By Jason McClain | June 12, 2016 | 0 Comment
Sometimes all it takes is a statistic or an idea to change the way you view your business. These small changes in thought can often lead to great innovations in your business strategy. This is important because the growth of your business will depend upon your knowledge of how to embrace business change. A better future for your business depends upon how your view your business and how easily you accept change.
I want to particularly focus this idea on online business. Most readers of this blog are interested in creating a business for themselves in the online space. The Internet has made it possible for people with many different skill sets to jump on board and create a business for themselves. Online business also tends to change more rapidly than say, plumbing. So, it’s important to view your business as a regular business, but at the same time, you must understand the mechanics of conducting business online.
Check Out These Stats
- 15.5 million people are self-employed in the United States. This number is from May 2015, and is expected to reach 60 million people by 2020. Isn’t that amazing? These numbers should inspire you to view your business as an important part of the American economy in coming years.
- By 2018, Millennials will be the largest group of buyers, outspending any other generation. If your business strategy is not currently working to adjust to fit the millennial target audience, then you need to change how you view your business.
- More than 50% of Millennials want to start a business or already have. You might want to up your business-to-business game while you’re at it. If Millennials are your audience, and half of them run businesses of their own, you need to change how you view your business to accommodate not only them, but their business as well.
- In less than a decade (by 2025), 3 out of every 4 employees will be Millennials. If your business requires employees could be instrumental in how to embrace business change.
- 52% of marketers worldwide say they get the greatest ROI from video. In this day and age, it’s video or nothing. If you’re planning for your business future and that plan doesn’t include video marketing, adjust your drawing board.
- 72% of people in the United States own a smartphone. This is why much of the online space is adjusting for mobile. If you don’t view your business online through the eyes of a mobile user, you are doing yourself a disservice. Using our previous plumber example, if the industry standard of plumbing shifts from porcelain toilets to aluminum (I know this is ludicrous, I don’t know anything about plumbing), as a plumber, you will adjust your business. You adjust your business in order to keep it. Therefore, the standard has shifted to mobile. Are you there?
- 76% of Internet users in the United States have a profile on at least one social network. Embracing social media is also a great way to shift toward mobile. You never have to worry if your profiles look great on a smartphone because all the social media sites are mobile-friendly. Even so, social media has a great importance for businesses aside from mobile. Social media allows you to connect more directly with your customers than a stuffy old website.
- Social media marketing will generate 12 billion calls this year. That is powerful. Just some simple social media strategy can get customers calling YOU. If your business is an outbound call kind of place, how much you benefit from an inbound business strategy? Think about that.
- An active blog could get you 67% more leads in 2016. Who couldn’t use more leads? Listen, blogging is hard work. There are a ton of marketers out there who blog as their main gig, so it can easily be a full-time job. However, it can also be rewarding. An active blog is 1 to 2 posts a week. It’s do-able.
Wrap Up
I’d love to hear from you in the comments if any of these stats changed how you view your business. An ever-changing business strategy is key in any industry, but especially online.
