In the past year, there has been a significant uptick in the number of small business owners who have utilized mobile for day-to-day company tasks. While this trend has been increasing for some years now, only in 2015 have we seen business owners truly embrace the advantages of managing all aspects of a business from their mobile devices. Here we have compiled some of the data from these latest statistics:
56% of SMB owners use mobile devices for appointments and communication.
The old ways of business communication took place in a private office or a brick-and-mortar store with a call center (or at least a landline). Appointments with customers were made over these traditional phone lines and jotted down in a datebook. Well, times have changed. The technologies available to mobile users are myriad, allowing SMB owners to track appointments, market customers, handle sales calls, and a variety of other tasks all over the same device. Having everything in one place has been an absolute boon to the business owner.Other business activities have begun to migrate to a mobile medium.
Small business owners have been taking advantage of the apps available to mobile users. Some of their activities include taking notes and making lists (30% of SMB owners), checking social media business accounts (29%), balancing the books (24%), and accepting mobile payments through apps (14%). The use of mobile for these activities is still relatively new, so we can expect to see new apps and technologies that further promote business over a mobile medium in the coming years.Smartphones have become essential for certain SMB owners.
More than 80% of Android and iPhone users are on their devices every day, often checking them at least once an hour. Contrastingly, the number of business owners who never check their mobile devices has dropped to only 10% of users—a distinct indicator revealing the sheer masses that have come to embrace mobile for their small businesses.Small business owners often use multiple devices in tandem.
We are surrounded by technology, plan and simply. Sometimes this means receiving a push notification or an alert from a gaming app at exactly the wrong time. Despite these distractions, 78% of SMB owners claim that they use their mobile phones while they are doing work from a Mac or a PC. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. While some prefer using smartphones to computers, others claim that they are just in the habit of checking their phones, even while on the computer. More often than not though, SMB owners use their phones to get their email quicker than they would on the computer. Nearly half of all business-owning mobile users check personal emails and text as they conduct business over their computers.
The data is just a sign of the times. Small business owners are seeking to lubricate the wheels of commerce, and mobile is a great way to go. Mobile technology makes it simple to make appointments and contact clients, and the ubiquity of this technology is accelerating the speed of business. If you’ve been hesitating on whether or not to go mobile with your SMB, then consider how much it could help your bottom line and take advantage of the tools that mobile devices offer to streamline the way you do business.