Technology has set them free and given them unprecedented flexibility that larger businesses do not have to the same degree. The smaller business is the speedboat, fast and manoeuvrable, and the larger corporation a little more tanker-like, taking an age to change course.

It is a fact of life that SME's (small and medium size enterprises) make up the great majority of the 4.9 million businesses operating in the UK in 2013 but what do we know of the engine that powers the UK economy.

  • Of this number over 4,850,000 companies employed 0-250 people, the accepted definition of an SME
  • 95% of the overall numbers are microbusinesses with less than ten staff working for them and responsible for 32% of the workforce in the UK
  • 19% of the overall SME number are led by women, a number that is increasing year on year as business is easier to do from home, that has spawned the growth of the "Mumpreneur"
  • 30% of these businesses are run from the home office (SOHO - Small Office Home Office) a figure growing by 5-7% yearly

So the landscape of British business is clearly changing but is it for the better? Most definitely yes!

Are we still 9-5ing? Larger companies are, but they are loosening the reins a little, including Government bodies. Variations of a split week with part-office, part-home are becoming the norm now. Even though the rush hour doesn't seem to be easing in London at all, the working day has still changed out of all recognition for the smaller company.

How many times have I caught up with emails at the weekend, firing out enquiries that I thought might be dealt with on the Monday, to receive an answer within two minutes? The downside to this of course is that both parties to the email are working at weekends but the job is getting done and you may suffer less stress from dealing with situations as they arise, rather than being faced with a mountain of work in one go.

One of our New Business contacts is a senior person and young mother with all the responsibilities that brings, and several times I have exchanged important emails with her up to 11.00pm. Months later I met her at an event and in conversation asked what her routine was. Basically, she gave her early evening time to the family and once the children were in bed she caught up with business at 9.00pm onwards. A tough day for sure but it works for some mums and contributes to the family budget and the UK GDP.

The notion that working from home is somehow a day off is disappearing as companies ensure that employees are covered regarding equipment, software and can monitor output effectively. This isn't a "big brother" exercise, it is purely business growing up and there is a need to ensure that remote workers produce at least the same as the guys commuting to the office.

For the really small business though, the home is where he or she hangs their hat and is probably the centre of their business world, so what are the considerations? Once you have your website up and running you are on a par with any size company in the world and at comparatively small expense, you can have a prime address and also have a receptionist answer the phone during usual office hours or even 24x7, so you never miss a call. All great messages going out about your company before they even talk to you.

Out and About

If you drive a lot, outsourcing receptionist duties is absolutely essential and for the regular road warrior there are serviced offices and meeting rooms available at service stations up and down the country where you can check in, meet contacts or answer emails.

The modern car has sophisticated communication systems built in and good voice recognition is coming through to take the "hands-free" concept to new levels. There are also companies who specialise in fitting your chosen vehicle out as a mobile office, not for dictation at 80 MPH but for times when you are parked up with urgent matters to attend to.

Equipment.

Whatever your business involves you in, ultimately at some time or other you will find yourself doing it in odd situations. The first time I managed a four email exchange with a company in Australia while on my way to town on a Southern Region commuter train, I thought it highly unusual  but our time zones crossed so why not. A phone equipped to receive and send emails handled that situation perfectly well, as would have a tablet for speed, but a laptop would have taken too long to fire up. For our company, the tablet, at this moment hasn't really replaced anything but it is very much a working tool, alongside smart phone and laptop. I also travel with Internet back-up in the shape of a dongle and carry good quality phone chargers, the kind that will charge a typical smartphone up four times over, or a tablet once. This allows me to be self-sufficient from both an electrical and internet point of view for close to a full working day, depending on usage.

Tablets are great for presentations at someone else's office but instead of finding out what their company's internet codes are and whether  I am allowed to connect to them, when I arrive in reception, I switch on the tablet, connect to my own internet source and I am ready to roll before my contact comes out of the lift. For presentations this gets you immediately on the front foot.

It is still personal choice whether you can carry out business totally from a tablet but most of our people use them in conjunction with smartphones out of the office and revert to laptops or PCs within it, so for us it's an "add on" must have, rather than a replacement. Our decision was "which tablet to go with?" as they have become an essential part of day to day life and probably always will be and we now use several types.

The Cloud

IT companies love buzz words and most of them are not aimed at and probably flew over the head of the small business and then the Cloud arrived, that has and is changing the way businesses operate.

Most families have some members using what is considered the "Public Cloud" Facebook, or maybe Dropbox, where you can store pictures and allow people in your social circle to view them. If your PC or laptop dies, those files are stored elsewhere, so it isn't the disaster it once would have been.

Well the situation is basically the same with the "Private Cloud", that your company would use, except as a business there is more to consider than just who sees your holiday pictures. Many accounting software packages include an option to host your accounts in the Cloud so you can carry out banking details and deal with invoices on the fly. Another major plus of "Cloud accounting" is that you can include your accountant in the list of people allowed to access these files that may save the cost of a visit or two and he can keep an eye on your business as it progresses.

For the smaller business, a Hosted Desktop might be the way forward initially. All the files that you see when you switch on your PC at home or in the office, will be accessible in the Cloud and some of those can be made be available for your colleagues to see in Shared Folders, should you require it. This allows several colleagues to have input into any applications you might deem important, spreadsheets, straightforward word documents, or presentations.

The beauty of this very straightforward usage of the Cloud is that all your important files are available as long you have internet access. This gives you total flexibility wherever you are in this country or abroad and quite a degree of business continuity should any disaster befall your workplace, as the data is elsewhere and will be backed up by the professional Cloud companies .

Our company is on the Cloud and we regularly descend on various UK cities when covering events and work from temporary offices with desks and internet availability, or we use our own and it takes less than 15 minutes to be operational, however many staff have made the trip. The focus of New Business is the UK SME but now and then we are called abroad for an event or meeting with and we can duplicate our UK working environment internationally in the same 15 minutes.

Security

Yes, we can work from anywhere these days but remember we need to work safely, so whatever device you use, ensure you have appropriate software protection on board, your passwords are strong and the internet source you might be using is secure. There is a trend towards the humble domestic TV getting smarter and Internet access becoming the norm but give some thought if you start using it as a PC, whether you are protected or not.

Working from a small home office (SOHO), or from an event stand, serviced office, motorway services, train, boat or plane (well, some airlines) is no longer a novelty, it is part of business and you need to keep up to stay competitive in a fast moving business landscape. If you need a nudge anytime, just look at the high street companies that failed to deal with the Internet threat in time and are now just memories.

The technology is there and innovating at an incredible rate, so use it but don't consider online protection last, it should be the very first thing you think about, so stay safe and be successful.

 

Mark James