As business brokers, we need to pay attention to business trends in order to stay ahead of the curve and move with the market. Falling behind means having to play catch up, which can be costly. For several years, we noticed the market shifting in favor of big business. With more resources and seemingly infinite budgets, large companies were able to dominate small businesses when it came to grabbing consumer attention. Recently, however, we have noticed a shift in momentum, back towards small businesses. This increased consumer support for local mom and pops and other small companies is great news for current and aspiring business owners.

Market Catalysts

A variety of reasons are contributing to this apparent shift towards small businesses. For one thing, people have lost trust in large companies and what big brands are about. Big business is spending more money on marketing campaigns and passing on those increased expenses to consumers. People are looking for businesses they can trust and relying more on recommendations from their peers and companies that can connect with them personally. Big business has attempted to reach customers on a personal level, but have failed because they seem disingenuous. In this way, they cannot compete with small businesses.

There has also been a shift in enthusiasm towards products that are homemade, local, sustainable or organically sourced. Stuff like this cannot be mass produced, and tends to be more unique, so small businesses have become to the go-to source for these types of products.

The pandemic caused consumers to focus more on shopping closer to home. The inability to travel far forced many people to shop locally, and helped them to discover nearby resources they may not have known of before. This helped consumers develop a sense of community and a desire to support small local businesses, especially those that were struggling. This trend towards shopping local started before the pandemic, but was certainly accelerated by it.

Success for Small Businesses

If you are a small business owner, take advantage of these recent trends and use them to market to your local audience. Work on building customer loyalty and making a personal connection by responding to their social media posts and advertising small special events or sales. Get to know your customer base, what they are looking for and what are they looking to spend. Leveraging this shift towards small business can help you to add value to your business. If you are considering selling your business, this is also a great reason to go through with it. Buyer demand is high, as the pandemic made many people who lost their jobs realize that they could be better off becoming their own boss. Private equity firms also have a record amount of cash available to invest in growing small businesses. Choosing to sell while trends are in your favor could be a wise and profitable move.

Deciding when to sell your business can be a difficult decision. Ideally, you want to go out on top and sell when the market for business sales is strong. While it is a great time to be selling a small business in Southwest Florida, everyone’s situation is unique. Corporate Investment Business Brokers (CIBB) has been advising small business owners on developing exit strategies and selling their companies for over 35 years. Contact us to get a no-obligation consultation and business valuation estimate to find out if selling right now is the right move for you.