Microbusiness Is the New Big Business
These days little is the new big, and microbusiness is the new big business.
Just look at HP, which cut 10 percent of its workforce recently, or IBM, which last year announced a layoff of 15,000 employees. What, you may ask, are all of those laid-off executives doing? Apparently, they are becoming micropreneurs. According to a recent story in USA TODAY, "a new generation of entrepreneurs is launching millions of tiny companies differing from business in the past: They don't want employees."
This trend has been building since the late 1990s, but in 2006 the number of microbusinesses in the U.S. hit the 20 million mark, "one for every six private-sector workers," as the article points out. New technologies are taking the place of paid employees, and owners of microbusinesses are joining together over the Web to create a "virtual assembly line spanning the globe."
There are roughly 25 million businesses in the U.S., and 99.7 percent of those are small businesses (500 employees or less, as defined by the SBA). The vast majority of these small businesses are actually microbusinesses. Annual receipts of these 20 million microbusinesses grew at a 7 percent clip in 2004, with sales this year looking to top — get ready for this — $1 trillion!
How are these new entrepreneurs making it work? You already know the answer: technology. Today, there is no reason any small business should ever look small. Between powerful computer connections, easy-to-use business software, PDAs, cell phones, Web sites, and wireless Internet, any small business can act and look like a big business. As Thomas Friedman of the New York Times says, "The world is flat," and getting flatter every day.
Yes, Wal-Mart is huge, but so are their labor costs. This new generation of technologically savvy, Internet-connected entrepreneurs has the advantage of creating businesses with a worldwide reach, and they can offer countless goods and services without having to hire staff and incur the expense of employees.
It today's world, you do not have to be the British East India Company or Nike if you want to sell your goods across the globe. All you need are some business smarts, a computer with an Internet connection, and some good old-fashioned gumption.
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