What do we mean by ‘accidental business owners’?

The business landscape has changed dramatically over the last 12 months as a result of the global pandemic. Lockdowns, social distancing and changing customer expectations have resulted in business owners all over the world looking to pivot their businesses.

The tactics and strategies that worked at the start of 2020 are not necessarily guaranteed to work now. The whole conversation around technology, digital marketing and the effect on businesses of all sizes is something that has gained a lot of attention over the last few months.

As countries all over the world plan for life beyond the pandemic and some kind of normality, business owners are gearing up for the expected increase in customer numbers. With more economic support extended to individuals and businesses, things seem a lot more positive than they did 12 months ago.

Added to this is the huge role out of vaccination programmes across the globe and we can all start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. However, the environment that awaits us, is vastly different to what we have been accustomed to over the years.

While there has been a substantial increase in online usage reported by the likes of Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix and others, this has further widened the gap between large businesses and the small/medium sized sector. (SMEs).

Traditionally, large businesses have access to more technology and solutions due to their size, resources and budget. In comparison, small businesses are often at a disadvantage because they lack time, money and knowledge to compete.

The pandemic has forced SMEs to really consider the adoption of technology and digital marketing as without an online presence, many businesses are simply invisible. A recent study actually found that the average adult in the UK is now spending over 5 hours per day surfing the web.

This means that businesses of all sizes need to engage their customers on a variety of different mediums such as their website, social media, search engines and review sites to name just a few or they risk being irrelevant to their audience.

Now, each one of these mediums are unique and require a different level of solution to become effective. This presents challenges to small business owners who ordinarily don’t have experience or access to solutions that will benefit them in the long run.

In this weeks blog, we wanted to focus on an aspect that we believe doesn’t get enough exposure and that’s the idea of ‘accidental business owners’.

What is an accidental business owner?
Think about all the local businesses around you, for example, accountants, florists, hair salons, restaurants or even law firms and you’ll notice one commonality between most of these small businesses.

The majority of these businesses and indeed many others, are owned by an individual or individuals that actually worked in the profession before they set up their own business.

For instance, lets take a look at an accountant. Generally speaking, the owners of most accountancy practices actually worked for a firm of accountants earlier in their career, gained professional certification and experience before they set up their own business.

Another example could be a restaurant owner. In the majority of cases, the owner was at one point employed in a food/drink business as a chef before they followed their passion and started their own restaurant.

The word accidental business owner derives from the fact that these business owners established their business around their core skill set or experience. So for an accountant it could be around their analytical skills and being comfortable with numbers whereas for a chef it could be around their ability to cook tasty food.

However, as we have seen in our previous blogs, the role of a modern day business owner is not just having 1 or 2 core skills, it’s actually having a multitude of transferable skills.

From managing employees to negotiating with suppliers to offering customers a great experience, most business owners need to deploy different skills when encountering different stakeholders.

The reason a lot of business owners struggle when it comes to technology and digital marketing is due to the fact that they have very little experience in this area. The traditional methods of marketing such as posters, flyers and print adverts simply don’t work in a post pandemic world, hence why business owners are looking for help from specialists or Digital Agencies.

Why do we need to recognise them?
In our opinion, it’s important to recognise accidental business owners as they actually power our local economies and communities. Therefore, it’s important that we understand that small businesses need help when it comes to how they compete with larger, more established brands.

The pandemic in particular has seen many people resort to buying locally to help their local business communities. Whether it’s fresh produce to flowers, there has been a tangible increase in people sourcing products and services from local businesses.

While this has been great for many business owners and helped them stay afloat, the technology landscape is always changing. We have seen a big push from governments and local leaders to amplify the need for digital transformation. You only need to look at the way technology is shaping all parts of our lives, from communication via Zoom to the increase in contactless payments to see that we are moving more towards a digital society.

This has serious implications for accidental business owners who are reluctant to change or simply don’t have the expertise to adapt to a changing environment. Therefore, it’s important to recognise business owners, especially if you are engaged in a profession where they are your target market.

How can you help them?
There are a number of ways that you can help accidental business owners, both from a customer or commercial perspective.

As an example, as a customer you can try to make more purchases for products or services locally, to help those individuals that provide key services to your community. This could be something as simple as ordering food from your local takeaway to ensure that your local business community is well supported. It could entail providing constructive feedback to the business owner on ways that you hope they can improve their services to engage you as a customer via their website or social media.

From a commercial perspective, if you are actively working with small businesses by providing services such as websites, booking systems or help with their reputation, you should be trying to engage as many local business owners as possible.

This is an area where partners that join our network and launch Digital Agencies with us actually excel as they have a range of services that can help a local business improve their digital footprint.

Ultimately, as a service provider to local businesses you should be aiming to nurture, educate and solve problems for business owners who don’t have the time, knowledge or skills to deploy solutions themselves.

Business owners come in many different forms
While we have reflected on accidental business owners in this weeks blog, it’s important to highlight that there are many different types of business owners. From serial entrepreneurs who are extremely experienced to new business owners, there is a broad spectrum of people involved in running businesses.

As the pandemic has developed over the last 12 months, lots of people have used the time to reflect on what they’d like to do with their professional careers. For some it has been investigating new job opportunities and for others it’s about taking on a new challenge such as launching a business.

It’s important to always take stock of where you are in a professional capacity and seize the many opportunities that are available to us all. While being a business owner can be challenging, in our opinion there is nothing quite like the thrill of being your own boss.

Summary
During this weeks blog we wanted to shine a light on the many accidental business owners that have built successful and sustainable businesses around their core passion/skills.

However, even though these business owners are highly skilled there are always opportunities to learn new things. With more and more businesses looking to digitise their businesses, now is a great time to start engaging your local business community as a customer or a service provider.

To find out more about how you can launch a Digital Agency and help your local business community, please contact a member of our team.

Until next time, take care.