Consider the Emotions Motivating the Small Business Owner

A large number of small business owners are in it for the lifestyle.  But lifestyle may not be what you think.  They actually work very long hours with more worries than if they were employed elsewhere.  This article (link via Wayback Machine) in the Herald Bulletin describes it:

Starting your own business not for the faint of heart. There are late nights, mountains of paperwork and the odds of success aren’t great.

But for Dave Reidhead, it’s worth it.

“The goal isn’t to be rich. It’s to provide people a good place to work, where you can work a long number of years. It’s not just, ‘Here’s your gold watch, see you later,’” he said. “(At larger companies) there’s no security.”

The question is, how many vendors take into account these motivations when crafting sales and marketing messages to small business owners? 

Most often I see messages that are straight forward “we have what you need for your small business to be a success” kinds of messages.  But, as the above quote shows, a small business owner’s motivation is often wrapped up in a complex series of emotions and feelings, that may have little to do with growing the business.

Tags: Business; small business; sales; entrepreneur