“The latest Sage small business survey indicates that owners have not only had to reinvent their business model during the past five years, but have also made significant personal sacrifices to keep their operations afloat,” says Connie Certusi, executive vice president and general manager, small business accounting solutions, Sage North America.
Extended Work Week and Less Vacation
The survey found that 42 percent of small business owners are working more hours per week than they were five years ago. Seventy-two percent of these owners are now working both longer days and more weekends. In addition, many small business owners are now taking less vacation time with 40 percent saying that they are taking significantly or somewhat less compared to five years ago.
Growing Dependence of Mobile Technology
Small business owners are relying on mobile technology to assist in managing their business more than ever with 78 percent stating that they use a mobile device to access work-related information while away from the office or their computer. The main devices that these small business owners are using are laptops or notebooks (89%), smartphones (84%), and tablets (38%). Small business owners are mostly looking to mobile technology to let them keep in contact via email (96%), maintain their contacts and schedules (77%), view or edit documents (69%), text message (64%), and conduct banking (53%).
The overwhelming majority of small business owners who use mobile technology feel that it has positively affected their company’s productivity (84%).
Other findings from the survey include:
· 66% of businesses with employees said their employees use mobile devices to work remotely. 61% of these businesses supply the devices themselves.
· The top five work-related activities that employees are utilizing mobile devices for are: email (89%), text messaging (63%), maintaining contacts and schedules (62%), sales and marketing (41%), and accessing file storage (33%).
· 36% of small business owners indicated that they have made changes to their business in response to higher fuel costs.
· 71% of small business owners have participated in social media.
· Customer experience is important to small businesses with 70% of small business owners saying they actively promote a unique customer experience. However, 85% do not offer a formal customer loyalty program
The survey was conducted in April/May 2012 among Sage customers who are business owners and has a margin of error of +/- 6% with a confidence level of 95 percent.
