What's Your Definition of Small Businesses

According to the SBA's Table of Business Size Standards a small business is defined on the average as a business that has 500 to 1,500 employees. There are a few categories where the size is as low as 100 employees but on the average, the size is 500 employees. While I can understand and appreciate that the above mentioned businesses are small in global or even United States standards; are they really small? Are they small compared to the companies that are the backbone of our entrepreneurial spirit in the US? I think that businesses that employ 5 to 25 people are truly small businesses and deserve to be in a class of their own. It is to this group of businesses that I am writing.

I believe that these small businesses, i.e., really small businesses, need to have more attention paid to their needs, especially in marketing. This is particularily true for small businesses that are offering business to business services. I have been calling into these types of businesses for several years, and it seems like they are increasingly growing more and more skeptical when approached by someone offering services or products over the  phone. The feeling seems to be that they are inundated with various marketing ploys and have been the victims of predators promising the sky and delivering a ditch. In short, this makes it difficult for these small businesses to receive the help that they need.

So then, what are some of their needs? Well, first off they need to be able to get their message out to people who are in need of their services. To use a tired cliche phrase, they need to fish were the fish are. This means that the techniques that these small business owners need to use are the same ones used by larger corporations. They need to adopt a strong web 2.0 strategy which includes SEO for local searches, social media marketing, especially with reviews on local directories. Whenever one of their customers/clients compliments them, they need to have them put the compliment on a directory like yelp. I am convinced that as time goes forward, web 2.0 marketing will become more and more important, and yet, I saw a study the other day that stated that 62% of these small business owners do not even have a website. As more and more people research products and services on the internet, it will become increasingly critical to have a web presence that impacts revenue.

How can we marketeers help? I believe that it will be by offering scalable, affordable marketing assistance; by providing the opportunity for free discovery so that these small business owners can get an appraisal of services without an obligation and that they can get actionable solutions that will meet their marketing needs.