Start-ups are fuelled by dreamers, but it is those very same dreamers that struggle to keep up to date with the fast-paced worlds of innovation and business. If you don’t have the equity nor the raw talent, how can you take your business idea and make it into a success when the game is changing every year, every month, every week, and even every single day? The first thing that you need to do, of course, is to know about the predicted trends that will take the business world by storm. To help you, here are the top trends predicted to shake up the start-up world:
- Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin has recently made headlines. Big headlines. It has gone from a means to purchase on the Dark Web to the future of currency. It has also seen an unprecedented increase in the last few months along. Earlier in 2017, it was worth around £650 per bitcoin. At the end of 2017 bitcoin reach its new record high of well over £10,000. That inspired a wide range of bitcoin services, from shopping and eating out, to currency trading. Needless to say, cryptocurrencies are rising in popularity and in recognition, which is why both start-ups and consumers should think about integrating this digital currency service into their business module as well as to get familiar to the subject from the user’s perspective.
Though there are many benefits in prioritizing Bitcoin compared to traditional stocks and currencies, do not forget that there are also a lot of risks to be mindful of. Getting informed and transitioning slowly is your best tools for risk management.
- Increase in Blockchain Technologies
Blockchain technologies mean, essentially, the ability for two parties to trade directly with each other, without the use of a middleman. This is done through a continuous growing list of records (blocks) that are securely linked together. It is commonly used with cryptocurrencies, but there are other options. For instance, blockchain technologies can even change the way we vote, because it can verify who you are, and can allow everyone to vote from their home. This means only those allowed to vote can. This will reduce the number of people not voting because they cannot get to the polling stations. How your start-up can benefit or will be affected by this tech needs to be decided on for your success.
- Virtual and Augmented Reality Will Become Mainstream
VR has made quite a splash since it has become available from top providers like Sony, and is likely to become more mainstream as creators play with the limits and capabilities of the format. From marketing, to even full products, VR and augmented realities will surely become ubiquitous within our daily lives.
- Transportation Innovation
This year is the year of the electric car, and it will only become more prevalent as the years go by. From self-driving cars, to fully electric models, the face of the transportation industry is changing. How you can benefit from these changes will depend on your company.
- Sustainable Focus
Though Donald Trump has backed the USA out of the Paris Climate Accord, the rest of the world has started to pay attention. This is primarily due to consumers becoming more globally conscious. They are demanding more of their brands. This ranges from all industries, but the industry changing most noticeably is the fashion industry. Fashion, though you might not think it, perpetuates and pollutes the world, from one of the spectrum to the other. For instance, in an effort to provide cheap material for the clothes, forests are razed for crops. From there the clothes are made and processed at sweatshops where women work for pitiful amounts, often in stressful and hazardous environments. The push for cheap labour has caused modern-day slavery in some parts of the world, where the money that these workers make is forced back to their employers to pay for room and board.
Fashion pollution doesn’t end there, either. There are the transportation emissions to think about, as well as how wasteful we as consumers are. Billions of tonnes of garments are thrown into the bin every year, and that’s not accounting for how much scrap material is trashed by the fast fashion companies who produce these cheap clothes.
The consumer demand for a better world, however, is starting to change this unsustainable business model. Brands such as H&M have already started a reclamation program in an effort to reuse textile fibres. In the upcoming year, it is expected that more fashion brands will become more sustainable.
- Social Media and Sharing Will Take on More Social Responsibility
The rise of fake news stories and the manipulation of the social media platform has caused misinformation to spread en-masse. This misinformation has led to polarised political views and several voting outcomes in the last few years. As such, there has been a lot of pressure on social media giants like Facebook to take more social responsibility for the information that gets shared
The face of business and the world is always changing, which is why you need to be on top of the trends that are coming to shake the world.
