Ask an Expert: Small business trends to watch in 2012

— -- To say we are in a time of unprecedented change in business would be a vast understatement. Whether it's the transformation wrought by our flat world or technology or social media or the seeming decline of the American economy or the Euro crisis or, oh, about 14 other things, this is both an exciting and nerve-wracking time to be in business.

Quick personal example: I first wrote The Small Business Bible in 2003. At that time I spent a lot of time discussing the need for small businesses to have a website. Quaint, eh? In 2007, when I wrote the second edition, the mobile business revolution — people working out of the office, on laptops, etc. — was the hot topic. This year, as I finish the third edition, I have 10 new chapters because I see that the only social media mention I made in the last edition was about (gulp) MySpace.

So yes, things change rapidly today. And while trends are intriguing to learn about for their own sake, let me suggest that they should actually be an important component of your strategic thinking and planning. Today's trends become tomorrow's realities.

So here are the trends, factors, and events that will affect your business in the coming 12 months:

10. Election-year entanglement. That presidential elections have an effect on the economy and create a significant impact on small business there is no doubt. For instance, according to our own USA TODAY, the stock market may get pretty sweet later this year: "The tail end of presidential election years tend to be pretty bullish for stocks most of the time, no matter which candidate eventually wins, says the Stock Trader's Almanac. The Standard & Poor's 500 has risen in the final seven months in 13 of the past 15 presidential election years since 1950, Stock Trader's Almanac says" ( USA TODAY).

Additionally, we will hear a lot of rhetoric in the coming months about how "small business is the backbone of the American economy." And we will hear it because:

1. It's true, and2. The candidates are pandering, and3. We are actually the solution

Small businesses make up 99% of all businesses, create up to 60% of all new hires and foster a vast amount of innovation. That last great boom in this country — the Internet revolution — was made up of intrepid entrepreneurs with great ideas and an equal amount of cojones. Google was a small business before it wasn't, being started by two grad students. Amazon was begun in Jeff Bezos' garage.

Small businesses hire, some become big businesses, and the candidate that corrals that presently untapped power with the right policies can send our economy soaring again. Is it Obama, Romney, Gingrich, Paul or . . . ? Well, that's what elections are for.

9. Rise of the self-employed: Either due to necessity, desire, the shape-shifting economy, or just plain smarts, there are a whole new generation of self-employed people now entering the work force.

•Generation Y has seemed to figure out that, given that job security is an oxymoron, it is smarter to consider oneself a free agent. A vast amount of them are, more and more, becoming self-employed independent contractors rather than traditional employees.

• Similarly, Baby Boomers are re-entering the workplace in vast numbers, looking to make up for fallen portfolios and to stay active.