Small/owner-managed/independent businesses are big news at the moment and quite rightly so considering they employ 12 million people and account for a jaw-dropping 99.8% of UK business names. I’m taking those stats from this article on the BusinessZone website, which is making the point that small/growing/new/young businesses are not just cut-down big companies. In the same way that a three year old is not just a pint-sized adult but a different proposition altogether and responds to and requires different handling, a small/boutique/family company needs to be approached and catered for in a manner that fully understands the concerns, benefits and specifics of being a smaller business.

The euphemisms or alternative terms to ‘small business’ are lifted from the article which implies that the term ‘SME’ or even worse, “smee” (a term I’m grateful never to have heard before and hope never to hear again), are patronising. I’m not sure I agree, but it is a shorthand that can be unhelpful. Small companies differ from each other in myriad ways but retain some crucial similarities which separate them from large enterprises. It’s our belief that it’s comparably-sized businesses that are going to best understand those differences and similarities and provide the services that work for them and with them to the greatest effect.

Why should this be? Small businesses (for want of a better phrase) need flexibility and are in turn able to offer it – there’s none of this taking miles on end to turn the Queen Mary round. Small businesses are able to respond fast to the market, to the economy and to internal developments. Decision-makers and those with whom the buck stops are often on the spot every day. Business relationships can be personal, customers’ needs remembered and used to best effect. Our company values every single one of its customers no matter the amount of revenue they bring us or the proportion of their business hosting we supply. This is a huge benefit to a customer of using a smaller business.

Oh and one other benefit of using a small hosting service: Chinese hackers are unlikely to target us, we’re just not big enough or interesting enough to them. They’re welcome to try though, our defences put the Great Wall of China to shame.