Small business owners, I am talking to you. 

While we are setting goals and theme words for the year, it is a powerful time to look at what is happening in the industry and adapt our priorities to focus on how we can think ahead in 2024 - all while grounding ourselves in the present. 

After reading and researching, I have put together 5 small business trends for 2024 that I think you should know! 

If you LOVED the episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag me @essential.shift! 

✨WANT TO BUILD YOUR DREAM BUSINESS? GET THE D.R.E.A.M.S GUIDE - CLICK HERE ✨

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 

• What small business owners need to know in 2024 

• The top 5 business trends for small business owners 

• How to create impact for your small business 

SHOW RESOURCES 

• Download the FREE guide to build the business of your DREAMS - HERE

• JOIN us in building YOUR abundant vision for 2024 - HERE

• JOIN us for The Business Birthing Retreat in March 2024 - HERE

• JOIN us within The Circle for our Quarterly Planning in 2024 - HERE

• LISTEN to my previous podcast about AI and Intuition - HERE

• GET your copy of LIGHT IT - HERE

• FOLLOW me on INSTAGRAM - HERE

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @essential.shift.  

Bless it be. 

With love, Laetitia! 

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION 
Laetitia Andrac  0:14  
Welcome back to a new episode of the essential shift Podcast. Today I'm going to cover the five small business trends for 2024. What you need to know before I dive into today's episode, I am back from my weeks off how delicious it was. I hope you had a beautiful time away from your business, taking time to recharge your battery, taking time to connect with nature to make sure that you come back refreshed and inspired for the new year and all the beautiful goals that you have for this year. If you haven't defined yet your vision and your intention for 2024 You can still access my three days abundant vision Bootcamp for 2024 it's available evergreen, you can catch that in the show notes. And if you're like, oh my gosh this year, I really need to set the foundations to be on my dreams business. You have the link in the show notes as well to download my free guide to set the foundation to build your dream business business of your dreams in 2024 but to build the business of your dream, of course, you also need to work in alignment with the energies that are around us, but also the trends that are happening and that are guiding the businesses forwards. So what are the top five business trends that I see for small business owners in 2024? So let's do it. The first brand that I see, and this one is not going to surprise you. I actually recorded a podcast last year about AI and how AI and intuition are linked together. But the first trend that I see is generative AI. So we know that generative AI is highly accelerating. And early last year when I was talking about open AI and GPT many of you were not knowing that, but now everyone uses it. If you are not using chat GBT, I am surprised. We are all using chat GBT for different purposes, maybe to create a first draft of this email, maybe to create kind of clarity around a design concept that you have. And I am myself creating my own bots on charge ubti of the paid version. And I'm also developing a bot for the member of the circle my membership for them to be able to ask questions around astrology. So I'm teaching and training, my generative AI. So these AI models don't just process information they also create content from is if you're curious around an image that my chat design my chatbot design created. You can download my moon calendar 2024 The logo at the top of the moon calendar 2024 was created by my bot design. How did I get hit to do that? I asked many questions. I gave all the information, shared my designs, shared all the information around my branding and so on and then II generated that can even generate code. So if you are a software as a service business, you can also use that. So why is that impactful? You don't have to trust me and what I'm saying but you know how I love to go back to the leader in the research and the data and so on. So according to Gartner, which is a very renowned research firms that we used to use a lot in strategy consulting, and I use it a lot for my business but also when I consult for other clients of mine by 2025. Gartner predicts that AI will generate 10% of all data. That is an explosion of AI generated content. And that explosion means that your business even if it's a small business, must be prepared to integrate and utilize this technology effectively. And I can help you with that. I used to be the general manager of data commercialization and AI in Telstra, so I noticed a bit about it. And that's why I was an early adopter around AI and that's why I shared with you that AI is not you. It's been around for decades. In this podcast that I will put the link in the show notes for you to listen to it. But even though it's been around for decades, I really noticed in 2024 a big jump in the adoption generalization and everyone's starting to use it. So small business can leverage AI for different tasks. And let's speak about Shut up to open AI from drafting email to reports to creating personalized marketing content can also automate some tasks that out very regular routine tasks that we say and freeing up some valuable time for you to be strategic for you to be creative, and for you to connect with your intuition. So even though AI enhanced this efficiency I really want you to maintain a balance and ensuring that you use AI in a way that is not taking over your decision making but more informing it and helping you to save time. Okay, so integrating it into your business practice but not taking it over. To give you an example a bad use of generative AI is completely replacing your content. In your caption in your email in your sales page by generating AI content churned up content or anywhere generating TV ad content, we see that it's quickly noticeable when it's fully outsourced. So use it as I always say as a junior in your team, so that you can add your expertise to it. So when I was in strategy consulting, we always had Junior were preparing the first version of the presentation and then I would take it over and take it so they would take it from zero to one and then I would destroy it or use it to move from one to 10 and that's the beauty of embedding those practices in your business. Okay, it's a Trend number two Trend number one generative AI Trend number two sustainable practices and business. You know that one of the core value of essential shift of my business is sustainability. Sustainability in the way that I help businesses, which are doing good for people and planet generate profit, but it's also sustainability in the way you grow your business so that it is sustainable. So there is a big economic opportunity to create a business around sustainability nowadays. Harvard Business Review says that by addressing key environmental challenges in areas like food, energy and health, we can unlock about $12 trillion opportunity. So I see more and more businesses harnessing that $12 trillion opportunity. That's massive. And Nielsen which is another bright like Gartner rate. provider of information study indicates a strong consumer preference for sustainability. So this data comes from the US 78% of US consumer, favoring sustainable lifestyles. So this is where you're going to see more and more people making choices based on sustainability. For a long time, it was not something that was embraced by everyone. We were just the rebel. Is a trendsetter really being sustainable. I have I have been buying secondhand stuff for years. I've remembered my commitment to only buy secondhand clothes and I love everything around reducing waste and the circular economy and promoting reuse and some of my clients from TerraCycle to samsara, which is all about infinite recycling our clients who are tech sustainable end businesses, but I see this being even bigger in next year. So for you as a small business, this means that there is an opportunity to align your products, your services, your software, your impact with sustainable practices. And this will involve sourcing materials ethically, minimizing your wastes, supporting local communities, and the things that you do being mindful around the impact you have on the environment. And this is what I do is essential shift I make choices to support clients while doing for people and planet. I make choices to support my clients when the meets those criteria to be even more sustainable in the way they grow their business. And this is a big trend for 2024. And again, I back this with data from other business review and Nielsen. It's not just me thinking that and seeing that. Then the Trend number three, I hope you're taking note is human interaction.


There is a big harmony to be found in 2024 around technology, AI, all of those kinds of approaches that are you know in this digital age where we use a lot of tools that are online with human touch, because it is even more important. The emotional intelligence remains a key component of fuel customer satisfaction. Redpoint Global Studies highlights that 77% of consumers expect human interaction in their customer experience. So this suggests that while we have a lot of digital solutions, a lot of automation a lot of back end AI enabled things happening. This is not going to replace human interaction. So as a small business, you need to train yourself but also train your team in those soft skills like empathy, communication, problem solving, deep generative listening which is something I cover a lot in my courses to ensure that the consumer the customer interaction are genuine, helpful and empathetic. The customer more and more will need to be seen and heard in this digital age. This is a big trend for next year. Try number four community, in person and online. So the second value is community first one sustainability community and the third one is impact. But it's so interesting how the train of 2024 are quite aligned with the value of essential shift. So training for community in personnel online. There is a big trends that I have noticed emerging in 2023 and will take even more space in 2024 which is the need to create communities that are hybrid, both online and offline. I see this activation of in person being very key and even more relevant in 2024. And this could be achieved through the different online platforms that you're using today but also in person event and even if you're a business that is selling product there is a big opportunity for you to create in person conference events, connection activation events. And that's what I started to do in 2023 with the circle membership I did for the whole year, online experiences and in person expenses. I did my quarterly planning in person every quarter of the year of 2023. And we'll keep doing that each month. 24 and I had members traveling all the way from Adelaide, all the way from Northern Sydney, northern New South Wales. Sorry, Brisbane. Like it is possible for people to travel to come to your event, or retreats. I did all of this kind of thing. I did four retreats last year. So I see a big trend ahead of it. That's what a strategy, strategist person do. We are visionaries so we see a trend before they happen. And then in 2024 I'm going to leverage that even more to the next level in my own business but also helping my clients to leverage that. So that's why with one of my clients we identified for the launch of the app which is an online thing to do when activation event in person. Big thing was a big hit a big success. So what can you do in your business, whatever you could doing, to do in person and online to recreate a hybrid. And so the exclusive spaces where you can offer them a space that is safe that is Fostering Connections that's creating loyalty, loyalty, loyalty sorry, for your business in your brand. Okay, it's a fifth strand, customer experience. We are entering a customer experience economy, how they feel is everything. So that's why whatever you're offering it is important to focus on how they feel. So this is really important in any stage of your customer interaction. And if you don't know what is the customer map, I can help you with that and the former human center design practitioner, so we can do an empathy map a customer map and look at all the touch points and making sure that all the touch points are prioritized customer experience. We want to surprise and delight and it's even more critical in 2024 because people want to be seen, heard and want to feel that they're not just a number in your business. So it's key to embrace this holistic approach in your business at the heart of your business model at the heart of your business processes at the heart of your operations. At the heart of how you train your team and the culture so that you can impact in the long term your clients. So those are the five trends of five big trends that I see relevant for you as a small business in 2024. The first one generative AI second one sustainable practices and businesses so at one human interaction, fourth one community in person and online fifth one customer experience. So let me know which one is the most applicable for you in your business. You can DM me on Instagram at essential don't shift applies is and if you need my help, I am here you can DM me on Instagram at essential don't shift you can explore my different offering on my website WW essential shift.co Because I would love in 2024 to help you ride the waves of those trends and make it your best year yet building the business of your dreams. Thank you again and if you love this podcast, please share it with a friend. leave a review it helps so much just leaving a review take a few minutes below. Do something to help us reach new ears. We have amazing guests coming on in 2024 and I can't wait to share these beautiful programs with all of you. Big Love--