Technology is everywhere these days, or so it seems. If you live in a big city, the city suburbs, or even the outskirts of a major metro area, you might not be able to imagine the world that many small business owners are faced with, especially in rural America. As the big cities continue to advance feverishly in many ways, the small towns in rural America are left in the dust. While many people prefer it this way, it leads to the problem of a widening gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. Technology is no different in this regard.
The technology solutions available to the average business owner in an urban area are vastly different than what can be found in small towns. For example, in a major urban area, it is unlikely that you will walk into a business and find that every inventory item is hand priced with a sticker and the cashier uses an old cash register to ring up your sale. This is a common occurrence in many small town businesses.
Another example comes in the form of how many small town businesses don’t even have a web presence. If you’re lucky, the business owner will have a Facebook page and might have created or taken ownership of their Google business page, but if you find much beyond that, it will be rare. While there are certainly many reasons for this disparity, I maintain that the primary reason is due to the ever increasing complexity and price of technology solutions. This has left many small town businesses stuck using the old solutions, unless they can grow large enough to handle paying the insane prices of a point of sale system. These businesses also must navigate the shark infested waters of SEO and what it even means to have a website without breaking the bank. With so many groups trying to take advantage of these business owners, no wonder they decide to stick with the old ways.