We all know that the work you, our SMB IT Pros, do deserves more than one week of recognition. But we are glad to see a Small Business Week, and we are excited to cover this year’s news! We have stories from Tradeshift and Microsoft, as well as insightful graphics from PayChex and special sessions from PayPal.
To begin, I’d like to touch on an interview I had with Tradeshift CEO, Christian Lanng, who took the time to speak with me on Friday. During our call, Christian let me know that he and his team at Tradeshift have developed their solution to help alleviate the most common business challenges that SMBs face. In particular, his company is focused on building collaboration tools that are cloud-based and mobile-ready, to allow SMBs of all types to be more productive.
On the Microsoft side, we received news that the tech giant is hosting a series of workshops in its retail stores. These workshops will include such sessions as Office 365 for Business, SMB Appreciation and Networking and Bing Ads Express. Check out the site here for a list of events in your area.
Moving on to the infographics. Paychex, an HR, payroll and insurance solutions provider for SMBs, rolled out two new graphics for this year’s Small Business Week. These graphics show a detailed photo of the current environment for both startup businesses and their owners, and are based on survey results from 250 US-based SMBs. On the startup business side (infographic here), Paychex found that the majority of startups (51%) only do business in their home state, and that most startups tend to have between two and nine employees. The owners themselves are generally optimistic about the current and future state of SMBs (infographic here). In addition, 71% of those polled by Paychex said that they find their business profitable, despite the fact that 79% of SMBs net less than one million in revenue.
Finally, PayPal announced that it will be launching its Engage series on May 14, in New York City. This New York event will feature a roundtable session with Gene Marks and Ramon Ray, an SMB Nation Community Member. The Engage events are also available online, and will allow attendees to interact with the company’s top entrepreneurs, who will share their successes, as well as how they overcame any failures. For the in-person events, attendees will be able to discuss the best ways to use technology in their businesses.
How are you celebrating Small Business Week? Let us know in the comments section, or on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/smbnation!
