In honor of small business week, I felt this post would be an appropriate one. Small businesses often have apprehensions when entering a meeting with a potential client. One question in particular presents considerable problems. How many people are in your company?
There’s a number of myths lending to this unnecessary fear. And yes, I believe it’s unnecessary. Let’s look at these myths and then examine the truth.
Myth: Small Beginnings are Bad
It can be easy to forget that every business had to start somewhere. Of course we’ve heard all the grand stories of the humble beginnings behind mammoth corporations. We’ve enjoyed the nostalgic references to beginning in a garage. In fact, here’s 5 quick ones: Amazon, Apple, Disney, Google, Hewlett-Packard. And thus it’s established. Even some of the largest businesses in the world had small beginnings. Why then should you be bothered because your company is small? This comes down to perception. You quickly accept and even enjoy hearing the stories of how giant companies began. In fact, you can relate to them quite easily. But there’s a disconnect between the past and the present. You view the past through the eyes of the present. Because they are now an incredibly large and successful company they are somehow validated.
Myth: Small Businesses Lack Expertise
I’ve heard and seen firsthand small businesses who mistakenly equate company size with expertise and experience. Small businesses are founded by individuals. Individuals with a goal and a dream. They start by seeing a problem and forming a solution. Perhaps it is for themselves, perhaps it is for others. Either way they devote their energy to creating a business built around their solution. By the very nature of creating a solution they become an expert. Unfortunately many small businesses as a result of their background and way of forming discredit their own expertise. Sadly, they believe larger companies with more employees and more managers somehow magically have more expertise. Obviously there’s a greater opportunity for experts within a larger company, but it’s not guaranteed.
Myth: Small Businesses Are Missing Credibility
Thankfully this reason has become a bit less in recent years, however I still hear this referenced on occasion. Small business lacks credibility because its less substantial than some large brick-and-mortar corporation. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The size of a business is not what establishes credibility. There are hundreds of examples of large corporations which hold massive buildings and substantial employee lists with little to no credibility. The size of your business is not what grants credibility. Rather the quality of your work and the testimony of your customers are what establish your credibility and your trustworthiness. Whether your company is a company of one or one hundred the true basis for your business credibility lies in your customers.
Credibility comes from the quality of your work and the testimonials of your customers, not the size of your company.
The Truth
Small businesses are the backbone of economies around the globe. Every business began as a small business. There is no shame in a small business and a small business can most definitely hold immense credibility and demonstrate expertise in their field. The next couple of questions are perhaps the most interesting. How does this relate to open source and how does open source increase the size of your company?
Fact: Open Source is Global
This is where small business is no longer a small business. Open source is more than code. Open source is a community. As a result, when a small business uses open source they are no longer working alone. Instead this joining of a business to an open source community increases the pool of knowledge, of experts, of potential partnerships incredibly. No longer is this small business working alone. They are now a part of a community, something bigger than just themselves. Small businesses using open source can boldly share the size of the community as yet one more reason to trust in them. Again, the myths above are simply myths. The truth is open source provides a global community filled with more individuals than any single company. Your clients can rest assured there is a pool of available resources existing far beyond the size of your company.
Fact: Open Source is Available
The small business which contributes and uses open source in their solutions leverage the availability of an open source community. Time and geographic constraints which most businesses face are less important when a company is built on an open source system where contributions and volunteers exist around the world and span every timezone. The availability of open source enhances the availability of your own business as well.
Fact: Open Source is Dependable
The communities surrounding an open source project are an intimate gathering of volunteers passionate about the project they contribute to. As mentioned earlier, by being global and available, established open source communities are dependable. They can be relied on and they lend credibility to those small businesses which build on them. Small businesses do well to build on open source, contribute back to open source, and become a part of an open source community. By doing so, they enhance both the credibility of the project and their own credibility. Simply put, those small businesses which place value on open source and integrate open source throughout their business will quickly find the value of open source. Small businesses grow in size, in location, in availability, and in dependability by leveraging the power of open source. Open source increases far more than your company size. Don’t neglect this valuable resource when growing your small business. And never be ashamed of where you began.