Small Businesses with a Smart Phone Advantage

It seems like Apple has done it again. In a press release on September 24th, Apple announced that their initial stock of 5 million iPhone 5 units have already sold just 3 days since its release on Friday—a million more phones sold than last year’s release of the iPhone 4S in the same amount of time. It is also important to note that Apple will launch the iPhone 5 in 20 more countries at the end of this month. With so many people clambering to buy smartphones like the iPhone 5, one has to wonder what this technology being used for.

One answer is small businesses. According to the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, 85% of small business owners reported that smartphones saved them time and money while increasing their productivity. Forbes has a list of “10 Brilliant Apps Small Businesses Should Use” wherein it describes Apps like FormMobi, Square, and InDinero that allow professionals to take pictures, organize check lists, collect signatures, and charge credit cards all by using smart phone technology. There are even apps that organize hotel, flight and car rental reservations in an orderly literary.

With so many aspects of small businesses relying on smartphones, it is no wonder that 50% of small business owners say that their businesses could not survive without using smartphones. Shockingly, 42% report that their smart phone is their business’s primary contact number. With 85% of small businesses owners reporting that they use smartphones to run their businesses, it is important to make sure the get the right smart phone for the job.

In the article “The Top 10 Smartphones for Business” Herman Mehling goes over some of the important things to consider when choosing the right phone. He says that small businesses owners should consider a carrier’s network reliability and coverage first and foremost. After all, what use is a smart phone’s technology if it doesn’t work where it’s needed? Secondly, he suggests looking at the phone and network’s security features. With so much sensitive information going in and out of smartphones like bank account numbers, literariness, and credit card numbers it is important that only the right people can get a hold of that information. Price is another important thing to consider when getting a smart phone to help run a small business. And finally, consider the phone’s features and available apps. If business’s needs require being able to charge credit cards in the field or have apps that help find the best airline rates, the chosen smart phone should have available features that suit that. The right phone could help save time and money, making today’s small businesses more successful than ever.

The use of smartphones in small business is puts a lot of pressure on smart phone manufactures and app developers to come up with more efficient technologies to keep America’s small businesses running. And small businesses in the United States are definitely taking advantage of that technology. Small businesses have nearly doubled their usage of smartphones to help manage operations in the last 5 years since the 2007 launch of the first iPhone.

Sources:

The Huffington Post: “Small-Business Owners Dependent on Smartphones, Mobile Apps”, 2012.

Pozin, Ilya. “10 Brilliant Apps Small Business Should Use” Forbes.com. 29 May. 2012.

Mehling, Herman. “The Top 10 Smartphones for Your Small Business” http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com. 20 Oct. 2010.