This Week in Small Business News: Alexa May be the Voice App of the Future

Are you using a voice assistant in your daily small business operations yet?

These are devices that use the “Hey Google” Assistant app or Amazon Alexa or Siri.

Amazon Alexa devices were among the hottest selling items last holiday season so it stands to reason that your answer is yes more often than no. Voice assistants seem too be everywhere but are you using them?

And which one are you using?

If you’re stuck between two or three voice assistants, or don’t know which to pick, consider this. A new survey released this week by Uberall finds that Alexa may be the way to go.

In the survey of people who market to small businesses, most believed Alexa would be the most effective in the future. Google Assistant is a somewhat close second in the survey.

Have you considered using voice assistants like Alexa and Google to promote your business in any way? Even if you don’t market to small businesses, is there some way these voice apps can connect you with your customers in a more engaging and profitable way? Let us know.

For the rest of the week in small business news, check out this roundup:

Management

Collaboration Software Meemim Shuts Down But Users Can Keep Accounts Until 2020

In an emailed notice, Meemim said their platform will be retired at the end of February 2019. This will give existing clients a grace period of about a month to find an alternative knowledge management solution as well as migrate their data. Meemim said customers will have to move the data between the systems manually because of the cost involved in providing data extracts.

Sales

46% of Salespeople Missed Their Quota in 2018 – Here’s Why

There’s some new research out that says for the second year in a row, many salespeople aren’t hitting their numbers. CSO Insights, the research division of Miller Heiman Group, recently released their Annual Sales Performance Study, “Selling in the Age of Ceaseless Change,” and it showed that only 53% made quotas in 2018.

Startup

33% of Small Business Owners Lack the Motivation They Had When Business Was New

Do you still have the same passion for your business as when you first started? A new study from Vistaprint has revealed 33% of small business owners in the US say they don’t have the same motivation as in those early days of their entrepreneurial journey. In the study, more than a third or 36% said they experience this lack of motivation several times a year.

Taxes

Owe Money on Your Small Business Taxes? Here’s What You Can Do About It

Finding out that you owe taxes can be a bit unnerving, especially if you owe more than what you expected. Don’t worry — it is not the end of the world if you’ve gone through the numbers and you’re left with a tax bill. Here are a few steps to take: Get Ahead of It You can’t run from the IRS. They will eventually find you, and they’ll eventually come looking for their money.

Technology Trends

Don’t Be Fooled by the Latest Email Scam

The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) is warning of a current really clever email scam. How did the CBBB know about this email scam? The Better Business Bureau (BBB) nearly fell for it. Latest Email Scams This latest scam pretends to be an alert from the project management software your company might be using.

Beware! 60% of Businesses Lose Their Data Through Printer Security Breaches

Every connected peripheral which becomes part of an organization’s network is a potential vector for an attack. With printers, an integral part of most businesses, the security vulnerabilities they pose has been addressed in a new report from Quocirca.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, "This Week in Small Business News: Alexa May be the Voice App of the Future" was first published on Small Business Trends