Forward-thinking small-business owners are increasingly embracing modern technology to be more competitive, productive and relevant by using “disruptive innovations.”

A disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances.

Studies have revealed that 66% of small businesses would fail without wireless technology.

This also means that a substantial percentage of small businesses will significantly grow and achieve set goals by adopting disruptive innovations. A lot of small businesses have benefitted from the surge in disruptive innovations.

Here are 6 areas the impacts have been significantly felt:

1. Business Tools and Software

Managing small business in the past was very demanding for business owners because of the time and effort required to oversee daily business operations and work forces. However, as disruptive innovations crept in, many business tools and software drastically reduced workloads, work forces and assisted business owners in reaching set goals in an efficient and timely manner.

Some of the business tools and software focus on these areas: customer-relation management, content management, accounting, project management, sales, time-tracking, survey software, human resources, communications, customer-relation management, e-commerce, customer experience, customer support and payroll.

2. Business Surveillance and Tracking

One of the best ways to achieve business success isn’t only by having innovative products or offering quality services. Other factors are equally significant like business surveillance and tracking. You would be shocked if you saw what happens in your organization when you’re away. A survey by Blue Corona shows that 18% of small businesses admit to not tracking anything. This could be disastrous.

Cases like theft, fraud, misuse of organization’s resources, employees’ mistakes resulting in excessive waste, loss of company’s assets and ineptitude have been significantly curtailed by spy cams, employee monitoring and GPS tracking software. Achieving great sales, without tightening the loss and wastage of resources, amount to little or no profit.

3. Digital Marketing

This is arguably one of the areas small-business owners have benefited from because of disruptive innovations. Studies show that 61% of small businesses invest in social-media marketing, 25% of small businesses invest in online marketing, 17% are investing in search engine optimization (SEO), 26% are investing in email marketing, and 50% of small-business owners use two or fewer software platforms or applications in their marketing.

Digital marketing has enhanced the capacity of small businesses to reach a significant number of customers worldwide, compete with larger businesses with a much smaller advertising budget, and increase their sales, profits and visibility through the ecommerce platform.

4. Health-Care Innovations

Health monitoring has been found to save a high proportion of human lives through timely detection and treatment. Business owners go through a lot of stress. With a health monitoring system that’s accurate and continuous, one can easily monitor the heart rate, track health conditions and detect abnormality.

Workout and nutrition apps have also assisted a lot of business owners to keep fit and work on eating better and more intelligently. Health-care innovations are indispensably to small-business owners since business success requires both mental strength and physical energy.

5. Business Reviews and Management

The overwhelming number of smart-phone users has significantly enhanced the e-commerce platform in the global marketplace. A lot of buying and selling activities take place online and smart-business owners want to know what their customers feel about their products and services.

Studies show that 80% of smart-phone users use mobile phones for shopping research, with 88% of all consumers referencing online reviews before making an in-person purchase. With online review and management tools, businesses get instant reviews from customers and take prompt decisions to improve their service quality and customers’ service experience.

6. Renewable Energy

The sudden discoveries of energy generation from renewable sources are certainly disruptive and have provided small businesses with alternative energy sources especially when compared with traditional energy sources. Disruptive innovations in renewable energy from solar, ocean wave and wind sources have reduced the cost of managing the daily operations of small businesses.

There are also other innovations like virtual reality, artificial intelligence, bitcoins and a whole lot more, which small businesses have immensely benefitted from. If you haven’t explored these innovations, you’ll find it difficult to achieve great results in an efficient and timely manner. If you’re, explore more because innovations hit us almost on a daily basis.

Richard Agu is a researcher, entrepreneur and freelancer, passionate about entrepreneurship and self-development. Currently, Richard writes for Entrepreneur.com, Goodmenproject.com, among others. Follow him on Linkedin.com by clicking here now.