New research on the state of small business in Canada shows that not only are more companies using mobile and other apps to run organizations, but more young entrepreneurs are striking out on their own quicker than ever before.
It’s no surprise, but businesses are taking advantage of the ability to check up on operations and gain business insights from anywhere at any time. According to Intuit Canada’s 2015 Small Business Landscape Study, mobile tech is having an increasingly larger impact on how people navigate the challenges of small business ownership. The survey shows that more than half (56 per cent) of successful small business owners use up to five different mobile apps regularly to keep their organizations running. And some 19 per cent of respondents are now fully reliant on a mobile device to keep operations moving.
Young business owners are particularly dependent on smartphones when it comes handling organizational operations. The number of entrepreneurs running their company from a smartphone also rose to 71 per cent when focused on the millennial age group, with another 25 per cent of that generation relying on a tablet to maintain daily operations.
The survey defined a small business as “successful” when the owner drew an income of $100,000 or more and generated $250,000 or more in revenue last year.
The research also uncovered some intriguing statistics around the behaviours of the next generation of small business leadership. Launching an entrepreneurial venture early in life has become a major focus for a growing number of ambitious young business owners. Intuit Canada found that almost a quarter (24 per cent) of the millennial-aged entrepreneurs surveyed never held a full-time gig prior to taking the leap into a small business.
In comparison, that’s three times higher than small business owners belonging to older generations (specifically those aged 35-54), according to the survey’s findings.