Exploring Digital Opportunities for Small Business Development: Re-purpose, Re-discover and Re-imagine a Business Strategy for Young Prospective Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to critically analyse and explore digital opportunities for small business development. The paper argues that the current development of digitisation is a new business strategy for young entrepreneurs to capitalise and enhance their business growth. For far too long small businesses have been using traditional methods of trading without exhausting the opportunities brought on by the digital space. Well, society is changing, and none can stop the progress of technology, hence, small businesses ought to be compatible and fit in to meet the demands of the society and technology. Although there are some digital small businesses, a concern is that the gap is still wide because some prospective young entrepreneurs are still fixated on the idea of traditional businesses. This paper does not dismantle traditional businesses, which are predominantly physical, however, it seeks to provide another perspective of digital businesses. This kind of a business venture provides a fundamental business change which brings greater business efficiency, consistency, competitive advantage, effectiveness, and easy communication with stakeholders. It is thus, fit to proffer that the future of businesses is digital transformation. This paper saw a need to explore digital business opportunities that prospective entrepreneurs must undertake henceforth, to shape and define the pathway of business development. This is a conceptual paper which has adopted a literature-based methodology (qualitative research) for its analysis. It reveals that young entrepreneurs are reluctant to venture into a space of digital businesses because of challenges such as access to data and Wi-Fi, internet, poor ICT, lack of infrastructure and a lack of financial resources. It concludes and recommends that small businesses must be re-defined, re-purposed and re-imagined in a modern epoch of technology.