Munchkins Want Advice from Monsters? Not!

Written by Mike Banks Valentine


I was sipping my morning "wake-cup" of coffee overrepparttar Sunday San Francisco Chronicle this weekend when I came across an article by staff writer John Batteiger referencing web sites useful to small business. Great, I thought, I'd love more of those valuable resources. Silly me.

Although I think this is an example of a reporter not doing his research and glossing over an important subject, I can't even begin to comprehendrepparttar 117911 absurd references provided by that reporter! The SBA,repparttar 117912 FTC,repparttar 117913 Yahoo Small Business Information section, which although they each have some small part to play in helpingrepparttar 117914 little guy, don't provide a great resource for small business information beyond their own meager references to other web sites.

I've faced this oddity for three years now while trying to gain links acrossrepparttar 117915 web forrepparttar 117916 WebSite101 Small Business Ecommerce Tutorial I provide online. Nobody wants to listen to those of us that practice what we preach each day and go daily to maintainrepparttar 117917 house payments and bills by earing our living online. Everyone wants to hear whatrepparttar 117918 Monsters have to say about being a little guy! David doesn't want to BE Goliath, David Wants To SLAY Goliath! Hello! Anyone home?

I dashed off a letter to that reporter which I've included below and realized that my own readers could benefit from hearing this stuff as well. So I've attached my note to that reporter below.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* John,

(You'll note that I've sent copies of this letter to each ofrepparttar 117919 sites I referenced here, who I'm sure will have thoughts of their own to contribute.)

I'm fascinated at how folks consistently look to Goliaths to learn how to be an effective David! When I saw your article today at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/ 10/14/BU222086.DTL

I thought I might see some links to things such as

http://www.freeagentnation.com a book by Daniel H. Pink (he relies on praise fromrepparttar 117920 big boys in his reviews but did confide to me that he'd consider quotes from little guys like me.) My raves about his book are online at:

http://www.WebSite101.com/arch/archive100.html

The Chronicle is quoted on *his* site in an article by your colleague George Raine, but you don't returnrepparttar 117921 favor?

No, I Mean Really Small Business!

Written by Mike Banks Valentine


Last week I attended two giant web shows atrepparttar Los Angeles Convention Center. The huge InternetWorld Spring 2001 and a concurrent show titled eCRM, both offered inrepparttar 117910 sprawling four block square building inrepparttar 117911 City of Angels. I went to seek out and report on ecommerce solutions forrepparttar 117912 little guy. You know, that's you and me. The companies that have less than 100 employees!

The traditional label of "Small Business" has come to apply to far too many companies. I guess we should adoptrepparttar 117913 term "Microbusiness" to get realistic about what most ofrepparttar 117914 world imagines when you say "Small Business". I mean a business with less than 10 employees and I think most ofrepparttar 117915 rest ofrepparttar 117916 world does too. Monstrous companies define us as invisible.

Well picture this if you will, I brazenly approached one sales guy (there were dozens of them) at Siebel Systems booth (more like a small city dominating 10 spaces inrepparttar 117917 convention center). I simply asked him "Does Siebel offer any solutions forrepparttar 117918 small business?"

His response was predictable. "Our enterprise solutions can be applied across multiple platforms to unite all legacy systems throughout . . ."

STOP right there please! You might just as well have said a very simple NO! You could go on to say something really quite derogatory like, "NO, you puny imbecile! If we created anything for worker ants like you, we'd be broke in nothing flat! Go away and come see us when you have $30 grand or so to spend and we'll be happy to TALK with you then!"

I have to be honest and say thatrepparttar 117919 Siebel salesman was really very courteous and pleasant. It's justrepparttar 117920 fact that they don't get big by providing small solutions for small business people. So here is my list of really worthwhile solutions that I was able to find for LittleGuy.com at InternetWorld 2001.

http://www.callbutton.com

As reported last week, my best of show award goes to CallButton. Reasonably priced, powerful, all around useful and a great ROI (return on investment) potential for small businesses online.

http://www.GoToMyPC.com

This is another of my picks from a previous conference calledrepparttar 117921 Upside Events Showcase 2001. I like it so much I'm making it a repeat winner since they've now partnered with Expert City. Someone else clearly agreed with me on this one. ;-)

http://www.epage.com

This company offers free classified ads for your web site. Hold on now, not just another business opportunities classified site. These folks offer searchable, co-branded, subject specific ads and auctions that matchrepparttar 117922 theme of your site! Brilliant!

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