Small Businesses Matter

Make no mistake about it, small businesses and start ups are among the most-important factors for economic growth in the United States (and probably abroad as well). Small business owners wear multiple hats and are a jack of all trades (usually out of necessity).  

While large companies are the entities you hear about most when you hear talk of the stock market, small businesses and start ups are the companies that keep our economy moving. They create the majority of new job opportunities and drive economic growth in various geographic areas.

One focus are for 4TheTekofIt, centers on on the various small business computing options out there as well as how to leverage cloud and free and open source solutions to help small business owners and start ups to grow their companies and save money while doing so. 

Key Focus Areas

This blog will address on four key small business areas:

• Competition

• Diversity

• Jobs

• Failure - The other option

Competition

Small businesses can be and in many case are positive disrupters across various industries. They bring in new ways of thinking and offer customers much-needed options. In many place here in the U.S., there are these regional broadband Internet monopolies. When competition is introduced, prices tend to come down and in many cases, the quality of service improves as well.

These regional monopolies are typically much larger companies who are the only provider of broadband Internet and cable TV for entire neighborhoods, which leaves the residences of those neighborhoods without any options. In scenarios like this, the service provider controls the quality of service as well as the cost.

In November of 2020, I posted an episode to my YouTube channel entitled: “Free Yourself from the high cost of cable tv and satellite tv services”. In that episode as well as a follow up episode entitled: “Watch out for hidden or confusing monthly Internet charges”, I talk about regional monopolies in greater detail, so please do check out those two episodes. 

Diversity

Small businesses tend to be more flexible, and can be started by almost anyone. This alone makes them more diverse in form, function and potential than larger companies are. Due to their flexibility, small businesses can more easily change how they do things and negotiate better deals than larger companies who tend to have to deal with internal bureaucracy. Small businesses inject stability into the economy. 

Jobs

Small businesses are more flexible with it comes to hiring local talent when compared to that of large corporations. Small businesses make up approximately 99.7% of all employers in the U.S. (see: The Importance of Small Business).

Several years ago, I remember watching a CNN interview where Soledad O’Brien interviewed Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. In that interview, they discussed the importance that Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (the four STEM fields) have on the economy (see: The Future Economy).

Dr. Tyson stated that the four STEM fields will be the drivers of tomorrow’s economy and companies will be forced to innovate or wither on the vine. The key to it centers around jobs and innovation and seeing as how small businesses represent the lion’s share of jobs out there across the United States, small businesses will continue to be the engines of the economy. 

Failure-The other option

No small business starts out with the hope that it will somehow fail (or at least, I hope there are none that start out this way). However failure is an option as strange as it may seem. It’s failure that teaches us what it was we got wrong so that if/when we decide to try again, we do not repeat the same mistake(s). It’s that entrepreneurial spirit that small businesses and start ups inject into our economy that keeps it alive. It makes it durable such that the economy will better weather tough times. 

Summary

If you are a small business owner or a start up, I want to personally thank you for helping to strengthen the global economy.

Keith Keller