Why do all the marketing books, theories and seminars seem so irrelevant to small business? Because small is different in fundamental ways. And that difference most often has to do with family ownership.

About 80% of Australian businesses are small: an owner, often another family member and maybe an employee or two. (Well over 50% of Australian businesses are run from home.)

But marketing theory is written for big business. It talks about marketing departments, service departments and departments to manage the departments – while the typical small business owner is everything, right there. They don't need to be told to communicate and coordinate with themselves.

They do need services, but those services have to recognise and work with the fundamentally different dynamics of a family business. Like family, it can be messy and hands on, the consultant can't hide in the theory.

Glide Strategic works a lot with family businesses: we like this work and our clients tell us we are good at it, especially in areas like succession planning and growth into a managed business – areas that can be particularly intense.

To understand more about our approach, see our professional article Small is Different (this caused a stir when it was first published).

You might also be interested in 7 myths about customers, another frequently reprinted article that is especially relevant to small business, and the provocative The harm that "profit" does.

If you want to work with a senior person with wide experience in marketing and business development, who understands how small business works in ways that are fundamentally different from the textbooks, give us a call.

See also succession planning.