With everything that happened in 2020, it’s no surprise that the majority of small businesses are looking toward the future.

However, before you put your head down and plow forward, it’s critical to have a clear understanding of the small business trends that will impact you in 2021.

To ensure that you’re on the right track, I recently caught up with Brian Foote, Founder and CEO of HUMBL.

HUMBL is in the business of connecting consumers and merchants in the digital economy, so he knows a thing or two about the trends that are picking up steam.

What’s the best way for small businesses to accept payments in 2021?

The goal for us at HUMBL is to design a digital transaction layer that goes beyond cash, coins, and receipt printers. We think if we can make the digital tools readily available for merchants to discover, pay, rate, review and follow up with customers, that it can lend itself to a digital commerce layer in the future that goes beyond ATMs and physical currency exchange.

The health crisis only magnifies this need for contactless engagement at the point of sale, with adoption taking place as we speak.

What would you say to a business owner concerned about security risks associated with consumer technology?

Suspicions of technology have been improving as the product deliverables get more advanced, and the world sees the importance of data preservation and management in ways that are fair to individuals, government, and national security.

It’s a delicate balance of ensuring that large national systems are highly secure and don’t get hacked, yet also provide some individual autonomy to the consumer of their personal data.

We think blockchain helps solve this and that quantum and 6G will provide further exciting challenges to tackle in the coming decade.

What role will blockchain play in small businesses in 2021 and beyond?

The promise of blockchain is a more decentralized approach to consumer and merchant experiences.

Meaning: transposing some of the white-collar fee layers and bureaucratic redundancies of the previous decades, into experiences for individuals that are more streamlined, safe, and autonomous.

We think that everything from global trading markets, title, transfer, and investment can be moved onto blockchain over time.

How can small businesses secure their plate at the table as Web 3 takes control?

I think Web 3 is actually all about individuals, freelancers, and nano-merchants. The expectation of Millenials and Gen Z is that they can pick up their smartphone and do just about anything.

When you move that from Big Tech down into the individual transaction layer, it gets very exciting for what the future can bring.

I think the multi-step processes of paying, investing, trading, settling, and transacting will get streamlined into a couple of clicks for even the smallest of merchants in the coming decade, particularly as national governments move to digital forms of their currencies.

Final Thoughts On My Chat With Brian Foote

So, there you have it. I’ll leave you with a summary of the trends that Foote and his team at HUMBL are expecting to see in 2021:

• Small businesses will continue to move toward contactless engagement at the point of sale
• Blockchain will bring a greater level of security and convenience to small businesses
• The beginning stages of streaming the multi-step processes of paying, investing, trading, settling and transacting

What do you think about these trends? Are you already experiencing them within your small business?