Top Trends for this year in Business

In what has become an annual tradition (and celebrating our new shorter org domain), below are our top 10 list of small business trends for 2010 (our previous lists will publish shortly).

The economy remains the key issue facing small businesses. We expect a Country & Western song kind of recovery in 2010 - we have been down so low, look out the bottom up. We expect moderate economic growth and stubbornly high unemployment.

Economic trends

1st The transition to Contingent Workers Turns employees in enterprises: Employers large and small are shifting from full-time employees to part-time workers, freelancers, purchased services, partnership arrangements and other forms of contingent workers. They do this to save money and increase business flexibility. Despite the economic recovery in 2010 will see the contingent workforce to grow as companies continue to restrict the employment of full-time employees. Many of these potential workers will create or work for small businesses.

2nd Personal Business on the Rise: Enabled by the Internet and low cost information, the number of personal business (a company employee) has increased twice as fast as the overall economy over the past decade and exceeds 22 million. With unemployment still high and traditional employment options are limited, 2010 will be a year of strong growth in the number of personal businesses. Growth in personal businesses will also lead to an increase in the total small business formation and the number in 2010. Business management will be a key still to help navigate this landscape.

3rd Small Business Lending Returns to Pre-Bubble Levels: The Great Recession was largely the result of a decade long credit bubble. The recession ended bubble and small business lending was extremely difficult in 2009. 2010 will see a thawing of credit markets, but the easy credit environment over the past ten years will not return. Instead, lending standards will return to pre-bubble levels, and only very creditworthy small businesses will be able to borrow. Because of this, the availability and use of alternative sources of credit - a merchant advances, micro loans, community lending, factoring, etc. - will grow as the subprime small businesses apply for funds.

Social trends

4th The new local Trend: New localism is a long term trend, whose impact has been accelerated by the recession. Driven by demographic changes, new technologies, rising energy prices and growing concerns about the environment, more Americans are focusing on their families, friends and communities. Small businesses use and benefit from this trend in several ways. Small Communities allow greater focus on the owners and employees, and they take advantage of market opportunities created by locally-oriented customers.

5th There is No Place Like Home for Small Business: Fueled by technology and enabled by low cost, will 2010 see the continued growth of home-based businesses. According to SBA half of all small businesses are home. Our research shows that about 6.6 million home based businesses provide at least half of their owners' household income, and together have more than one in 10 private sector workers. See our Top 10 Trends for 2010 Hompreneur list for more information on home-based companies. There are still quite a few people who are fearful of starting a business but that is progressively being overcome with increased economic confidence.

6th Clean and Green Creating Small Business Opportunities: Despite the current climate Gate controversy, progress towards sustainability, clean technology and green energy continues to gain strength with consumers and businesses. In many cases, a transition to sustainable business practices, products and services change the way businesses operate and create a host of new small business opportunities.

Technology Trends

7th Social, Mobile and Cloud Computing Converge: All these three inter-related technologies have been in our top 10 list for years. Mobile and social computing into the mainstream in 2009, and cloud computing will be joining them in 2010. Individually, each of these techniques have a major impact on small businesses. But the increasing convergence of these technologies are strengthening their impact and fundamentally change how business is done. These technologies will have a big impact on the financial planning industry including advisors.

8th Location technology and services: With the ubiquity of GPS systems in cars and smartphones, consumers and business use of location aware information applications will grow dramatically in 2010. Location information on businesses and consumers will become more common and linked to online reviews and ratings. The use of location-based marketing services will increase as the location information makes the transition from offline to online marketing even more powerful and attractive.

9th Analytic Tools Lead to Data-Driven Decision: sophisticated yet easy to use tools that small businesses are moving from "gut level" decision-making to evidence-based management. Online marketing and customer relations management systems in particular of small businesses to develop data-driven marketing programs and has even recently, there were just big business.

10th Online Professional Education training brings to Small Business: Cheap but very professional online courses and programs provide small businesses with the ability to improve productivity and employee engagement. Often using digital video and delivered just-in-time, online education offers small businesses the ability to adapt to changing business conditions. Adversely affected by the recession, small business use of online education will accelerate in 2010.