This week’s post comes from an article I was reading in Enterprise Nation today around their take on a series of trends that they believe will have long-lasting effects on the small business landscape going forward.
“Discover what six of the most important shifts are, why they matter, and how you can act on them…”.
In time-honoured reverse order:
6. Searches for ‘support small business’ doubled in 2020.
Searches actually increased tenfold in March 2020, at the start of lockdown, and they’ve remained above 2019 levels ever since.
5. Remote work, recalibrated.
2020 has effectively been the biggest ever work-from-home experiment, and lots of us – employers and employees alike – are now sold on its benefits. Indeed, Leesman’s recent home working report found that people feel more productive at home (across all ages), the average business will need far less space in the future, and employers will need to explain why they want workers back in the office (if they actually do, that is).
4. Rising interest in gut health and plant-based ingredients.
This interest was a theme at Food Matters 2020 in October last year, where there was much discussion of consumers boosting their knowledge of gut-friendly foods in particular. With the global probiotics market expected to grow by over 7% per year until 2026, there’s a real opportunity for agile, forward-thinking food businesses to create products that help people achieve good gut health.
3. Simplified, strengthened small business advice
In its new State of Small Business Britain 2020 report, the ERC (Enterprise Research Centre) said “it is vital now more than ever SMEs get the advice they need”. It also highlighted, however, a big problem: that the business support network in England is “overly complex”, and that more needs to be done to ensure underrepresented groups in particular have access to the advice they need.
2. Natural products becoming more effective and desirable
Beauty entrepreneur Rebecca Saunders – who essentially creates the most innovative small beauty brands in her role as Seekology founder – told Enterprise Nation that entire demographics now expect natural products to work just as effectively as non-natural products.
1. Adaptability is now key to small business sustainability
So many small businesses have had to adapt in 2020, and despite the challenges and uncertainty, many have made a real success of it. Looking again at the ERC’s State of Small Business Britain 2020 report, a fifth of SMEs said “they had something positive to take away from their experience of 2020”.