NFIB

Technology Advances Put Small Business in the Fast Lane
03/ 28/ 2002

We may not have been the first on our block to have cutting-edge technology, but now we can't imagine living without our fax, our computers, our pagers... Not only do these gizmos make a lot of tasks a little easier, but they help level the playing field, letting small businesses compete outside the confines of their own backyards.

Technology provides a large squirt of oil to help lubricate the machinery of globalization, making it possible for companies like C.G. Bretting to operate a worldwide network from a small Midwestern town.

"A new electronic heartland is spreading throughout developed countries around the globe, especially in the United States," claims John Naisbitt, author of the best seller Megatrends 2000. "Rural areas are as technologically links linked to urban centers as are other cities." This "megatrend," he predicts, will lead to a decline in big cities and increased development in more rural areas.

Some fear that this electronic automation will put people out of work. But one way it is opening up new job options is through the rapid growth of the information services industry. For example, the amount of data available through computer networks is staggering. American Political Network (APN) is one small company that is sorting through the morass and offering its clients news updates in areas ranging from politics to the environment. "APN gathers information daily from reporters, political insiders -- everyone appropriate," says APN spokeswoman Julie Samuelson. "Our clients include the White House, Congress, many large corporations and all major media. They rely on us to give them succinct summaries of the latest breaking news in their chosen field."

The electronic economy is changing the workplace as well. In the last decade alone, computers, fax machines and modems have brought the office into homes, cars, airplanes and hotel rooms. Future advances will united the telephone, computer and television into one unit. In fact, telephones may become so portable that many people will have their own individual phone numbers where they can be reached anywhere in the world.

While such advances are in development, the "older" technologies that make telecommuting possible are actively being promoted by cities to combat clogged highways and smog, and used by employers to accommodate employee needs and boost productivity. Naisbitt calls these the "electronic cottages" -- the homes connected by technology to the international business world.

Interestingly, this same technology is breaking down stereotypes of the home office. According to a 1993 study by the SBA's Office of Advocacy, home businesses are not just the realm of people without "real" jobs who want to earn extra cash. On the contrary, the study found that, while having fewer employees, home-based business people on average had significantly higher net worth than their workplace-bound counterparts.

And the work-at-home segment is growing rapidly. In 1993, an estimated 41.1 Americans were working from their homes, or more than a third of the adult work force, up from 26.8 million in1989. California leads the country in this alternative work-style trend with an estimated four million home offices.

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