(Never Forget) Your Small Business Advantage

Here are some recent themes from major media news stories:

• Big companies have record profits and huge cash reserves, while small businesses struggle
• Small business lending is still not where it needs to be
• The economy is limping along
• It’s easy to see why some business owners find it difficult to be positive these days. That said, we entrepreneurs are generally an optimistic bunch, and for good reason.

Most of us went into business because, among other things, we wanted to be in control. And we are in control. We can make company decisions when and how we want. In fact, that’s the major driver of our small business advantage. Other elements of the small business advantage: We’re very close to customers, and we can implement decisions quickly.

Many of us have already made changes to adapt to the “new normal” we find ourselves in—cutting costs, changing pricing, and so on. But in order to thrive in this economy, we need to go further. We need to make the most of the small business advantage.

How? By coming up with better ways to deliver value to our customers. This might involve changing products or services or even changing our business model. But it starts with asking our clients how else we can help them.

Sure, big companies can do this (and the better ones are). But because we are close to the customer, we can find the opportunities faster and first-hand. And because we can make and implement decisions faster than a big company, we can adjust more easily to our customers’ changing needs.

Don’t compete with big companies? Well, fortunately or unfortunately, many small businesses change at the sluggish pace of big companies. Maybe your competition is like that.

The problem isn’t a shortage of ideas on how we can transform our business—we all have lots of them. When you’re wearing many hats, the day-to-day gets in the way of developing them. But if you want to generate profits and have fun like you did when things were good, you will find a way to make it happen.

P.S. I hope to see you at the NY Report Small Business Awards in Manhattan on October 6th. There you’ll meet fellow business owners who’ve found ways to thrive by using the small business advantage.