The SMB is Mobile, Wireless, Plugged In and Growing

On December 3, 2009, In New, By Tac Anderson
my real office
My Office as a Startup Tac Anderson via Flickr

I love the SMB market. Hell I was the SMB market (that’s a picture of my office). When clients tell me they want to reach the Small and Medium Business segment I start to drool.

Outside of the Consumer marker there is no larger segment than the SMB and I would argue that it’s the most complex.

SMB could mean anything from one guy at a coffee shop doing “consulting” or a stay at home mom running a blog, all the way up to a 800+ person multinational organization with offices around the globe and an internal IT department, like my employer Waggener Edstrom.

When doing some quick research recently I came across some excellent news for anyone in the mobile and wireless space.

Mobile tech is the hottest market and the SMB is the hottest segment.

Having the benefit of working with companies in mobile software, handset manufacturing, a carrier and PC manufacturing, means I have an excuse to play with lots of these gadgets. I’m currently running around with 3 phones a netbook (until I dropped it, but I will be replacing it) and a laptop.

Increasingly small and medium businesses are becoming more sophisticated and are adopting technology faster than their Medium Managed counterparts. This is the segment that is perfectly primed for disruption. The companies that can tap into this segment will do very well. They’ll have to be scrappy and have a killer value proposition but man it’s a fun market.

Included here are some ways to better understand the SMB market.

How to break out the SMB market:

  • 1-10 = Micro
  • 11-100 = Small
  • 101-999= Medium

But to break out small and medium you have to look at what’s called Managed and Un-managed. (How would you feel about your business being called a small un-managed business?)These are really more levels of technical sophistication but are also related somewhat to size.

Managed means you have your own internal IT staff. Un-managed means you outsource (or duct tape) your IT.

Micro Businesses typically buy like consumers. They purchase mostly at retail or online and purchase out of pocket.

Small and Medium Un-managed is a real hodgepodge, they’re not big enough to sell directly to, but is probably the largest total pool of money.

Managed Medium purchases much more like a traditional Enterprise but not at the volumes so typically don’t get the same level of service. Local reps love Managed Medium because with a little love they are very loyal customers the “big guys” can’t easily steal.

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Successful Twitterers, Bloggers and Small Business Owners are just Extroverted Over-Achievers.

On June 9, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

60% of new Twitter users fail to come back.

95% of blogs fail.

Stats on new business fail rate varies from 50% over three years to as high as 90% over 5-10 years.

Attrition Rate

There seems to be some Natural Law of Attrition at play. There was actually a call for a dedicated field to study this possible Law of Attrition, but it ironically failed to materialize.

Tweeting, blogging and starting your own business sound great in theory. So much opportunity. The chance to join some. perceived, elite club. Fame, fortune or at least something to pass the time.

But then reality kicks in. People realize that all of the above take some level of work and constant upkeep.

“Who has time to tweet everything you’re doing?” Who has time to write blog posts everyday?” “Who has time to market your business and see that the paper work is done and take care of employees and meet customer needs?”

Speaking from experience I can tell you that blogging and tweeting aren’t as difficult as running your own business. But it amazes me how many business owners also have time to keep up a blog and stay active on Twitter.

Why is it that your over worked small business owner can but your average person can’t seem to manage any of them?

I think part of it is that some people are better at figuring out there work flow. But ultimately some people find an inherent value in these activities. They revel in pushing themselves harder than anyone else. They are extroverted over-achievers.

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Entrepreneurs! Start Your Engines!

On October 10, 2008, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

At the end of the worst financial week the World has ever seen, bankers and stockbrokers may be ready to jump out windows, but I’m feeling rather optimistic today.

Barring a complete meltdown of society (some may argue we are already witnessing that) the coming months are going to be a great time to start a business.

If you already have your own business, Brad Feld has two amazing posts that demonstrate why he’s been a successful entrepreneur, Angel investor and VC: Fear is the Mind Killer and OK Entrepreneurs, Time to Step Up.

Starting a Real Business

When I say start a business, I mean a real business. Something with a revenue plan. Something that scales as the revenue comes in. Something that is built on the premise of what VC’s are telling their portfolio companies (Sequoia Benchmark); aka have a low burn rate and be profitable.

I think companies that start in 2009 will be better off than companies that started in 2008, for one simple reason: The rules changed. Companies starting from scratch will have leaner business models than those that started over the last year.

The last 5 years have been a lot of fun, we’ve got to play with all kinds of cool new products….and now we’re done. Done playing that is. This doesn’t mean an end to Web 2.0, it just means that Web 2.0 has to grow up and look for different business models to add value to.

If you are one of the unfortunate people being laid off from work, I really feel for you and your family. While there may not seem like any upside remember that there is safety in numbers (or misery loves company, that one works too). Grab a few of your most talented colleagues, who also find themselves out of work, and make the leap together.

Entrepreneurs are the only ones that can fix this mess

Entrepreneurs are great at creating something out of nothing. Let’s face it, the more the government gets involved the more they screw it up. The banks (I don’t even need to go there). No one has any answers. Everyone is paralyzed with fear or uncertainty. And while it may be hard to find any capital for your start-up the good news is that everything just got a lot cheaper.

Have you had a great idea but couldn’t find any local programmers willing to give you a break on price? Looking for a good business partner with enterprise experience? I bet all that just got easier.

There are no quick fixes to this mess. My *best case* scenario is that we’ve got 7 long, hard years ahead of us. Entrepreneurialism is tough, so if the next several years are going to suck anyway you might as well face it with both hands on the steering wheel ;)

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Sorry Video, Text Still Rules the Web

On May 27, 2008, In Comm, By Tac Anderson

I recently sat in on a research forum where we asked small business owners several questions about how they find solutions to business problems on the Web. The following is pieces of relevant transcript. There are multiple people commenting all at once but I think you’ll get the idea.

when is video better? when is text only better? when is audio only better?

I prefer text for online research. I like to read about what I’m researching. Video and audio can be useful for illustrating concept, but I think text is still the best way for me to collect information on a topic

why text?

i like have a hard copy i can refer back to, print for others, etcFor text, do you generally review online or do you print it?

I prefer text, but it is nice to have video instructions for items that are very complicated.

I read the text online and if I feel it is something my boss needs to see or I need as a resource, then I will print it.

i print…so i can highlight or usually its just easier to read for some reason

I generally will download the text because you never know when the web is going to change and a page is going to disappear. Occasionally, I print it to read at home in the evening.

Video is such the craze right now. I’m surprised none of you have mentioned video to be the preferred method. Why not?

if your computer is not up to snuff…the video or audio jumps, it resyncs, whatever…its annoying

I like text for the most part because sometimes I can’t understand what is being said in the audio/video, but sometimes I like videos to be able to see an interactive explanation of how to do something

video instructions are annoying because you have to go at their pace and not your own.

excellent point about the pace…that gets to me too

A lot of times I can read faster than they talk.

I know for me I rarely watch online video…for business.

For entertainment I watch almost all of my video online. Its an interesting dichotomy.

What’s important for marketers to remember is that while there is a lot of talk about the rise in online video, it doesn’t necesarily mean that you should rush out and start producing a ton of video.

What about you? When do you prefer video to text?

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TechBoise has Arrived

On May 8, 2007, In Comm, By Tac Anderson

Okay, for a lot of you this is probably old news. But since everyone else was making the announcement I figured that I’d better say something on my site.

TechBoise is a community driven site for the Boise tech scene.

Around the first of the year I had this crazy idea that Boise needed a site that brought together all of the various tech activity in the valley. While pitching my idea to a small group of new media types Sarah volunteered to help build the site using WordPress. So I went to Yahoo! and bought the domain for $1.99 (if you’ve never used Yahoo! before they discount your first purchase) and we’ve been working out the details ever since.

People keep asking me why I’m doing this. I am passionate about tech, small business start ups and Boise. And since I am a tech start up in Boise it seemed like a good fit. That and I didn’t have enough to do.

I believe that Boise has a two year window of opportunity to build a thriving tech community here or not only will we loose out to other city’s but we’ll loose the tech companies we do have. So while BVEP does their thing and the local government does nothing, I figured for $1.99 and some time and effort I could see what I could do to make a difference.

The other question people ask me is how am I measuring success. That ones easier to answer: If we have a thriving tech community here in two years, then I’ve done my part. For me that is the only measure of success.

So head over to the site, check it out, leave a comment or submit a letter.

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