06.05.07
Look At It From The Other Side
One area where I think smaller businesses have plenty of built-in advantages is in the foodservice industries. Restaurants, cafeterias, fast food quick-service restaurants, coffee shops—anywhere that customers will crave something that is somehow unique or different from the norm. Large chains of restaurants, good as they may be (Mac Grill!) sooner or later begin to taste like everything they make is the same product.
This was brought into focus for me when I went to a quick-service fish place, but I really only wanted shrimp and french fries. It turned out that they had something roughly fitting that description, but it all tasted exactly like their fried fish patty. The experience led me to avoid them for some time, but I noticed that after you have eaten in restaurant chain X several times, all of chain X’s products tasted the same. This is the impetus behind the monthly special temporary products: “Would you like to try our new chicken sandwich?” Then, before you can get tired of the chicken sandwich, it is gone, replaced by another temporary product.
In a smaller business, you realize that people who choose you have probably driven past the large corporate competitor to do business with you. It frees you from the horrid slavery of trying to keep up with the corporate competitors’ constant changes. You can dare to be different–because you are already different–and refuse to change your offerings just because they do.
Last year, I was in a place (Binghamton, NY) where they have a local food product called the speedie. I was there during the annual speediefest, but I was working too many hours to participate. When you consider our area, where we have little in the way of local specialties, it was fascinating to see just how much the existence of locally-identified products and services can give focus to efforts to make your area stand out.
I am currently in New Jersey, about 2700 miles away from home. As I look around for places to eat each day, one thing stands out to me. A large number of the eateries are the same brands I know from home. The problem is, I was tired of those eateries before I came here, so I certainly do not want to eat there now. So I am more likely to try a place if it is a small, locally-owned business rather than a chain or franchise.
So for all of our small-business readers, I recommend that you stop looking at your business’ size as an obstacle. Look at it as an advantage, because you can afford to focus on your market and to adapt to your locality. Your larger competitors can not afford to give so much attention to L10N (localization), because their business models depend upon them being able to spread their costs and choices over a larger volume. Make sure that your customers can clearly see a difference between your business and BigCorporateCompetitor, Inc.
