It seems that everything can connect to the internet now – your computer, your smartphone, your watch, your TV, and even your car. This rapid movement of internet connection is known as the Internet of Things because, soon, almost everything will be equipped with internet access. The internet is quickly becoming a system of “things”.
How does the idea of the Internet of Things translate for entrepreneurs? Will it hurt businesses or let them soar in ways they never could?
For budding entrepreneurs considering a startup business, the Internet of Things actually opens up numerous opportunities that were not always an option. Think of your parents as young adults two or three decades ago before the internet was even a big “thing”. If they had their own business, they didn’t keep in contact with customers via social media or e-mail. Business was done over the phone, or via fax or snail mail.
Although the Internet of Things will require entrepreneurs to be fairly tech-savvy, modern times already require a good amount of techie knowledge to smoothly navigate the world, so this will not be much of a change. And, with all the information on the internet, it is certainly not difficult to learn anything you need to know.
Here are a few ways that the Internet of Things will benefit entrepreneurs and boost their businesses to success.
Streamline the Hiring Process
Did you know that technology can actually help pick between candidates for a job position? When you apply for a job position online, you sometimes have to fill out a questionnaire or complete a personality test. Your answers are scored according to the company’s guidelines for the “perfect” person for that job.
Anyone falling away from the company’s guidelines will be weeded out by the system, and the most promising candidates are sent for further evaluation during the recruitment process. Since highly-desired job positions can receive hundreds to thousands of applications each day, it is impossible for one person to sort through them all. A company would need to hire hundreds of people just to recruit.
Instead of wasting money, more companies are taking advantage of the internet and streamlining their hiring process with technology. Less hiring managers are needed and the technology does a good job picking out promising candidates for their positions.
Cut Down on Team Size
Think of how much easier things can be around the office when everything is automated. You don’t have to hire people for small tasks that can be done electronically with a Wi-Fi connection. Even your coffee maker can be set to come on at a certain time.
For businesses who are already in full operation with extensive teams, the Internet of Things could actually mean significant cut-backs to the team to save payroll and create a more digitized workspace. But for budding entrepreneurs who do not yet have a solidified team, the Internet of Things can help you create a small, close-knit team right from the start. You may even be able to operate your full business from a small, one-room workspace.
Or, you could choose to hire a few employees in remote locations to handle jobs efficiently while reaching more people. If you seek to grow your business globally in the future, you can hire remote employees who speak other languages to provide customer service. Either way, you are using the power of the internet to enhance your team on a smaller scale.
Manage Your Health the Techie Way
Business owners are among the most stressed people in the world. On top of managing teams of people, they worry about finances, competition, complaints, expansions, and have to deal with their personal lives on top of it all.
The Internet of Things luckily brings a huge benefit in this area. Digital health products are everywhere. You can track your daily steps through watch-like devices. You can keep a log of everything you ate through the day and the number of calories you consumed. You can countdown how many more glasses of water you need to drink. You can even monitor your heart rate and blood pressure through your smartphone.
These health gadgets are changing the way entrepreneurs take care of themselves and their businesses. It can be easy to get stressed over not having enough time to take care of your health! Internet-connected health gadgets make it a process you barely have to think about, yet they keep you aware of your health so you don’t leave it in the dust of your business.
Better Manufacturing Processes
If you are in a business where product manufacturing plays a role, you are in luck because of the Internet of Things. Although many manufacturing tools have been digitized for years, the newest generation of techie gadgets is streamlining the process even more.
Think of an assembly line where a product has to pass through several stations until it becomes one whole product. The Internet of Things works in much the same way. This techie generation will allow different machines to interact with each other in new ways, and it will also allow different facilities to communicate with each other. So, if your business needs products that are manufactured in different facilities, you could begin to see lower production times and shipping times.
Your business can also reap valuable insights in real-time from manufacturing information sent along through the internet. If you want to see exactly how one manufacturing facility is performing, or even how a specific machine is performing, you can do that, thanks to the Internet of Things.
Different Industries Will Connect
More than ever before, business owners will be able to see a connection between their industry and others. With more and more devices connecting to the internet, they are all becoming connected, able to send each other information within seconds.
This can be revolutionary for future innovation opportunities. Experts of one industry will no longer be stuck within that industry. They will now have access to other industries through their smart devices. Vehicle designers, for example, will have more access to information about technology or a vehicle, or even interior design for the vehicle, because they will be able to access testing information or new technology information straight from the other industries.
Automated Analytics
Now that other industries will be more connected, so will their analytics. The Internet of Things can turn a product test into immediate results to be shared across a company, between industries, and all over the world. A company can choose to share its product safety test results with its consumers via the web or smartphone app. Or, it can share the same results to a higher-intelligence division of the company for suggestions to improve the results.
As an entrepreneur, having immediate access to your insights is incredibly important to maintaining customer trust, learning what marketing strategies work, and expanding your business to new customers. With the Internet of Things in full swing, you can keep your whole team up-to-date with everything you want to share about your company.
Some say that the Internet of Things will cause even less human contact than we have today as the world becomes more reliant on technology than each other. But for budding entrepreneurs, this exciting new generation of technology can help expand and streamline business operations in ways that weren’t possible before.
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