Being Small Might Just be Your Best Advantage

| September 10, 2015

Being Small Might Just be Your Best Advantage

It often seems that the big players in the industry have all the advantage. They have the deep pockets, the large customer base, more employees, and an established reputation. Many entrepreneurs start out thinking that they can’t really compete with the big names.  Several are intimidated by these brands and feel the pressure of their success.

It might seem that the big corporations have all the advantages; people forget that small businesses have their own advantages too.

Customer Tendencies are changing

Customer tendencies have changed drastically over the last few years. They’re starting to turn away from big companies and are willing to trust smaller businesses more often. In fact, they’re more willing to trust small businesses than giants today. If your business has a solid reputation, you’ll see many people actually choosing you over a large company.

That’s because most customers don’t automatically assume that big companies equals good quality and small companies means compromised quality. In fact, an increasing number of people trust the quality of smaller businesses over big corporations.

Smaller Businesses offer more personal interactions

One of the primary reasons why customer attitudes towards business are changing is because the level of interaction small businesses has with customers. In case of big companies, customers are likely to get automated responses, impersonal outsourced customer services, etc. They realise that, and prefer smaller businesses and direct interactions. That just creates a feeling of trust and human connection.

Big corporations lose that personal touch with their clients or that sense of trust. There’s always a yawning distance that make interactions very formal.

Things are quicker in a leaner organization

A large company might take a week to get work done while a small business might be able to accomplish the same task in a matter of 3 or 4 days. That’s mostly because in a leaner organization, the customer’s request doesn’t need to go through dozens of different channels. Moreover, small businesses usually cater to a limited area so you have more freedom and room to get things done quickly.

You responsiveness towards your customers is also very quick. Your customers won’t have to wait for several days to get response to their emails or questions. Successful and efficient small businesses always respond as quickly as possible.

Smaller Business can focus more on quality

Smaller businesses can monitor the quality of their products and services more efficiently. With large businesses, it usually takes time to spot any problems in quality. Once the problem is spotted, the companies aren’t able to fix it quickly or implement changes to improve the situation quickly either.

That’s not the case with small business. You can quickly spot and assess the problem when it occurs and address it as quickly as you can. While you might not have the employee strength, the money, or the resources that big names in your industry have, you have something more substantial. This puts you on an equal footing with the big names.

 


 

Image courtesy: Steven Depolo on Flickr, CC BY 2.0 licence