Been saying it for years……

It seems finally people are waking up to the fact that small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal business wants to stay small. Small Biz Labs reports:

According to this month’s Discover Small Business Watch (a survey of small business owners with 5 or fewer employees) “69 percent of small business owners said that they prefer to have their business remain small.”

I’m still somewhat surprised it took most people that long to finally understand that it is perfectly OK to want to stay small. Question is why nobody ( apart from WinWeb) is really catering for these types of small business and personal business, like contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants.

What really gets me going is when these types of small businesses get told ” It’s just like having a home job!” – dream on.

Running a business from home can be one of the most liberating and fulfilling things you have ever done in your life.

8 Responses to “ Been saying it for years…… ”

1. reash
   
   Said on August 29th, 2007 at 3:43 pm

   Keeping your business small means less problems. There are a lot of advantages for small businesses. One of the many advantages is that is easy to run a small business, you don’t need to hire a lot of employees for the business to operate. Most country nowadays heavily relies on the SME.

2. Steve King
   
   Said on August 29th, 2007 at 4:33 pm

   Stefan: When I tell corporate groups that most small businesses want to stay small they are very surprised. I think this comes from the constant need for growth big companies have.

   When I talk to Silicon Valley groups they are also surprised. This is easy – most everyone in Silicon Valley wants to be the next Google or fund the next Google.

   When I talk to mainstreet small business people they react the way you do. Like you they have known about this for years.

   Despite the number of small businesses and their importance to our economy, most folks do not much about them.

3. Stefan Töpfer
   
   Said on August 29th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

   I think Reash says it all, Steve. Less problems, easier to run, my goal is to make a certain amount of money, etc.

   It is about time people take my client group more serious and think the way they do.

   Thank you for the comment guys.

   ST

4. SylviaVictor
   
   Said on August 30th, 2007 at 6:02 am

   I have to really say that home business(small business) is rapidly growing among people. Because they can earn from there own place it self. I agree that there are many types of categories in this. Can any one say which is the most popular in this ?

5. Been saying it for years
   
   Said on August 30th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

   [...] personal business, like contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants.Read More… [Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS [...]

6. Dawn Rivers Baker
   
   Said on September 5th, 2007 at 6:48 pm

   Actually, it’s not true that nobody is catering to very small businesses. There are whole legions of very big businesses out there that are salivating after the microbusiness market, especially in the financial services and tech sectors.

   Their problem is that they come from a different universe and don’t truly understand what micros need and how they buy.

   The set of folks who are truly ignoring small firms that want to stay small are policy makers … but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

   It seems that there are a lot of things about small businesses that we in the small business space are unsurprised about when the researchers finally ask the right question to find them out.

   If you’re easily entertained (like me), then you’re likely to find it all pretty entertaining.

7. Stefan Töpfer
   
   Said on September 6th, 2007 at 8:38 am

   Dawn,

   Thank you for your comment. I agree, there are lots of businesses telling you they have a small business offering – but in reality they do not. They just sell you the same “stuff” they sell everyone else – meaning they do not understand very small business and home business.

   That a business does not want to grow is something totally incomprehensible to them. We all read about VCs, needing funding, etc all day, most of my clients are not interested in that, they want services and infrastructure to help them to run their business with little hassle and red-tape.

   I agree, some of the information published is quite entertaining.

   - Stefan

8. Paul Simister
   
   Said on September 9th, 2007 at 5:56 am

   I agree that there seems to be an automatic connection between small business and small minded.

   I’ve been providing coaching and consultancy services for 12 years and I love it.

   I have always resisted the temptation to grow the business beyond me because it gives me freedom.

   Freedom to choose who I want to work with because I know that I don’t have an overhead mouth that needs constant feeding.

   Probably the biggest thing that has put me off extending the business is the complexity of the employment laws with their protection for employees at the expense of the employers’ interests.

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