Small Business Week Isn’t Just About Small Business in San Diego

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Let’s face it, small business in San Diego exists in large part because of big business.  Ok, I can hear it now, “Isn’t this week about small business?  Why are we going to talk about big business?”  As the owner of a small business for decades, and like many of my small to mid-sized business clients I’m thankful for big business.  So what role does big business play in honoring small business in San Diego?

One of the core strengths of an effective small business is the ability to adapt and implement changes quickly.  We recognize customer needs and changing market circumstances and are much more rapidly able to respond to those opportunities.  Our customers interact with real “people” in our company, developing more substantial business relationships (and often friendships).  This establishes a local level of comfort and trust that allows them to more easily share their own challenges so that we can provide products and services that help their business to grow.

Big companies are often perceived by the marketplace as faceless dictators, who intimidate their customers into paying for blander products, poor customer service and much slower responsiveness. Many small business marketing plans are based upon the contrast between their company’s products and services and that of their big business competitors.  The bigger companies often legitimize a market – establishing the playing field.  We, as small to mid-sized businesses, compete on that field as we run circles around the products and services of the larger competitor.

Many small business owners got their start in the big corporate giant, and exist to fill a gap in the big company’s product line or to serve a sector of corporate customers who are not receiving the specific products or services they require at a price they are willing to pay.  In our business, we are able to deliver the same level of expertise and skill without all of the overhead and layers of billing with which the large national or multi-national firms burden their clients.  Our clients connect personally and directly with the managing partner or attorney conducting their work, and have access to decades of experience and practical business advice at a cost-effective price point they value.

In the end, we honor big business in the midst of “Small Business Week” to recognize what for many of us is the root of our experience and our own small business.  Small business in San Diego is the backbone of our economy.  We don’t have a lot of corporate headquarters here.  By our very nature, small businesses deliver better products and services at a more competitive price point.  We are intimately connected with our customers and respond to market changes and opportunities much more rapidly than our large competitors.  We adapt, we respond to our own daily challenges, we create, we innovate and we serve.  It is the contrast between our own responsiveness, service and innovation and that of our big competitors that allows us to exist, and ultimately thrive.