Small business trends in Alaska: entrepreneurs embrace technology, mobile food, social media.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Small Business

What's hot among Alaska's small businesses? In short, technology. It's one of the most bustling centers of activity among small businesses in the state. And with recent legislation aimed at giving small technology businesses a boost, chances are Alaska is just beginning its own tech boom.

Another niche business popping up around the state: mobile food vendors. And one of the largest recent trends among existing and new small businesses is of entrepreneurs tapping into social media to keep in touch with clients and reach out to new customers.

To take a bird's eye view, Alaska has about 17,000 private-sector firms, according to information from state economists reported in the September edition of Trends magazine published by the Alaska Department of Labor's Research and Analysis Section. About 60 percent, or 10,000, of the employers in the state are businesses with fewer than five employees.

Alaska's Technology Boom

Tech-savvy readers might recognize Tyler Arnold's name--he was profiled in Alaska Business Monthly last July and spoke about his business, SimplySocia]. He and his partners were on the cover and SimplySocial has enjoyed wide-spread multi-platform coverage since.

Arnold's business, which helps companies develop and manage a social media presence, was one of the first to take advantage of House Bill 252, legislation passed last year that, according to its sponsor statement, encouraged "the development of high-growth technology and research companies in Alaska" by exempting them from state corporate income tax.

"Alaska is the most competitive place, tax-wise, in the United States for opening a software development company right now," says Allan Johnston, self-titled chief encouragement officer of the Alaska TEAM (that's the Entrepreneurs and Mentors Network), a growing group of people working together to boost technology-related businesses.

"We saw a community that was willing to nurture young tech companies," Arnold says.

A lifelong Alaskan, Arnold says the business climate in Alaska has helped make his company a success.

"Big companies are easy to work with in Alaska. And being an Alaskan counts for something," he says.

Arnold's company is just one of a handful of relatively new tech companies making waves in Alaska. Another, Catapult Consulting, is an Anchorage-based mobile phone application development company. Catapult has several apps that have ranked as top sellers in numerous app stores, including a game app called Trenches II they recently developed for big-name gaming company EA, or Electronic Arts.

It's hard to get a good read on how the technology sector is faring on a statewide basis. ]he kinds of jobs most people would consider tech jobs straddle two of the 11 economic sectors used by the state to classify businesses: the information sector and professional and business services.

"It's extraordinarily hard to quantify,"...