My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. There are several classes of businesses. Though larger corporations get all the news and are most visible, there is a lot of opportunity with small businesses. The following contributed post is entitled, How Plucky Small Businesses Can Seem More Appealing Than Larger Corporations.
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Photo by Ketut Subiyanto: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ethnic-female-cafe-owner-showing-welcome-we-are-open-inscription-4473398/
As someone running a small business, it’s true you may have a tough time competing with big corporations that can afford massive marketing budgets, huge product ranges, and prices that make use of international economies of scale that you can’t necessarily source yourself. The reality is that you’re never going to out-spend or out-scale them, and trying to do so is just going to drain your resources and leave you frustrated. Luckily, you don’t need to compete on their terms at all, because small businesses have advantages that corporations can’t necessarily be as capable with, no matter how much money they throw at the problem.
Remember that what you’ve got going for you is personality, flexibility, and the ability to build more grounded relationships with customers, even at a point where they feel human and real. In general, most consumers are tired of being treated like account numbers or dealing with automated systems, or writing a support request to an AI chatbot.
So, now is the time to really push that authenticity. Here are some ways to go about it:
Personal Touch In Every Interaction
There’s a level of care you can provide as a small business that corporations aren’t going to, because they’re too big and too process-driven to treat people as individuals. When someone contacts you, they’re probably talking directly to you or someone on your small team who likely knows the business and cares about solving their problem. You can remember repeat customers, adapt to special requests if each customer has any, and even have a nice chat with small talk. Some people will even go to a direct shop for that in their local area.
Quick Adaptability To Customer Needs
Any institution of a larger size will invariably have layers of bureaucracy that slow down any changes or special adaptions when they’re needed, but because you’re small, you can pivot quickly when a customer needs something different or when you spot a gap in what you’re offering. So, if someone asks for a custom option or suggests an improvement, you can more easily make that happen, but you’re not going to have to wait or begin needing approval from five different departments and a board meeting.
Being nimble in that way also means you can test new ideas without massive risk, so if you notice your customers want something specific, you can try it out and see what happens without the red tape.
A More Grounded Online Presence
Custom small business websites that show your proud team of people behind the business, tell your story and honestly, and speak in a voice that’s your own and accounts for any regional quirks can be quite nice. You can also make it more of a community space or blog, sharing behind the scenes moments perhaps, even being honest about challenges, and showing your face.
This way, you can have more of a stage presence so to speak, that people will want real updates from.
With this advice, you’ll be sure to remain plucky and become more appealing than even the huge companies out there.
