.png){kind=logo}
It's goes without saying that 2019 was a strong year for startups and small businesses. In fact, 2019 saw investors put £27.7 billion ($36 billion into European startups. In the last five years, the total amount of investments in European startups across 48 countries amounted to over 93.8 billion ($122 billion) — at an average yearly growth of 25%. In other words, 2020 will almost certainly be a highly competitive year for the small business. At the same time, despite the year ending with record numbers in funding, new enterprises also need to come to terms with the fact that socio-political unrest will impact the marketplace.
Businesses Are Playing It Safe
“Given the state of the economy, and in this time of disruption, the smart move for businesses is to play it safe and double down,”says Ernst & Young (EY) Americas Vice Chair of Accounts Sam Johnson. According to the EY executive, businesses need to wise up to the fact that there could be a major recession brewing in the global economy, especially given the tumultuous state of political affairs unfolding around the world. This is why Johnson advises playing it safe and doubling down — being wary of potential pitfalls while still planning for growth. There's no doubt that investors are willing to spend millions and even billions on your idea, but you have to be prepared to take that money and opportunity at a time of great uncertainty. With technologies disrupting industries and tensions rising from all sides, it's only prudent to play it safe, especially if you're a struggling newbie to the game.
Customisability is a Must
Having resources that can be customised to your business needs is essential for scalability and growth. With disruptive technologies developing at such rapid and unprecedented rates, the world of business follows suit. One big side effect of this is that in order to stay competitive, small business can no longer depend on stiff and old paradigms and processes. If any new enterprise hopes to thrive today, it's crucial to have processes, software, and assets that can be customised to fit changing markets and workplace needs. For instance, in the modern workplace, you no longer need to know how to code in order to edit the elements of a website without disrupting its structure. Updatable explains how meta-CMS software can be used for quick edits that doesn't directly impact the underlying structure of a website. This level of website customisability to non-coders takes tedious jobs off the hands of developers, who can then focus on bigger tasks. Likewise, the flexibility afforded by the Workhorse Platform can be used to design processes that make tasks simpler and faster for anyone involved, but through automating custom tasks with the goal of improving end-to-end business management. The more customisable and scalable your business process and model becomes, the more efficient you can be with your given resources.
Gen Z Is Here
Technology and socio-political changes have effectively removed age as a barrier to entrepreneurial success. Forget the 30-under-30 lists. In a Business News Daily feature on teen and pre-teen entrepreneurs, Gen Z's impending dominance is unmistakable. For instance, Lani Boo Bath was founded in 2017 by Jelani Jones when she was 9, and it continues to be a successful model for e-marketing. Meanwhile, at the age of 14, Me & the Bees Lemonade founder Mikaila Ulmer uses her Granny Helen's lemonade recipe to supply Whole Foods and directs her profits towards helping the world's honeybees. Whether in terms of running a social enterprise or turning a hobby into a lucrative business, Gen Z has laid its claim. Young as they are, investors and fellow startups can no longer afford to ignore the generation that will shape the current and future trends in business.
Exclusively written for goworkhorse.com
by Jax Boswell