77 percent of small business owners will invest in IT

April 19, 2005

In a survey of 50,000 small business owners, 77 percent said they will invest in new technology this year. This compares to the 23 percent who responded negatively.

That could also indicate big businesses are going to spend more for IT, too. "Small businesses have traditionally been at the forefront of a recovering economy," says Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO of SBTV.com.

What makes the small business rush toward increased IT expenditures surprising is the fact that a separate SBTV poll shows that most small businesses don't employ a full-time technology specialist, so there is little internal pressure to spend.

The findings seem to indicate that small business owners themselves understand that technology can help them stay better connected to customers and run more efficiently.

Even the advertising decisions of small businesses reflect the growing importance and influence of technology on Main Street, USA. A majority of the respondents to the SBTV poll indicated that they would spend most of their 2005 advertising dollars on the Internet — more than print, TV and radio or direct mail.

Source: eMarketer