments

Next time you catch a break from your busy live and have a chance to ponder at the massive shift that has occurred in technology and communication, do so. Reading this book helped me conceptualize this better.

Small businesses today can not only compete, but do substantially better that their behemoth counterparts. Once you get over the corporate jets, limos, enhanced and useless boards, expensive phone systems and outsourced customer service hotlines, you soon realize that it comes down to:

The promise you ever made to your first customer and your ability to scale that promise!

Small businesses can do that today way easier and cheaper that large corps.

New technologies are coming on line almost instantly these days (minimum viable products). But for the sake of framing a conversation on the topic and white-boarding an approach for your small business, I like the way that Phil listed the 5 enablers that are making a dramatic difference in the way small businesses can scale:

• Cloud computing
• Software as a service
• Free and open source software (FOSS)
• Mobility
• Social Technologies

One of the things that really resonated with me was the incredible "lifestyle design" undertow that naturally emerges as you read on, which is not surprising because the purpose of emerging technologies, specially for the small business owner, is to create efficiencies that allow businesses to organically work for us and not the other way around! 

As primarily a digital content producer and marketer, but also a small business owner, understanding emerging technologies really closed the loop on some tech gaps that I had conceptually. As a consequence it made me a better enabler to my small business clients and prospects for it.

But the read also reaffirmed for me as it will for you, the fact that we work and embark on projects because we need to and we feel compelled to create something. In other words we work to live and be fulfilled, but we shouldn’t live to only work.

In this case technology fulfills its purpose –to free us … when the reverse occurs, we are enslaved by it!

Which of the 5 enablers is your business deploying in the next 3 months?

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