Investing in creating a smartphone app might sound extravagant for many small-business owners but the real cost could be ignoring evolving technology.
“As a small-business owner, you have to ask yourself, ‘Am I changing as fast as my customers are changing?’” said Daniel Burrus, who is an entrepreneur and author of six books about how technology is evolving.
“I’d say your customers are learning really fast and changing really fast.”
Consumers have downloaded more than five billion apps from Apple Corp.’s (Nasdaq:AAPL) iStore, and the number of apps in that store now exceed 300,000.
Competing smarphone-makers Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM; Nasdaq:RIMM) and Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG) have stores that are similarly rapidly growing both app downloads and app options.
The “revolution” that Burrus foresees is one where people increasingly have access to a computer in their pocket. That will radically change the way people access information and live their lives, he said.
For example, Burrus believes that Google executives foresaw a world where people would stop primarily searching for information using the Google.com website but rather get that information by using smartphone apps.
Many small-business owners, however, remain oblivious to how apps can help them run their business.
The three ways small-business owners can reap benefits of apps are:
- by using the app in a way that makes the business itself more efficient;
- by giving their customers an improved experience; and
- by using the app to create a completely new revenue stream.
Entrepreneur Mike Jagger uses apps for each of these purposes.
He founded Justthebill, which gives customers a free expense-management app that comes with monthly charges.
Customers snap photos of bills and store them for their bookkeeper in the Justthebill app. The app is also useful for executives who want to keep track of multiple employees’ expenses.
Jagger, whose main company is Provident Security, both enhanced his customers’ experience and sprouted a new revenue stream when he urged them to download an app called Total Connect, made by multinational giant Honeywell International.
That app enables Jagger’s clients to view on their smarphones video feeds from cameras in their homes. They can also, via smartphone, turn on lights, close the garage door or start automated sprinklers.
“We do all the back-end work to link the app with the client’s home. Then, we charge a monthly fee,” he said.
Ethical Bean Coffee Co. owner Lloyd Bernhardt is similarly ahead of the curve and an old hand at using technology to enhance his businesses.
He was an executive at software company GDT Softworks back in 1991 when Business in Vancouver awarded him with a Forty under 40 Award.
That technology savviness led him to see the value of spending more than $10,000 to have Cory Alder develop an app that would enable customers to enter a code and then use Google Earth to see where their bag of Ethical Bean coffee beans were grown – right down to the exact field.
The cost included a lot of database development.
Bernhardt launched the app on Apple’s iStore June 15 and by early September more than 1,000 people had downloaded the software. Users had also scanned 7,800 bags of coffee to determine origins, he said.
He believes the app will boost Ethical Bean’s brand recognition while boosting customer loyalty by making clients feel like they have a deeper connection with their coffee.
Burrus explained that apps can be worth using in almost any small business.
For example, owners of a bed and breakfasts might reap benefits from an app called FlightTrack, which enables them to know in real time when guests’ planes arrive at the airport.
That could make staff members more efficient because they would not waste time waiting for a guest to arrive when that person’s plane is delayed.
A guesthouse could also develop an app that enables guests to check availability or book rooms via their smartphone – something that would enhance the guest experience.
O Canada House bed and breakfast manager Susanne Condon told BIV that she does not use those apps but they sound like a good idea.
“We haven’t caught up yet,” she said.