What’s a Small and Medium-Sized Business (SMB)?

Starting a small and medium-sized business (SMB) involves planning, making key financial decisions and understanding what it takes to succeed. The good news is, that you have the potential to make a big impact if you can learn what it takes to be successful as an SMB .

These tips will help you to realise that small businesses make big bucks. But first, let’s ensure we understand the SMB definition and why these businesses are so important to our economy.

Here's what you’ll learn:

• What are small and medium-sized businesses?
• Why are SMBs so important?
• What are the benefits of an SMB?
• What are the challenges for smaller organisations?
• SMB = Speed-Maximising Businesses
• How do you help your SMB grow?

A business with 1-20 employees is defined as small, while businesses with 21-100 employees are considered medium-sized.

The second attribute used to define an SMB is annual revenue: in the UK, a small or medium-sized enterprise is typically defined as an organisation with fewer than 250 employees and an annual turnover not exceeding £44 million, or a balance sheet total not exceeding £38 million.

MBAs and economists will tell you that their power comes from the fact that the economy can only support a limited number of large enterprises, creating a long-tail market for SMBs. That market consists of many small and medium-sized businesses that (in aggregate) carry almost as much market power as the bigger players.

Large enterprises have room for fluff — they swell and slow down if they aren’t careful. SMBs don’t have that luxury and as a result, they are built for speed. The only way to thrive as a fast-paced organisation is to fill your team with people with heart and then feed their passion for what you do. Which makes the customer their number one priority.

In fact, 65% of customers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences. But 61% of customers say most companies treat them as a number . As a small or medium-sized business, you have the ability to treat every customer as an individual.

The global economy relies on small and medium-sized businesses for job creation, economic growth and innovation. Governments are now recognising the importance of small and mid-size businesses and are allocating resources and programmes to support them.

Small and medium enterprises play a large role in driving competition in both local and global markets. They benefit local economies by creating employment opportunities, generating tax revenue and contributing to the success of other businesses. Additionally, these businesses make significant contributions to global exports and distribution.

Small and medium businesses do have challenges that can hinder growth and success. One major challenge is keeping up with the increasing preference for digital interactions among customers. Failure to have the right tools for the job can leave these businesses lagging.

Cybersecurity poses a growing threat to small and medium businesses as well. SMBs are particularly vulnerable to ransomware attacks due to inadequate antivirus software. Upgrading to a robust security solution designed for enterprises can safeguard their data, applications and devices.

Expanding into new markets is another hurdle for SMBs. Limited resources often prevent them from performing thorough market research, making it difficult to make informed decisions. Additionally, disruptions in supply chains can disproportionately affect mid-size businesses, as larger companies have more leverage in negotiations.

B2B brands hoping to sell into the bustling SMB market can shift their understanding of the term to a new acronym that fits their unique profile better. SMBs are not just small and medium-sized businesses — they are speed-maximising businesses.

Under this new acronym, anyone hoping to land the business of an SMB needs to understand three core tenets of the way they work.

1. SMBs have a need for speed. They need to move quickly and can’t stomach your request for a six-month deployment. They want you to move fast or get out of the way. If you don’t, they’ll drop you — fast.

2. Motivations vary for SMBs. If they wanted to be pencil-pushers or cogs in a wheel, SMB personnel would have joined large enterprises. Consider what motivates your prospects before you make introductions. When you do, you’ll spark more interesting and highly motivated conversations.

3. Different SMBs are different. Shocking, right? But you’d be surprised by how many sales representatives try to run the same play against vastly different companies. Each SMB is unique, so take the time to learn about your prospect’s business before making sale-stalling assumptions.