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How entrepreneurs can address top trends for 2017

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You should already have kicked off your strategy and planning for 2017 (while continuing to run through the tape at the end of 2016).

While you’re in planning mode, you should also consider what’s going on globally, now and into the next several years.

One great resource for staying on top of trends is the yearly report from the Trendwatching website. Many of their reports are free, but you can also get a paid account for additional access and insights.

The trends outlined in their latest report, “5 Trends for 2017,” can offer you food for thought while you address budget, resources, and tactics for the coming year.

VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

We have all heard the buzz surrounding augmented reality and virtual reality; soon these types of digital experiences will become the norm rather than an exotic toy. You probably can’t turn your blog into a Magic Leap-worthy whale splash, but you can start to consider the importance of experiences over content.

Your customers are jaded with listicles and slides.

They want to know you and your world. Offer them digital experiences that reinforce your relationship and bring them closer.

The Trendwatching report states that experiences are becoming currency, as limited-access or insider style events make consumers feel like the brand is part of their identity.

Time to brainstorm the types of experiences (real-world and virtual) you can offer your customers/fans/readers.

WORLDS APART

Right now, I can instantly talk with someone in Dubai via video chat.

The world can participate in the #MannequinChallenge on Twitter.

News breaking anywhere in the world is readily accessible.

The new consumer sees a global community and is sorting out their place within it. How does my own relationship to home relate to my knowledge of world challenges? What impact can I have, at home and abroad?

Your challenge as an entrepreneur is to plug into the global society and build bridges where you can. This ties into the strong wave of interest in corporate responsibility and charitable work as well. What types of actions can you take in your business that both support your mission and bond you to the global community at the same time?

POST-DEMOGRAPHIC CONSUMERISM

In the past, marketers liked to segment consumers along strong demographic lines, as if all 21 year old females purchased as a block. The trend now is to target the consumer as an individual, often someone who breaks the old patterns of demographics and behavior.

How does this relate to your business?

For starters, don’t get caught thinking of “Millennials” as a monolithic unit. Don’t assume your older consumer isn’t on Instagram. Start looking for ways to personalize your message.

Your customers aren’t thinking of themselves as 40-60 year old males, so you should stop looking at them that way as well.

Another part of this larger trend is the desire for consumers to be incognito individuals, free from tracking. There’s a wish to be anonymous, or to view the world through the experience of another person (how about the ability to switch your social feed to someone else’s, just to get out of your own bubble).

CAPACITY CAPTURE

We’ve already been educated about sustainability and the trend towards lowering your business impact on resources. The newer trend is toward looking for ways to use resources that might have gone to waste. Think “selling” back unused energy to the power company, or sending packages along with an Uber driver.

Brainstorm some ways that your business might have unused capacity that could be a positive value to someone else. How can you look at these new business models and turn your excess into gold?

BIG BROTHER BRANDS

Yes, we might start using the term “Big Brother” as a positive! Consumers will expect to be monitored and tracked, but will also expect to get value out of giving up some level of privacy. Isn’t it great when you can yell “Hey Siri, who’s singing that song?” into the air, and she responds? Already, my front door unlocks as I approach, because of technology we’ve installed.

As an entrepreneur, the way to take advantage of this trend is to seek ways to provide personalized service that delights the customer. At a micro level, you can leverage publicly available information (or information the customer has shared with you over time) to tailor your offerings, or even to surprise them with a gift. What if you looked at a customer’s Pinterest boards to find a small gift that suits their interests?

Just don’t be creepy about it. Always consider how you’d feel in the situation first.

These top trends for 2017 will certainly affect your business in the coming year. How will you move to leverage them? Are you already on top of some of these? Please share your experiences.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image via Flickr CC: Knight Center for Journalism

Women in Small Business: Why They Thrive

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By Jennifer Jope

Women and business might just be the perfect match.

While we should applaud the recent growth in multi-million dollar female-owned organizations, women are also instrumental in bringing success to small businesses. An added perk? We’re gaining valuable experience at the same time. The best news? There are benefits both for the employers who employ women and for the women themselves.

For Employers: Women Are Good For Business

The numbers don’t lie. Women bring more money to the table.

According to the infographic, Women Rising: Women, Work and What’s Next, companies whose boards include the sustained representation of at least three women board directors outperform those with no female directors:

  • Return on sales: +42%
  • Return on invested capital: +66%
  • Return on equity: +53%

Today, women are better educated than men earning 60% of bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Despite having the smarts, they have faced an uphill battle in the workplace, but we’ve turned it into a positive. Faced with challenges, women are better than ever at strategic thinking and finding creative solutions.

And, any good business owner knows that women influence the economy. As a recent Forbes article points out, the majority of consumer spending is female-driven indicating that women know what makes a good product or service.

For Women: Small Business Gives You Experience

Forbes called 2014 a breakout year for female entrepreneurs and 2015 is looking the same way. Why? Women have proven they can build robust teams and problem-solve differently than men. We’re experts in a variety of industries, but perhaps most importantly, we support each other.

By doing this, we are going from unknown status to business mogul status.

Women in small business are seeing their visions come to fruition. Strong communication skills and great networking chops are often innate in us, but as small business leaders, we can hone these abilities even further. With a stronger skill set, you’ll be able to conquer larger challenges that come your way.

Running a small business forces you to fight for what you believe in, get scrappy when necessary and thoroughly understand the bottom line. Who doesn’t want to be good at that?

Tips to Succeed:

  • Ditch perfectionism: Failures will happen. Learn from them.
  • Be supportive: Empower, mentor and support fellow women. It will pay off.
  • Keep learning: No matter how high you climb, learning should never stop.
  • Keep your eye on the prize: Stay passionate and trust your instincts to stay focused.
  • Have a voice: Speak up to make a difference.

If your small business is ready to expand, hiring women for the development phase could be the smartest move you make.

Running a company will always have uncertainties, but one thing is crystal clear: Women have the power to learn new skills on the job and shape the next generation of business.

Featured image via Flickr CC: Steve wilson

Jennifer Jope is a content manager for AllBusinessSchools.com. She is a former banking and real estate reporter and personal finance writer.

4 Fundamental Workplace Changes of the Last 20 Years

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By Teddy Hunt

Renovated, repurposed, and re-engineered. Today’s workplace has clearly changed over the past two decades. As people and politics evolve, it’s important to remember that, for better or worse, change happens. Here are four fundamental workplace changes that transpired over the last 20 years.

Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y

Baby Boomers, born roughly between the years of 1947-1966, still play an active role in today’s work force. Two younger generations now share center stage with them in the world of gainful employment: Generation X and Generation Y.

Gen X members were born roughly between 1965-1983; Gen Y members hail from the years 1984-2002. Although the two cohorts might share a workplace, they don’t necessarily share the same attitude toward work itself. Maureen Hoch of the Harvard Business Review reports that Gen X employees tend to focus more on their home life, shirking work responsibilities in favor of family time more often than their Gen Y counterparts. Gen Y folks tend to “merge their work and home lives” more than any other age group.

Members of Gen Y, sometimes labeled the “Me Generation,” are also more prone to “job hop” than members of Gen X. While this might be an inconvenience for HR departments, fickle Gen Y folks are more likely to settle down in the long run with a job that truly fulfills them.

Education: Higher and Higher

Graduation rates
Image via Flickr by Thirty30 Photography

Now more than ever, society views high school graduation as an essential step toward employment. Approximately 83 percent of Americans age 25 and up have graduated from high school. College grads account for nearly 25 percent of all people.

A person’s education directly impacts the amount of money they can expect to earn. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a person with a doctoral degree brings home a weekly income of $1,600 or more. A person with a Bachelor’s degree earns around $1,000 per week, while a person with a high school diploma receives a check for about $600 per week.

The demographics of employment landscape are making a shift in the recent years due to technological advancements in most work fields. Analysts predict the slow decline of manufacturing jobs and the rise of the service-oriented careers, including IT and finance jobs, but with all change comes evolution as well. New career fields are popping up, and whether you’re wanting to invest in a financial career or looking for a brand new career field, the time for change is now.

Policy Changes: FMLA

The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 brought job security to new mothers, people with long-term illnesses, and family members of those deployed by the military. Employers must continue a person’s health coverage during job-protected medical leave, according to FMLA law. The benefits last for up to 12 weeks.

A caveat: The law applies only to companies that employ 50 people or more. According to a 2012 Labor Department survey, 17 percent of all workplaces in the U.S. fall into this category.

More than half of all FMLA leaves occur for personal health reasons, while about 20 percent result from maternity leave. Military FMLA is rare, accounting for only about 2 percent of all FMLA absences.

Lean Enterprise

In the late 1980s, Toyota unveiled a concept of business efficiency called “Lean Enterprise.” Today, the quest for efficiency, or “lean thinking,” drives business operations like never before.

In a nutshell, a lean enterprise strives to simultaneously maximize customer satisfaction and minimize waste.

A lean enterprise asks itself the following questions:

• How can we help customers in a way that grows our business?

• How can we streamline and optimize all processes used by our organization?

• How can we engage our employees for maximum product quality and efficiency?

• How can we work as a team to buoy our company to a higher level?

The surge in “lean thinking” over recent years is attributed, at least in part, to increased competition and fickle customer demand. Consumers today want a low-cost, high-quality product that provides immediate gratification. Companies seek to supply that product so their customers stay satisfied in today’s highly competitive business world.

The face of the modern workplace is changing. Employees hail from younger, more educated generations. They expect more from their employers, and their employers expect more from them. As education and innovation continue to blossom, more interesting changes surely await today’s working population.

Staying abreast of shifts and trends in the workplace, generational differences (and similarities), and regulatory changes is just one crucial component of being an informed leader.

Author’s Bio: Teddy Hunt is a freelance content writer with a focus on technology. When not behind a computer, Teddy spends the majority of his free time outdoors and resides in Tampa, Florida.

4 Ways To Make Your Blog More Newsworthy

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By Kelly Gregorio

Business blogs are great; they can connect you with your audience, provide you with an outlet to interact and help in your ever-lasting effort to develop a positive brand image.

But as the popularity of business blogging has increased, so has its blandness. Hundreds upon hundreds of business blogs are out there, making it difficult for audience members to know which quality blogs are worth following.

One deciding factor is a blog’s newsworthiness. Now, no one is asking you to break hard news, but there are some steps you can take to position your blog as relevant and timely. Read on to discover 4 additions you can make to your blog while providing content that is relevant, relatable and on-trend.

1. Host an Interview

Even if you aren’t well-versed in the latest news within your industry, there other experts out there who have that expertise. Consider inviting a newsworthy person onto your blog’s pages in the form of an interview. Audience members will enjoy a fresh perspective and a twist in your normal content delivery.

Once more, even though it’s not you who is providing the “newsworthy” commentary, your effort to connect your audience with this type of information will still position you as a leader in your field. When prompting someone for an interview, point out ways in which you could cross-promote (perhaps they have an upcoming book or service they’re offering); your best bet for landing an awesome interview is to craft a win-win.

2. Comment on Current Events

When big news hits it seems like every news outlet is reporting on it (and based on the same passed-around press release, the same story easily gets recycled.) However, just because a hot story has been reported on doesn’t mean you can’t provide your own unique twist and angle, i.e., your own perspective.

Add in some commentary on relevant current events; see if you can get people sharing and debating certain ideas. Add a twist to a popular subject by posing “what if” scenarios to your audience. Use your imagination to spice up the contemplation of black and white facts.

3. Report on Personal Trends

While it may not be the top trending topic, within your own small business you break news and witness the emergence of new trends all of the time. Consider ways in which you could turn your own entrepreneurial experiences into relevant story lines. Not only will audience members get use out of your action-oriented advice, but by sharing your personal stories and situations, you are likely to increase loyalty and engagement by opening up and letting followers in.

4. Set Up “Google Alerts”

Based on your industry there are certain key words that float around your immediate atmosphere. Setting up a free and simple Google alert is one way to get a jump on new developments and reports.

Whether you end up reporting on the information your alerts deliver or not, an act like this is just good measure as it allows you to stay on top of what’s trending within your industry. In one way or another that engaged education will be reflected either in your blog or other areas of your business. Staying current and educated is everything – especially for the busy entrepreneur.

How newsworthy is your blog?

Author’s Bio: Kelly Gregorio writes about small business topics while working at Advantage Capital Funds, a provider of merchant cash advances. You can read her daily business blog here http://www.advantagecapitalfunds.com/blog/.

Online Jobs Every Person Must Try

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By Peter Davidson

Survival is impossible without money unless, of course, you’ve been raised in the jungle and you can hunt with your bare hands. Whether you like it or not, you will have to adapt to the universal crisis of generating an income and supporting yourself through it.

We call it a crisis because many people, regardless of how long they’ve been playing this game, cannot seem to get the hang of it. The only thing they can be accused of is not taking the opportunities that have been made available over the last couple of years. We’re not talking about shouldering another part-time job that is situated seven blocks away from your primary workplace; we’re referring to the internet and the wonderful doors it has opened for you.

The Truth about Online Jobs

It’s normal to be excited at the prospect of earning money in the comfort of your home, but you must be warned that online jobs have a complex side that you are bound to encounter soon. We might as well tell you now that it won’t be as easy or comfortable as you originally think. Stop writing your resignation letter and save it for later, when you’ve established your virtual career. Although the web is accessible to everyone, it is not friendly to all people who wish to make a living through it. Test the waters through the online jobs listed below. You have three options from then onwards: pursue a serious career online, continue participating in online jobs for another source of income, or resort to traditional means.

Blogger on the Rise

Humans are naturally curious people; we love to probe into other people’s lives. If you doubt that fact, check the number of reality shows ongoing today. Blogging has some similarities because it is how many people share their lives with the rest of the world. The glaring difference would be the details you choose to share.

Are you a lover of art? What kind of art? Your enthusiasm for thriller novels can be turned into your greatest advantage. Publishers need the help of netizens in promoting a newly published novel. Once they see that you are a credible source for book reviews, they may offer money in exchange for your endorsement. The same principle works for travel blogs, cooking blogs, fashion blogs, and so much more, as long as you are creating compelling content.

Virtual Assistant on Demand

Computer technology has dominated the work scene since the onset of the 21st century. Businesspeople rely heavily on computers, the web, and other modern devices; however, they often don’t have time to focus on those areas of their business. Research, website creation, software installation, and related tech-skills are normally outsourced to lessen costs and to guarantee efficiency. The pay for virtual assistants depends on the work they manage to accomplish.

Survey-Taker

Paid surveys accept all kinds of people; you don’t have to worry whether your opinions are witty or have a scientific basis. Your main task here is to qualify yourself for the surveys and to answer as many surveys as you can. By qualify, we mean to promote your life in a way that will allow the surveyors to know whether you are credible to give your opinion about a certain refrigerator, car, or whatever product they’re handling.

The sole challenge that stands in your way is avoidance of fraudulent survey panels. Read about paid surveys for you to know which the real paid survey sites are. Study sites like SurveyPolice or iPoll to get an idea of how authentic panels present themselves and what other people have to say about its performance. Do this for every panel you plan to join.

Translate Your Way to the Top

Translating documents is gaining popularity online. You’re fortunate if you are capable of speaking fluently in two or more languages; you’ve just found the best outlet for that skill. Endorse your freelance translating endeavour through social networking sites. Tell your friends to recommend you to the people they know who may need the help of a translator. People pay substantial amounts of money for this service.

Author’s Bio: Peter is a blogger who is currently living in NYC. He loves working from home and earns money by freelance writing, finding and taking surveys on sites like Getpaidsurveys, training kids and working on some data entry jobs.

How Will Your Social Media Situation Look in One Year?

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By Jennifer Dunn

Between all the other activities you must do every day as a business owner, keeping up with new and exciting trends probably isn’t the highest on your list. This can be especially true with latest social media bandwagons – you’re already on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. What else are you supposed to do?

Not keeping up with these trends, though, may actually be hurting your bottom line. While it may be a little obnoxious that web users bounce from social media site to social media site, you have to follow your customers. This involves learning what they’re both currently using and what’s up next.

Want a little help? Here are a few services to check out.

New Trends

Think video would work well with your business but don’t have a camera nor the time to spend editing something for YouTube? Then Vine is perfect for you. You may have seen these micro-videos around the web already as the Twitter owned service blew up pretty quickly after it was launched.

Vine works because it is super simple to use. After you download the app, you simply hold the screen to record video or just tap it to record a frame/picture. Your limit is 7 seconds, so be brief! Although it doesn’t seem like you can really get much in during that short amount of time, businesses have made some amazing things with Vine.

Another social media bandwagon you should hop on is Google Plus. “But wait,” you might ask. “I thought that ship had sailed?” Sure, that’s what the general consensus was…up until Google Plus passed Twitter as the #2 social media site. Now it’s apparent Plus is here to stay.

What’s there for your business? Besides yet another profile for you to fill out, make sure to take advantage of Hangouts. These video-based interactions are an amazing way to engage with your customers and fans in many different ways. For an example, look at what Major League Soccer has done with it.

Up and Comers

How often have you or someone you know used Facebook and exclaimed how annoyed you are with how complicated it’s become? You might use the service a little more if it wasn’t just so “busy” all the time. Between all the games, ads, and constant updates about what people ate for dinner it’s hard to actually do anything of substance.

This is why simplicity is going to be a factor in the future when it comes to social media. One service, Potluck, reduces social media to sharing cool stuff with your friends. You find a neat link, post it, and your friends (and their friends, their friends’ friends, etc.) can talk about it. That’s the extent of the site.

Even cooler, it’s a website now, but it’s actually designed to be a smartphone app. This means people waiting in line for coffee, bored at work, or taking a trip to the bathroom will be able to see the stuff your business account shares.

Also on the horizon is Ghost, a true blogging site. The creators used to work at WordPress and felt like the site was moving towards making websites rather than letting people blog. That’s why Ghost is designed to let writers hop on and go to town rather than spending hours making their blog look fabulous. If you’ve ever had trouble getting your great content out there because WordPress or BlogSpot left you feeling like a website designer, then a platform like Ghost could be the way of the blog future.

What social media trends have you spotted recently?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.