S ince the economy tanked and businesses of all sizes have gone bankrupt the Wall Street versus Main Street debate has been increasing in prevalence. Over the course of my working life I have mostly worked for large corporations, with the exceptions being when I worked for a day care, when I was an umpire, and working at a ski resort, which is an entirely different story. Each different corporation that I worked for was fundamentally the same and each employee was just another cog in the wheel. Everything was planned in a very top-down manner and even managers were not given much freedom. Any interactions with subordinates seemed fake and planned out, when they existed at all. Being 16 and working my first “real” job this seemed alright and was even appreciated because the firm structure meant that everything was predictable, making it difficult to be really bad at the job.
Until the beginning of this spring semester I had never worked for a small business. I am currently undertaking an internship with a very small business in Poultney that most people never even knew was there. The Brass Butterfly manufactures gift products, including plant rooters, slate ware, and curtain hardware, and sells them wholesale to retail outlets and one can count the number of employees on one hand. The working environment here is much different and has brought to light a new perspective for me regarding the pros and cons of small versus larger businesses.
It seems really easy to look at only the “bad” side of big business and view small businesses in a much more positive light because. Reasons such as being more enriching for local economies and the perception that small businesses are more ethical tend to reinforce those view points. However, coming from first hand experience, the incentive to become bigger becomes blatantly apparent.
In doing marketing and sales work for this small business, I have encountered many issues where money plays a large part in decision making. The most notable instance comes when I have to face the dilemma of having to decide whether to contact potential customers through email or the more traditional snail mail. There is a quandary here because on one hand traditional mail is more effective when making this type of contact, however, on the other hand traditional mail bears the cost of postage and catalogs when the potential customer may just throw it out altogether. Email is more attractive because of lower costs and then the money can be spent on the postage and catalog if the contact is interested, however the likelihood of a response is much lower. Although big businesses and corporations may be frugal, they know that money must be spent to make money. How can you blame any business, regardless of their annual revenues, for not wanting to spend unnecessarily?
Not only money is a problem, but a lack of structure and direction in order to achieve goals, which may or may not be clear, is another major difference that I have seen. In a large corporation there is a definite order to all of the actions within it and goals are clearly defined. However, this is not the case in my experience with a smaller business. This does afford significant freedom, which is certainly empowering, however combined with a lack of abundant resources can be frustrating. Additionally, unorganized management sends mixed messages, which also is a source of frustration. This is not to say that all small businesses operate this way or that all large businesses have everything in impeccable order just that this seems to be the general trends that I have witnessed and heard about from discussing this with others.
A general lack of resources is usually more prevalent in small businesses and if that can be overcome and the company becomes successful, then they grow bigger. Every business has to start somewhere and the incentive to become bigger is attractive because it has the connotation of being more successful.
Breaking the stereotype that big companies are generally bad and small ones are generally good is important because from a business perspective each has pros and cons in regards to both logistics and social impacts.
