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In my experience it's not so much that they are out to screw you. It is just there is a mismatch when a big company buys from a small company. Big Co has long s
by hermitcrab 3y ago
In my experience it's not so much that they are out to screw you. It is just there is a mismatch when a big company buys from a small company. Big Co has long sales cycles, needs a lot of paperwork done, wants training, may need consultants onsite etc. Small companies are not generally well set up for this. Also your income is more predictable if you average 1000 customers paying $100 per year, than if you average 10 customers paying $10,000 per year. Also a few big paying customers can push you around in a way that lots of smaller customers can't.
- DoreenMichele 3y agoYeah, I didn't say they set out to screw them, just that it does happen. I had a corporate job. People have trouble seeing big companies as having the same cash flow issues etc they have. They imagine they are sitting on a fortune, not that a lot of those assets are needed to just run the company. I remember reading one story about a small company waiting to get paid by BigCo and BigCo ran into issues and then tried to stiff them on payments by saying something like "This is for the latest thing we ordered and we no longer owe you those old payments cuz (legal loophole)" and the small company updated its language to counter such claims and insist "Payment is for the oldest thing we did for you...etc" They probably weren't trying to kill the small company. They were just trying to survive their own financial downturn. It's why I used to think "I should collect such stories when I see them." Small businesses tend to be "The new kid" who learns this the hard way and may not survive the lesson. I would like this issue to get more publicity so small businesses get better at managing such things realistically.