What defines a small business? Google tells us “Small business is defined as a privately owned corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship that has fewer employees and less annual revenue than a corporation or regular-sized business”.Is that all? No, there is so much more. It’s the personal touch, that extra attention to detail, the friendliness, and the little things they do to make you want to do business with them again.
Be it your local neighborhood shop, the ever present shop or service on your main street, the trades person you can depend on or the craftsperson, service provider you can turn to and know you are getting the best from the best and being looked after.
Being local means that the small business or enterprise depends on local support to survive. They are mostly family owned or friends in partnerships, who decided to forgo the relative safety of being an employee and took (and take every day) the uncertain step to being self-employed. They are risk takers, and they are also your family, friends, and neighbors who go about their business every day to help make your life a little easier, more comfortable, rewarding and happy. It could be the convenience of the location of their premises, the hours they work, their availability, and the personal touch you know you will get. All these things matter but you know you will get a smile and acknowledgement, and gratitude from these people because they care and you are important to them.
Small businesses are the backbone of our society, they create a local economy, support local neighborhoods. Generate jobs and training for our workforce. Pass on skills, experience and know how. As they invest in their business they invest in our society, generating revenue for local and national Government agencies, which is what keeps our country going.
Running a small business is not easy but it can be rewarding. With rewards beyond financial, the rewards can include the pride that is felt in knowing you are doing something special for someone be it making a cup of coffee or making a gift, or making somebody feel special or good about themselves.
Small businesses are everywhere, in our towns, cities, villages and countryside. They provide services from the creative to the everyday, the essential to the mundane .Things we need daily, things we need occasionally to things we hope we never need but know they are there when we do and are glad of the support.
The personal touch small business provides is what helps make them unique, their willingness to help, their eye to detail, that freedom to go beyond what is expected, their willingness to listen and get things right. The small things, the big things, all that is necessary to create an experience that you will be part of to enjoy, savor and benefit from.
Many small businesses are interwoven one business providing the raw materials, goods or services for the other. In the end they have you in mind working in unison to provide an end product for you the consumer. Their skills are many and varied but all have an end goal of providing the very best service or product that they can. Their abilities are wide ranging they not only practice their profession but will have had to master an ability to understand and know many skills involved in running a business. Although they will engage other skilled people to carry out certain duties, the small business owner will have the capability to multi task in their daily operations and have a willingness to take on any job that is necessary to complete their end goal.
Small business owners are a big part of our economy, a bigger part of our daily lives. They are the people who go a big way to help us every day. They are the glue that holds our society together, without them we would not function as an economy. They are the “go to people” we will need in our lives, always.
