Differences between small and large businesses
Of course, all companies are very individual and there are nuances in work everywhere. Moreover, there are certain features that are typical for small businesses. Firstly, this is the approach to clients and high sensitivity to any market fluctuations. Here, every client is worth its weight in gold, because small firms have no other sources of income.
If a couple of customers leave Auchan for another supermarket, there will be no serious problem for the chain. But for the owner of a small farm shop, the loss of several customers can be the beginning of ruin. Moreover, this state of affairs is observed in any small business (both in B2B and B2C spheres), and this is not its only vulnerable spot.
Secondly, small businesses are iceland email list forced to save money on everything, especially in times of crisis. This is explained simply: small firms can only rely on themselves. In the event of something happening, they will not be saved by rich investors (they do not exist), or budget revenues (they are not allocated), or a head office that absorbs other companies and stands firmly on its feet (they do not exist either).
You have to produce and promote the product yourself, monitor expenses, try not to lose employees (and competitors are trying to lure good specialists, especially IT specialists, not with salaries, but with perks). It often goes to extremes: small companies attract freelancers or outsourcers to cooperate, there are very few of their own employees in the office, they use free or left-hand software (and end up paying fines). All this can hardly be called advantages.
Furthermore, all processes in small businesses also proceed in a very peculiar way. In a large company, these are always entire groups of operations: here, production, quality control, logistics, infrastructure, and marketing are organized simultaneously. In small enterprises, basic processes are usually performed plus some complex one (again, this could be production, warehouse, logistics, etc.).
The point is that using a simple CRM (serving only calls) for a small business will not work. It turns out that even though the business is not large, its structure, software, and management procedure should be the same as in large companies.
Here's what else is typical for small businesses: here the manager himself strives to control all processes from A to Z, and not because of a sense of self-importance, but so that everything is built correctly, people would work in normal conditions (and would try to do it well), and the business would prosper.
And someone will disagree with this, but it is in small businesses that automation is a vital necessity. Because the resources here are not so extensive and everything that is available (people, money, ways of earning) should be used with maximum efficiency. There are many examples where CRM in small businesses worked wonders, increasing the efficiency of the team, production, logistics, warehouse and everything else many times over.