2012/09/05

"Small Business" is too broad, so I'm splitting it up - Small Biz Survival

"Small Business" is too broad, so I'm splitting it up

Posted: 05 Sep 2012 03:30 AM PDT

"Small business" is much too broad. It includes, by various definitions, companies that have up to 500 employees. I don't know about your small town, but in mine, that would be a *huge* business.

You have to start where you are.
Then you can grow.

And the term "entrepreneur" is even worse, with dozens of definitions that could include "anyone who starts a business" all the way up to successful founders like Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Brands. That's a lot of territory. (See Are you an entrepreneur or small business owner? for the discussion.)

So when a small business person wants to find help, they search online and find tons of material that is generic to every definition of small business. Usually, the author had a particular kind or size of business in mind, but never spelled that assumption out, so the reader has to guess whether it applies to them.

This means that there is not enough differentiated help and information for small business.

We're going to change that here. I'm dividing our entrepreneurship topics up into three categories:

1. Dreaming: for those who are dreaming or planning to start a business of their own.
2. Doing: for those who have a business, and have grown to the point that it's time (or almost time) to hire that first employee.
3. Leveling up: for those who have a business, but are looking to step up to a new level.

Notice that in each of my categories, the business is facing a stumbling block, or a stepping stone. That's usually when we go looking for help, right?

Of course, there is overlap. Everyone needs customer service improvements. We could all use ideas to inspire or innovate from. So many articles here will show up in more than one category.

I'll be writing more about each division and creating a page full of resources for you, based on those stages.

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