However: the fact is most of the SMBs are still struggling a lot on their business.
Why this happens, does it mean it need more innovation to jump in?
Or they just can't leverage the power of technology?
Groupon and LivingSocial have to maintain a huge sales force to keep new daily deals in the pipeline. SMB's aren't serving themselves.
Square is a one-time purchase with recurring revenue for the business, and a massive benefit to the business. Square also has a significant amount of money to spend on marketing.
Google is the go to solution for e-mail, so again, a no brainer.
Innovation (technical) isn't the solution to everything. I believe to break into this space you need sales innovation as well. Remember, many people in this space are non-technical, so selling them a technical solution that they don't NEED can be a challenge.
I think "serving themselves" is the first step to really help them to boost their business, which must be very non-tech friendly, so that they can understand what happen there and trust the product.
The sales innovation I think might be the most challenging part, since there is almost no virality between SMB. Maybe an accurate sales targeting on the tech early adopters among them could be a potential solution, just like the accurate ad for consumers.
easiest way to make money is help other people make money