I’m getting out my Crystal ball today to make some predictions about the about the trends I see in the future and how they may effect small business.

1. Web Based Applications. I predict that in the next five years most of applications that you currently use on your desktop will migrate to the web. Currently accounting, office suites, email, and CRM applications have a strong web presence. In addition, companies like Google, Force.com, and Amazon are making infrastructure available for computer programmers. For the small business person, this is going to be one of the biggest boosts to growth. You’re not going to need expensive computers and networks, and you will be able to access your business applications from multiple locations. The technology barrier for entry will all but be eliminated in most businesses.

2. Cloud Based Infrastructure. There are currently a multitude of companies give you the ability to set up a server over the Internet and pay only for usage. I believe that the server room is soon to be a thing of the past for most companies.

3. Internet Everywhere (Mobile and Wireless). Mobile devices and Internet connectivity will become ubiquitous. (I’ve always wanted to use that term in a sentence). Both consumers and business will be able to access data from any location. Services like that Clearwire (high speed wireless Internet) will become common from cellphone and other providers. It will be important for businesses to embrace mobile technology to be successful.

4. The Death of the Phone Number As We Know It. (I’ve been predicting this for years, eventually I’ll get it right.) With the growth of Internet phone applications, Phone numbers will begin to fade away. Most calls will be over the Internet via Skype and Skype-like services. Phone numbers, where you have them, will no longer indicate your location (I already deal with someone who has a Texas area code but lives in Georgia.)

I’ve now caught up with the year 2010  and created a mobile version of this site. (Thanks to the WordPress Mobile Edition plugin.) Mobile computing via a web enabled phones is one of the fasted growing consumer trends. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve be in the car looking up stuff on my iPhone (while my wife drives).  If you are in the retail business, a mobile site is a great way to get to your potential customers while they are actually looking for your business.

Anyhow, enjoy the mobile version of the site.

You customers don’t use the yellow pages to find you anymore, they use the web.  I have listed four major directories you need to be listed in. These are the ‘yellow pages’ of the 2010’s. If you’re not listed in these directories, not only do you run the risk of being invisible to your customers, your competitors can ‘hijack’ your listings and steal your  customers from you.

1. Google Local. The 800 pound gorilla of everything Internet. With a listing here,  your company will show up on local searches on the web, and on cell phones. It also helps to ensure that when someone types your business name into Google, they will get accurate information.
2. Bing Local Listing Center. Bing is currently  a chihuahua nipping at Google’s heels. But, you should never underestimate  Microsoft with billions of dollars to spend on marketing their new search product.
3. Yahoo Local. While not the behemoth it was 10 years ago, Yahoo still has significant reach — especially with all those yahoo mail users.
4. Yelp. Yelp is not a search engine per se, its a group of listings with comments and ratings. If Yelp covers your area, and users are commenting on your industry and/or business, you need to claim your listing respond to comments.

Not only are these directories available on your potential customers’ desktops, they are also on your customer’s mobile phones.  Making sure you are listed gives you a better chance of being found in the home and on the road.

Related Articles

• Are you invisible to potential customers?

What do you think about local search ?

Sometimes the Internet can open up whole new markets for you. I had the opportunity to talk to a gentleman who runs a small  company that provides hand’s-on training for specialized industrial equipment. He sets up training classes all over the country. About 3 months ago he decided to jump into web based training. He hired a company to  make high quality  training videos, and a programmer to initially setup his site. He priced his classes at a very low price point, and after just one month of being live, he is thrilled with the outcome. In that time he has gotten more new customers than he gets in 4 months for his traditional classes. He told me that he has been able to reach a whole new demographic of customers, (younger, more computer literate). Because of his low price point (under $50.00), if his customers can’t get their employers to pay for the class, many are willing to pay out of their own pockets.

What’s the moral of this story–If you have a business that’s not web based, stop, look around, and see if you can expand  your business with web based technology. Technology that was very expensive just 5 years ago is now very affordable. Technologies like web 2.0, cloud computing, and video are high quality and easily within reach of almost any business. Take a few minutes today and think about what you could do for your business, and then see if you can make it happen. Its probably cheaper and easier then you could ever imagine.

According to a one research study I read about recently, nearly 40% of small business do not have a website. If you are one of these businesses you are invisible to the nearly 220 million US Internet users. It’s like having a retail store with no sign, your ARE loosing potential business. Keep in mind that my Grandmother’s 85 year old boyfriend has figured out how to look thinks up on Google, so there are a lot more potential customers on the web then you might think. You need something, it doesn’t have to be large, expensive, or complicated, but you do need something. (Understand that having a website doesn’t mean you will be found — that involves advertising and specialized site design, but not having a site 100% guarantees that you won’t be found!)

Other than presence on the web, what are some of the advantages of having a website?

• It makes your company appear more legitimate.
• You can use your web address on marketing materials and advertising to point people to more information about your company.
• If you start listing your business in on-line directories, you can point to your site for more information.
• Someday (soon) the yellow pages will go away.

What do you do next?

1. Register a domain name. If at all possible get a .com, but .biz addresses are good too.

2. Find a web host. Microsoft Office Live will host your site for free  (yes, free). They also have templates you can use to build the site.  Currently I use GoDaddy.com‡ for my site and blog.

3. Design your site. Most hosting companies offer either free or paid packages to help you design your site.

(By the way,  when you setup your hosting, you can usually setup an email address that uses your domain name. Do that. Nothing screams ‘fly-by-night’ more than an @hotmail, @gmail, @aol, or @yahoo address for a business)

If you don’t want to do it yourself, hire someone to do it for you (like my company‡), it won’t be that expensive, and it will be worth it in the long run.

Resources

Solutions4Tech for for Website Design (Thats me!)‡

GoDaddy.com for domain registration and hosting‡

Microsoft Office Live

More here from the Wall Street Journal.
I guess we are off the hook …for now

Related Posts

• 10 Ways Usage Based Internet Access will Change the Internet Landscape

• Fast Read: More usage based pricing for Internet access

I’ve posted a couple of articles(here and here ) about how some major  ISPs (ATT and COMCAST) are piloting usage based Internet access, and it got me to thinking of the possible impacts this could have on how the Internet is used in the future.

1. Everyone will pay more.  (I guess this is kind of obvious). Even if there is an unlimited plan its going be more than what we are paying now. (Look at wireless phone service plans as an example.)

2. People will finally secure their WI-FI networks since they won’t want to pay for their neighbors surfing.

3. No more free WI-FI hotspots at coffee shops and hotels.

4. Large ISPs will partner with various bandwidth heavy sites/apps  (Video,Backup) to  provide services that are ‘exempt’ from usage charges.

5. There will be less video/multimedia on the web.

6. Alternate connection methods that provide unlimited access will see an upsurge (WI-MAX,Satellite, 2nd Tier DSL).

7. There will be less “cloud” computing apps for small business and home users.

8. Google will come up with a low bandwidth items search options.

9. People will be downloading less ‘free’ software to try out. (This may help the Post Office since it may be cheaper to mail a CD/DVD than download, and the Post Office needs help.)

10. Plain-text email will make a comeback.

Those are some of my predictions, what do you think ?

Beware, the Internet may be getting much more expensive:

Time Warner Cable Expands Internet Usage Pricing

As you know from my previous post. I’ve  started to use Auctiva Commerce for my web store. I was able to sign up because I’m an existing Auctiva customer for their eBay tools and they sent me an invitation. But if you go to thier site: Auctivacommerce.com, they have lots of marketing information, a limted-time offer, and no way to sign up–not even a note saying when you will be able to sign up. That’s got to be quite frustrating for anyone interested in doing business. Not a good way to launch a site in my opinion.

As you probably figured out from my last post: The Economics of Ebay, I’m going to try and sell stuff that most people would normally sell on eBay without using eBay. The Goal is to do it for less then what I would pay on eBay.

One of the most critical things I am going to need is some type of store to sell stuff. In comes an email from Auctiva with an offer to use the “pre-release” version of their new web store application–Auctiva Commerce . I looked at the store and and the promotional offer, which means that in my case it will be essentially cost free until April, and decided to try it out. (Markters let this be a lesson to you that sometimes timing is everything.)  Auctiva is a company that specializes in tools for ebay sellers. I’m guessing that with the change in the way the eBay does business with its eBay Stores sellers, they tried to create a product that better meets those sellers’ needs. The product has a number of nice features (like sophisticated sales tax setup, and shipping integration) and is still missing some stuff  (an About Me page or a Terms and Conditions Page) All of these issues are being worked on in some way or another, and are to be expected in a new product, none of them are show-stoppers and the product is very usable in its current state.

See my Store as its built here: solutions4tech.auctivacommerce.com