Bigger business vs. smaller business

Welcome to Week 42 of my adventure of following the Start Up Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and Week 5 as a member of the Marketing Plan Group. In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a website copywriter, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and what I’m learning from my group experience.

I like working with smaller businesses. My group buddy does too. We’ve determined that with a smaller business, turnaround is quicker and you deal with less people.

We think larger corporations can take longer because there can be many different people who need to give input and approval on the project.

But we’ve also considered that maybe big businesses pay more.

What do you think? Do you get paid more when working with big businesses? Or does this even out because bigger business means bigger time commitment?

Do you have thoughts/experiences about working with bigger vs. smaller business?

Comments

[Catherine]

I prefer dealing with larger businesses.
First, once the rapport is established with the customer, you get more business from them and in the long run, more money. Second, we have found that small businesses don't have the budgets to match their expectations. Also, the time between contracts is often longer.
However, I must admit that building a relationship with a smaller business is easier and more easy going.
I guess it all depends on the type of work you want to do and how you want to build your business.

[Madla]

I have chosen to work with small businesses. Large companies often have their marketing plans set up on the international level. So the people very often complain that they cannot use their creativity or do what better fit to the national market. Also they often lack power to put their ideas through. Small businesses can change things very quickly and benefit immediately from the marketing activities they decide to do.

[Lynne]

In my experience, medium to large businesses tend to be more organized and have more reasonable expectations. Working with smaller businesses often equates with working with a client who thinks you are charging too much because their friend's little brother charges half as much as you. It's always these small clients who expect me to be working on their low-budget project 24/7, in off work hours and on weekends. I'll take a large business any day.

[TurtleBlueBird]

I'd say there's a difference between micro businesses (truly tiny, no budgets, weird expectations) and smaller-to-medium real businesses, maybe up to 100 people, where it absoutely is possible to make good money and even become a trusted and valued member of the team.

("Good" is relative, there - it may be less $$$ than you could get in the majors, but there's possibly less stress and hassle as well.)

What I don't much like about the bigger businesses is what appears to be super-rapid turnover. You get going with someone, then they're gone. For better (and worse, sometimes!), that seems to be less true at the smaller places.

Great question/point/post!

[DIna Dembicki]

I'll reiterate what's already been said: Larger businesses have "employee churn" but bigger budgets, and less pushback when their project expands scope. Small companies often have unrealistic expectations and no budget. They've been burned and have bad attitudes.

Large companies have done a lot of the preplanning, have copy written already, usually have some visual parameters in place, and give good direction and feedback. Small companies are a great opportunity to do something more creative.

So there are benefits and pitfalls working with either. I think the challenge for the designer is educating the small business design buyer on what the costs are, what are the less obvious differences between you and the $50 internet resource.

[Cathy Curtis]

Of course, everything depends on how you define "small" and "large," but I think a major aspect of preferring one to the other is your own personality. If you enjoy the hand-holding aspect of client relations — essentially, teaching them how to work with you — then you are more apt to like working with smaller, less sophisticated clients. I've discovered over the years that I prefer to work with large organizations that understand what a copywriter does, recognize superior work, and are willing to pay bigger bucks for it.