Why Does Society Look Down on Small Business Owners?

Have you just started your business on a small-scale, or have you just launched a startup and wondering why some people's responses are not so friendly and acceptable? Are you working hard and doing everything possible to establish your small business, but somehow, society fails to give your business the due importance and acceptance? Do you know why consumers look down on small business owners and don't provide appreciation and engagement in small companies than big ventures and corporates? We have thoroughly researched and collected a few top factors that reflect why society looks down on small business owners.

1. Less Social Media & Marketing Activities

People place their support and interest in a business's product or services when they have trust and faith in the brands. It comes into action when there is good brand activity going around the marketplace and various branding, marketing, and social media channels and sources. So, social media and marketing moves are vital to building a brand's reputation and establishing consumers' trust.

Small business owners have a limited or regulated budget and often fail to invest a handsome amount in marketing and branding activities, leading to lesser engagement from consumers' end and limited brand awareness in the targeted consumers and marketplace. Brand awareness plays a significant role in determining the business's position and worth. If there is lesser engagement, people will indeed have less faith in the company and won’t take it as seriously as they would a bigger venture.

2. Low Brand Value

To make any business a successful one in terms of society's engagement, appreciation and recognition, its brand value must be high. Higher the brand value, more will be the engagement from the society's end, and the business will garner more attention and appreciation. The community often looks down on small business owners due to a lack of brand value and business stability. If there is higher brand awareness and brand value, the business seems stable and attracts the consumers' attention and urges them to opt for the services and products.

• How to enhance brand value?

Subsequently, to awaken a sense of high brand value and social media presence, the small business owners must focus on their brand awareness activities through online sources – social media platforms and offline sources – flyers, brochures, advertisements.

3. Lack of Trust

Consumers trust when they are confident of their stability and the business model. Small business owners mostly lack planning for strategic marketing and branding activities that miss out on brand engagement and marketing-related activities. It gives rise to speculation on the quality of products and services offered by small business owners. That makes society a bit sceptical to accept the small business owners' hard work and quality of their products.

• How to build trust among consumers?

Due to an absence of faith and trust in the small business owners, society looks down on them as they don't get the sense of stability concerning the work ethics and the quality of services and products in small business. So, small business owners can build the trust of the consumers in their business ideas. Initially, they can create a good customer rating profile and review status around the internet and other public platforms and forums.

4. Less Profit and Revenue Rate

Usually, small business owners have a limited budget to invest in their business. It leads to limited cash supply in the various investment models for higher profit rates. It usually results in slow growth and more hard work and efforts to expand a business, though the budget allocated in these small businesses is low, so there is less scope of profit and revenue rate. They make small companies less-known, popular, and trustworthy among the other competitors present in the marketplace.

Hence, low-profit rates and revenue rates can be deciding factors that compel society to consider small business owners inferior and often give them less importance than prominent and renowned business enterprises.

• How to overcome less profit and revenue rates?

As per the recent study and research from a leading research survey, in 2019, 29% of small businesses often fail due to lack of funds. To overcome these factors, small business owners can increase their investment budget, look for well-known investors to invest in their business, and focus on adapting revenue augmentation-based tactics and strategies comprehensively for their business.

5. Low Product Range

Consumers always seek a one-stop solution for their problems and demands. They engage, prefer, and give importance to those ventures which can offer a broad range of options to their want. Usually, small business owners focus on a limited range of supplies and services that make the consumer think they are inferior to big business owners as they have limited resources and services. The unavailability of updated or new products and services or low product range often pushes the consumers to think the small business owners cannot serve the demands due to limited budget and investment.

• How to overcome a low product range issue?

As per the recent study and research from a leading research survey, in 2019, 42% of small businesses often fail due to lack of market demand. The small business owners may strategise their approach to their inventory management and competition analysis to overcome the low product range factor and fulfil the market demands. It will help them to improve the inventory and update the service quality of their business.

6. Tedious After-Sale Services

Consumers are inclined towards the business owners who provide better after-sale services. As per NewVoiceMedia’s 2018 “Serial Switcher’s” report, businesses upto $75 billion fail every year due to poor customer service quality. In small businesses, there is uncertainty in the quality of the after-sale service. The consumer time and again fails to trust a startup with a smaller group of workers and limited resources. They habitually find the after-sale services to be a tedious process to follow. That's why they give preference to the big business enterprise with more resources and brand value.

Final Thoughts

The write-up might have enlightened you on the factors that affect how society perceives small businesses. Although no work, business or service offered should be tagged big or small, the amount of investments and budget involved in setting up and running a business makes it a big venture or small scale business venture.

If you are a small business owner, start working on the pointers mentioned in this write-up and make your business’s presence felt to the target consumer,  the competitors and the marketplace. Indeed, with consistent hard work and labour, your small business will get deserved recognition from the community and consumers.

Also Read:

1) How to Create Mobile Applications for Small Businesses?
2) How to Get the Attention of Small Business Owners?
3) What are the Perks of Owning a Small Business?
4) Why Do Many Small Businesses Never Expand?

FAQs

Q. Why do society and consumers show a lack of interest in small business?

Ans. Interest in any product or services depends on the brand value of the product or the service provider. If the brand value or marketing activity is low for a business, consumers tend to lose interest in the services or products. Less branding activity that may lead to a lack of trust among the consumers can be vital to decide the rate of trust that society puts into small businesses.

Q. What are the hurdles small business owners face?

Ans. Apart from finance-related issues, there are other issues that small business owners face while launching, running, and setting the business in the marketplace and for consumers. Some of these are – low consumer engagement, identity crisis, stumpy recognition, less profit scale, high working hours and efforts and low-slung returns and appreciation.

Q. Why does society give lesser acceptance and recognition to products and services offered by a small business?

Ans. Society often gives lesser acceptance and significance to the small business's products and services due to its lesser product range and variety and less awareness about its quality, features and services. Additionally, small business owners have a limited budget and investment rate that affects the marketing activity, limiting the scope of brand awareness of their product and services among the targeted consumers and marketplace.