Micro-business primer

Dane Carlson is the force behind Business Opportunities Weblog and he is always posting interesting links about small business, entrepreneurs, going off on your own and recommendations on how to make the most of your efforts. He casts about widely and is worth checking out every day to see what has caught in his weblog. One of his recent posts linked to a site called Ripples by David St Lawrence. Over the last couple of weeks David has posted about micro-business and recently about micro-consultants - people who serve these small firms. Go to the site, google "micro-business" and check it out.

In a micro-business, you call the shots and you learn from your mistakes. If you are a fast learner and quick on your feet, this is a heady experience. You now have tools which make you every bit as efficient as a much larger firm. In addition, you have the opportunity to work closely with your customers and give them a level of service that no large corporation can match.

from The lure of a Micro-Business

These business bloggers with well-integrated lives use their personal blog to share business and life experience information that will help others. In doing so, they reveal enough of themselves to generate confidence in their expertise and judgement. There is no doubt about it, personality or lack of it comes through in one's posts. I think blogs build a reputation faster than any other forum I know of.

from Balancing Micro-Business and personal blogs

Exchange is the key. It is the fundamental activity of any business, especially a micro-business where you are self-employed. Many people have it backward. It's not about your product or service. What is important is: What do people need and want and how can I provide it?

from Micro-Business 101 - basic facts of life and business

Thanks David for the insights and Dane for the pointer.

Comments

[David St Lawrence]

Thanks for the mention!

I felt this was an under-reported area. Government sponsored activities tend to blur home-based-business and small business together. They are not the same kind of operation at all, except at the $1 million sales level which is the crossover pont between micro and small businesses.

THe SBA occasionally mentions micro-businesses, but there is little of substance on their website or in what they have to offer.

The support network for micro-businesses consists of internet forums and weblogs. That may be enough, as the needs of micro-businesses are changing rapidly as the technologies they depend on.

By the time a book is published on the nature and importance of micro-businesses to the economy, the situation will have changed enough so the book will be of little value to actual micro-business owners. It may find a market with those who idly dream of a glorious future when they will be running their own company.

Micro-business owners barely have time to go the toilet. If they need help, it has to be fast,on target, and immediately applicable.

A network of like-minded blogs that support micro-business as opposed to "business" in general, will find a ready audience. The exchange of information alone would be priceless.