Small Businesses

I am not sure what I want to do when I finish my degree, whether to set up a business myself or try and get a job at a bigger company. I want to make sure I understand the pro's and con's of each option. I have been looking at articles about the ways that small businesses can compete with large companies when they are constantly undercut by big businesses that can afford to buy huge amounts of stock at a lower price. There are a number of ways that small businesses can take advantage of their small size. Small businesses can react faster the changes in the market place, they don't have the red tape that bigger companies have to adhere to and the small number of staff and simple company structure mean decisions can be made in much shorter periods of time. In many cases the person in charge is also the person on the front line dealing with customers putting them in an ideal position to react to the needs of their clients.

 Where larger companies are able stock a wide variety of products and offer a diverse range that can often span a huge section of the market place small companies can specialise and use their expertise as selling point. Customers can value the advice from the shops they are buying from as much as the products themselves and will be more confident in the products if the person selling them has a good knowledge of them. large companies can lose this ability as the company grows and suffer because of it. I am a keen cyclist and photographer and can think of two companies off the top of my head that at face value seem to operate in similar ways but the customer experience is vastly different. Jessops seems to hire young people that will be happy to work for minimum wage regardless of their knowledge of the products they sell, Edinburgh cycles employ a people of a similar age but seem to have taken the time to seek out staff with a keen interest and base of knowledge of their products.  As a customer I am much more likely to buy from the latter, knowledgeable staff fill you with confidence and make you more comfortable with spending money. having conversations with staff that have a shared interest creates a feeling of community. Their job is to sell you products but they also want to keep you as a long term customer, something that may not be as crucial with a much larger customer base.

Small businesses can create a strong online presence with a well mad and maintained website and good use of social media. A well though out online presence can give the impression that a small business is much larger than it really is. The quality of the website is crucial when trying to expand your customer base. A trusted payment gateway is a must. The more impressive the website the more comfortable customers will be buying from you, all aspects should be well though out and executed from photography to layout to the item descriptions. An online presence can do much more than provide a platform to sell products, your website and social media sites provide opportunity to interact with the a huge audience. This can be used to communicate values that may not be evident on your website. Interactions with potential customers can go well beyond usual customer services scenarios. Values and personality can be added to your brand that if used well could benefit your business.
I need to figure out which of these is most important to my practice and how to apply them.