http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/10/share-of-firms-or-share-of-employment.html
We are not a big basketball family. This is partly due to me. As a 5’6 white guy I was never much of a player in my younger days. Most of the shots I took got stuffed back in my face. As a result, my kids and I are big baseball fans. And I play a lot of squash.
But I’m happy that the NBA owners and its players’ union finally settled their differences this past week. Not because the season will resume this month. But because the thousands of small businesses (including tech businesses like mine) that rely so much on the NBA for its revenues will finally get a break.
A big organization like the NBA affects hundreds of small businesses across the country. In Newark, parking lot operators and local restaurants were hit hard by the NBA strike. ABC news reported that “….according to the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, each Oklahoma City Thunder game brings $1.3 million to the local economy. The Atlantic reported that the San Antonio Spurs generated $95 million and the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce says the Grizzlies and its arena generated $223 million in 2010. Cleveland Cavalier ticketholders reportedly spend more than $3.7 million per home game.” These are primarily small businesses (not) making this money.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at the above chart from the Smallbiztrends.com, a great website about the industry of small business. Companies with more than 100 employees (and let’s be honest, once you’re over 100 employees you’re a decent size business) make up 66% of this country’s workforce. These companies, like the NBA, are the true engines of growth in this country. Small businesses rely on them for their work.
Even economist Jared Bernstein, who I don’t always agree with (but is admittedly way smarter than I am) says that small businesses aren’t as beautiful as we think. “But don’t small businesses at least fuel job growth? Sort of. It’s not small businesses that matter, but new businesses, which by definition create new jobs. Real job creation, though, doesn’t kick in until those small businesses survive and grow into larger operations. In fact, according to path-breaking work by the economist John C. Haltiwanger and his colleagues, once they accounted for the outsize contributions by new and young companies, they found “no systematic relationship” between net job growth and company size.”
In other words, thank God for big business.
My tech company has more than 500 active clients and most of them are small businesses. I’d like to say that these are my best clients, but that’s really not the case. In fact, I always tell my people that if 70% of our clients are happy at any given time, then we’re doing OK.
That’s because in many instances small businesses are tougher to work with than larger clients. Sure, we have great clients who are small. But then again we have many that are also small…but think they’re in the Fortune 100. They demand instant service. They call in the middle of the night. They complain if we don’t call them back right away. They criticize me when they get my voicemail (as opposed to the 1980’s answering machine that picks up when I call them back?). And of course there are the guys who run that five person company from the top of a strip mall and yet never fail to give me advice on how I can run my business better.
Collecting from small companies can be more challenging than my larger clients. It amazes me how many people “forget” to pay their bills for products or services satisfactorily rendered and still sleep like a baby at night. I always have a handful of small clients that we constantly have to call to get paid for an overdue invoice. And yet God forbid if we refuse to provide services to these people. It’s like I’m the devil himself because I have this belief that people should pay for the services they receive.
My small clients have always been my tech company’s bread and butter. But they’re not necessarily the most profitable. My historical financial statements tell me that my small clients have certainly helped to pay the bills. But: it’s my larger clients over the years that have put money in the bank.
That’s because my larger clients hire me for bigger projects.
And these projects are usually managed more efficiently because they assign internal people to help us. Getting on a payment schedule with a larger company can be challenging, but once done we’ve found that collection has been easier.
The people who authorize payments aren’t as emotionally connected to their bank accounts like a small business owner. So as long as we’ve performed the work as asked, we get paid. Checks don’t bounce. If one guy is being a jerk we can always go over his head. We don’t have that luxury when dealing with an owner of a small business.
Though, some people still skeptical about this online-money-making scheme, many have proven that earning online is the most valuable sources of additional income and knows that it can be achieved easily if you know how to do it properly. In fact, there are many people who quit their day job to become a full time affiliate marketer because they know that the earning potential is virtually unlimited.
ReplyDeleteHow to be Seen Online