I just ended a two-day strategy workshop with a small startup, less than 3 years old and 12 employees strong. The CEO and founder figured out after 3 years of being reactive and flexible that being a real software company requires focus and clear strategy and was smart enough to stop everything and take the time to think about what’s next. I think that 2-3 years from now the company will remember this workshop as a turning point for the company. Not because of the value of the workshop—all we did was synthesize what they already knew—but because it was the first time they stopped and decided on their own future. Not because a customer asked, not because someone woke up in the morning with an idea—they took the time to go through the process of developing a strategy and creating the big fat arrow in which the company will walk (or better yet, run) in the future. Continue reading “The Power of Focus”
SMB
The SMB Market—Quick Reference Guide To Winning
Last week I wrote about The SMB Market: the one that is difficult to win, but too large to ignore. My main claim was that SMB spending on IT is about to cross large enterprise spending, but very few companies are successful in winning this market. This phenomenon leads to a very scattered market, led by thousands of different vendors and lacking economies of scale. Take the Business management (AKA ERP): If you add Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, SAP and Netsuite, you will get to about 20% of market coverage. Who has the rest? Others. Who are those others? Many thousands of small to tiny companies that found a way to make a living out of selling a local or micro vertical business management software. Their customers may enjoy personal service and high fit for their needs, but they would not enjoy state of the art technology and the reliability of a large company.
The hardware space looks much different. In just about any survey you read, these two names are coming along strong as SMB market leaders in their spaces. These are two companies with a sound SMB strategy: Dell with its direct and efficient model (cut the middleman is an alltime SMB favorite) and Cisco with the smart separation of its business, keeping the Linksys unit as the SMB and consumer brand and Cisco as the enterprise brand.
Whether your business is a behemoth or an agile startup, if you are selling to the enterprise and now you want to sell to small businesses, you have to start thinking differently. Here are some ideas to get you started: Continue reading “The SMB Market—Quick Reference Guide To Winning”
The SMB Market- Difficult To Win, But Too Large Not To Try
Quick quiz to start things off: Who is the market leader in the enterprise software space? If you guessed Oracle, IBM and SAP, you got 5 points and a bonus. Question 2: who rules the consumer space? 5 points if you guessed Google and an extra 1 if you added Microsoft. Question number 3: who is the market leader in SMB? If “let me think” is your answer, you are in good company (and you got 2 points for having a brain…). So how come such a large market doesn’t have a market leader? Continue reading “The SMB Market- Difficult To Win, But Too Large Not To Try”
Seven Things That SaaS Vendors Need To Do In Order To Increase Their Desirability For SMBs
There is no doubt that SaaS and on demand are here to stay: if five years ago on demand solutions looked like an Internet version of the mainframe days (strong central server, no logic in the terminal, bad user interface… sound familiar?), the SaaS applications of today look appealing and offer a good alternative to the on premise world.
Continuing with the “seven things about Saas” Theme, which started with Seven reasons why SaaS is not main street in SMB and continued with Seven reasons why SaaS will be a great success, I would like to turn to the vendors now and offer some do’s and don’ts for the industry… Continue reading “Seven Things That SaaS Vendors Need To Do In Order To Increase Their Desirability For SMBs”
Go Crazy About Your Company Goal
Here is a radical thought: take the one most important parameter you measure in your business and publish it. I don’t mean publish as in a press release. I mean make it available in real time, 24/7 to your customers, employees and competitors. Continue reading “Go Crazy About Your Company Goal”
Leaders Go Out
Here is one more reason why startups innovate so much and create new categories time and again where the large enterprise guys do more of the same thing: Entrepreneurs spend most of their time looking outward, rather than looking and focusing on internal affairs. Continue reading “Leaders Go Out”
“I can’t afford it”- The SMB version
Seth Godin wrote a wonderful post about this infamous phrase: “I can’t afford it.” As always, I will try to add the SMB point of view on this notion: If you set your heart on selling to small and medium businesses, be ready to hear this phrase. A lot. It is not intentional: SMB owners or managers run on a smaller budget but often don’t have the support system of a large company to help them in making the right decision. As a result, they will give you the easiest answer: NO. One cannot go wrong by not spending… Here are some tactics (and mistakes) used by companies that are selling to SMBs: Continue reading ““I can’t afford it”- The SMB version”
SMB—The Passion Business
Here is another important insight that will help vendors and entrepreneurs to better understand SMBs: most of them are passion driven. Now, it is not the same type of passion that drives C-level execs in the top floors of Fortune 500 companies. It is passion for what they do, the hobby that turned into a business. Understanding how SMBs are driven and what they do best will help you to better serve them. I know I am generalizing, but you will find it true in many cases, especially in smaller SMBs (owner operator). Continue reading “SMB—The Passion Business”
Seven reasons why SaaS is not main street in SMB
It was the week of Web 2.0, the annual conference that celebrates the new new new web. Tracking the news from the conference, it was clear that the new web still mainly targets consumers and individuals, and did not make any significant headway into the small- and mid-size business space (SMB). A quick scan of the tech news this week (all thanks to good old techcrunch) reveals that the industry is focused on photo editing, Internet TV, and web 2.0 mashups for your car. Even applications that are more business-oriented, like InterviewUp, are focused on the individuals (interviewees) and not on the interviewers. Continue reading “Seven reasons why SaaS is not main street in SMB”
SMB Segmentation
Due to popular demand, I created one PDF document that summarize both posts (SMB- Redefined and the Subsidiary) about the different type of SMB companies. Enjoy.
Gadi Shamia 