Social trends generating opportunities in 2017
Of course, there are many social trends we could talk about here. I have chosen three that relate to business and are connected. In summary, there are more companies starting up in the UK and fewer of these are failing. The working environment has changed and continues to change, assisted by technology and a more flexible approach to working practices.
Businesses starting up
In 2016 there were 5.5m businesses in the UK up from 5.4m in 2015 and 5.25m the year before that. 99% of these business employ fewer that 250 people and 96% fewer than 10 people. The proportion of businesses employing any staff at all has been stuck at 24% for the last 3 years and down 1% compared to 2013. In 2015, 383,000 businesses started trading and 252,000 businesses ceased trading. Apart from a small spike in 2009 the business death-rate has always been around 10% however, the difference, 131,000 in 2015, is the largest since records began.
The prominent trend is for very small ‘freelancers’ working in cooperation with each other or for larger organisations. They have very low start-up costs and tend not to directly employ people. Consequently, they are less likely to go bust in slow periods. In 2013 women constituted only 16% of UK board directors and by the end of 2015 this had increased to 26%. This could either mean that more established companies are appointing women to their boards or that most new businesses in the UK are being started up by women.
Location independent working (LIW)
At the end of 2015 1.5m workers in the UK stated their primary place of work was not the office - up 20% in a decade. Many would have expected this to be higher but until now technology and acceptability have applied friction to this trend. Some would say that cloud technology is essential for productive LIW and UK business has been slow to adopt the cloud when compared to business in the US. With fast internet connectivity widely available and the growth of inexpensive reliable business apps, the brakes are off and we can expect LIW to accelerate in the next few years.
Business dress is changing
This may seem trivial in comparison but all trends spawn opportunity and I thought it worth a mention. In 2000 the male business uniform had become chinos and button-down shirts but with the dot-com crash all this went away and the UK returned to more traditional business attire. By the end of 2015 the growth in the menswear market outpaced that of womenswear but in that year only 12% of men bought a suit. People wear what they like at home and it is becoming acceptable to do the same at work.
There are probably many conclusions you can draw from this data but here are a few that strike me. Focus on small businesses. These guys need your support, they are consuming services on a utility basis and are far less likely to fail than they used to be. They are less price sensitive and more likely to buy everything they can from a single trusted supplier. Add products to your portfolio that reflect changes in business behaviour. Internet connectivity, cloud backup, hosted telephony, cloud desktop are the obvious ones but I’m sure you can think of many more.
Jola is a channel-only business with years of experience helping channel partners to successfully grow new revenue streams. If you are looking to add internet connectivity, hosted telephony or mobile SIM services to your portfolio…..
