Wearable technology has become the growth sector of tech during 2013, driven largely by the massive growth in the fitness technology market. With devices like Google Glasses still to launch, not to mention the movement towards smart watches – this is only set to continue. But what if you could make quick money with wearable fitness technology? Making money comes in different guises and it depends on how strict you want to be with your definitions. For me, ‘making’ money can also include ways that I can be more productive and ways that can save me tangible amounts of cash – because at the end of the day that leaves me with more money in my back pocket. It’s different ways to skin the cat, so to speak. So let’s save some of our precious time, and get straight down to the nitty gritty. Here is how wearable fitness technology can save you money:
Save money with wearable fitness technology tip 1: making you more productive
One of the major problems with swathes of technology in the market is that it doesn’t actually make you more productive, it instead makes you more distracted. A quick look at mobile phones goes a long way to proving the point. Fantastically useful on one hand, as they connect the whole world all of the time, yet the average employee checks their phone a staggering 150 times every single day.
Wearable tech is a whole different ball game though, largely because of the way that we interact with it. Instead of having to physically check the device, wearable technology such as activity trackers quietly go about their business, in this case measuring things like your heart rate, pulse rate, blood flow and sleep patterns. Passively collecting and then analysing data automatically via a myriad of applications which are worn on the body, connected to our clothes or even embedded within us is a way to collect data without intervention and that’s a big difference.
Wearable tech introduces additional factors, like cameras which can capture an employee’s behaviours and actions, providing a valuable tool which can aid in the training of others (a massive time sink for all companies). I can learn faster, I can play more effectively and I can specialise with greater skill in less time, and therefore wearable technology can make me productive. When I am more productive, I can make more money from being self-employed, because everything I that I get paid I earn through hard graft. More graft directly equals more money, so wearable technology is directly helping me to take home more money each month
Save money with wearable fitness technology tip 2: it makes you healthier
Of all of the ways that wearable technology can and will being to really influence our lives; I see the greatest application being in the health industry.
Read our article on the subject: 14 health tech tips to save money being healthy
It doesn’t need pointing out that healthier people live cheaper. They save a fortune on medical bills, medicine and lost productivity saved. They can work harder and live a better life. So anything that improves our health is not only great for us, but great for the people that pay us and great for our country too.
Health tech can help us by making us fitter. Devices like heart rate monitors and activity trackers are examples of cheap wearable fitness technology which can easily help us get fitter. We have previously looked at ways that professional athletes use fitness tech to improve their performance, and here are 5 lessons from the pro’s to enhance performance with fitness technology.
Arguably of even more value is the way that wearable health technology can pass data to your doctor and other trusted third parties in order to monitor your health and to pick up on any problems before the symptoms properly appear. It’s well known that early treatment works more effectively, is less invasive and is more likely to fully succeed. It also limits your lost productivity and gets you back on your feet quicker. By collecting data from beyond the hospital treatment room, doctors can limit the time that you spend in hospital and cut staff time to save everybody money.
Wearing fitness technology can also save you money on your life insurance. Schemes like Pru Health actively reward people with lower premiums who can prove that they are healthy. This directly saves you money and rewards you for your healthy lifestyle.
Save money with wearable fitness technology tip 3: cut the bills for elderly care
Wearable technology typically incorporates GPS tracking capabilities too, and this has obvious uses within the elderly care market. Conditions like dementia mean that (usually elderly) patients require immense amounts of supervision, as they are disoriented and often unable to remember how to get back from wanderings.
The ability to track patients, and immediately locate them saves time for carers. This opens up the option of cheaper care homes due to potentially low staffing requirements. Far more importantly though, wearable technology can keep your loved ones safer.
Make money with wearable fitness technology – Tip 4: Market smarter
Wearable technology will transform the amount of data collected about individuals at a time when ‘big data’ is the ultimate advertising and marketing buzzword. Overlooking for now the privacy concerns, which are very real on a whole manner of levels with these devices, wearable technology can provide a revolutionary new layer of data intelligence which can power the next wave of marketing.
Wearable technology will provide detailed insights into consumers’ lifestyles, preferences and behaviours, allowing for much better product promotion. Marketing will become far less ‘spray and prey’ and far more precision based. User segmentation will become much more granular with the ability to slice and dice data into thousands of sub-sets in order to group prospects very tightly around a whole manner of buying points.
So now is the time to begin utilising these devices. They have a wealth of opportunity on a personal and business level. Get ahead of the curve reap the first wave of benefits