On a traditional and maybe not so even playing field, small businesses are not capable of competing with larger, more established industrial players. They do not possess the resources to take the same kind of large-scale actions – bulk purchases, to give a simple example. This is why they are on the losing end of any competition that requires scaling, such as a price war.

Amazon.com is a good example. Look at the way that they manage to undercut traditional bookstores. This is due to their ability to survive on thinner profit margins and optimise their activities, from their shipping processes to the ways that they hold stock at their warehouses, economy of scale as such.

However, if we think back to the beginning, Amazon started small (more specifically, one-man-in-his-garage small), which is pretty small by anyone’s standards. How do such companies manage to grow, and how can the small businesses of today’s world hope to emulate their success? I’ve been thinking about this recently and I’ve come to some surprising conclusions.

It is my assertion that being a small business enables the innovative approaches that create game-changing economic juggernauts. On the other hand, the realities of being an economic juggernaut make the same type of innovation much less likely.

This is why small businesses are the true drivers of innovation. It’s impossible to compete in a traditional manner, so the only way to win is to change the game.

Unlike small businesses, large companies favour orderly changes that are easily contained in an existing industrial or corporatized context. They like controlled processes, where their tight structures and access to resources put them at an advantage. Any hierarchical organisation has the same attitude.

Even if there is a mass adoption of new modes of problem solving, this is usually followed by attempts at acquisition on the part of a larger organisation. Look at the history of any large technology company – after a certain point they stop developing new products and begin buying start-ups and once again fast tracking their path to new and more innovating technology, all to stay ahead of the pack.

Even when a company is not the creator of a certain type of disruption, many arise to occupy the new ecosystem that it generates. There would be no search engine optimisation industry without search engines, after all. In the rise and fall of these niches, it is the least established organisations that benefit from them.

Why Small Businesses Can Create Disruption

We know why industrial disruptions benefit small businesses, but why are they the ones that are uniquely capable of creating them? There are several reasons for this.

Disruptive innovation is a mass-level, non-institutional change. At its core, it threatens the status quo and is usually born out of small, non-hierarchical groupings. Structural change and disruption take place in large, traumatic upheavals, which uniquely benefit small, loosely-organised groups.

In smaller organisations, where each person is more likely to wear multiple hats, specialisation is practically non-existent due to the need of being the jack of all trades. This leads to a greater flexibility and willingness to change fundamental approaches. A specialised method of solving problems is a recipe for orthodoxy and thinking that any deviation from the norm is impractical.

For exactly the same reasons that larger organisations are better at solving problems at a large scale, they are worse at recognising necessary deviations from the norm. Compartmentalised, specialised processes stifle novelty and creativity, keeping them less nimble while being necessary for mass support and service.

Furthermore, the ties between those who run small businesses are most often not economic, but predicated on other social ties. Small businesses, including start-ups, are often formed among friends and family, rather than among a group of specialists in a particular field. This allows them to harness the self-motivating forces of loyalty and genuine ownership of the product, giving them that extra drive to overcome any potential hurdles.

There are large companies that have attempted to create these types of structures within a larger corporate environment, but their successes are the exception rather than the rule. They become unwieldy and difficult to control from the centre. Industrial hierarchy makes it possible to take less trained workers and get more uniform results from them. Anyone who’s ever had a fast food job can attest to this.

Small businesses, when faced with an unusual problem (and when you’re developing the next big thing in your garage, there’s no such thing as a usual problem) tend to find unusual solutions to it. In larger organisations, each possible new solution has to be passed up the corporate ladder, being distorted and or diluted each time it’s passed up or down the chain. This delays and usually weakens any adoption of new ideas. Furthermore, the employees in large organisations often resist new methods of their own accord, preferring habitual but non-optimal solutions.

Mass adoption of new methods of socialising, doing work, or making money are never the results of the types of calculation that are common in the boardroom. Because the motives are so inarticulate and arise spontaneously from wildly varying sectors of society, this process cannot be manipulated, predicted, or controlled with any degree of exactitude.

These changes also lead to the emergence of changed landscapes where the services developed by the establishment may not be relevant. Take the example of the recording industry. The CD manufacturing, distribution, and promotion infrastructure were devalued when digital downloads disrupted the industry. Their reluctance to accept it is understandable.

If you already have an established business model that brings in revenue, it is usually foolish to abandon it. Even expanding your core services takes a great deal of resources and vision, and the largest, most profitable companies have made themselves that way by introducing disruption within the circumstances where they do their business.

This can be accomplished, but the fundamental tendencies of each type of organisation remains the same – small organisations tend to be more agile and to seek unorthodox, innovative answers, while larger ones tend toward standard solutions to standardised problems.

So there you have my view on how small businesses continue to be the drivers of innovation. As every professional was once an amateur and every expert was once a beginner and every successful company was once a small start-up.

I’m sure that if you’re reading this article, you’re one of the thousands of people that is thinking about starting a home based business. Or perhaps you’ve already started one and are looking to grow more. Maybe you’re struggling to get leads for your business. No matter what your reason for reading this, I’ve got some tips that will help you generate more home based business leads.For many of us in this economy, we’ve turned to a home based business, specifically a network marketing or MLM business, to try and either create a secondary income or even go full-time and replace our income or start fresh. You’ve made the right decision, but I know that you may not necessarily know the next steps to take or you may be frustrated with your results so far. I’m sure you understand that getting leads into your business is one of the most important activities you can do on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, you really should spend most of your time on generating more leads for your business.But, how do you do that the right way? What methods work the best? Which ones should you avoid?Here’s 5 things you need to know about generating home based business leads that will help you out and move your business forward to new levels.Thing #1 – You need new leads every day if you’re going to be successfulNo matter what anyone tells you, you’ve got to be generating leads on a daily basis if you’re going to be successful. Of course, you can’t stop there, but if you’re not generating leads every day, your business will NOT move forward.Thing #2 – Most of the leads you get will NOT join your businessI know you’ve heard people say that people will just be beating down your door to join, but that’s simply not the case. I want you to be prepared when you hear the word “no” because you’re going to hear it a lot. A LOT. Don’t get discouraged, just keep moving forward.Thing #3 – You’ve got to go out and get leads, most won’t come to youWhen you’re just starting out, leads will probably NOT be beating down your door to join you. Over time, as you build your reputation and start having some success, this will happen to some degree. But when you’re starting out, you’re going to have to do a lot of grunt work to get leads in your business.Thing #4 – You will want to give up and quitThis is just a fact. I’m not trying to be a downer here, but I want you to know the truth. Too many people have candy-coated the home based business lifestyle and given you an unclear picture. When you’re getting started and trying to get leads, you will get frustrated, you will want to give up. You will want to quit. Don’t. One of my mentors said that he never knew anyone that won or failed with network marketing. He only knew people that didn’t give up and those that did. Don’t give up, because there’s something in the next thing that will make you happy…Thing #5 – If you persevere and generate leads, you will be successful.I’ve seen it happen too many times. If you’re willing to stick to it, go out and get leads and then talk to them about your business, you will find success. it’s inevitable. It can’t be avoided. You just have to be willing to go through the work to get to that point.

Marketing includes matters such as pricing and packaging of the product and creation of demand by advertising and sales campaigns. There are other options, of course, like product creation, resale rights marketing, joint ventures and the likes, but they are merely secondary to the above.

If you take the freelance route, it is important to ensure that all rights to profit from the final product, or any materials produced in its making, remain yours. Bookkeeping, physical product creation or delivery of goods can be done better with specialized help. Determining the purpose of the product is vital in niche product creation.

Implementation of Methodology – The choice of implementation of Six Sigma methodology depends on whether development is required on existing processes (DMAIC) or on new process/product design creation (DMADV). Determining what you really want to sell, something that you can be relaxed selling is the first step at the creation of a niche product. With the technological advancements in the hosting industry, from automated control panels and scripts that simplify creation of accounts; to complete turnkey solutions, there is no excessive need to worry about spending time on the actual product sold to the customer.

For instance, you should be prepared to either perform yourself or to subcontract the completion of the following tasks:- Product idea research (are there any existing products or patents already existing for this idea)- Product specification document training (what it will do, how it will look, how will it be powered, and how the user will interface with it)- Marketing study (what it will be named, who would buy this, how much would they pay, how will we get customers to purchase the product)- Schematic or electronic circuit design process- Creation of a bill of material or BOM and an approved vendor’s list or AVL for each component in the design, preferably with multiple sources identified, with a BOM and AVL for each assembly level in the product- Printed circuit board layout design process (single sided board, double sided board, or multilayer board; size of the PCB; board material)- Mechanical packaging design with user interfaces (displays, buttons, switches, key. This removes all product creation costs from your budget as a marketer.

No other database of affiliate programs offers such a possibility for profit on either the affiliate side or the product creation site. Your chosen niche should allow for the creation of more than one product or service.

There are several marketing strategies that are necessary in the creation of a successful e-commerce web site – Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers – Effective use of auto responders (generate automatic email messages) – Online Newsletter – Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect’s email address – Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product) – Advertisement (Ad) Tracking – Back End Sales – Affiliate program etc.