The era of the SME

It was a great pleasure to attend the StartupSmart Awards ceremony at Crown’s Metropol Hotel in Melbourne last night and talk with so many brilliant business owners.

We love these nights at SmartCompany. Hearing about the way these entrepreneurs have exploited a niche and built strong, stable businesses that employ hundreds of people is always inspiring.

I’d urge you to study the companies on the list closely – these little guys are your up-and-coming rivals and it’s a very good idea to figure out what they are doing differently.

The strong sense of optimism was hardly surprising – these are entrepreneurs, after all – but in my opinion there is very good reason for this.

In fact, the class of 2011 has made me reflect on a big question: Has there ever been a better time to be a fast-growing SME?

There are two main reasons to answer ‘no’.

Firstly, technology has slashed the costs of starting up.

Within hours you could have created a website, added an online shopping cart and started taking sales. Within days you could have a crowd-sourced logo and branding.

Within weeks you could have free open-source systems such as a customer relationship management system, finance systems, marketing systems and project management systems.

Within minutes you could be broadcasting videos to customers for free via YouTube and spreading your brand via social media.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, a number of industries are being transformed right now in favour of smaller players.

In retail, large, lazy chains that have relied on customers coming to them have been exposed by nimble online retailers and physical retailers that have been able to focus on profitable niches.

In manufacturing, big companies have wilted as smaller firms with a focus on innovation and design, backed up by smart outsourcing, are on the rise.

In finance, the restrictive credit policies of the banks are creating a new breed of specialists focused on certain products and specific industries.

And in publishing, the traditional media players are battling to radically restructure, while smart online niche players emerge.

In most of these industries, these sectoral changes have been building for some years. But it is only now that were are starting to see the tipping points, categorised in many cases by company collapses and dwindling share prices and asset values.

The bad news coming out of these sectors shouldn’t put smart SMEs off. These industries are ripe for talented business owners with new, high-growth business models to emerge.

Last night we met 50 of the rising stars – we can’t wait to watch them grow.