Leading executives, managers, and experts from SMBs and large enterprises share their insights and perspectives with bMighty on a host of IT issues, challenges, and opportunities that small and midsize businesses face.
Now that we're officially in a recession, business owners may have put thoughts of growth on hold. But Panos Bethanis -- CEO of DirectoryM, an online advertising platform with about 20 employees -- has some suggestions for smaller companies to try. One is to take aggressive measures.
Think that the way to ride out this economic crisis is merely to stay alive? Think again. Boston-based DirectoryM is growing about 10% each month, and CEO Panos Bethanis says his company's strength lies in its focus on the one thing it's good at: local data aggregation. And that's all it does well, says Bethanis. "I don't even dress well."
By focusing on your business's strong points and aggressively acquiring assets instead of battening down the hatches and waiting for the inevitable economic recovery to take place, Bethanis says there's no reason that you can't position your company for success right now.
bMighty: You've said that now is the best time for smaller businesses to aggressively be acquiring assets. Why should those companies be following your advice rather than riding out the economic crisis?
Panos Bethanis: There are two fundamental advantages that small and midsize businesses have. One is an extremely close and detailed knowledge of core assets -- clients, relationships. In a global recession, you can invest heavily in asset acquisitions. Because we're smaller and more nimble, we have good ideas as to what our relationships require in order to provide quality for the client.
Two, if we invest now, people are more willing to move fast. Most of our investments are overseas because we have identified factions that can be outsourced. Knowing what our core clientele is looking for, because we are a smaller company, we will always treat them as special clientele, and we can acquire what our clientele needs.
Search our database of 200,000 solution- provider locations by business activity, technology, vertical market, and customer size. Find a technology partner NOW.
