Below is a snippet of her thoughts about the Small Business Success Index. For the full interview, visit the Grow Smart Business Blog.
Erica Douglass started her own Internet-based business (a web hosting company) during the tech downturn and at the age of 20. She noticed that many large web hosting companies were going out of business and her customers wanted good web hosting company referrals. Erica felt at that time she couldn’t find one. Despite having little or no concept of how to run a business, she started her own.
At the ripe age of 27, Erica decided to “retire” and sold her business for $1.1 million. It grew to over $1 million per year in revenue without any investors and Erica spent less than $25,000 on marketing. She now provides insights about her business experience on her site Erica.biz.
Network Solutions: What did the study reveal to you about the success of small businesses in 2008?
Erica: The study revealed that even though we tech folks consider the Internet to be “saturated” and no longer growing, there are clear opportunities for helping small businesses take advantage of online technologies. It fascinated me that the only technology more than half of the small businesses polled use is email. Clearly, there are ample opportunities for companies wanting to help more small businesses grow using the Internet.
Network Solutions: The study captured six dimensions for measuring success: Capital Access, Marketing and Innovation, Workforce, Customer Service, Computer Technology and Compliance. What do you think are the top priorities for making small businesses more competitive?
Erica: Marketing, to me, is really the key. Learning how to talk about your business in terms of what your customers want as opposed to what you offer is a key concept, yet many small business websites (and even business cards!) still say the same thing: My name ___; my company is ___; we do ___. There’s no acknowledgement of what customers actually want. As the old saying goes, you shouldn’t advertise that you sell drills; you should advertise that your customers will get their paintings hung with your help.
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