Difficult times like this call for strategic planning and execution if a business is to stay afloat. The thing about this is that competitors are always on the lookout. They would observe what you’re doing. They would figure out why you’re doing what you’re doing, and lastly, they would improve on what you’re doing in order to get ahead of you. This is how startup trends are developed. 

Top 9 Startup Trends in 2022

1. Employing Cybersecurity:

It’s not a new thing to say that more and more businesses are migrating from a physical workplace to a remote one. Having personnel and project data online obviously makes it easy for remote teams to function. However, the risk of having this project and personnel data stolen, shared, or manipulated is a constant worry for anyone who understands the loss it could cause. 

It is at this point that cyber security becomes important. To initiate this, businesses take measures like setting up firewalls to secure inbound and outbound network traffic, encrypting their data to prevent access to it in case of theft, and setting up multi-level authentication to provide added security.  

2. Producing NFTs:

Any versatile entrepreneur would tell you that the events of the last two years have opened the door to business discoveries. An acute example is the production of Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs). 

Non-fungible Tokens are digital products. They exist on a blockchain and could be made to represent physical or digital assets in the form of art, music, in-game items, videos and just about anything. 

Producing NFTs is a startup trend that has helped some businesses make huge profits. They go about it by selling their business logo or product coupons on a specialised NFT marketplaces like Open Sea. 

3. Exploring Biotechnology:

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the biotech industry has witnessed a boom. Individuals took up related skills, researchers honed their ability, companies sprang into existence, and finally, investors had a filled time. 

Statistics confirm that 28 biotech companies in the United States achieved unicorn status in 2021 alone.

Aside from this, startups outside the biotech industry are taking up various steps to guard against the spread of infections. A good example is when companies require their staff, personnel, and partners to receive full vaccinations before they can continue in their roles within the company. 

4. Employing Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing offers the opportunity of accessing IT resources without having to own or maintain any of them. 

Business founders love this idea because they usually have no room for added responsibilities after managing essentials like staff, production lines, and customers. Another benefit is that they are able to avoid costs associated with purchasing and servicing such resources. 

With cloud computing, businesses simply pay to get resources such as computing power, digital storage spaces, and databases. This is provided on a full-time or as-needed basis, depending on what the company wants. Small and medium-sized enterprises reportedly increased their use of cloud computing by 7% between 2021 and 2022. 

5. Employing Data Analytics

Why does anybody monitor trends? First, because they want to learn something from the past, second, because they want to understand or manage a present or concurrent situation, and third, because they want to forecast or predict future possibilities. The good part is that all of these can be achieved using data analytics. 

As a new startup founder, you may wish to employ data analysis to get an idea of the market you are venturing into. The sources available for this include cookies collected on websites, one-on-one interviews with customers, and feedback from digital forms and surveys. 

It would enable you to choose how to promote your products or services, how to engage with customers, and how to manage funds, among other things. Statistics for this startup trend shows the projected value of the big data analytics market to be $103 billion by 2023.

6. Utilising Artificial Intelligence 

Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, is the next big thing for large and small companies. For large companies, the trend has been to develop A.I technology from scratch or at least modify an existing one. Smaller companies try to keep up by utilising free A.I software until they are able to purchase one.

Free A.I software may not completely fit a company’s needs, but that does not mean that it wouldn’t serve any purpose. Some of the benefits of this particular startup trend is that it assists businesses in executing complex tasks, and it augments the capability of its workers. 

7. The Internet of Things 

The Internet of Things (IoT) serves to connect both people and objects. It works by providing unique identifiers (UIDs) to entities that include humans, animals, devices, and machines. These entities are embedded with sensors, processing abilities, connectivity, and an interface allowing them to collect and transfer data without the need for human to human or human to machine interactions. 

The Internet of Things has the advantage of improving the safety and security of workers. It also reduces human input and so contributes less to labour. 

Such advantages tick important boxes, especially for entrepreneurs. As a result, many companies are drifting towards implementing IoT. And what we mean here by many is 1,200 active Internet of Things startups as of 2021.

8. Creating Sustainable Products

Another viral startup trend in 2022 is the development of sustainable products. Sustainable products are the kinds of products developed without hurting or wasting resources, and designed to remain eco-friendly throughout their life cycle. 

The drive for sustainables is resounding. A major reason why this is so is that unsustainable products are closely linked to climate change. Therefore, in an effort to reduce the drastic effects of climate change, businesses are positioning themselves to reduce emissions, process waste, create biodegradable packaging, implement product recycling, and more. 

9. Seeking Effective Leadership:

Effective leadership is one thing many startups have come to value. This began with the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus when a lot of businesses folded up simply because a manager or founder was unable to take prompt and decisive actions. 

Taking a cue from successful and unsuccessful competitors in the last few years, many businesses are adopting a startup trend that replaces ineffective and unskilled leaders with people who have the necessary experience, expertise and competence. 

Conclusion

The Covid-19 pandemic, the recession lingering in many parts of the world, and the transition to remote work are three of the most popular challenges facing businesses today. As these issues persist, businesses are inventing new ways to scale through. This is what creates startup trends, like seeking effective leadership and creating sustainable products which we spoke about in this article. 

Adopting each of these trends or aligning your business with them will determine how easy or difficult it is to make progress, especially given the recession and everything. 

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