Despite all the hoo-ha about how business has become difficult in the recession and how money from banks and lending institutions is short, I am here to tell you that it is really not that bad, certainly not if you are a small business.
The reason is that most small businesses don’t necessarily depend on funding from banks. Growing small businesses certainly do, but most small businesses do not. It may be true that economy is slowing down and bad economic news is making headlines on a daily basis, but think about it, this is the opportunity for many, innovative small businessmen to move in and get the business they’ve been waiting for.
Big business is struggling. On a daily basis, you’re reading about multi national companies shedding employees. Basically, it is in times like these that big businesses actually make an effort to run efficiently, and they’re open to help and suggestions, because laying off people is not always the most legally feasible way to cut costs. Companies are looking to rewrite and renegotiate vendor contracts and if presented with a better, more cost-effective solution, almost all businesses will change. This is where SMEs come in.
Most small businesses don’t sell to consumers; they sell to large corporations. Large corporations, on the other hand, sell to consumers. This recession, like all recessions, has ultimately arised because of the consumers inability to meet the greed of large corporations, which created domino effect of cash shortage in a global economy that operated, for all practical purposes, on one cycle of credit.
For a small business, this is the time to put its savings into marketing itself as a more professional, stable, and cost effective vendor to a big business. Markets that were in the past only open to big vendors, i.e., areas of work where big business only dealt with big business, are now open to small business. The big players in the industry are short on cash. They cannot move fast enough to respond to the recessive nature of the economy, the result of which is their shedding of employees. I think the market is certainly better for many small business owners today than it was 15 months ago. To succeed in this climate, however, here are a few things you need to do:
1. Invest in marketing! It is extremely important for small businesses to appear professional. You must never compromise on quality and professionalism, especially not in a big city like New York or London. With my own business being in London, I can tell you that this is a city of first impressions. Quality of work is secondary, but if you can impress someone in London with a fancy business card and decent looking website, chances are you will be able to get their business.
2. Do what you promise! Make sure you don’t oversell yourself. This is an economic climate where, as a small business, you naturally have an advantage over big companies. It is imperative that you let your clientele know up front what it is that you provide. Remember, your primary selling factor here would be helping them cut cost, so they’re naturally adept to understanding that they may lose out on some features that another, more expensive vendor may have been providing. The trick to keeping the big client: Deliver what you promised!
3. Call your own office to check to see what your reponse is like. If you are a single person business, setup a vitural PA service. Remember, that depending in which country you are in, having an answering machine is not always a wise thing. In the UK, people do not leave messages, and they’re not too happy if the person answering their phone is not extremely friendly. Don’t compromise on this. If you lose an incoming call, you may very well lose thousands in business.
4. Update your website and check all the forms on it. Don’t make this mistake! So many businesses lose out on potential clients because the contact forms on their websites don’t work! If you sell products online, keep it simple! Don’t flood your users with information or questions. Keep the experience clean and provide enough information for them to got through with the sale.
5. Know your market! Yes, when I first moved to the UK from the US, I thought that having state of the art technology for my clients was the way to go. Turns out, that’s not the case. You must stick to what your customers are comfortable with. If you conduct too much work online or via web 2.0 technologies, it may be very efficient for you and your businesses, but your clients may not be comfortable with it. Digital signatures, submitting complex work requests, and smooth sailing one click credit card ordering is ONLY viable for advanced societies like the US. In other markets (like the UK), for instance, people are more comfortable exchanging word documents by email rather than by submitting all of the required information via an online form. So, don’t do what looks good and efficient, do what people will work with, because that’s how you will run your business.
6. Once you’ve captured your market, evolve your product or service to keep the client engaged. Businesses are always looking for more and better. That’s the reason why Microsoft sells millions of copies of every new version of windows and office that it releases. Stay on top of your game and know your market to keep the customer engaged.
Lastly, don’t let the bad news get you down. Remember, this may very well be an opportunity for many of us to grow our businesses!
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