Do you have a pulse on the market trends that could impact your business? If your answer to this question is no, your business might be missing out, leaving your business lagging. First, knowing what's in vogue in your industry is important. The advantage of doing so is that it opens you up to all the latest tools and tricks. Secondly, you will be able to evaluate the position of your business by learning and applying these trends.
We've compiled a list of the 6 latest startup trends for 2023 that every entrepreneur should know:
1. Create appealing business-related NFTs
Entrepreneurs, especially those in the arts and crafts or the fashion industry, could leverage this startup trend to produce appealing art-form Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs are digital items that are unique in a way that they cannot be replaced in value by any other item.
Minted NFTs can be made available to the general public or a specific group of people. You can turn these people into potential customers. NFTs would allow you to express your creativity while also making extra money. Businesses must decide on a product, service, art form, or asset their NFT would represent to engage in the NFT market. After this, they will have to design and develop the NFT and mint a specified number.
You can sell your NFTs to collectors for some profit or give them as a free incentive. In turn, the new owners of these NFTs could sell them for a profit or use them as a coupon to acquire the business's products or services at a discount. Another idea is to use NFTs as tickets for events and other programs, as described in this article.
2. Ensure cyber security measures are in place
The advent of remote work increases the risk of a cyber attack because of server vulnerabilities. These attacks target individual employees and founders or business websites and databases. A cyber attack is a nightmare for entrepreneurs. It compromises critical data by corrupting them or making them available to unauthorized persons. A cyber attack will completely wipe data from an online system in a worst-case scenario. It could also present substantial financial implications for your business.
Think ahead and apply this startup trend to your business by doing the following:
Employ strong passwords to prevent unauthorized access to your data or tools.
Encrypt your data to protect it in case of theft.
Perform software updates regularly to receive the latest security changes, and use antivirus, anti-malware software, and firewalls to protect your wireless networks.
Avoid opening emails from unknown or untrusted sources; confirm the link is safe before clicking.
3. Make use of the Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things promotes security, health, business, and much more. It enables devices and objects to interact as receivers and transmitters of data. Technically speaking, IoT involves the incorporation and use of sensors, processors, artificial intelligence (A.I.), and digital storage. This powers technologies such as smartphones, smart homes, fitness trackers, and security systems.
Using IoT in business is one startup trend that is witnessing tremendous growth. Entrepreneurs can employ this to ensure their personal security and the security of their employees or business offices' safety. You can deploy A.I. also to ease various aspects of your business production or service processes. Personally monitor and track their performance to maintain the stability of your business.
4. Pursue conscious entrepreneurship
Conscious entrepreneurship continues to dominate the business world, disrupting the business sector. Adopting the startup trend of conscious entrepreneurship involves quite a lot. Some ways in which businesses engage this aspect of protecting the environment are by conserving resources, using biodegradable materials, and encouraging recycling or other environmental-friendly approaches like the BGV alumni Mully Lingua and Fashion Mermaid are doing.
It could also be broken into aspects like developing emotionally effective leadership, ensuring a fulfilling environment for employees, and providing mission-driven work that positively impacts the world.
5. Invest in effective leadership.
Widespread interest in business leadership took notice in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic forced companies to operate remotely—moving to this new work environment exposed some shortcomings among managers and founders.
One of these shortcomings was that many leaders lacked organization, planning, flexibility, communication, and emotional intelligence skills. Consequently, they could not succeed in remote environments since it primarily requires these skills. Part of effective leadership is employee fulfillment. As an entrepreneur, consider developing a positive work culture. Hire experts or individuals who are coachable and share the same passion and vision.
Effective leadership is crucial because it helps startups achieve their goals and scale. Interestingly, "79% of employees will quit after receiving inadequate appreciation from their managers," and, "83% of businesses say it's important to develop leaders at all levels" of an organization.
In addition, a well-thought-out process will ensure that employees have access to the resources they need, are paid on time, enjoy their work leaves, and, if possible, enjoy benefits, including low healthcare costs.
6. Adopt hybrid or remote work
The pandemic opened the business world to new ideas. One of these was the possibility of working outside of an office. Companies had to find their way around strict social distancing measures, and the solution was to adopt hybrid or fully remote work.
Statistics for this exploding startup trend reveal that only 7% of the world's population worked remotely before the Covid-19 pandemic. Fast forward to 2022, a staggering 16% of companies globally are fully remote, and 40% have a hybrid work standard.
The remote work trend has proven to be cost-effective. As a startup, you can save on equipment and on the cost of renting office space while accessing ready-made talents and paying less for their services. By adopting this as a business standard, Black and Brown women entrepreneurs can tap into a pool of human resources. They will also spend less time working on their businesses and successfully present themselves as being on par with industry trends.
There have been many different startup trends in recent times. Here, we have listed five of them. Be sure to adopt one or all of these trends, whether your business is a few months old or not. Moreover, adapting to these trends early enough might give your business an edge over its competitors. We hope that this article helps you position your business for success. When it does, don't forget to share your story with us.
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