Small Business Services

Not selling small business services © poor oversight. Small
business is BIG business! Who hasn©t heard that statement? But
have you really thought about the concept? It©s been around and
it©s been used over and over and even if it does sound
contradicting, it is the truth. You know this - not only does
each of the small businesses provide their services, but they
require just as many. Individually each one of them is probably
not a company©s largest buyer, but collectively those businesses
are a powerful force.

There are 550,000 new businesses started each MONTH in the US!
Granted, a lot of them will fail, but hold on © for each one of
those businesses to get going, they need to write a business
plan, incorporate, create a logo, create a website, open a line
of credit, open up an office/retail space, equip that space,
hire employees, pay them© the list of tasks is long and the
dollar amount behind it is large. Take all those needs and
multiply them through the number of startups and you see a
multi-billion dollar effect. No wonder the government makes
special effort to promote small business loan access, create tax
breaks, allows for a favorable playing field to compete with the
industry leaders.

Trying to Understand the Market

The newest trend by the large corporations is trying to
accommodate these small businesses by providing products
customized for them and trying to understand their needs (which
credit card company doesn©t offer a Small Business card?). Well
the corporations may be trying to understand the small
established business, but they are still overlooking the
startups. There is the stereotypical reason to overlook these
cash-strapped startups © that they don©t have money to spend.
Well, the reality is they may be bootstrapping and cash may be
very delicately calculated, but the entrepreneurs who are
running those startups know that they have to spend money and
know how to spend that money and they DO spend money.

The Mindset

Who gets it - other small businesses get it! So what needs to
be understood about these entrepreneurs? The first thing that
must be known is that just like any group of people can©t be
defined by just one description. There are very savvy
individuals who start companies, there are simpler-minded ones;
there are ones with reserves, and ones without; there are
patient, hardworking ones and impatient and lucky ones. That©s
the first part, the second is that they are just like most
well-informed consumers today, only they expect even more for
even less. The lowest dollar, no matter how appealing, is not
the answer if it does not provide a solution, so spending an
appropriate amount of money is not out of the options.

Some of the entrepreneurs know that they need a website, but
they don©t have $7,000 to spend on one; others know that they
need a business plan to secure funding and ARE willing to spend
$2,000 © understanding the need that they have and the way they
intend to alleviate their pain is the way to sell your service.
They may shop around a lot longer, and come off as wasting too
much of the vendor©s time, since finding that deal is so crucial
to keeping costs down; they may barter, they may balk entirely ©
but do know that if they engage you in a price quote and open a
dialogue, they are not there to waste either your or their time
for that matter © they are there to buy.