Death of Small Businesses?
Seems like there are a lot of small businesses are closing down or laying off a large portion of their employees (3 restaurants near me just shut down indefinitely). However, there are companies like Xero, Intuit, and others who focus on helping small businesses operate. It wouldn't be a long stretch to think those companies are also trying to survive as their revenue is declining.
I was curious about if the community thinks that the COVID virus will wipe out 80% of small businesses out there and present an opportunity when the dust settles, for new businesses in the small business SaaS space?
(Also on a side point if you run a small business what are ways people can help you stay afloat?)
Appointment Reminder is a bit like Xero and Intuit, we're pretty reliant on SMB's for our client base.
While I don't know if 80% is a correct number, I also don't know what that number might be in the end.
As of right now, we're not seeing a large change in customer subscriptions. However, I honestly think that will change as time goes on.
I have seen a few of our tax preparer businesses pause their accounts to pick back up in a few months (In the USA, the Federal tax filing deadline was pushed back 3 months)
It really hurts me to see SMB's struggling, as not only are they the lifeblood of almost all market economies, they are also our friends and neighbors everyone knows first hand.
I plan on posting updates on IH as time goes on with what I see as a small business SaaS provider of a few services to SMB's and larger corporations. Hopefully, my updates are boring and full of "so far, so good", but I'm afraid as time goes on, that might change more dramatically than it has so far.
This is super interesting. Before hearing about you I actually have been testing Remin.xyz to help people get text message reminders about life events. Would love to talk more!
There's no question that this thing has impacted almost everything but it's impossible to predict with any useful accuracy what the resulting situation will be since we've never experienced anything exactly like this before.
As for opportunities, I don't think it makes starting a business any easier or harder. I'm 40 and for as long as I can remember there has always been endless opportunities in every direction.
COVID has proved small businesses should collaborate more to help each other thrive. I am part of a social network for businesses to promote each other. Unlike FB, Google, or Yelp, where small businesses are marketing in constant competition, BAU makes promotion easy by allowing small businesses to collaborate in advertisements. Check us out at www.joinbau.com
COVID has proved small businesses need to collaborate more to help each other thrive. I am part of a social network for businesses to promote each other. Unlike FB, Google, or Yelp, where small businesses are marketing in constant competition, BAU makes promotion easy by allowing small businesses to collaborate in advertisements. Check us out at www.joinbau.com
Governments need to act to save small businesses otherwise the whole system falls.
France, Germany, etc have support embedded in their systems. UK taking extraordinary steps to do similar (paying 80% of wages for furloughed workers).
There are opportunities now because the pain is now. Why wait until dust settles to try and be the new old thing?
You have online businesses with >90% margins and fat bank accounts serving offline businesses with <10% margins and almost no savings.
The examples you give know what the pre-pandemic revenues and profits are of their customers, you would think they could figure out a way to help their customers stay afloat for a few months and build a lot of goodwill in the process.
Between Amazon, Walmart, Wish, etc. almost everything that is mass produced can already be bought online and delivered within a few days to your door. How much more room is there for big e-commerce? Any retail store can also have a Shopify store, but there's a large number of people that still like the in-store experience for some things. Any restaurant can offer take-out, but again it's not the same experience getting a steak delivered to my house.
I would never buy new shoes online because the online experience doesn't give me the info I need to make a decision. I look online to see what's interesting, then I go to where they're sold in store to try them on. Within a couple of minutes of wearing a shoe I know if I'm going to buy or not, and this is a much better experience for me than buying them online and immediately returning them if I don't like them or they don't fit right.
Also, is there a SaaS business model for all small businesses? Not really. Many consultancies can productize their services, but this doesn't happen overnight and without any investment. There's certainly opportunity, but I don't think the entire small business model will change.
I'm just rambling haha
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I have a gut feeling a lot of tele + x plays will come out of this event. However, it seems like theres alot of work going on in the space.