-
Other Sites
-
Admin
Search
Blog Bling
Aug
6
What it Means to be a Virtual Business
August 6, 2007 | Anita Campbell
You might have heard the term, “virtual small business.” But do you really understand what it means if your small business customers operate “virtually”?
One definition of a virtual business is a business that operates leanly, outsourcing to third parties whenever possible. It may not have any full-time employees except the owner and possibly a few others.
The headquarters will not be very large. It doesn’t need to be large. The people in the organization are scattered in multiple locations, sometimes across the globe. They work from their own homes or offices. Many will be part-time.
I stumbled across a superb example of a virtual small business, from the website of Mr.Excel.com:
MrExcel.com is more than just a technical support website. *** Give a tip of the hat to the folks who make MrExcel what it is … EXCEL-LENT!
- Bill Jelen in Akron Ohio
- Lora White manages the office in Uniontown, Ohio.
- Linda Delonais is technical editor of our books.
- Ivana Taylor is our virtual VP of marketing.
- Wei Jiang is a full time programmer and project manager in Shiyan City. He is proficient in Visual Basic, Excel and Access.
- Tracy Syrstad project manages all of the consulting projects at MrExcel. She is editor of all of the Holy Macro! Books and co-author of our newest book on Excel VBA.
- Suat Ozgur is a full time Excel, Access, VB and php developer in Istanbul.
- Anne Troy is author of a book on Microsoft Word that we are publishing this fall.
- Barb Jelen works in Tucson and processes all of the orders placed through the MrExcel store.
- Scott Pierson does all of our flash design from Philadelphia.
- Mala Singh runs the MrExcel Graphics & Engineering Division in India.
- Richard Kranesis in Chicago runs the MrExcel-branded training around the country, offering on-site Advanced Excel to companies.
- We have a number of part time programmers who moonlight while still working at their day job. Lest their bosses find out, let’s thank Al, Angelita, Anhtuan, Audrey, Brian, Colo, Cory, Cort, David, Dawn, Duane, Harry, Ian, Ivan, James, Jake, Jay, Juan Pablo, Marcel, Marie, Mark, Mark, Nate, Nick, Richie, Robert, Russell, Scott, Skip, Suat, Tom, Tom, Tracy, Wendy, and Zack for their expertise in various Office products.
- There are 3 dozen incredible volunteer MVP’s and 100’s of Excel Gurus who answer questions tirelessly at the message board. Thanks to all of them for making what I believe is the best Excel resource available anywhere.
As you can see from this example, virtual small businesses do not look like smaller versions of large corporations. Instead, they’re more like ad hoc composites of people coming together temporarily for a common purpose. There’s a fluidity to the business structure.
It’s hard to put your finger on where the business is located. In fact, location ceases to be important except to identify where to reach someone on the team.
What I also like about the above example is that it portrays the food chain existing off of what might be a one-or-two employee business. Never judge the economic impact of a small business on the number of employees it has. It could have a much larger impact in terms of contracting with other small businesses.
Maybe Ivana, the virtual VP of marketing, will shed some light on this phenomenon for us.
Comments
10 Comments so far
[…] Contact the Webmaster Link to Article visual basic What it Means to be a Virtual Business » Posted at Selling to Small […]
[…] for your business, lower cost and less hassle recruiting is just the start. Hat-tip to Anita Campbell « Small Business Flying […]
Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the nod Anita! And thanks for really pointing out a critical success factor for small businesses; be clear about what YOUR strengths are, be even clearer about who your ideal customer is and how THEY want to be treated, then develop a system of experts that will make YOUR business the obvious choice for them. When you think about it that way, your ideal customer can’t help but choose you because you’ve surrounded yourself with experts and tools that these customers appreciate.
Hope you all continue to visit http://www.strategystew.com and give me your two cents on that.
Great summary. This points to the “small is the new big” theory. I know several professionals that are running million dollar companies from their back room. It’s a different business model the one that existed in the 80s or 90s.
A “Tip of the Hat” to all at MrExcel. I am very impressed.
One interesting aspect of being virtual is that many of us have never met face-to-face. I’ve been working with many of those people for six years. While we communicate regularly by e-mail, telephone, or instant messaging, it seems fairly normal that we’ve never met in person.
It is a different business model the one that existed previously and it is definitely changing the way we do - and view - business. Bill points this out in his comment regarding how it’s become the norm to conduct business with those we’ve never met face-to-face. And it’s obvious the impact that this is having.
“You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.”
Virtual business is changing the way we do everything. Face to face business is steadily declining. How can you expect it not to when you can apply for bank accounts, loans, buy stamps, etc online.
[…] a top-of-mind expert in your market by following small business trends guru, Anita Campbell’s successful formula for success. […]
[…] […]