Small Businesses Live On The Edge

A new report from England highlights the risks that small business owners take while running their companies. The new study found:

• Almost 20 per cent of UK businesses suffer some kind of major disruption in the course of one year
  
  
• Nearly one in five enterprises experiences a significant interruption to business each year
  
  
• 90 per cent of companies which lose data as a result of a major disruption are forced to close down within two years of the event

Many small business owners are predominantly focused on the now. They wear many hats within their company and are constantly putting out fires. They make decisions (especially purchasing decisions where they have to spend money) based on solutions that will help them solve an immediate pain. Many entrepreneurs do not have contingency plans, do not prepare themselves for potential disruptions in advance and end up getting hit very hard when they happen.

Lesson for selling to small businesses: target your message to solving the immediate pains of business owners instead of painting a picture of what the future might look like. If your message is not immediately relevant to the entrepreneur it's likely to be overlooked.