Friday, November 23, 2012

Global Small Business Owner: Don't Keep Making Hamburgers When McDonald's Comes to Town

iStock/Thinkstock
How does the owner of a small hamburger shop survive when McDonald's comes to town?  What does the little hardware store that provides unquestionable top-line service to the community do when Home Depot shows up a mile away?

In the case of the small hamburger shop, the owner needs to sell something else.  With the hardware store, it's similar -- sell more than hardware and offer more personal service -- something the big guys can't do as efficiently.
As a small business, it’s nearly impossible to protect yourself from this kind of assault. If you want to stand your ground and fight, then the best strategy is to ally yourself with other local businesses and pool your resources. Offer free cross-advertising campaigns and attack the large multinational threat together. While you can’t offer discounts on all your products to fight back, offering rotating sales on select products can attract customers. In an all-out war against the big guys, the enemy of your enemy is your best friend.
Learn more here.

Meanwhile, don't forget Small Business Saturday and Global Small Business Sunday.

2 comments:

Self Storage Leesport said...

We've actually implemented tactics that agree with the point of this article! We've developed a local business e-newsletter where we highlight small business deals free of charge. The idea is that we local businesses can support each other especially since we are not in direct competition for the same kind of dollar.

Unknown said...

Nice article. Even i agree, small business people should use some strategy to develop and expand there business. They should develop there Entrepreneur skills which will help them to grown in business. Come up with new idea introducing to new things and able to transform innovations into economic goods.