Small is the New Big – and its here to stay

We hear all the time about the power of small businesses in the economy, we hear that despite the failures of wall street it’s Main Street that matters. The statistics bear it out,

Small firms employed just over half of the private sector work force and generated more than half of nonfarm private gross domestic product. More than 99 percent of American businesses are small, and the average small employer had one location and 10 employees, compared with 62 locations and 3,313 employees in the average large business.(PDF)

So why has it taken so long for small to be smart and sexy? Marketing guru Seth Godin illustrates the change:

Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade Center was a target.  TV advertising is collapsing so fast you can hear it.  American Airlines (big) is getting creamed by Jet Blue (think small).  BoingBoing (four people) has a readership growing a hundred times faster than the New Yorker (hundreds of people).(Source)

It’s a great time to be engaged in a small business.  As more and more of the giants (auto industry, airlines, banks, insurance … who’s next?) come crashing down, the small business will emerge.  Small business already dominates the economy (by the numbers), but not necessarily the attention, prestige or power.  We think that over the coming years there will be a major shift in attitudes and orientation favoring the less corporate and more nimble small business as GenX’ers build their experiences and Baby Boomers retire.

Tags: big business collapse, Business Strategy, enron, gen x, main street, Small business, startup help