Can SMBs and ‘Big Business’ Be The Perfect Business Partners?
Connecting Small Business Vendors with the Fortune 1000 Could Re-Channel Global B2B Sales
With Valentine’s Day spotlighting personal relationships last month, this time of year can also be the right time to focus on cultivating better business relationships. For big corporations and small businesses, that often means building connections with other companies that look a lot like themselves. However, it might be time to look outside the box and diversify your business connections to find the perfect partner.
Believe it or not, buyers at Fortune 1000 companies are interested in buying from small and medium-sized businesses. Global corporations are always looking to diversify their supply chains, and small vendors often tick many boxes that are hard to check off. The biggest challenge remains with finding these small suppliers across the globe.
If Fortune 1000 buyers were able to discover the right small company to do business with the implications could be massive for the owners and employees of SMB’s across the world.
Small B2B operations with less than ten employees make up nearly 80% of all B2B businesses in the United States.
However, 75% of them make less than $1 million in revenue. A simple move by big businesses utilizing more small businesses can shift the entire paradigm.
It’s a Matter of Discovery
Thankfully, big businesses aren’t opposed to the idea of utilizing small businesses for their supply chain needs. The issue today is that corporations face challenges in finding the right companies globally to serve their needs.
With more than 80% of purchases contracted by Fortune 1000 companies and companies with more than $1B in revenue, there are many opportunities for small businesses to have their services utilized and new organizations working to give them a chance.
The Small Business Administration is one national organization that tries to make this happen. Through its Clusters, networking opportunities are provided to connect small businesses with other businesses and government agencies. Koble’s business discovery platform is also helping small business discovery with buyers at companies such as Sprint, Oracle and Warner Brothers using it to connect with tens of thousands of small businesses across the world. However, we still need to make more large company buyers aware of the benefits of working with SMBs.
The Benefits of Working with SMBs
Working with small businesses in supply chains offers a variety of opportunities, including increased agility and flexibility. SMB suppliers place a bigger emphasis on their customers, which heeds better communication in the supply chain process. Small businesses are able to tailor their solutions quickly around a client, leading to more efficiency and better relationships.
The smaller size of SMBs helps increase their agility in making business decisions. Big businesses tend to have a long approval process, but small businesses can quickly gain management approval and work fast to meet the demands at hand. The agility can lead to real bottom line benefits for big business buyers, changing the lifecycle of small businesses.
Channeling Corporate Wealth to SMBs
U.S. Fortune 1000 companies command more than 70% of America’s wealth, generating close to $14 trillion in revenue combined. Now, if they only took one-tenth of their revenue and channeled it to purchase from small and medium-sized businesses, around 10 million U.S. companies could see their turnover grow by as much as 30%. This business wealth redistribution will benefit small business owners who work more than most employees —
and even more than CEOs of large companies — while making significantly less.
According to a Fundera survey, 70% of small business owners work more than 40 hours a week and 86.3% of them make less than $100K per year. In contrast, the national average of hours worked is 38.6, and the national average salary for CEOs is $163K per year.
The impact of channeling one-tenth of the revenue from the top 0.01% to purchases toward the 99.9% will help solve the problem of the U.S.’s division of wealth and also support the growth of small businesses in today’s economy.
So, this year, I offer the challenge to both SMBs and the Fortune 1000 to expand their business relationships to each other. Enjoy the benefits of new viewpoints, tools, and other disruptive technology, and find diverse partners for your supply chain.
And, who knows? It could be the partner you’ve been dreaming of, giving you another relationship to celebrate in years to come.
Authored by:
By Fabrice Saporito, CEO & Founder of Koble