For small businesses 2013 will be another challenging year. Here are few key areas they need to focus on in order to improve perspectives.
Health Insurance
Health insurance traditionally provides low cost healthcare for employees all over the world. It doesn’t matter if you are a small business owner or self-employed, you can easily find the information resources and services you need online. Bear in mind that the environment of small business owners differs in many respects from that of larger businesses that might require specific plans.
Small businesses with over 10 or more employees are ordered to purchase health insurance for their employees in many countries worldwide. Therefore, many small-scale businesses use the help of consultants and financial advisers to find the best rates and conditions for purchasing health insurance policies. This is the usual practice, as it is very hard for a business owner to study more that 2000 pages of legislation in a short term. The spending for healthcare is a significant percentage of the GDP, therefore the spiraling healthcare costs is a vital issue for many small business owners.
Refinancing
The current economic environment is still struggling and small businesses have to be ready for the upcoming challenges of 2013. When the credit bubble exploded back in 2008, it affected many financial institutions and respectively their customers. Everyone in the vertical of lending suffers in some way due to a bad debt. For the past 4 years, bad debt and constrained lending have been slowing global economies. Even though, financial institutions and customers have stabilized their balance sheets to some extend, large portions of the debt is still awaiting resolutions from federal governments and financial institutions. Small business must brace for another year of limited lending by working out temporary solutions with their existing lenders.
Small-scale business owners have to think about a way to attain business loans for refinance or growth purposes from within their local communities, angel investors or any other flexible sources. The post effect caused by the credit bubble burst back in 2008 will last in 2013.
Geting credit is not the only challenge for small businesses. Many owners are having problems of getting their local community or major money central banks to balance actual financing. The reason for this is the continuous delivering and tightening of the banking industry balance sheets. That is why small businesses are struggling to roll over or refinance their existing debt. In order to find their way in this loan-barred setting, owners have to start paying down debt, interacting with existing bankers and continue the global process of de-leveraging themselves.
E-commerce
In 2013, it becomes significantly important for small businesses to understand the value of e-commerce solutions. Over the last few months the e-commerce payment sales significantly increased. Keeping an e-commerce site is important, because small businesses can be easily found on internet, in addition to providing convenient payment options. Small businesses without an e-commerce website have strong disadvantage. In 2013, it will be necessary to have the ability to be found and advertised just by a local internet search.
Cyber Security for Small Business
With the advancement of the digital age and the online services, small business owners have to understand that they are exposed to a new type of virtual risk. Installing antivirus programs from Kaspersky Lab Online Store on PCs and laptops is not the only solution to protect data. Now it is not unthinkable to underestimate the risk of keeping business data on the hard drive without a cloud. Medical officials and lawyers should not underestimate the risks brought to their practice by storing customers’ health and financial information on a server in their office building. That is why small businesses have to consider a leap into the cloud for security measures. Cloud hosts are more cost-effective than other IT configuration and are more secure. Also the cloud provides better security and 24/7 data access even by smartphone or tablet. At present, cloud hosts provide the best business applications surveillance and security and can provide guaranty. The owners of small businesses should research in order to get information how to improve their business, because the embracement of the cloud will be one of the necessary steps in 2013.
Join The Cloud
Another supporting factor for small businesses’online operations will be the cloud computing. It will provide data accessibility at any time and place, making it easier for small businesses to follow critical transactions and online traffic. All these activities will be made by computing application. Such applications will help owners to get real-time data for their small business, only by using smartphone or tablet. Cloud computing increases sales, because of the less times spent dealing with administrative matters gives more time for selling and servicing customers. More control is another benefit and small businesses can make more informed decisions quicker and can be always in touch with the most important business data in real time.
Additionally, real-time data leads to faster and more profitable decisions. Real time information regardless of time and place of operation means that essential business management data is only a few clicks away. And finally, cloud computing provides technology enhancements as it decreases the cost and expenses of an IT department maintenance. Everything that the small business needs is in the cloud.
