Microbusiness, Broadband and a Changing Paradigm

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In this era of double-digit unemployment you can hardly turn on a business program without hearing someone say “80% of new jobs are created by small businesses.” Those companies who are truly in small businesses – microbusinesses with ten employees or less – know all too well that when they create a job, it is not because it would be “nice” to have someone else helping out; it is because they absolutely “need” to have someone performing a core service. 

The government's concept of a “small business” is fairly elastic. According to figures released in 2007 by the Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration: microbusinesses sized 10 employees & less make up 95% of all U.S. firms. However, the S.B.A. officially defines a “small business” as having not more than “500 employees for most manufacturing and mining industries, and $7 million in average annual receipts for most non-manufacturing industries.” But some industries – including refining and insurance – can have as many as 1,500 employees and still qualify as a small business under the SBA rules. 

Fifteen hundred employees? For many microbusinesses an “all-hands meeting” involves their entire staff having coffee and bagels at a table for four at the local coffee shop. 

Nevertheless, microbusinesses have to compete with those somewhat larger “small businesses.” They have to have the same level of creativity, the same access to business and legal documents, the same ability to produce, bid or pitch documents, and they have to accomplish all that and more in the same amount of time as one of their 400-person competitors. 

Happily, with the advent of broadband, the microbusiness can not only compete with the big boys, but can beat them.

With broadband, if a 'micro' so chooses, each of their associates and colleagues can work from their homes or in a completely different country. Not only does that drastically reduce the overhead cost of rent, lights, equipment, parking, and the rest of the trappings of a large business; but it also means a microbusiness can work much more efficiently. They can increase labor productivity and capacity without necessarily putting someone on the payroll.

This important shift in the business and employment paradigm has gone virtually unnoticed in the government's employment statistics. Productivity is impacted as well. A recent study done for the University of Georgia showed that not only do people who work from their homes feel they are more productive; but over 80 percent of their employers felt telecommuters were more productive than their in-office colleagues. Greater broadband penetration will further increase telecommuting and home-based business productivity.

Not only that, but microbusinesses can be much more virtual than a large competitor. A graphic artist met at a convention in San Diego might live in Santa Fe, but can be hired to produce just the logo a potential client is looking for. Working over broadband collaboration can occur until a winning design is achieved. 

The same goes for writing projects. Microbusinesses don’t need to have a stable of writers thinking lofty thoughts on their dime. They can hire particular writers for different portions of the same job. A technical writer can handle the science and technology; while a writer better skilled in marketing can write the sections that need more conversational text. Sending documents over the internet with “track changes” makes getting the best possible result a simple matter with broadband.

In fact, the collaborative process is more efficient using broadband because there is no chasing down a colleague around the office (or a large complex of offices) to get a fast answer to a simple question. If employees are in the same building, the need to meet face-to-face is strong … and time consuming. 

Large companies have the need to utilize in-house employees. So, not only do the big small businesses need to house, heat, cool, equip, and pay a lot of employees who may spend a good deal of their time waiting for an assignment, but they might or might not have the right skill set for a particular job in any event. 

There are societal advantages to this growing “virtual workforce.” We have all worked in offices and know what goes in to keeping everything from the copy machine to the coffee machine going. Think about the amount of pollution which will never be put into the atmosphere every day your colleagues can commute downstairs instead of downtown. The amount of land which will never be needed solely to allow cars to sit idle for 10 hours a day. The wear and tear on existing roads and bridges and the new roads and bridges which will never have to be built.

That kind of thing doesn’t pay your accountant, but it is another set of reasons why microbusinesses are becoming more and more important. Broadband is a key tool in this business transformation.

Almost every new laptop now comes with a built-in camera. If not, a quick trip to Radio Shack and twenty bucks, plus loading Skype (or a similar program) puts you in the video conferencing business. Software like “GoToMeeting” allows you, all four of your employees, and that graphic artist in Santa Fe to collaborate in real time to get to real solutions for real clients; "PC Anywhere" lets you or your colleagues access your desktop from any internet connection. 

Getting a contract or winning a bid is always sweet. Beating out a 1,500-employee “small business” is just that much sweeter.

The Broadband for America Coalition (BfA) represents a historic coming together of Internet service providers (ISPs), backbone providers, content providers, consumer groups, commercial groups, end-user organizations, and associations, all sharing the view that America should make broadband access to the Internet available to everyone. BfA encourages continued private sector investment and competition to make broadband faster, smarter, safer, and ever more valuable to users. The need to expand broadband Internet to all of the nation’s homes and businesses and to get all Americans connected is crucial to America’s economic success.

BfA's mission is to make broadband access to the internet available to every household in the nation; to provide data transfer speeds to make that broadband experience valuable to users; and to provide the bandwidth necessary for content providers to continue to make the internet a cultural, societal, and economic engine for growth.