Today's Guest

Laurie McCabe brings more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry to her current role as Cofounder & Partner, SMB Group. Laurie has built widespread recognition for her capabilities and insights in the small and medium business (SMB) market in several areas, including cloud computing, mobile solutions, business solutions, social networking and collaboration, and managed services. Laurie shares how cloud computing is helping small businesses thrive as we emerge from the pandemic.

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Episode Summary

We do a lot of research at the SMB Group related to small businesses. In a broad context, we divide up the large universe of small businesses into a few big groups. Very small businesses are generally 1-19 employees, small businesses 20-100 employees, medium-sized businesses 100-1,000, and mid-market businesses 1,000-2,500 employees. 

When you hear the term cloud computing it can sound technical but at its most basic it provides small businesses access to business applications that do not require the business to set up or maintain the underlying systems. Usually, you pay for cloud services on a subscription model which means there is no major capital investment required to get started and you can get up and running in a relatively short time. There is a ton of benefits, especially for small businesses, when it comes to using cloud applications to automate various parts of their business. You can use cloud applications for almost anything in your business from accounting and HR to CRM, sales management, and marketing. 

The biggest challenge we see small businesses struggle with when it comes to cloud computing is determining which applications best solve their business problems. The good news is the cloud has made it easy for businesses to experiment with various applications and find the ones that fit their business best. We find even the very small businesses use upwards of 6 to 10 applications to run their business. While no one application can do everything the applications you do use must integrate well with each other so you don’t lose sight of the customer. 

When it comes to determining what areas of your business you should automate we recommend starting those tasks that take a lot of your time or your team's time to complete. COVID really brought this issue to the forefront, what we have found in our research is companies that take the time to digitize their business see improved performance and profitability. We are reaching the point where you have the digital haves and the have nots, small businesses that had adopted technology before the pandemic not only made it through better than their counterparts but are more poised to thrive as we come out of the pandemic. 

Resources Shared

• LaurieMcCabe.com
• SMB Group
• Thryv
• Small Business Trends

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