The number of new SMBs entering the market and innovating around the world is astounding. However, the resources that owners have is still limited. Small business loans are at an all time low and grants are difficult to come by and take a lot of time. Getting to cashflow positive and setting up a viable business is constantly on the minds of owners. They are turning to technology products to cut costs when it comes to marketing, hiring, and even keeping in touch with customers. Most owners are pretty comfortable with technology given the popularity of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. However, there are still many that struggle with adopting technology for their business or even being aware of what they should be using to take their business to the next level. As technologists it's easy for us to create products that we know how to use, but many of us have not actually experienced the life of a small business owner or know how they view and interact with technology products. In this talk Poornima Vijayashanker will share some insights into the minds of SMB owners, and they key things we as technologists should think about when designing and building products for these individuals.

1. Think You Know the SMB Owner’s Mind?
Guess Again.
Poornima Vijayashanker
@poornima
CEO & Founder BizeeBee
#techforsmbs

2. “I’ve never been an SMB
owner but I feel like I’ve
walked the earth in their
shoes...”

3. Background
Dad (Hardware Engineer) + Mom (SMB Accountant) = Me (Femgineer)
Volunteered & Consulted for Years before starting BizeeBee
Talked to 100+ SMBs in 10 countries in the last 2 1/2 years
Interviewed business coaches, bloggers, employees & startups that
succeeded & failed in the space.

4. “So you wanna build tech for SMBs?”
SMB Market right now
The Mind of the Merchant
Their Problems
Design
Distribution
Monetization
Popular Products

5. What’s happening right now?

6. 24M Small businesses, but growth is on
the decline...

7. Where are most businesses starting?
Most popular?
1. Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers
2. Full-Service Restaurants
3. Homes for the Elderly
4. All Other Amusement and Recreation Industries
5. Used Merchandise Stores
6. Meat Processed from Carcasses
7. Landscape Architectural Services
8. Beauty Salons
9. Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning Services
10.Child Day Care Service

8. The Mind of a Merchant...

9. To whom it may concern at Bizeebee,
I am currently in the process of opening a dance studio. As a result I am
looking for a studio management software program. That's how I came
across Bizeebee and was trying out what I understood to be a free product.
Without warning, I receive an email that tells me that I walked into some
software booby trap that now commits me to a monthly charge without my
consent. I find this tactic to be insulting and malicious. As a result I have
changed my opinion regarding this software. I quickly went from wanting to
sign up for the upgraded version, to now wanting to opt out of any and all
services related to your software and company. From this moment forward, I
plan to never use this software in any form and as such expect to never be
charged for any service or product. I would appreciate confirmation
regarding the resolution of this issue so that I know that no further action is
required. Thank you.

10. Passion vs Profits
Small Thinking vs Big Problems
Cost vs Investment
Margins

11. PROBLEMS

12. 10. Back office tasks
9. Seasonality
8. Inventory Management
7. Theft
6. Location
5. Hiring & Training
4. Customer Acquisition
3. Customer Retention
2. Pricing
1. Cashflow

13. DESIGN

14. They say: What it means:
“Don’t make me cut & paste anything!” Make it push button.
“Don’t make me set anything up!” I want it to work out-of-the-box.
“I want my data in the cloud but not I want a fully integrated solution.
distributed across multiple
applications.”
“You have bugs? Bye bye!” Paper might be time
consuming but its bug free &
I get it.

15. Software Standard
Hardware Standard

16. distribution

17. How do we build tech companies to reach them?
How do you reach them? Marketing.
Influencers
Organizations.
What seems to work, Sales force.
but doesn’t really?
Reviews.
Daily deals.
Who has been successful? E-mail marketing companies.
Payment providers.

18. Monetization

19. Will they pay for stuff? YES!
How much will they pay? depends.
Online Payments - $740B, $1750/avg year
CRM - $6.6B, $2500/avg year
e-mail Marketing - $1.5B, $133/avg year
Daily Deals - $1.25B

20. Popular products & their real use cases.

21. Products they use: What they use it for:
Email Marketing List management, newsletters,
promotions.
Social Media Twitter: Posting status,
schedules or connecting with
other owners.
Facebook: simple CRM.
Daily Deals Not a source of cashflow.
Better advertising ROI than
print/radio.
I don’t want to deal with the
“discounted” customers.

22. Q&A