If you started a business before March of 2020, the landscape of your industry is most likely nothing like it was when you started. The pandemic changed nearly anything in some way. One of the biggest results of this was an increase in technological advances and how much they were embraced.

We clearly are not yet through this global sea change, so it is impossible to give any definitive conclusions about its fallout. It is naïve, however, to think that everything is going to go back to just how it was in February 2020. So this is a call to business owners out there to embrace any new technologies your industries have moved toward during this time.

I started to think of this when word came out that the IRS was going to be accepting more digital signatures through Oct. 31, 2023. This is something that had already been extended a few times by the agency, and is looking like one of those things that they probably won’t be able to take back.

And why can’t things go back to how they were here? Convenience.

The key with a lot of the new technologies that have been being embraced is that they are designed to take less time and less work. If we can collaborate on a task in different locations at different times, it removes a lot of obstacles. There is no need to set up meeting times or possibly sit around while you watch someone complete one part of their task before doing yours.

And of course I can understand why some have reluctance to embrace some of these technologies. I mean, I just talked about things taking less time but there is clearly a time commitment involved in learning how to use and implement anything new. And of course, as with most new things, there can be a reluctance to look at it because you already know how to do what you’re doing, and likely do it very well, so why could you change?

Well the reason to change is that others are. How can you draw in new people to your business if a competitor is offering them more services with less hassle and it takes less time from them? I foresee many businesses that don’t adapt with the times being left behind by these times.

And if even a Luddite like the IRS is looking at new ways to make things easier, shouldn’t you?