83 percent of SMBs think now is a good time to invest in their businesses, with technology, talent, and growth overseas noted as areas of interest. That’s according to new data from Bill.com, a maker of digital business payment solutions.
SMBs continue to embrace new technologies to drive growth, with 71 percent indicating that they will increase their investment in cloud-based technologies in the coming year. Efficiency, profitability, and gaining competitive advantage are at the center of these businesses’ strengthened commitment to expanding their use of technology. Marketing software was listed as the highest area of cloud-based technology investment (by 53 percent of respondents), followed by sales software (39 percent) and payments software (25 percent).
“The continued confidence on Main Street has resulted in SMBs’ embrace of innovative technologies at a faster clip than we’ve ever seen before,” said Yael Zheng, chief marketing officer at Bill.com. “These businesses are now developing a clear understanding of how technology can help them streamline processes and ultimately power business growth, which I anticipate will lead to even more investment in the future.”
Not constrained by geographic borders, SMBs across America are planning to expand globally. In fact, Bill.com found SMBs are planning to grow both their customer footprint (46 percent) and vendor relationships (41 percent) outside the U.S. in the coming year. Again, technology is a driver of this evolution, with 70 percent of SMBs agreeing that technology is key in sourcing and managing vendors abroad.
“We often invest to improve upon our technology so we can remain agile and continue to scale, and we plan on maintaining or increasing our investment in cloud-based technology across the board in 2019,” stated Judy Williams, Co-founder and Operations Manager at The New Stack. “Investing in technology has not only helped us expand domestically, but internationally as well, and we expect that trend to continue.”
To support planned growth domestically and internationally, 64 percent of SMBs think now is a good time to add permanent W2 employees, while 74 percent plan to hire contractors.
For more information on Bill.com and the SMB survey results, download the Bill.com 2019 SMB Outlook Report here.
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Tags: Accounting, Small Business, Technology
