Successful small businesses are streamlining operations and driving growth using the power of generative AI, hybrid working arrangements, cybersecurity, and automation/integration.
Businesses today face a triple threat: customers expect more, budgets are tight, and the digital landscape keeps changing. To stay ahead, leaders need to use current and emerging tech that makes things more efficient, lowers costs, and gives customers personalized experiences.
Artificial Intelligence: Work Smarter, Not Harder
Artificial intelligence is no longer exclusive to large tech companies. According to a 2024 global cross-industry survey by McKinsey, 71% of respondents now use generative AI regularly, and that number continues to increase.
Generative AI finds its primary applications within organizations across IT, marketing and sales, product and service development, service operations, and software engineering, as these areas likely yield the most significant value from its implementation.
Small businesses are increasingly integrating AI into their daily operations. This includes deploying chatbots for 24/7 customer support and utilizing smart systems to analyze sales data and recommend strategic actions.
Hybrid Work: Embracing the Best of Both Worlds
This work trend is evolving, with a move away from exclusively remote work, but not necessarily back to full-time in-office work. While some companies are pushing for more in-person work, many are adopting a hybrid approach with some employees working remotely and others in the office, according to various sources and studies.
According to Korn Ferry’s survey of more than 15,000 professionals worldwide, 59% reported working full time in an office. However, just 19% considered that arrangement to be ideal for them. Nearly half (48%) preferred a hybrid model, and 25% preferred fully remote (8% were unsure).
“Any company that wants growth needs to care about workforce engagement levels,” Maria Amato, Korn Ferry senior client partner, said in the management consulting firm’s Workforce 2025 report.
In a Stanford University global study featuring 2024 data, the average days per workweek spent outside the office inched down to 1.27 (from 1.33 in 2023 and 1.61 in 2022). Yet, the 16,000 college graduates surveyed across 40 countries wanted, on average, to be working outside of the office more than 2.5 days per week.
With the increasing adoption of hybrid and remote work models, businesses prioritize solutions that support dispersed teams. Key initiatives include migrating on-premise applications and servers to the cloud, implementing zero-trust network access, and enabling mobile access to critical applications.
Many legacy applications, often designed for broader, more generic business needs, frequently fail to address the highly specific and nuanced workflows of organizations with specialized requirements. This disconnect arises because these older systems were not built with the flexibility or adaptability to cater to unique operational processes, industry-specific regulations, or the distinct interactions between departments that characterize specialized businesses. As a result, companies are often forced to adapt their desired workflows to the limitations of the software, rather than the software supporting and enhancing their existing, optimized processes. This can lead to significant inefficiencies, increased manual workarounds, data silos, and a general hindrance to productivity and innovation within these specialized environments.
This is where custom systems shine. Custom solutions from agencies like LuminFire can connect your team through secure, cloud-based platforms that include project tracking, document sharing, approvals, and more. Custom software makes sure your team stays productive and on the same page, no matter where they’re working from.
Cybersecurity: Small Businesses are Targets
Cyberattacks are rising fast—and small businesses are often easy targets. According to Verizon, most data breaches among SMBs are caused by just three attack types: system intrusions, social engineering, and web application vulnerabilities.
It’s imperative to stay secure and protect your most valuable asset: your data. To do this, we recommend your systems be secured, encrypting data at rest, utilizing role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, immutable audit trails, and investing in regular risk assessments.
With social engineering and targeted phishing attacks rendering many technical safeguards moot, ongoing security awareness training is essential to keeping your employees and business safe from cyber attackers. Unfortunately, AI is enabling cyber criminals to craft more sophisticated attacks than previously able, as it allows greater personalization, perfect grammar, and non-English speaking attackers to sound more like your colleagues and executives, increasing the chance of a successful attack. Combined with deepfake video calls, voice impersonation, and phone number spoofing, attackers have more tools than ever to fool unexpecting, uneducated employees.
Ongoing cybersecurity training and other services and tooling (such as BrilliantSecurity) can help your employees and data remain safe.
Automate & Integrate: Boost Productivity Without Expanding Your Team
Manual and redundant processes are productivity killers and prone to errors. Implementing automations and integrations liberates your team, allowing them to dedicate their efforts to core business activities like serving customers, closing sales, and fostering growth.
- Streamline Document & Financial Management: Automatically generate documents, invoices, and track payments with ease.
- Seamless Software Integration: Connect disparate software systems (e.g., QuickBooks, Salesforce, HubSpot) to facilitate data sharing, reduce data entry errors, and improve communication.
- Efficient Operations Management: Manage orders, inventory, and logistics without the cumbersome reliance on spreadsheets.
- Accept payments online and on the go: Accept credit cards, ACH, and mobile payments.
- Collect data digitally: Convert paper forms to online forms, mobile applications, and field data collection workflows.
Fully Customizable Solutions from LuminFire
LuminFire accelerates your solution development with BrilliantHub, BrilliantPortal, and BrilliantConnect—a suite of prebuilt software tools. We can tailor these tools to your exact needs and workflows, whether you require a CRM, event management system, client portal, or custom integration. This approach prioritizes customization and long-term flexibility, allowing you to get to market faster and more affordably than building from scratch.
Tim Cimbura – CEO, CFO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with Claris FileMaker, Laravel, and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.