The Crowd and the Small Business

Posted: August 11th, 2010 | Author: Laura Rich | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Last week, the NYT published a story I wrote about crowdsourcing for their small business section. Sort of a “guide to crowdsourcing for small businesses.”

I’ve been writing about small businesses and entrepreneurs and startups for seemingly ever (beginning with The Industry Standard, I guess), and I just hate the moniker “small business.” It is far, far less exciting than the fast-seeming “startup,” or the Frenchy “entrepreneur.” Sadly, I’ve found most small businesses are exactly that – far less exciting. More conservative, less big-thinking.

For this story, it wasn’t the easiest thing to find small businesses who had tapped the crowd. Big businesses had been more likely to embrace it. They also have the room to take risks, whereas small businesses, I’ll allow, need to weigh the potential benefits of taking certain chances.

But the crowd is exactly that – the chance that delivers the benefit. Huge benefit. Save money, get better results. Why so scary?

A couple of companies talked about how the crowd gave them more options than if they’d gone with one consultant – lots more risk there. A law firm in North Carolina also liked turning his AdWords campaigns over to a crowdsourcing firm that raised the number of keyword campaigns from hundreds to thousands. Good stuff.

The crowd can seem scary, though, because it’s not about simply turning over the keys, it requires managing and guiding their work. Nothing comes free.

To my mind, the only reason for calling oneself “small business” is perhaps for small-business loans and other government money. Certainly, you retain more ownership when you go that route versus venture or angel capital.

Small businesses, ditch “small business” and start thinking “startup.”

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