The New Zealand digital divide is growing and Elise Balsillie says that small businesses are at risk of being left behind while larger organisations accelerate their digital enablement.
Large organisations have readily embraced digital tools to enhance productivity and expand their reach, while many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) find themselves struggling to keep up, facing the dual barriers of time and resources to make digital transformation a reality.
According to the latest Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment report, larger enterprises are actively driving their digital growth. In contrast, many of New Zealand’s local SMBs are falling behind, missing out on critical online engagement with customers. This growing digital divide impacts not just their online presence but their ability to compete effectively in an increasingly digital world.
There’s no doubt that now is the time to champion Kiwi SMBs with solutions that reclaim their time and position them to succeed.
But what is the underlying cause of digital inequity?
In times of economic pressure, Kiwi business owners are inclined to roll up their sleeves and spend more time in/on their business to get the job done. As a result, they are struggling to find the time to invest in digital transformation.
According to Yellow’s ‘Small Business Nation’ 2023 SME Report, year on year there has been a 17 percent increase in NZ business owners’ reporting ‘time’ as a significant barrier to getting online, and 50 percent of New Zealand businesses are not as digitally enabled as they could be, because of two key challenges; finding the right digital tool and time.
This is a cyclical catch-22 that many SMBs find themselves in.
Investing in digitising manual processes is the key for small businesses to reclaim their time and accelerate growth. The challenge businesses face is that it takes an upfront investment of time to see results.
In my experience, it’s about planning, being smart with your resources and using the right technology to support your growth.
From locksmiths and key cutters to dentists, plumbers and beauty therapists, small enterprises are experiencing the benefits of prioritising digital enablement to reap the rewards first hand.
Where are small businesses losing the most time by not digitally adapting?
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Sending invoices and collecting payments
Between 44-56 percent of invoices SMBs send in New Zealand are paid late, and one-in-five (20 percent) of SMEs report they spend six hours or more invoicing and chasing payments each month.
Unpaid invoices can cause catastrophic cash flow issues for small businesses and continue to be a significant time-consuming factor for business owners.
The good news is online billing software offers huge transformative potential for small businesses, allowing customers to instantly approve estimates, sign invoices, and pay their bill online, removing payment barriers for customers and cutting down administrative time.
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Managing inboxes and customer communications
Thryv internal data from a 2023 NZME Survey Report shows that the ability to contact a business via their preferred method of communication and fast responses are two of the most important factors identified by business decision makers when choosing a business to purchase products/services from.
The flipside of this trend is that business owners are required to manage multiple online communication channels, from Facebook or Instagram messages to calls, texts and emails, which is time consuming.
Digitising communication with a centralised inbox can pull customer messages from all channels into one easy-to-use dashboard, to save business owners time jumping between apps and finding multiple messages from customers.
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Reviews and online reputation
Research shows that 63 percent of New Zealand consumers “most of the time or always” seek out additional information, often through online reviews, to check the validity of product claims.
Social proof and online reputation are invaluable to small business, but the management of these digital touchpoints can prove to be a time-sink.
We’ve seen the success of effective online reputation management with our clients, who say that automation has been pivotal to managing their reputation and reclaiming time.
Putting time into finding the right digital tools can catapult small business growth and almost immediately pay dividends in returning the initial time invested.
New Zealand small businesses are asking for support
Time-poor business owners are asking for support to digitally migrate and reclaim their time.
33 percent of businesses report that getting help with choosing the right digital tools is the most requested type of digital adoption support. This need for assistance is exacerbated for small businesses, with only 54 percent of sole traders and 61 percent of small businesses (2-5 employees) reporting that they feel confident using new digital tools.
What this shows is a significant opportunity for the SMB community to reclaim time lost on manual administrative tasks through automation and digital tools – but they need reliable partners to help them to achieve it.
It’s important to us to fuel small business success. This means committing to constantly improving the customer experience, completing a thorough onboarding process and making sure that digital tools that help small businesses compete with enterprise organisations are available and accessible. This is how we close the digital gap.
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