I've been thinking about this for years. I used to do a lot of small client work in the early 00s, and it was clear to me that high-quality custom work does not make sense for small businesses; the ROI just isn't there. At the same time, the services targeting this market just churn out crap.
Solving this problem is tough because small business owners are an extremely diverse set, and the needs of different types of businesses vary widely. Combine this with a general lack of internet savvy, a lot of folk wisdom picked up from friends and family about the web, and a do-it-yourself mentality means that an MVP is very difficult to sniff out.
The hardest part, though, is support. The price of the service needs to be relatively cheap, but it needs to have good support, preferably 12x7 phone support. Economically this won't scale unless the product is simple enough to minimize support needs. 10 years ago I think this problem was intractable, but with the internet becoming more and more ingrained in our daily lives, it's only a matter of time.
So yeah, personally I think this is a great market to be getting into.
"So yeah, personally I think this is a great market to be getting into."
Why do you think it's a great market to get into? Is it the size of the opportunity? Your first three paras outline why it's a difficult market.
BTW: Your description of the small business market is spot-on. I have also done small-client work (and still do) and agree with your assessment. It's just that your last statement seems out of synch with the sentiment of your comment.
It was meant to flow from the previous sentence. The market has been hard to get into, but it's inevitably opening up due to growing familiarity with the web.
Comments
I've been thinking about this for years. I used to do a lot of small client work in the early 00s, and it was clear to me that high-quality custom work does not make sense for small businesses; the ROI just isn't there. At the same time, the services targeting this market just churn out crap.
Solving this problem is tough because small business owners are an extremely diverse set, and the needs of different types of businesses vary widely. Combine this with a general lack of internet savvy, a lot of folk wisdom picked up from friends and family about the web, and a do-it-yourself mentality means that an MVP is very difficult to sniff out.
The hardest part, though, is support. The price of the service needs to be relatively cheap, but it needs to have good support, preferably 12x7 phone support. Economically this won't scale unless the product is simple enough to minimize support needs. 10 years ago I think this problem was intractable, but with the internet becoming more and more ingrained in our daily lives, it's only a matter of time.
So yeah, personally I think this is a great market to be getting into.
"So yeah, personally I think this is a great market to be getting into."
Why do you think it's a great market to get into? Is it the size of the opportunity? Your first three paras outline why it's a difficult market.
BTW: Your description of the small business market is spot-on. I have also done small-client work (and still do) and agree with your assessment. It's just that your last statement seems out of synch with the sentiment of your comment.
It was meant to flow from the previous sentence. The market has been hard to get into, but it's inevitably opening up due to growing familiarity with the web.