Spotlight on tech tools enabling entrepreneurialism
Thursday 6 October 2016
In the second in a series looking at tech entrepreneurialism, Dr Aleksej Heinze and Alex Fenton, digital business experts based in the Business School at the University of Salford examine the tools available to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses.
1. In addition to websites and templates, what other "tech tools" do you believe are facilitating entrepreneurship?
Alex Fenton: WordPress and other open source website systems are helping new entrepreneurs to showcase what they do and create search engine friendly, engaging websites and vehicles for useful and excellent content. Combine this with the right social media platforms and you have a powerful combination. WordPress is currently powering a huge number of websites and was co-founded by Mike Little from Stockport.
Aleksej Heinze: “Content is King” in digital marketing, which is central to digital entrepreneurialism. Websites such as www.answerthepublic.com give inspiration of what content is being searched for by potential target audiences in relation to your products and services. The creative use of images and video to engage audiences is a major competitive advantage to anyone developing engaging content on digital channels. Whether it is a vlog (YouTube editor) or a meme (e. g. https://imgflip.com/memegenerator) being able to edit images and video is very important. Having skills in being able to tell stories using digital channels is a differentiating factor. In terms of tools, having a smartphone, video camera and knowledge of how to edit images and video is enabling entrepreneurialism. Mobile devices and being able to engage audiences using mobile devices through a mobile friendly website also helps.
2. How straightforward is it to establish a business providing tech tools to entrepreneurs?
Alex Fenton: It is potentially straightforward to establish a business providing tech tools for entrepreneurs. Anyone with web development skills can create new themes and templates for websites and these can be sold through existing providers or through a person's own website. If they are good, they will sell as there is a massive market for this. Building up a good reputation offline and online and developing social media capital is important.
Aleksej Heinze: Establishing a business is straight forward - just buy a domain name and create your Google My Business listing. However, to be successful it is important to keep up the offering of value to your customers and this is where content, services and products have to live up to the expectations of customers. As mentioned before the internet can also be a place where feedback is shared by your consumers and if it is not positive it can ruin an internet based business very quickly.
3. Are there any pitfalls linked to using them? (Eg. Are "off-the-shelf" websites readily identifiable as such? Etc.)
Alex Fenton: With open source or off the shelf website platforms, they are sometimes identifiable in the way they look and feel. The best ones have such a wealth and variety of plugins and themes they are infinitely customisable and extensible. They are flexible and customisable to the extent that a powerful and attractive web presence can be created without breaking the bank. DIY is an option for the technically savvy, or paying a good digital company is also a good option.
There has been a growth in website builder packages from some of the major providers. Some of these can be quite good, but many can be very limited and/or have substantial monthly fees attached in a rental model. These limits might include lack of options for displaying content, they might not be search engine friendly or mobile friendly, or some other limitations, so it is advisable to research the best options and speak to experts.
4. Will new opportunities unravel for entrepreneurs wanting to provide online tech tools for new businesses as technological developments gain momentum?
Alex Fenton: Yes, I think we have only just scratched the surface in terms of providing online tech tools. There are great opportunities to provide powerful tools based on data and insight. The growth of the open source movement has provided some exceptional tools, but there are still many opportunities for new tools from both an open source or freemium model perspective or perhaps models and tools we have not yet thought of.
Aleksej Heinze: Augmented reality and virtual reality are still at an experimental stage at the moment but this stage is at accessible level now for most organisations. The cost barriers that prevented organisations in the past to engage using these channels are reducing. Uses of more immersive storytelling and gamification are offering new opportunities. The Pokémon GO game shows how an augmented reality game can transform human behaviour and lead people to new physical locations. Gamification can be used in a number of other sectors which the next generation of entrepreneurs could exploit. These locations generate new opportunities for advertising or in game purchasing and services related to the gaming ecosystem.
This article was first published in Manchester Business Week on 6/10/16
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Sam Wood
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