Small businesses often find it challenging to win the big-ticket tenders and RFPs submitted to larger firms. While they might not lack in service quality or professionalism, they often lose out due to the sheer size disadvantage.

Bigger companies looking for service providers often see smaller vendors as riskier (due to perceived lesser accountability) and think that lesser resources make them unfit to handle the larger and more challenging requirements of their big establishments.

However, there are plenty of positives that count as pros when it comes to choosing a small business vendor as your service partner, be it for logistics or web hosting. In this article, we shed light on how sometimes small businesses can bring their clients, substantial value, sometimes greater than their larger counterparts.

Agility

Nimbleness is one of the biggest pros you can expect when working with a small business. Small businesses almost always have quicker turnaround time as they do not have to deal with corporate bureaucracies and legacy software (if you are collaborating with them technically). Larger organizations have strict protocols and controls in place for every piece of work that needs to get done. Small businesses steer clear of such corporate inertia and are all about getting the work done as quickly as possible.

Ownership

Small businesses take ownership seriously. They value the trust their clients, place on them and want to ensure they do their work with full accountability and ownership. It is not unnatural to find small businesses going out of their way and scope to ensure your requirement are met well.

Customer delight

Delighting their customers is an important thing for small businesses as they bank on repeat contracts and regular customers to grow their business. As such, they are always eager to please their clients by stretching however much they can, comfortably, to accommodate client requirements. For example, you might often find a smaller web hosting company providing you with better hosting options, as compared to a larger one, given the customizations the former offers to you to fit your requirements to a tee.

Flexible pricing

You might not be able to get a discount on the hefty fee charged by the larger agencies, but smaller businesses often provide you with not only better prices but also easy payment modules which makes it easier for you to do business with them. Much like their service offering, small businesses are open to pricing their products and services based on their client’s specific requirements. This ensures that the client does not feel overcharged for the service and the value they are getting for that service.

Openness

For small businesses, no job is too small. They are ready to take up the work that bigger organizations might deem unprofitable. For them, any job is an opportunity to gain a client and build their business. Hence, they pour in their best to get the job done well and on time.

Commitment

A small business does not only commit to delivering the work you requested but also to ensure it adds value to your overall business. They know that every job completed, successfully, will boost their client further. They understand the value of mutual growth and success and are fully invested in giving life to this idea through their services to you.

Responsiveness

Small business vendors are quick to respond to issues and fix problems much more quickly as compared to their larger counterparts. This again is possible due to lesser corporate friction and easy communication between departments.

Conclusion

In many ways the very nature of small businesses, i.e. they are small, is a major pro for them. The lack of bureaucracy, the readiness to serve and retain their clients by delighting them, and most importantly, the founders themselves playing a key role in setting the wheels in motion makes small businesses a trustworthy partner for businesses of all sizes.