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| | The Minding Your Own Business Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | Views: 1611 | | Feb 11, 2007 10:14 pm | | How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # | 
Denise O'Berry | | Vendors are jumping on the bandwagon right and left to get a piece of the small business market.
How does a large company differentiate itself and how does it communicate to small businesses that it understands your business, challenges and opportunities?
Best regards,
Denise O'Berry
MYOB Network LeaderPrivate Reply to Denise O'Berry | | Feb 11, 2007 11:04 pm | | re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # |
Hamilton2020 | | Large companies tend to focus on their own needs, and what is of primary imoportance to them - bottom line quarterly earnings. It is difficult to break throught that wall to get them to understand small business interests.
W Hamilton Jones
wilham@hamiltonjones.comPrivate Reply to Hamilton2020 | | Feb 12, 2007 12:20 am | | re: re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # |
Denise O'Berry | | Good point. So what do they need to do?
Thanks,
DenisePrivate Reply to Denise O'Berry | | Feb 12, 2007 1:09 am | | re: re: re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # | 
Fred Keller | | and we all know what happened at GM.
Quick answer: Do the opposite that GM did and things will definitely go better. :o)
PS:>>Follow Your>>: http://passion.first411.comPrivate Reply to Fred Keller | | Feb 12, 2007 1:51 am | | re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # | 
Kurt Schweitzer | | First off, I think large companies need to decide if they're focusing on "small businesses" or on "microbusinesses".
Here in the U.S. the SBA (Small Business Administration) defines a "small" business as one having fewer than 500 employees.
To most of us here on Ryze a 500 employee business is pretty big!
Microbusiness doesn't have a formal definition, but generally refers to a business with fewer than 10, 20, or 50 employees. Something like 80% of this country's businesses have fewer than 50 employees.
You have to watch out for the words people (and companies, and politicians) use. For instance, "Start Up". I worked for a "start up" that had 20,000 employees on day 1! (Cingular)
But getting back to how a large company can communicate that it understands small (micro) businesses:
First, recognize that most micro businesses have marginal resources. Any bump in their cash flow, or illness of a key person, can kill the business. The big business needs to be paid for its products, but it should exhibit enough patience and flexibility to allow the micro to recover from that bump.
The big company should also plan on working WITH the micro. For example, a manufacturing company could probably sell more of its products through a micro if it shared its marketing resources with the micro. Even something as simple as directing the micro to free or low cost resources within the community (such as SCORE or the local SBDC) will help.
Help yourself by helping others. That's what the large companies need to learn to do.
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer | | Feb 12, 2007 9:06 am | | re: re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # | 
Sridhar Chakravarthi Mulakaluri | | Dear Friends,
Getting interested in Small biz sector is good. But can you offer your services at a low cost, scalled down model to them so that it fits into their pocket?
This does not mean that you acn reduce your quality / responsiveness of service.
The best way to do this , I think, is to first evolve a business model, which is a small business by itself. Then get into franchising it to passionate individuals who can manage small teams( below 10).
These guys are approachable. They don't scare off the Small clients. If they become ambitious, let them take on additional franchises.
You have to offer good personalized service at low cost and this is the best way, I think. The big brother is always there, supporting through training, infusing technology into business, advertising and brand building.
A big brand does not necessarily mean, big business unit. Have multiple , small businesses, thriving under expert guidance. This takes a lot of passion, courage and redefining business models.
Best regards,
Sridhar Private Reply to Sridhar Chakravarthi Mulakaluri | | Feb 12, 2007 10:59 am | | re: re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # |
Denise O'Berry | | Kurt --
Good point about business size. In this instance small business means 25 employees or less.
Thanks for your response,
DneisePrivate Reply to Denise O'Berry | | Feb 12, 2007 2:42 pm | | re: re: re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # | 
Laura Wheeler | | An issue I see is flexibility. Very small businesses have needs that don't fit in the box - solutions geared toward them need to be highly flexible, because one solution does not fit all.
Open Source software illustrates this very well. A huge amount of Open Source software is utilized by small businesses with low budgets for software investment. The first thing that happens when any new open source software is released, is that a flood of feature requests comes pouring in - can't it do it this way, how about making it so I can do THAT, etc.
Small business is less likely to operate on a traditional corporate model, and more likely to have a unique structure, policies, etc. I don't mean compromising good business principles, I just mean they have the freedom with fewer people to work with, to be creative in how they structure and operate their business.
On the scalability issue, one reason Quickbooks has managed to capture that market well, is because they gear their software and online service toward not just providing a tool for small business, but toward providing assistance in using that tool as well. A large corporation does not need that - they have trained accountants to handle using the software. A small business may have the owner learning it themselves, or they may have their office manager double as their accountant. Quickbooks is set up with tutorials and assistance for just that kind of situation, to enable them to do it right, without huge risks for doing it the only way the small business can afford to do it. There is no grudging acceptance of that reality, rather an acknowledgment of that need, and a solution for it that is provided as a matter of course, along with the purchase of the software.
Laura
Mom to Eight
Owner, Firelight Web Studio
Small Business Web Development with a Difference
http://www.firelightwebstudio.comPrivate Reply to Laura Wheeler | | Feb 13, 2007 4:55 am | | re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # | 
Doug Hudiburg | | Hi Denise,
I think that large businesses underestimate the scope involved with targeting the SB or micro-business markets. They often think in terms of what I call "rouge and lipstick" -- the presentation of their offer. They re-purpose their big business offers by creating a new brochure or ad, but that approach dooms them to failure.
Going after the small business market requires a completely new marketing package -- especially in the product area. Large companies need to get to know their small business target market very deeply and then use their massive resources to craft products (including services) that are specifically designed for that market.
All too often, their sales and marketing teams are living on a totally different planet than the small business owner. They have never been small business owners -- have never talked to them -- have never had to deal with real cash flow issues -- never had to rely on their efforts and their efforts alone to create profit -- and so on.
Heck, many of them (and I can say this having been a corporate marketer for over 20 years) don't even really have a true understanding of profit. Their marketing people are "brand-oriented" which means they spend ungodly sums of money and never really know if that money is profitably invested. Their sales people are facilitators who know how to sell to executives but who often sound out of touch with reality to the small business owner.
So, I guess what I'm saying is the formula is pretty basic:
1) get the right kind of people (who understand the mindset and plight of the small business owner)
2) spend a LOT of time and effort getting to know the needs of their target market
3) develop products designed specifically for the target market
4) market the products in a way that allows business owners to make a modest (or even zero-cost) investment up front and let the products grow with them.
Big companies have massive resources that could really help small business, but they seldom, if ever, have the kind of people in place that can turn those resources into real opportunity in the small business market.
Good luck with your panel participation. I'm glad they picked you!
Doug
MarketingPathway.comPrivate Reply to Doug Hudiburg | | Mar 27, 2007 11:22 am | | re: re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # |
Denise O'Berry | | When I attended the small business summit in February, we had a lively discussion about the needs of small business.
If you'd like to listen in to some of the discussion, hop on over to http://www.bigilittletblog.com/blog/podcasts.asp
Best regards,
Denise O'Berry
MYOB Network LeaderPrivate Reply to Denise O'Berry | | Mar 28, 2007 1:10 am | | re: re: re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # |
Fred Keller | | Cool insights! Thanks for sharing, Denise.
Get Free Gas for Life: http://fuel.first411.comPrivate Reply to Fred Keller | | Apr 10, 2007 1:25 am | | re: How Can Large Companies Understand Your Needs? | # | 
Dwight Emerson | | Small Business is BIG Business.
I am always on the seek (networking opportunities) for affliate programs that offer incentives to small business. I have noticed the increase in offers from large companies. I don't have the one-fit answer, but I brain-storm the possibilities and leads often. I will try to use metrics with my next marketing campaign so that I may share the results.
very respectfully,
//emerson// Private Reply to Dwight Emerson | | |
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