small business owners

Small Business Owners Have Smartphone Addiction

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Small businesses may not be the only ones marketing via mobile or fighting with how programmatic advertising works, they still need mobile to do business. Small business owners, or SBOs, seem to literally have their smartphones attached to their hips.

About 80.5% of U.S. SBOs use their mobile devices for business at least once a day, sometimes even more, according to the latest research from Manta. Almost 25.3% of those SBOs use their smartphone once an hour, 11% use them between 3 to 5 times a day, and 17.3% us their mobile devices almost 10 times a day!

eMarketer says that nearly 80% of SBOs use their mobile devices while at work right in front of their own desktops. They say that 48% of respondents claim the main reasoning for doing this is to check personal messages. Another 25% said that their email actually comes in faster on their mobile devices.

With other statistics, only 12% actually admitted to being addicted and 8% multiscreened because they claimed to prefer using their mobiles over their PCs. Finally, 7% said they were frequently distracted by their social media or gaming app alerts that came through on their mobile devices.

A good reason for why SBOs use their phones for business is to schedule appointments and communicate with customers. 55% claimed this as being why they use their phones.

Nearly 3 in 10 people used their phones for notes and to-do lists, along with monitoring their social media and participation. A quarter of people use theirs to conduct business related banking, eMarketer says. As well as saying that inventory management and expense were a lot less common, as were drafting large documents and presentations, and accounting.

Along with this, Manta’s research indicated that SBOs are frequent app users. Almost half of SBOs use mobile apps for business between 2 and 3 times daily.

It’s clear to see how important mobile devices are to small business owners. With such high percentages of SBOs on their phones constantly, mobile is quickly becoming a key facet of small business.

Content originally published here

More and More Small Business Owners Turning to Social Media Sites

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social mediaA large number of small business owners are starting to discover that social media does not have to be a painful process or one that is restricted to the younger generation. As a result of this revelation, many of those entrepreneurs that are deciding to take advantage of social media sites say that they’re reaping big rewards aside from being able to commune with customers.

The Fall 2011 Attitudes and Outlook Survey, put on by Constant Contact, an email marketing firm, has shown that small businesses are becoming more aware of the desire of customers for engagement. As a result, the companies are responding by actively “listening” to their clients on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and company websites.

What many small business owners are beginning to realize is that not only are social media sites a great way to stay in touch with customers, but they also offer unique advantages that can help their small businesses in ways they may not have initially thought.

One benefit is cost savings. Since Constant Contact’s last survey six months ago, the firm discovered that small business owners who said that they’re allocating time to social media marketing climbed to 81%, an increase from the 73% reported six months ago. When asked why, 83% of small business owners named cost savings as their #1 reason to market online.

Another benefit is ease of use. An additional 67% of small business owners stated that social media marketing is easier to master and use. That is an increase from the 54% in the last survey. In addition to that, it was also discovered that 51% of owners found out that their customers prefer to use media channels, an increase from 38% six months ago.

Finally, improved efficiency is another benefit to using social media sites. 45% of those surveyed said that they were drawn to the fact that social media marketing doesn’t consume a lot of their time. This figure is also up from the 32% that was recorded in the survey six months ago.

Facebook was pinpointed as the #1 site among those surveyed with an overall 96% approval rating. An additional 76% say they use Twitter, though 86% said they preferred Facebook for actually using social media tools. 60% of owners found Twitter to be useful for their marketing channels with another 55% saying they found Linkedin makes a lot of sense as a marketing tool for their business.

Source: Entrepreneur – More Small Businesses Extol the Benefits of Social Media

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Controlling Employee Spending Puts Small Business Owners At Ease

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spending moneyIn any kind of business, whether it be big or small, employers have to trust their employees. It’s a common fact that if there is a lack of trust in a business, then the business will inevitably fail. However, better management of employee expenses can also create a more efficient workplace as well as a more productive workforce.

A recent study of Citizens Financial Group/Mastercard discovered that 55% of all small business owners believe that better management of employee expenses will reduce costs as well as benefit their business. In addition to that, 40% stated that more control over employee spending would give them more peace of mind.

The study also showed that 36% of small business owners use a cash reimbursement system in order to enable their employees to pay for day-to-day business expenses while 32% say that they use a company credit card or debit card. Furthermore, 29%  have stated that they have petty cash funds available with 21%  stating that they use their own personal credit card.

According to Head of Commercial Cards for Citizens Financial Group Stephen Wooters, “With 65% of small business owners using either a cash reimbursement system or a petty cash system to reimburse employees for company expenses – and another 31% handling all expenses themselves – the conclusion is obvious: This is not the most efficient way of running a business. So they should take advantage of easy-to-implement technology to provide the spend management solutions they need to succeed.”

It was also reported that 35% of small business owners wished they had an easier way to track and control employee expenses. In addition, 28% said that managing employee expenses is one of the things that they hate most about being a small business owner.

Source: Gaebler.com – Small Business Owners Think Controlling Employee Expenses Will Lead To Cost Savings

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Bank of America Hiring 100 Small Business Bankers

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Bank of AmericaSmall businesses may be receiving some good news shortly from Bank of America. The franchise bank is planning on recruiting around 100 small business bankers in Texas by the end of 2012’s first quarter, reports say, which is said to be a part of Bank of America’s drive to hire more than 1,000 small business bankers.

Bank of America stated that the Dallas-Fort Worth region would be among the first three markets in the United States to begin hiring small business bankers. The bank also stated that it has already hired 75 bankers across the entire state of Texas.

Wondering what these small business bankers do and why you, as a small business owner, should be interested? Well, small business bankers will consult directly with small business owners directly at their places of business and assess their company’s deposit, credit and cash management needs.

Kim Ruth, Market President of Houston and Texas for Bank of America, stated that “the small business bankers are able to provide business owners across Texas with the financial guidance they need to keep their businesses moving forward, which in turn will benefit our state’s and nation’s economy.”

According to a recent report from the United States census bureau, 96% of all business owners in Texas are small business owners that have less than 100 employees, employing approximately one-third of the state’s workforce. These new small business bankers could be just the thing our economy needs to get back on its feet. Well, it could be a start.

Source: Banking Business Review – Bank of America to hire 100 small business bankers across Texas


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