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Before the Internet, small businesses had a few key competitive advantages going for them: being local. Process Knowledge. knowing your customers. Customers had

by petra 9y ago

Before the Internet, small businesses had a few key competitive advantages going for them: being local. Process Knowledge. knowing your customers. Customers had hard time to compare. Etc. Now they're gone. After the the Internet and the recession, scalable businesses, had few advantages going for them: everything became scalable. A lot of VC funding. Technology is better(and the advantages come first to those with capital). Many things can be turned into a network. Everything became global. So those forces should decrease the number of small businesses. By a lot. On the other hand, small businesses still got some advantages, and the main among them: many new niche markets became accessible, mostly via targeted marketing, scalability and opening of larger markets. That was the new hope. Did could it be that this hope has failed us ? and if so, Why ? What can be done to enable more niche businesses ? or is it the wrong answer ?

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
> Did could it be that this hope has failed us ? and if so, Why ? What can be done to enable more niche businesses ? or is it the wrong answer ? Small businesses can't compete with global mega-corps who exploit cheap labor and lobby(bribe) the government in their favor. Young people can't afford to start their own businesses when the smartest among them have massive amounts of student loans, rising housing costs, and are under the threat of bankruptcy if they get sick. If we want to stimulate small business growth while also increasing economic development in rural areas, we need to do something about globalization. People need to feel economically secure to have the leverage to start a business, which necessitates a rising quality of life for all the classes, not just the upper class.
- bsder 9y ago
  > Young people can't afford to start their own businesses when the smartest among them have massive amounts of student loans, rising housing costs, and are under the threat of bankruptcy if they get sick. You think that 35-year-old with a wife, 2 kids, and a mortgage has those problems any less? Not having universal health care is an economic drag. We have study after study on this. Rising housing costs are a drag by preventing labor liquidity. People can't just move from one area to another when so much of their wealth is tied up in an illiquid asset. Neither of these is inherently tied to globalization.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

by petra 9y ago

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago

> Did could it be that this hope has failed us ? and if so, Why ? What can be done to enable more niche businesses ? or is it the wrong answer ? Small businesses can't compete with global mega-corps who exploit cheap labor and lobby(bribe) the government in their favor. Young people can't afford to start their own businesses when the smartest among them have massive amounts of student loans, rising housing costs, and are under the threat of bankruptcy if they get sick. If we want to stimulate small business growth while also increasing economic development in rural areas, we need to do something about globalization. People need to feel economically secure to have the leverage to start a business, which necessitates a rising quality of life for all the classes, not just the upper class.

bsder 9y ago
> Young people can't afford to start their own businesses when the smartest among them have massive amounts of student loans, rising housing costs, and are under the threat of bankruptcy if they get sick. You think that 35-year-old with a wife, 2 kids, and a mortgage has those problems any less? Not having universal health care is an economic drag. We have study after study on this. Rising housing costs are a drag by preventing labor liquidity. People can't just move from one area to another when so much of their wealth is tied up in an illiquid asset. Neither of these is inherently tied to globalization.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]