As a small business owner or a startup entrepreneur, what is the biggest barrier to your sustainable growth (other than funding)?
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As my business has evolved over the last 25 years, so has the internet. These days it is evident that selling my services locally has been usurped by national listing companies that for a price will get me a high seo ranking for a fee. I just want to service my community using the tools available, but necessarily must compete with non-local, giant internet entities to gain the attention of my actual local market. This diverts money away from my community to companies that can't seem to get enough. I think that "Buy Local" organizations will prove to be the best way to reclaim the local service market.
1 Reply
Merry Bauman
from Wyldewood Cellars
We are constantly being called and emailed by companies in foreign countries that want to sell us services like SEO; web design; and anything that they can do without actually ever being here. We don't do business with them. There is no level of trust and we like face-to-face meetings and the ability to call and get something changed or fixed. We also like to keep the money in our communities or at least our country. Personally, those auto-dialers and robo-calls that happen over and over all day are beyond rude. I would not deal with anyone that used that method. Maybe I am old-fashioned about it, but I want to talk to a human, and one that speaks English. I speak three languages, but that does not matter. If I need something done, I look to local people first.
Mark Peterson
from Ceyero Consulting
To keep national giants for taking hold in your market, you must CONSTANTLY differentiate your services and find pain points that national providers can not solve.
In his biography, Sam Walton noted that he should never have been able to beat local stores because local owners know the names of their customers.