Business Predictions for 2017.

What to expect in the new year if you are a small business owner? What do professionals and experts say about 2017 to hold for small businesses? After a tumultuous election season, entrepreneurs can finally expect a little bit of certainty and stability. It is always imperative for any business that wants to position itself advantageously, to keep an eye on key trends and new developments. I have put together some information to find out what are some of the biggest things for you to remember, as your business prepares for the dawn of a new year.

Here are some key predictions, ideas and trends to keep in mind if you want to make the most of 2017 for both your business and the people it serves.

Business Climate

Both the economy and stock market have shown signs of strength during the final weeks of 2016, and this helps increase business owner optimism. In 2017, the increased confidence of entrepreneurs in the economy could spur new investments. The confidence among small business owners regarding the economy and their overall performance could lead to new trends in business investment.

Finance and Investment

Crowdfunding will continue to be an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs, and play a key role in financing small business. Crowdfunding platforms allow entrepreneurs to easily validate and fund a new product or service along with growing their customer base.

Uncertain Market for Investment Assets

One of the consequences of central bank intervention with money printing is that all the mainstream asset classes are tightly correlated. Stocks, bonds and real estate are all in bubbles of one sort or another. More money will be seen going into cryptocurrencies, probably Bitcoin as the leader yet again, and potentially precious metals. When all the major asset classes are in bubbles, there is no ‘cheaper’ asset class to shift capital into, so money has to go elsewhere. With the economy worldwide looking precarious right now, we’ll see people managing risk by shifting capital from over-valued asset classes into an under-valued class. I can see gold and cryptocurrencies absorbing that money and rising appropriately.

Success of Niche Market

Focussing on smaller, very specific audience is an almost sure-shot way to get success in business this year. Connecting extremely deeply with a handful of highly receptive and loyal audience, with customized messages and specialized platforms, will replace wide approach “shot gun” marketing. The cold call marketing will focus more on experiences, community building, and lifestyle over product specific messaging.

Tip: Keep your staff happy by recognising the effort that they have put into achieving something, even if it is a small achievement. Along with boosting their confidence, it helps your staff recognize milestones and know that the boss cares. Appreciate your staff for small as well as big achievements as the simplest way to make them feel happy. For example, keep a box of chocolates ready to be given to the person with the highest number of sales at the end of every day. Send a simple “thank you” or “good job” email, or just simply ask how the weekend went for everyone.

House-Flipping Back in Vogue

Due to a lack of inventory, the housing market could not keep up with buyer demand last year and we noticed an influx of home loan requests. Home-flipping is most definitely making a comeback and big bank lenders will once again start extending credit lines to companies specializing in home-flipping. It is being predicted that the housing market will continue to stay strong in 2017, especially in commercial real estate and home-flipping.

In the new year, technology is going to spread and develop further and become more important for every business owner, in more ways than it was last year. If you don’t have a website for your business, potential customers are going to assume that you are a small company that does not take their business seriously. Once you establish this reputation, it is going to be hard to make sales. If you need assistance in getting a website for your company but have no idea how you are going to maintain it once you have it, get in touch with HyperEffects.

I am going to discuss more predictions for small business in my next post, as this article is a part of a larger article about the predictions for the business industry in general, for 2017. You can read more about this in my future posts. I will follow up with a new article about what to expect for your business in the new year. If you have been following my previous articles, by now you should have a good understanding of the fundamentals of the industry. It might be wise to re-read those articles, or bookmark them to grab back whenever you encounter a subject that I have written about!

Got something to share? Please write your experiences in the comments section and I will add them to my future posts.