Does Size Really Matter?

Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 12:53pm by William Quisenberry in Innovation

Wait one second and don’t freak out thinking that you’ve accidentally stumbled upon an X-Rated website when you hear the title of this writing piece. The size that I’m actually referring to is the size of the city or town that you live and conduct business in.

There are many different types of entrepreneurs that are apart of the MP community and we all come from different regions and areas throughout the United States. Having said that, some of us come from extremely large cities like New York City which has millions of people, many businesses and a ton of large corporations.

Then there may be some entrepreneurs who are starting businesses in very small towns that don’t have many people at all. Then there are the cities and regions that kind of fall in the middle between a large city and a small town.

So does starting a business in a very small town hinder your growth possibilities? I say no, simply because of the strides that have been made in technological areas.

With the continued growth of the internet you can take a seemingly small enterprise that would have had trouble succeeding years ago and turn it into an international operation. Also using the telephone to connect with individuals all over the U.S. can also help expand your business outside the confines of your own community.

I think it’s imperative to keep these technological ideas in mind when operating a business from a fairly small town or city. Since you may be in a situation where your client and customer base is fairly limited, it’s a must that you stretch your networking and business dealings into other states for continued growth.

Also on the flip side of the equation, coming along in very large cities also makes the competition extremely harsh and it’s that much harder for your business to succeed. I had a friend who went to Atlanta a couple of years ago and also took his Sports Agency business with him thinking that it would prosper much more quickly in this large metropolitan area.

However he was quickly overwhelmed by the large organizations that had a strong presence in Atlanta, and he was also very surprised to find out just how quickly he became nothing more than a small fish in a HUGE pond.

When an entrepreneur is faced with increased and intense competition like this in a very large city, I think this is also when they should seek outside clients and business relationships in other regions as well.

By stepping outside the jungle of so many large businesses that are ultimately your competition, and going into areas where you have more opportunities to grow, your business may stand a better chance of flourishing instead of suffocating under the big giants.

So in closing, since entrepreneurs have access to technological equipment like the internet, email, phone, and fax machines;

I guess size really DOESN’T matter, huh!

I’m curious to know what you guys here at MP think.

Do you think the size of your city has a direct effect on your business’s success? What city do you conduct business in and how large is it?

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