The dependence on technology by startups to establish their presence in their industry and accelerating growth cannot be overemphasized. No visionary entrepreneur today can do without keeping tabs on and utilizing the latest industry-relevant technologies today.
Since the advent of the technological surge dating back to the 1950s, more opportunities have been created and new technologies are constantly in process daily. These new technologies have assisted entrepreneurs across various sectors in rapid growth and development.
From the startup web designer that relies on an internet-enabled laptop computer, to large corporations that depend on dedicated servers and sophisticated web applications; everyone speaks a similar language: Technology.
Technology can positively affect small business as well as negatively do the same. The following are some of the ways technology affects startups, depending on how effectively the business uses the technology available to it.
Mobility
The availability of new technologies daily helps startup in one of the best way imaginable – mobility. A startup doesn’t have to rely on building one mega structure as the team could work remotely at home, on the road or in the physical office.
Convenience
Ecommerce has made shopping more convenient for customers, helping startups eliminate the difficulties associated with physical shopping malls like space, traffic queues, and theft; among others. Customers could get whatever they want while sitting at home, despite the location and without the fear of losing their money or goods.
Sharing and collaboration
The startup team can easily collaborate despite their location as long as they have a uniform private cloud storage from a reliable provider that can be accessed anytime and anywhere. This has solved the problem of transferring huge amount of data with physical storage device that can easily get corrupt along the line.
Enhanced security
Technology has advanced in such a way that protecting customer information for startups is no longer a herculean task. During the early days of ePayment, there were several fears of credit card theft, but as technologies improved over the years, certain protocols that protect the credit card information of customers have been implemented. Similarly, a two-way authentication system now enables users to verify every transactions before they proceed, thereby bridging the gap of unauthorized payments.
Branding
Technological advancement has helped startups in building brands that instantly appeal to customers and are unique to them. For instance, unique colour, logo and hastags usage can make customers easily identify with a brand.
Startups can get a logo done for them speedily, which is a sharp contrast to what was possible many years back. This can be achieved with good drawing/photo editing skill on a laptop and using a photo editing suite.
To effectively manage this, startups should carefully review their brand vision via-a-viz their desired brand personality to create something really special and appealing. Uniqueness in branding makes it stand out from other similar startups.
Conclusion
Though technology has its own challenges, the continued advancement has proven to have more positive effects on startups than negative. In other words, startups should embrace technologies available to them to boost sales.
Hey, I’m Rory and I am the ultimate accidental geek.
Born in London I was never interested in technologies until I started a part-time job at Apple and now I can’t get enough. Join me as a help you navigate the world of tech with some of my fellow geeks.