To understand small business, be a small business
I currently work as a Product Manager for a tech company in South Africa. If you’re in product yourself, you will probably be aware that my role can mean fairly different things in different companies, largely depending on the nature of the product. I see my role as understanding problems, and finding the intersection between tech, business and experience to deliver solutions to those problems.
For the past year we have been working on a CRM and Engagement solution for small businesses. The problem we’re solving? Small businesses don’t have affordable access to the powerful tools that larger enterprises use to engage with customers and drive business objectives, and consumers don’t want to have to download a new app every time they register for a new loyalty programme. Before I go on telling you about the super cool app we’ve been working on, let me stick to my point.
It’s about understanding problems.
To try and understand the pain points of small business, we decided to do some market research. We went out with surveys, conducted interviews and even launched a proof of concept with a select few merchants. While we definitely gained some valuable insight in the process, we often felt like there were gaps in our research. Based on the interviews, this seemed to be largely due to some of our small business owners struggling to articulate their biggest problems.
Feeling a bit stuck, it eventually became clear to me: If you want to understand small business, try be a small business. Enter ‘Beta Balance Boards’.
Long story short, when I was travelling in Central America, all the surf hostels had homemade balance boards for surf training. It’s a wooden board that sits on a roller and the point is to try and balance on two feet, moving from side-to-side as you test your stability. Then came lockdown and the closing of beaches. Longing for an alternative to surfing, I couldn’t find a balance board anywhere, and if I could, it was extremely overpriced.
So like any product manager, I decided to prototype. I got a single board made, put an Instagram profile together, posted a picture and said I was open for orders. The orders started coming in and I sold the first few boards. I set the price and offered a discount to the first handful provided they gave me honest feedback. A few issues with the roller, a couple of iterations, and I now have a small business.
Let’s get into my four biggest take-aways from this experience.
1) Don’t confuse B2B with B2E
Providing a service or product for a business can be very different to doing so for an entrepreneur. In this case, your experience in business-to-business may mean very little, as business-to-entrepreneurship is a different ballgame. In a larger enterprise, you have defined roles and responsibilities, often with multiple people to fulfil those functions. An entrepreneur with a small business very often does it all themselves . They’re the accountant, the supply chain manager, the social media manager and the customer support agent all in one — treat them as such.
They have little time and a lot to do. If you make their lives easier, they’ll love you. Reduce their effort and save them time.
2) Entrepreneurs operate in a community
As an entrepreneur, if you don’t know what to do, you call someone who does. When I needed to find a courier to ship a board to Limpopo, I gave up very quickly with the courier websites and instead called my friend who recently started a sneaker brand. When I needed product shots taken, I didn’t bother with Google but rather called my friend who’s just started a food business. The same can be said about my packaging and my branding — I called people I trust who have done it before.
Find one entrepreneur who loves your product and they will most likely tell all of their entrepreneur friends. Disappoint them, and that’s a whole community of customers you’re losing out on. Word-of-mouth matters.
3) Every cent matters
Ask any (successful) small business owner who the last person to take a salary at the end of each month is. In my experience, every single small business owner has had months where they haven’t taken a salary out of the business. This means that — quite literally — every additional expense could be coming out of their pocket. That additional $100/month that the larger enterprise wouldn’t blink at is in fact $100 less that our dear entrepreneurs are taking home.
If you’re in the business of creating value for entrepreneurs, make sure they understand what it is. Immediately. You may be increasing their sales, improving their margins or saving waste, however it won’t matter unless they know it.
4) It’s not just business
The saying, ‘It’s just business’, does not apply to small business owners. When you start a business or launch a product, the first people you put it out to are your friends and family (and in some cases like my own, you do it over and over again with each new idea). Some of my friends placed orders, some even refused discounts and many shared it with people they believed would be interested. While the support I have received is incredible, it also means that to fail is to disappoint my nearest and dearest. It may not actually be that way but it sure does feel like it.
Small business is about more than product — it is about people. It’s the customers that have supported us, the suppliers who have helped us and ultimately, the people we can help. We are proud of what we do. Being in the business of small business is important because these people matter. Even if it is only five people we hire, those are five families being supported.
Aspire to solve real problems, empower small businesses and make a difference in their lives. Don’t try sell them something because it’s simply an opportunity to make money, give them something to help them thrive, grow our economy and create a more positive impact in society.
