The Economic and Business Development team embraced the information age long ago. The research data we collect from national and local sources, informs all activities that we do to improve the economic well being of Denbighshire.
Last year we completed the Denbighshire business survey for the third year running. This annual survey takes the temperature of Denbighshire’s economy and business health to find out how business owners are feeling about their situation, their future and what we can do to make things even better.
In Denbighshire we can see the digital skills gap closing as the clever businesses save time and money through new skills.
An important part of the business survey is to find out how business life is changing and what skills businesses now need to stay ahead of the competition. The business survey has shown that 8 out of 10 businesses value skills over attitude when hiring new staff. Is this because businesses desperately need new staff with digital skills in their businesses? A survey by Fujitsu has shown that 77 percent of 1,400 UK employees believe their organisation’s future success hinges on the effective use of digital technology. Yet a separate survey shows that 49 percent of UK SMEs face a digital skills gap.
In Denbighshire we can see the digital skills gap closing as the clever businesses save time and money through new skills. By looking at the ways businesses market themselves we can see that the smallest businesses, with the least time and money to spend are far more likely to use Facebook to present their business to the world on the web. As businesses grow there is more information to be shared and a business need a website; and by the time a business is medium sized, web advertising is even more popular than word of mouth.
But there is still work to do.
Most businesses can’t just hire digitally literate staff. If businesses are to close the digital skills gap it takes a little work for a big gain, and it looks like Denbighshire businesses are up for the challenge. When asked what skills businesses would like to learn over three quarters of businesses wanting training said they want to learn e-commerce and well over half want to learn social media.
Every business needs an online presence. It’s the only, affordable, way to reach existing and new customers.
All businesses should have a Google Business Page that identifies their business and it’s location on Google Maps.
This is a hugely overlooked online presence and one we’ve befitted from immensely. People power up the app in their phone search for something like “cafe” or “diy” and the map fills with red dots, showing you where all the related businesses are in that are.
An online presence doesn’t necessarily mean social media accounts, although we use them to great affect.
There is a warning that business owners need to hear however.
Once you start using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram the notifications start rolling in. Couple that with email alerts and your personal text messages and your day can become full of interruptions.
You have to be strong enough not to become a slave to notifications.
Every time we get distracted, it takes 15-23 minutes to fully get back to what we were doing.
That’s several hours, every single day that we’re not concentrating on driving the business forward.
Do yourself a favour, set 30 minutes a couple of times a day to check social and email. Turn off all your notifications and get more done!