Top 10 Small Business Trends for 2010

***Update - our Top 10 small Business Trends for 2012 list is now available***

In what has become an annual tradition, below is our top 10 small business trends list for 2010 (click here for our 2009 list, here for 2008). 

The economy continues to be the key issue facing small business.  We expect a country & western song type of recovery in 2010 - we've been down so low, the bottom looks like up.  We anticipate moderate economic growth and stubbornly high unemployment.

Economic Trends 

1.  The Shift to Contingent Workers Turns Employees into Entrepreneurs:  Employers large and small are shifting from full-time employees to part-timers, freelancers, outsourced services, partnership arrangements and other forms of contingent workers.  They are doing this to save money and increase business flexibility.  Despite the economic recovery, 2010 will see the contingent workforce grow as companies continue to limit hiring of full time staff.  Many of these contingent workers will create or work for small businesses.

2.  Personal Businesses on the Rise:  Enabled by the Internet and low-cost information technology, the number of personal businesses (one employee businesses) has grown twice as fast as the overall economy over the last decade and exceeds 22 million.  With the unemployment rate remaining high and traditional employment options limited, 2010 will be another year of strong growth in the number of personal businesses.  The growth in personal businesses will also result in an increase in overall small business formation and numbers in 2010.

3.  Small Business Lending Returns to Pre-Bubble Levels:  The Great Recession was caused in large part by a decade long credit bubble.  The recession ended the bubble and small business borrowing was extremely difficult in 2009.  2010 will see a thawing of credit markets, but the easy credit environment of the last decade will not come back.  Instead, lending standards will return to pre-bubble levels and only highly credit worthy small businesses will be able to borrow.  Because of this, the availability and use of alternative credit sources - merchant advances, micro-lending, community lending, factoring, etc. - will grow as sub-prime small businesses seek funds. 

Social Trends

4.  The New Local Movement:  New localism is a long-term trend whose impact has been accelerated by the recession.  Driven by changing demographics, new technology, rising energy prices and growing concerns about the environment, more Americans are focusing on their families, friends and communities.  Small businesses tap into and benefit from this trend several ways.  Small businesses allow greater community focus for the owner and employees, and they benefit from market opportunities created by locally-oriented customers. 

5.  There is No Place Like Home for Small Business:  Fueled by technology and enabled by low costs, 2010 will see the continued growth of home-based businesses.  According to the SBA half of all small business are home-based. Our research shows that about 6.6 million home-based enterprises provide at least half of their owners' household income, and together employ more than one in 10 private sector workers.  See our Top 10 Hompreneur Trends for 2010 list for more on home-based businesses.

6.  Clean and Green Creating Small Business Opportunities:  Despite the current climategate controversy, the trends towards sustainability, clean technology and green energy continue to gain strength with consumers and businesses.  In many cases the shift to sustainable business practices, products and services is changing how industries operate and creating a wide range of new small business opportunities.

Technology Trends

7.  Social, Mobile and Cloud Computing Converge:  All three of these interrelated technologies have been on our top 10 list for several years.  Mobile and social computing entered the mainstream in 2009, and cloud computing will join them in 2010.  Individually, each of these technologies is having a major impact on small business.  But the increasing convergence of these technologies is amplifying their impact and fundamentally changing how business is done.

8.  Location Technology and Services:  With the near ubiquity of GPS systems in smartphones and cars, consumer and business use of location aware applications will grow dramatically in 2010.  Location information on businesses and consumers will become common and merge with online reviews and ratings.  The use of location-based marketing services will grow as location data makes the shift from offline to online marketing even more powerful and attractive.

9.  Analytical Tools Lead to Data-Driven Decisions:  Sophisticated yet easy-to-use tools are allowing small businesses to move from "gut level" decision making to evidence-based management.  Online marketing and customer relationship management systems in particular allow small businesses to develop data-driven marketing and support programs that even recently were available only to large corporations.

10.  Online Training Brings Professional Education to Small Business:  Low-cost yet highly professional online training courses and programs provide small business with the ability to improve productivity and employee engagement.  Often utilizing digital video and delivered just-in-time, online training provides small business with the ability to adapt and adjust to changing business conditions.  Negatively impacted by the recession, small business use of online training will accelerate in 2010. 

Comments

[Cygnis Media]

We have finally finished moving our small business into the cloud. It means I have less time installing apps on the server, upgrading, backing up etc. Instead I get the constant - "I can't log in" or else the app in the cloud is not working.
Overall it's better, it just means that I now depend on IT providers reliability, not my own.

[Beautiful Legs]

We definitely do not use gut-feelings to make decisions in our online businesses, we use analytical tools which gather real data over time from the behavior of our online customers. We believe that every piece of data that has been collected over time is crucial in the analytical process, nothing gets deleted. This is the only way you get to know your online business success.

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these business trends has helped a lot in shaping the world. thanks for sharing. I definitely liked it. nice one indeed.

[HallooCom]

One trend I'd like to point out is that more angel VCs are coming in and investing in companies when they are in the true start-up "garage" stage. Firms like y-Combinator have really started a revolution in finding young, talented geeks at the incubation stage and growing them to great success.

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that risk is to invest in Colombia?

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[Jordan Spizike]

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[Small Business Cash Advance]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful business trends that has been keeping us all updated. Kudos to you.

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[Ben]

point! Most small businesses operate within 50 miles of their homes or offices so it makes sense to focus locally. http://www.hotfilemediafire.com

[Small Business Cash Advance]

I totally agree that because of the availability of the internet and the current economic crisis more and more people are turning into home-based small businesses. Thanks for all these important knowledge.

[Asik Etme Duasi]

Your list is terrific and a great reminder that even in a slow-growth economy, small business continues to grow, our creative output increases, and if our businesses are to survive, we need to be engaged in all three trend areas you mention: economic, social, and technological. www.asiketmeduasi.com :)

[Aşık Etme Duası]

Your list is terrific and a great reminder that even in a slow-growth economy, small business continues to grow, our creative output increases, and if our businesses are to survive, we need to be engaged in all three trend areas you mention: economic, social, and technological. www.asiketmeduasi.com

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[Retro Jordans]

Look into jobs that you may not even know you are qualified for and maybe find a new career in the process!

[Brooke]

Online training has definitely kicked off. I see schools releasing new programs all the time. SMB's should look into the SBA's Grant programs" and take some online courses. Some courses that may interest SMB owners are:

Internet marketing courses
http://www.usanfranonline.com/online-certificates/internet-marketing.aspx

Business management courses
http://www.usanfranonline.com/online-certificates/business-process-management.aspx

[margaritaville dm1000]

small businesses are hard to do and most of them fail beacuse of innuative and bigger competitors so you defonantly have to pick a good niche market

[SELENAGreer26]

I had got a desire to begin my own firm, nevertheless I did not have got enough of cash to do that. Thank heaven my close dude proposed to use the mortgage loans. Therefore I took the financial loan and made real my dream.

[Mathew Bracken]

Its unique one, which helps to say more about business to read. Thanks

[jessieamelio]

There is no doubt that technology is the fastest evolving industry there is – period. If you realize for a moment that the world wide web itself has really only been in existence since the mid 1990’s, it is simply incredible where we are at today. I have even heard one person state that they are no longer an atheist because of the Internet. Why, you ask? Because if he could be THAT wrong about something like the Internet popping up so quickly, perhaps be could be wrong about the existence of God.

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