New Technology Levels Playing Field for Small Business Owners

What technology should you be getting your hands on to take on bigger competitors?

Monday sees the start of the SBA’s 50^th annual National Small Business Week in Seattle, WA. This year it seems small businesses have even more to celebrate as evolving technology equips them to take on even the biggest and best funded corporate giants.

While economic uncertainty may have held some back over the last year, entrepreneurs seem to have decided to create their own futures. They aren’t just dipping their toes in the water, they are dragging that bull by the horns, creating new jobs as they go, and forcing improvement in the economy.

According to statistics from Babson College this attitude resulted in a record number of new startups in 2012. Just pop into a co-working space near you now and you’ll also likely find that memberships have doubled and rooms are now filled and bustling with independent entrepreneurs crafting, coding, and collaborating.

A recent post on the Microsoft Blog suggests that a good part of this new surge isn’t just due to professionals launching small businesses out of necessity, but thanks to new, affordable, and easily accessible technology that has enabled innovators to pursue their business ideas. In particular the tech company points to Office 365, Lync for meetings, and Office on Demand as tools that have helped small business owners level the playing field with larger and more established competitors, increasing odds of success and eliminating fears of failure.

Of course more experienced entrepreneurs will be the first to tell the newbies that many of the promises made by software and cloud solutions providers about ‘ease of use’, aren’t all they are cracked up to be. In fact many, even various WordPress frameworks and plugins are notoriously far more complicated than the ‘drag and drop’ fantasy spouted in advertising materials. So make sure you allow for this and seek out IT solutions that come with customer support.

Perhaps one of the easiest to use and even more affordable and powerful tech tools available to small business owners today is toll free vanity numbers. Toll free vanity numbers can instantly rocket a small business brand to being perceived as on par with even the most established luxury brands, while streamlining operations, maximizing marketing ROI, and fattening the bottom line.

So if you are really serious about getting the edge, then make sure reserving a winning toll free vanity number is on the top of your to-do list for Monday morning…