Survey: Small Businesses Choosing Tech Over Employees

Is a robot coming for your job? Maybe, if your boss has a say. That’s according to a new survey.

According to Brother’s latest survey, 72% of business owners say technology will offer a bigger return on investment than hiring new employees in 2014.

However, the technology takeover may not happen too quickly. The same survey found that 63% of owners are overwhelmed with the sheer number of technologies available to them.

“Our survey shows that while small business owners understand the value of new technologies, they are still a bit overwhelmed and struggle with choosing the right time to adopt them to have the greatest impact on their business,” said John Wandishin, vice president of marketing at Brother.

SMBs Going Mobile

Not surprisingly, mobile is where most of the small businesses surveyed plan to invest this year. Forty-one percent say mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are necessary to run the business, while customer relationship management (CRM) tools are the most crucial for about a third of business owners.

Social technologies take third place, with 21% saying they are most important, and cloud services fall into the fourth spot with 21%.

The Brother Small Business Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research between January 17 and 31, 2014. Five hundred small business owners participated in the online survey.