small business big advantage

Small business has a huge advantage over big business. In fact, it's so great an advantage that it should make the sale every time.

The big advantage? Easy. Small business cares.

I care about my clients. I can't afford not to care. If I don't care, they won't keep paying me.

Big business doesn't care; the guy on the end of the phone still gets his paycheck no matter what happens with your web site. It's all about accountability.

This fact was brought home to me (literally!) last Sunday afternoon. An overseas client called in a panic -- her domain name was displaying a bunch of pay-per-click ads. It appeared, to her, that her web site had been either hijacked or the domain had expired and been registered by someone else.

What had actually happened was that her domain name email contact was no longer active. Therefore, she didn't receive the email notifications about renewal. Then her domain name expired. So the registrar started displaying its own page full of advertising.

We sorted out what had happened, the client quickly renewed the domain, and her site appeared again within a couple of hours. All's well that ends well. But if she hadn't checked the site, panicked, and called me on Sunday afternoon, her valuable domain could have been lost.

If that domain name was managed by a small business, it would never had expired in the first place. A small business is far more likely to have a finger on the pulse, because its service is more personalized. A small business will know what's happening, who it's happening to, and what to do to fix it, averting this sort of problem.

If your business is small, look upon it as a big advantage -- and start pushing that advantage at every opportunity you have.

And yes, I did transfer that client's domain name into the care of my business, and renewed it for ten years. That's a $200 profit right there for being small and caring -- and answering the phone on a Sunday!