Almost one in two (48%) of small business owners has won a piece of business by being able to stay in touch with clients while on the road, according to research unveiled by Ipsos MORI and Research in Motion.

The study found that 71% of small business owners are out of the office at least twice a week and 69% stated that reacting to customer enquiries quickly and keeping channels of communication open were the two most critical aspects of developing a successful relationship with clients.

Small business owners also believe it is important to stay in touch with business stakeholders, with 65% describing this as either important or very important. The most common means of staying in touch were email (used by 79% of recipients), voice calls (58%) and the traditional written letter, which was used by nearly a third of respondents.

"It is common place for small business owners to spend large amounts of time out of the office and multitasking is often a key trait of their business," said Charmaine Eggberry, vice president and managing director, RIM EMEA.

"However, like larger businesses, small firms still need to be able to service their customers, win prospective business regardless of being in the office or not."

The research also suggested small business owners place a higher priority on getting their technology infrastructure right when starting up. A computer was seen as the most important purchase, followed by a mobile device. The most wasteful investments were viewed as corporate stationery (cited by 15%) and excess stock (12%).

"It is clear that small firms are only prepared to make reasonable and flexible investments when starting up which will scale up in line with how their business grows," added Eggberry.

Three times as many entrepreneurs start up at home rather than in rented or purchased premises, the survey added.