No, I Mean Really Small Business!
Last week I attended two giant web shows at the Los Angeles
Convention Center. The huge InternetWorld Spring 2001 and a
concurrent show titled eCRM, both offered in the sprawling four
block square building in the City of Angels. I went to seek out
and report on ecommerce solutions for the little guy. You know,
that's you and me. The companies that have less than 100
employees!
The traditional label of "Small Business" has come to apply to
far too many companies. I guess we should adopt the term
"Microbusiness" to get realistic about what most of the world
imagines when you say "Small Business". I mean a business with
less than 10 employees and I think most of the rest of the world
does too. Monstrous companies define us as invisible.
Well picture this if you will, I brazenly approached one sales
guy (there were dozens of them) at Siebel Systems booth (more
like a small city dominating 10 spaces in the convention
center). I simply asked him "Does Siebel offer any solutions for
the small business?"
His response was predictable. "Our enterprise solutions can be
applied across multiple platforms to unite all legacy systems
throughout . . ."
STOP right there please! You might just as well have said a very
simple NO! You could go on to say something really quite
derogatory like, "NO, you puny imbecile! If we created anything
for worker ants like you, we'd be broke in nothing flat! Go away
and come see us when you have $30 grand or so to spend and we'll
be happy to TALK with you then!"
I have to be honest and say that the Siebel salesman was really
very courteous and pleasant. It's just the fact that they don't
get big by providing small solutions for small business people.
So here is my list of really worthwhile solutions that I was
able to find for LittleGuy.com at InternetWorld 2001.
http://www.callbutton.com
As reported last week, my best of show award goes to CallButton.
Reasonably priced, powerful, all around useful and a great ROI
(return on investment) potential for small businesses online.
http://www.GoToMyPC.com
This is another of my picks from a previous conference called
the Upside Events Showcase 2001. I like it so much I'm making it
a repeat winner since they've now partnered with Expert City.
Someone else clearly agreed with me on this one. ;-)
http://www.epage.com
This company offers free classified ads for your web site. Hold
on now, not just another business opportunities classified site.
These folks offer searchable, co-branded, subject specific ads
and auctions that match the theme of your site! Brilliant!
http://www.MyeHive.com
Set to capitalize on peer to peer technology in a huge way, they
are offering a browser "skin" that allows linking to and
download from other desktop users -- any digital content you
like from ebooks to music. But they've worked out a way to pay
YOU for it! This site is still in beta and will go live soon.
(Bookmark it!)
http://www.gocard.com
Affordable advertising for the little guy. And guess what?!
You'll be in the rack with the big boys. It's open to even you
and I on a first-come first-served basis. Your postcard on racks
right beside American Express and major manufacturers in big
cities!
http://www.ibill.com
Various payment processing solutions for the small business
online. These folks have been around for awhile and although
they take a hefty chunk of sales, it beats some of the other
options for little tiny businesses like mine. ;-)
http://www.cihost.com
These folks were a big hit at the show. As attendees lined up to
grab CIhost tchotchkes like keychains and pens with thier logos
on them, sales staff started throwing CIhost t-shirts to the
crowd. Good natured fun, and not reason enough to choose a web
host, but they offer top-notch customer service as a key
component of sales. Good pricing and great webmaster revenue
share affiliate program.
http://www.goback.com
Back-up and restore software that tops anything I've seen for
system crash recovery. $40 bucks that could save you thousands
in lost time and information. You just gotta check this one out!
It's unbelievable in it's power to get you back up and running
after an ugly system failure.
My favorite crowd pleasing publicity stunt was from
http://www.SpiderCache.com
Your picture with a friendly Tarantula on your shoulder. They
offer a wonderful product aimed at the small to mid-sized ISP or
company with it's own servers. Traffic spikes and heavy
bandwidth users gain stability and reduce peak loads. Where does
that spider come in?
Unbelievably, there are more. But I'll save them for later. Good
show. Most journalists were discussing the low crowd count and a
few no-show show demonstrators. I was real happy to have the
chance to talk with some innovators without too much t-shirt
tossing and was glad to see Siebel Systems salespeople with
nothing to do. Little-guy solution providers were quite busy.