Entrepreneurs examining accomplishments over the last year find that smartphones and tablets stand out.
As the last year’s developments and progress are recognized for National Small Business Month, which falls in May 2012, this most important economic sector in the United States is acknowledging the importance of mobile devices in driving their growth.
This was supported by the publication of the most recent Small Business Mobile Survey by Web.com Group Inc., which examined the growth of this sector and the resources and tools that are central to its successes.
The role of mobile commerce is more important today than it ever has been for small businesses.
The survey showed that 69 percent of these smaller organizations consider mobile marketing to be “crucial to their growth in the next five years.” At the moment, though, the majority of entrepreneurs and owners who participated in the research said that they had not yet completely harnessed the potential of using this technology.
Over eighty percent of small businesses with a mobile presence have seen improved business activity.
This increase has been directly connected to their willingness to embrace the mobile platform and the opportunities that it offers for growing a business. Among the 500 owners of small businesses who were respondents in the survey, 14 percent have a mobile website that is unique from their standard site. From that group, 84 percent stated that “they have seen an increase in new business activity due to their mobile marketing efforts.”
Several marketing experts and analysts are now seeing these survey results as a striking indication that mobile commerce has the ability to increase business, despite the fact that most small business owners in the country have not yet invested any money into m-commerce or marketing for smartphones and tablet computers.
Equally, it is becoming virtually universally accepted that in the not too distant future, business owners will be required to take part in the mobile sphere. Ignoring it will not be an option as failing to take part will only give the competition a significant advantage that could bring about crippling results for those who don’t step up.