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I've worked in a few small business, and have been the end-user for quite a few tech products focused on SMBs. I think the problems are far more complicated tha

I've worked in a few small business, and have been the end-user for quite a few tech products focused on SMBs. I think the problems are far more complicated than what is written here. First, many SMB owners are highly technophobic. No matter how good your product is, if they straight out fear technology, you aren't going to get anywhere with them. SMBs, by definition, are small, and many run on credit card debt during the slow months. They don't have the luxury of finding investments like a tech company. Since most of them are bootstrapped, it is hard to ask for $5k / month from SMBs. If they can hire on 3 people for the same price, where do you think they are going to spend that money? Unfortunately, many SMBs are stuck in a hard place with tech. The tech they can afford is pure trash, a total displeasure to use, crashes on a weekly basis, and so obviously bad that no one needs a math degree to understand that this product is a money pit, and likely ends up costing more to use than it would if everyone was doing things by hand. On the opposite end, the products that are worthwhile to use are a) too expensive and b) the technology companies don't want to play small ball, so the SMBs they talk to tend to walk away feeling disrespected. When you have a technophobic, cautious SMB owner as a customer, playing a game of "push and see it break" isn't going to work. These products end up stalling out the entire business for a morning, and the costs of paying for employees not working, then tacking on overtime, reflects poorly on these products. I totally believe that the SMB space is ripe for massive disruption. The current tech offerings are old, buggy, slower than molasses in winter, and doesn't work as promised. The problem is, who can get to the gate first with a product that is cheap, productive, and obviously not the product of people with no domain knowledge.

caseysoftware 10y ago
> The current tech offerings are old, buggy, slower than molasses in winter, and doesn't work as promised. I'd remove the word "current" because almost every tech offering they've had has been awful ranging from the thing someone's nephew built to the website someone hacked together to Quickbooks. As a result, even the non-technophobes are hesitant to jump in. It becomes a matter of "the devil you know" as opposed to hating tech in general. And at the same time, they probably have tech in their lives - like their iPhone - which "just works" most of the time and the contrast is even more frustrating.
- dizzystar 10y ago
  Well, "current" meaning "currently offered."
pjc50 10y ago
Exactly. Domain knowledge and ability to speak to people on the same level is critical. SMBs will pick up solutions, but very slowly - so you almost need a matching small software company to build them.
omouse 10y ago
Basically you're pointing that quality of tech hasn't increased and we aren't cutting enough scope so that quality is very high which is why only large companies can afford the better software. I totally believe that the SMB space is ripe for massive disruption. It is but the incentives are geared towards selling to big clients.
no_wizard 10y ago
I'm actually going to credit Google's G Suite as being pretty darn good for what you can get for 5 or 10 dollars a month. You can get a domain, immediately start a blog on blogger against that domain, you have great alternatives to word, excel, powerpoint, cloud storage you can use for the business needs (scanning tax receipts anyone?) You can even host an 'intranet' as you scale, and a built in ads platform (granted, not perfect, but thats another thread). I'm simply shocked that you don't see this being pushed harder, Google could make a lot of money here. Plus, all the 3rd party integrations are nice, and some even give you a discount for signing up via Google. This is what the cloud is all about, was making this stuff cheaper and more accessible than ever. Google really is missing out on an opportunity here IMO.

caseysoftware 10y ago

> The current tech offerings are old, buggy, slower than molasses in winter, and doesn't work as promised. I'd remove the word "current" because almost every tech offering they've had has been awful ranging from the thing someone's nephew built to the website someone hacked together to Quickbooks. As a result, even the non-technophobes are hesitant to jump in. It becomes a matter of "the devil you know" as opposed to hating tech in general. And at the same time, they probably have tech in their lives - like their iPhone - which "just works" most of the time and the contrast is even more frustrating.

dizzystar 10y ago
Well, "current" meaning "currently offered."

pjc50 10y ago

Exactly. Domain knowledge and ability to speak to people on the same level is critical. SMBs will pick up solutions, but very slowly - so you almost need a matching small software company to build them.

omouse 10y ago

Basically you're pointing that quality of tech hasn't increased and we aren't cutting enough scope so that quality is very high which is why only large companies can afford the better software. I totally believe that the SMB space is ripe for massive disruption. It is but the incentives are geared towards selling to big clients.

no_wizard 10y ago

I'm actually going to credit Google's G Suite as being pretty darn good for what you can get for 5 or 10 dollars a month. You can get a domain, immediately start a blog on blogger against that domain, you have great alternatives to word, excel, powerpoint, cloud storage you can use for the business needs (scanning tax receipts anyone?) You can even host an 'intranet' as you scale, and a built in ads platform (granted, not perfect, but thats another thread). I'm simply shocked that you don't see this being pushed harder, Google could make a lot of money here. Plus, all the 3rd party integrations are nice, and some even give you a discount for signing up via Google. This is what the cloud is all about, was making this stuff cheaper and more accessible than ever. Google really is missing out on an opportunity here IMO.