David has kindly given me this space to talk even more about something I already live and breathe every day so forgive me if some of the stuff you read is based on things you have already heard or read.
I firmly believe that the Small Business Specialist Community has never been stronger. And the best bit about it is that it is only going to get better if it continues in the same way it has done in the last 18 months.
The community has played a big part in my recent working life and has improved the way that I and Readycrest (who I work for) operates. Because of these benefits, I understand that sharing this knowledge is key to encouraging the exchange of information that benefits all of those who play a proactive part in our community; be it a sole trader, a larger partner, or even a technology vendor.
Just to give those a brief introduction to the community, here are a few points you may like to know:
Summary of our Small Business
Specialist Community:
- Currently consists of 14 regional
groups which meet regularly once a month
- These groups unite as one combined
network when meetings are not in action
- Community allows for the smaller
voices to unite creating a larger and more focussed voice
- A voluntary community consisting of
like-minded peers – consultants, resellers, etc…
- Largest member is approx 40 people,
smallest (and the majority) is one-man-band
- The community shares information,
knowledge, experiences, and ideas to improve the working practices of their
businesses
- Partnering is popular as it allows
for businesses to expand flexibly without the problems suffered when recruiting
and avoids legal obligations i.e. when you employ 10+ people
- Our businesses sell to other
businesses on empathy i.e. we sell based on our experiences with the products,
and therefore the community is successful because we apply this attitude when
interacting with our peers.
- The community is a strong organic
network of enthused and proactive people who understand the need to break
tradition and share business knowledge in order to survive our
industry
- There’s
over 400 active members online now as well & that the community is run by
partners, for partners, without outside interference by vendors.
Our community and the Microsoft Small Business
Specialist accreditation are two separate entities.
Although both exist for primarily
the same reasons, there is still a divide between the two even though at times
it can be a little blurred. In short, Microsoft does not have any ownership over
our community but they fully endorse and encourage it. Two of the main
reasons that our partnership with Microsoft exists is so that community members
can have access to the SMB team which other registered partners would not. The
second is that Microsoft uses the feedback from the community to produce and
release products and services that are appropriate for our market i.e. they
don’t push us stuff we don’t need and then wonder why the take up was
low!
There are many reasons why the
group exists but in short it allows the opinions and ideas of one small business
to be recognised by like-minded peers to create a much bigger voice which is
recognised in our industry both by other partners, local government, vendors,
etc… Each group faces local challenges and on a day to day basis we operate on
our ‘patches’ independently. However, now that organisations like Microsoft and
Harry are emphasising the benefits of the community to their industry partners,
the community is seen as an effective way to find out how to better current
business practices from all sides.
It isn’t by any means perfect but
the best thing about the community is that at its core it thrives on the passion
of the leaders and those partners who recognise that a change in tradition and
who chose to exchange business information i.e. best practices, business
experiences will only benefit and further their own business
success.
Part of my role is to work with other proactive members of the community to promote the benefits of this network to those who have not yet tapped its potential.
I encourage all businesses who have an interest in supporting SBS for their customers to keep in touch with sites such as David's, the UK SBS Yahoo! Group, and of course SBSBPI.
If you fancy downloading a few podcasts to keep you entertained then have a look at www.sbsshow.com which covers a wide range of subjects including Disaster Recovery and Jeff Middleton's Swing Migration.
Until next time...
Susanne