COMMUNICATIONS CHALLENGES AND TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES FOR RURAL BUSINESSES Authors Carl-Johan Torarp Mark Coronna
Introduction Are you a rural small- or mid-sized business? Is your business based in your home or located in a rural area? Is your business disbursed across multiple regions or rural locations? If so, you ve got added challenges to consider for improving your probability of success. What are the Major Challenges of Rural Businesses? Starting and operating a successful business has always been a challenge, especially in rural markets. Success rates for U.S. small businesses, as reported by the SBA Office of Advocacy (Sept 2012), have consistently shown these survival rates: -50% survive for 5 years or more -30% survive 10 years or more. Ongoing research by the Small Business Administration (SBA), as well as by industry groups like the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), consistently highlight three challenges all businesses must overcome. These are: - Business managers must have the time and expertise to build the business - Talent acquisition and retention is a key - Effective use of technology is not just desirable, it is required to compete. Your experience and business challenges are likely to be very similar, if not exactly the same. Let s take a deeper look at each challenge. The first challenge, time and expertise, shows up time and time again as a major reason why businesses fail. In the course of doing business, the lack of strategies, plans, and management time to step back to assess the business performance is a major reason why business success rates are low. Strategies and plans often take second place to sales, revenue generation, and customer acquisition. One can t argue that revenue needs to be a priority--after all, if a business doesn t grow; it certainly is not on a survival track. And this is not a question of either/or. You can t ignore your strategy for day-to-day revenue management, and you can t spend all your time planning. How can you do both? Selecting the right technologies, and especially the right communications technologies, can help. We will address this in more detail later in this paper. The second challenge, talent, is also a fundamental. You can t accomplish much without having a team of people; all aligned around the same few corporate priorities. Venture capitalists will say that an excellent team with an OK idea is better than an excellent idea with only an adequate team. Finding the right talent, and building them into a high-performing team is critical to 2
business success. So, how do you locate, hire, and retain the right IT talent? Selecting the right technology approach can help here, too. The third challenge, technology, is the focus of this paper. In the U.S., small businesses spend $56 billion annually on software and maintenance agreements and $4 billion annually on information and communications technology (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). Technology expenses are likely to be your largest category of expense after people-related costs. On one level, you can t afford to waste capital and operating funds on poorly sourced or poorly operated technology. On a higher level, proper use of technology can create a competitive advantage. Do you think the opportunity for your business to use technology more effectively exists? Here s a snapshot of technology adoption and use by U.S. small businesses: - Only 44% have websites - Only 34% use digital or online marketing techniques - Only 17% actually use e-commerce and sell products or services over the Internet. Using communications technology more effectively can be the key to your business success. Communications technology, especially effective use of the Internet, can help you acquire new customers regionally, nationally, or even globally from your rural location. And, using online marketing techniques, you will be able to do so with lower customer acquisition costs. You ll also be more able to develop customers from transactors who buy occasionally, to relationships which yield more revenue and profit per customer. But, you ll need to have a technology plan and approach that works for you. Let s look at how this might work. The Opportunity to Use Communications Technology Effectively Let s talk about how you might want to approach technology decisions, and look at ways technology can boost your revenues and profits and provide you with more time to manage and address your technology talent concerns. Here are some principles for effective utilization of technology. Principle #1: Let an expert run your core business applications for you. You probably don t have the time or expertise to select the business applications which are core to your business. You don t do this often in your career, and vendor salespeople have practice and experience that you don t have. Some call this an information inequity. 3
Your option: Use cloud-based services to select the applications you require. Besides leveraging industry leaders, you also don t have to worry about updates, upgrades, or obsolescence. Also, cloud-based business applications are usually priced on a pay-as-you-go, or pay-per user basis. Besides removing major technology headaches from your plate, this approach also allows you to conserve cash. But, to use cloud-based services effectively, you ll need a high performing network with reliable Internet access. Principle #2: Let an expert run your network and broadband communications for you. If you have trouble selecting and managing your core business applications, you ll likely have more trouble selecting and managing your network and broadband communications, as these needs require even more specialized support. You might be able to find a local resource to fix your PCs, but how are you planning on keeping your network up and running? Who is going to insure that your Internet access is available when you need it? Who is going to insure that the productivity of your employees is supported by a high speed, Internet connection? You can t afford to have your employees wasting time with slow performing applications or communications. Your option: Also consider a cloud-based service to manage your network, communications, and broadband Internet access. This might be even more critical than using cloud-based services for your business applications. The leading cloud-based network services are offered with unlimited data at fixed monthly fees. This pricing model allows supports cash preservation, and gives you the flexibility to get the most value from your technology investments. Principle #3: Make sure you have access to high-performing communications networks. How much performance is good enough? As a consumer, you are probably upgrading your personal communications devices regularly to take advantage of higher speeds and capacity. This is even more important to your business. Every business needs to take into consideration several factors: - When it comes to networks, unlike driving, speed doesn t kill! In fact, faster is always better. But, it s not speed itself that is the right measure: it s your own experience, which takes into where you are, what devices you are using to access the Internet, and then, of course, the network performance itself. - Plan for more content. Media-rich applications are driving the need for more capable smartphones and higher capacity networks. For consumers, this means less downloads and more media availability with real-time streaming. For businesses, this means that you can access your offsite, cloud-based core applications and get the same performance that you might see if your hosted them yourself. - Plan for lower costs. In the same way that wireless communications are quickly replacing wireline connections, web applications for voice and data are making cellular phones look costly compared with using voice services over the Internet. Managing cash is a priority. Reducing communications costs is one way to preserve your funds for higher value purposes. 4
One Solution to Your Network and Communications Technology Needs Perhaps by now you are starting to recognize that a different approach to technology not only helps reduce your technology costs, but also helps give you more time to manage and reduces your IT staff concerns. With a deep understanding of rural business needs, LocaLoop has developed a cloud-based platform which gives you the opportunity for 4G broadband communications the best you can get today! Value Proposition to Subscribers Subscribers of communication service providers using LocaLoop s services have access to high speed, high capacity Internet communications wherever they live and work. LocaLoop s service is marketed under the brand name synkro tm, and offers rural businesses these benefits: - Subscribers using LocaLoop s synkro tm platform have the ability to self-manage the services they use and are not locked into long-term contracts as services are available on a per service basis at a flat fee. o Manage your own services through an easy-to-use, convenient web portal. You don t need to contact customer service when you want to add or stop services. o Avoid unnecessary costs as you control the services you need, and pay for them as you use them. o Reduce your costs as you can put services on hold when you are on vacation or out of the service area for longer periods of time. - Subscribers using LocaLoop s synkro tm platform have improved access to high speed mobile broadband services. o Strong connection reliability wherever you are: at home, at work, or even on-the-go. o One service delivers phone, Internet, and data services for the most exceptional experience to get the job done. o Offers access to a bigger, faster, stronger Internet. - Subscribers using LocaLoop s platform have access to a high performance network that offers download and upload performance that is best-in-class for 4G. o 4G Mobile WiMAX technology enables you to experience performance as good as (or better) than services offered in urban areas. o With 4G technology, your smart device supports your ability to do business away from fixed broadband sites. 5
- Subscribers using LocaLoop s synkro tm platform now can access high content applications on their mobile devices. Real time streaming supports excellent performance for even the most data-intensive applications. o Enables the use of media-rich web applications, like video, online phone calls (Skype), online photo sharing, movies and other rich data streams. o Access and manage larger files and high demand applications to support your home-based business or ability to work remotely. o Wait times experienced while downloading files are minimized with real-time streaming. o Offers a cost-effective way to grow your SMB and improve the productivity of your employees. Your Next Step to a More Successful Business If having more time to manage your business is important to you If reducing your need for IT staff addresses a current concern If you want high-performing, 4G communications to support and help grow your business If you want to build a website which effectively promotes your business product and services If you want to do more online or digital marketing If you want to do e-commerce to add new customers and new revenue Then, please consider LocaLoop s synkro tm services. Give us a call, and we will work with you and your local communications service provider to bring all the benefits of high-performing 4G broadband communications to your place of business. We help local telephone companies, Internet Service Providers, and other communications providers to bring 4G broadband services to rural markets. Here s your chance to get ahead of your urban competitors with more reliable, more mobile, higher-performing broadband Internet services! For More Information: Call: 952.236.7621 info@localoop.com LocaLoop Inc. 3280 Gorham Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55426 www.localoop.com 6