And suddenly … microbusinesses are less invisible

Posted on | March 27, 2009 | Comments Off

At the risk of having an unattractive attack of humility, I will confess to you that I am not exactly a household name.

That means that I can sit here at The Journal Blog and make all sorts of observations about life, the universe and the microbusiness, and manage to escape the notice of Howard Kurtz every time.

I don’t really regret this sort of obscurity, except to the extent that (according to some theorists) fame is said to lead to fortune. And it means that I get to take a certain almost child-like glee when people who are less obscure than I am start catching up with me.

Earlier this week, Peter Bregman was writing for his blog at Harvard Business Press about why small businesses are better positioned right now to “win in this economy” (as stated in the title of the post).

The fun part for me was the stuff he said that I’ve been saying for years about the parts of small-ness that are a competitive advantage: the relationship building stuff, the personal attention from (as likely as not) the CEO, the way a small company can make every customer feel important.

(Pause for musical interlude … )

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He also mentioned something else I’ve been writing about for a long, long time:

Small companies that aren’t making millions but provide a good living for the people who work in them. Niche companies whose owners are trying to build sustainable businesses they love rather than fast-growing companies they can flip. They have no intention of retiring. They like working in them.

Sound familiar? This is a description of the quintessential microbusiness. In fact, it would make a pretty good summary of my white paper, The Microbusiness Way of Growth — published, if I might say so without sounding like I’m bragging, back in 2005.

On the other hand, Bregman also points out something that he is observing and that had never occurred to me: people are turning to small companies now because small companies are coming to be viewed as more trustworthy now that the big boys are crashing and burning left and right.

(I think back to the days when micros thought they had to pretend to be bigger than they are in order to be taken seriously, and I laugh gently and fondly … )

So, here is his brief summary of how this recession is playing out:

Small is the new big. Sustainable is the new growth. Trust is the new competitive advantage.

(I’m also remembering being gently taken to task in a few corners of Blogland for jumping on the sustainability bandwagon, back when I was drawing contrasts between the way micros operate and the way everybody says we’re supposed to operate.)

No, I’m not claiming to be smarter than anybody. The only reason why I saw this stuff years ago is because I eat, sleep and breathe microbusinesses. That just let me get way out ahead of the curve.

To be honest, it’s quite reassuring to see that others are starting to catch up.

And it bodes very well for microbusinesses, on a variety of different levels. That makes me a lot happier than the Fame and Fortune ever would.

Happy Friday, folks.


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Category: Friday Musical Interludes, Rants and Ruminations
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Dawn Rivers Baker, microbusiness journalistDawn Rivers Baker, aka The Journal Blogger, is the editor and publisher of The MicroEnterprise Journal, and the self-proclaimed Socrates of the small business blogosphere. See her official bio to learn more.


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