Comments on: Ideate’s Top 10 Predictions for Small Business in 2009

By: Top 10 Ideate articles in 2009 | Ideate

Top 10 Ideate articles in 2009 | Ideate — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:34:22 +0000

[...] 10. Ideate’s Top 10 Predictions for Small Business in 2009 [...]

By: henrylow

henrylow — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:55:43 +0000

Often we forget the little guy, the SMB, in our discussions of the comings and goings of the Internet marketing industry. Sure there are times like this when a report surfaces talking about their issues and concerns but, for the most part, we like to talk about big brands and how they do the Internet marketing thing well or not so well.

onlineuniversalwork

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:46:46 +0000

@simunza and rafiq – apologies, guys. For some reason, I always thought it was a SA initiative…

By: rafiq

rafiq — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:42:35 +0000

Ushahida, not from ZA.

By: Simunza S. Muyangana

Simunza S. Muyangana — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:54:05 +0000

Is Ushahidi a South African start up? I thought it was Kenyan?

By: Greg Priday

Greg Priday — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:01:41 +0000

@Fred, Andrew – There isn’t a shortage of ideas on how to be remarkable, there’s a shortage of people willing to be remarkable. Andrew’s story is a classic example of this lack of motivation. Maybe a blog post on “10 ways to make your business remarkable in 24 hours” would get people motivated. I can think of 4 or 5 ways off the top of my head.

At the end of the day, it’s all about the customer. In the words of Seth; if they’re happy with your business, they’ll talk (remark) about it and you will, by definition, be remarkable.

Fantastic blog post by the way. It’s a great time to be in Cape Town.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:56:32 +0000

@Greg I think we need a whole new blog post on “un-remarkable business” to explore this theme. Fred’s point was that so many South African small businesses don’t even have the absolute basics in place, so they mustn’t worry about trying to do anything extra yet. For example, we’ve been trying for a few months to get an electrician to quote on about R10,000 worth of work that we need done. They either don’t return our calls, or they don’t pitch to quote. Three have come to see us, but we still don’t have a single physical quote in our hands. We’re not looking for a remarkable electrician – just one who will let us pay them money to do some work!

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:55:16 +0000

@Jed – you pick up a phone and set up a meeting. I’ll make you coffee on the World Wide Creative balconey…

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:53:43 +0000

@Greg = I see your point, but for the average small business, how much time, money and resources does it cost to conjure up something remarkable? That cost inevitably gets passed on to the consumer.

Right now customers are reverting cheaper functional offerings. For the time being, small businesses will (and mostly should) focus on where their profit is and then delivering as best as they can.

And besides, to many SA customers, getting something on time, at a cheap price, with good service – that is remarkable!

By: Greg Priday

Greg Priday — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:41:04 +0000

Why would a tightening economy mean we have to abandon remarkable products? Don’t we now, more than ever, need the free word of mouth marketing that these sorts of products get. And remarkable doesn’t mean expensive and flashy, in fact, it can mean quite the opposite. Compare Wikiepdia (remarkable) to Encyclopedia Britannica (un-remarkable). Which is better priced and more timely?