Large companies certainly have many advantages in the business world. They have more money, and so, can spend more on big marketing campaigns. Even if their promotional efforts are not effective, they can recover. Furthermore, they have to their credit several years of business experience that enables them to provide highly effective production lines. Small businesses, on the other hand can be at an alarming disadvantage when competitors are well-established, corporate entities. But what can small enterprises do to not only survive, but remain competitive.
Here are a few guidelines as to why and how small enterprises can compete successfully, even with larger counterparts:
Use your small size to your advantage:
Your small business will be able to adapt quickly to changes in customer trends, as compared to a large corporate that is set in its ways and probably needs to go through a lot of bureaucracy before changes are made. Additionally, quality control and personalised service is much easier for a small business and this will have customers coming back to you.
Make your product unique:
As a small business, your ability to put a special touch to your products is much easier. Give your customers a reason to choose you by providing added services such as personalising each product – as opposed to the mass produced copies corporate companies provide.
Be visible and accessible to customers as the owner:
This is something large companies have trouble with. The CEO is highly unlikely to be available for meetings or complaints from ordinary customers. As a small business owner, you can contact customers yourself and meet them when they have a problem, thus solidifying their loyalty.
Partner or sub-contract with the larger company:
You can inform them what you can “bring to the table”, that would be mutually-beneficial. Your ability to provide personalised service, combined with the bigger company’s established reputation can help collectively capture more business contracts and tenders.
After some analysis it’s clear that a small business does in fact have several worthy advantages when it comes to competing with large companies – and remarkably most of them stem from its small size. They can harness their small size advantages to provide better service levels, products with superior customisation and so forth.