for Efficiency? Do Small Businesses Hesitate to Utilize Efficiency-Enhancing Solutions?

Have you ever pondered why, even though SME owners are a special group trying to advance, they are regularly reluctant to adopt creative business tools? Imagine this: there are numerous startups supplying comprehensive, do-it-yourself packages including invoicing, analytics, e-commerce websites/online shops, CRM, in-app chat, tracking, accounting, in-app marketing, sales reporting, etc. but these services are not always being taken advantage of. So, what exactly is the blockage? Some small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are hesitant when it comes to expansion or growth due to anxiety that too rapid of an evolution may cause them to lose touch with their customer base. Others are proceeding cautiously with new approaches, believing that technological integration is exhausting and protracted. I recently bought something from a vendor on social media, who spent a half hour speaking to me, repeatedly offering me goods and styles. While she was friendly, I couldn't help but recognize how inefficient the entire ordeal was. I would much rather have just browsed a web store, paid, and been done with it. I queried her about the business solutions such as Flutterwave, Paystack, Prospa, Getbumpa, Nomba, Vendorstack, Aleph Express, Noja, Kippa, Loyverse, and Branddrive and she was actually aware of some of them, having come across an advertisement. Surprisingly, she thought these tools weren't applicable to businesses of her size. It dawned on me that, evidently, small and medium-sized enterprises had already formed a certain opinion about these solutions without even trying them out. Intrigued, I carried out further investigation and discovered she manages roughly 20 to 25 orders on a daily basis, with some orders occasionally overflowing to the following day due to her inability to keep up. This sparked off an idea in me – there must be a solution to getting small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in these commercial tools, not just for themselves, but also for their clients. Perhaps these start-ups ought to lower down to the SME degree. Ads are great but having an impact on a community is markedly better. Have you considered getting together a group of the businesses you mentioned, and reaching out to established mentors and leaders in each group's business community? Doing so could help you get even more people involved. I recently saw an advertisement for a coaching service that was selling a course on invoicing apps for businesses, and it only cost N1500. There were a lot of comments from people eager to take advantage of the offer. Intrigued, I purchased the course. After watching it, I realized that it was only twenty minutes long, and didn't even begin to cover setting up the applications. In fact, the "secret invoicing applications" the course mentioned were three of the startup solutions I had already discussed. I got to thinking - why would Small Business Owners pay for this when they could just sign up and figure it out themselves? Then it hit me, drawing on my experience in a recent SaaS role. Despite the fact that user-friendly online guides exist, these SMEs often need a guided tour from somebody within their circle. They appreciate being able to freely ask questions and feel GETTING understood. (For instance, a successful importation coach may show their audience how to sell more using a particular tool). This approach could have substantial benefits - the solutions may be simple, yet only relatively so.

Source: https://medium.com/@topeliasu/are-smes-shy-of-business-tools-d49464d2ce49?source=rss------fintech-5