I am writing this article outside one of my favourite restaurants in Hartlepool North East England, Farrar’s Bistro. I like giving this hardworking family run business a pitch because they deserve it. OK, hands up, they are customers of mine as well. They purchase promotional pens and embroidered clothing from me but my like for them is primarily for other reasons.
The owners still front the restaurant and greet many of their loyal customers by name. They may be running one of the smallest restaurants on the Hartlepool marina but their service, food and welcoming atmosphere far exceeds the faceless, almost robotic chain restaurants around them.
This is what small business is all about! Farrar’s may be small but like many small business owners they think big. In fact they ‘do big’ better than most big companies do.
Being small means being able to make your own decisions. Contact a small business today and chances are one of the founders will be somewhere near by. Their staff will be well trained and able to ask a question of the decision maker should they need to. Do you want to speak to the person in charge? Just ask.
We live in an amazing time to be in business. Social media and social networks have opened up new challenges and ways to attract new customers. If a small business owner wants to share their expertise through a blog, they can do so. They do not need to get their blog posts approved or attend numerous mind numbingly dull meetings about whether or not the company should have a blog in the first place.
When you are small, you can act faster than your larger competitors. You can be creative and share your skills and services now without all the bureaucracy.
I see this in my own business. Often it is good to shop your larger corporate competitors, to see what their sales staff are like. More often then not I end up speaking to a very friendly person who knows very little about their products. Have you ever phoned a company just to be told that the person that can answer that question cannot be disturbed as they are in an important meeting? I love that one.
So what do small companies have that large corporations don’t? They have hunger. They have a strong desire to be creative and make things work perfectly. Often the people in the sales office will be the same people who process your orders and send you your invoice. They are their for you at the other end of the phone regardless of your question or problem.
It is a smart small business or large corporation that uses the services or products of a forward thinking and creative small business. Perhaps that is why so many of them do!
Posted by Dan Toombs