Main Street Monday – Survey Reveals Small Businesses Investing in Technology for Increased Sales, Growth

August 5, 2019

By Mary Miller
Contributing Editor, Main Street Monday

Main Street Monday – Survey Reveals Small Businesses Investing in Technology for Increased Sales, Growth

In a recent survey of 1,763 small businesses conducted by Researchscape International and DaySmart Software, results indicate that small business owners are leveraging technology to offset challenges, increase growth and pump up cyber-security measures.

Sixty-three percent of survey participants reported an increase in sales between 2017-2018. Despite growth, many of the respondents continue to be concerned about growing their businesses and successfully handling the challenges of running a small business.

The top five U.S. small business concerns as reported:

  • Making enough money
  • Controlling costs
  • Finding new customers
  • Marketing to new or existing customers
  • Time management

Other findings from the 2019 U.S. Small Business Technology Trends report:

  • Over half (or 51%) have incorporated business management software. Of those adopting business management software, resulting benefits include reduced manual efforts and paperwork (61 percent), increased customer satisfaction (49 percent) and improved work/life balance (48 percent). Forty-two percent prefer cloud-based software products vs. 38% sticking with on-premise software.
  • Respondents adopting business management software report making more money annually. Seventy-three percent of respondents using software reported annual revenues of $100,000 or more, compared to 60% of participants not using software.
  • Fifty-one percent of small business owners adopting such software are 25-44 years old, while 37% in this same age bracket do not use software. Most small business owners, or 63%, who do not use software are 45 years old or older.
  • The number one reason most respondents (26%) did not invest in business software was due to lack of budget resources. Other reasons for not adopting technology was due to lack of internal expertise/maintenance/support (23 percent), concerns/fear around cyber-security risks (20 percent) and lack of knowledge/understanding of what to purchase to solve small business issues (16 percent).
  • Goals for an investment in technology include the ability to take a more proactive approach to market demand, better respond to customer needs and to drive more sales/growth.

“The digitization of the way we work and live has forced small business owners to rethink their manual methods – but that’s not always an easy task,” says Jeff Dickerson, DaySmart CEO. “This survey validates the importance of having a holistic software solution that can make the transition to automated and digitized operations more efficient, and ultimately help small businesses grow faster than ever before.”