In our corporate businesses, we often define success as “growth” – revenue growth, higher profits, more customers. The Enterprise Council on Small Business decided to test this definition in the small business market and surprisingly found that “satisfaction” was the primary way that they defined success. To dig a little deeper, we asked business owners to define what satisfaction means to them. As marketers, we may think that the satisfaction owners get out of running their businesses is that it allows them to do what they love. Contrary to this, business owners told us that maintaining a healthy work/life balance was the single biggest factor in their definition of satisfaction.

This finding may be somewhat contrary to popular belief about small business owners as we tend to think of them as working around the clock. Marketing communications should reflect an understanding of the demands and time constraints that small business owners are under. This can be accomplished by positioning how your product or service can assist them in reaching a higher level of balance between their work and home lives. Also, give some thought to the types of promotions or contests you are running for small business owners. Not all rewards need to be business oriented, and for those looking to achieve more work/life balance, giving them rewards for their personal life can be a strong indicator of your commitment to helping them achieve this.

Small business owners’ schedules are tight in comparison to their corporate counterparts and their time is extremely valuable to them. This theme of being time-starved emerges in the majority of the Enterprise Council on Small Business’ qualitative interviews of business owners. For example, in one interview, an audio visual equipment small business owner mentioned, “We don’t have formal hours. We work regular 8am to 4pm hours, but that can extend into the middle of the night if necessary.” Both government and Gallup Poll statistics also suggest that business owners work longer hours than the typical employed adult.

Almost half of business owners report that they work at least 44 hours per week, compared to only 39% of employees who work the same number of hours. Being time starved is something that is reported by small business owners regardless of their firmographic or demographic differences. This is most likely due to the fact that a business owner’s personal and work life are often closely tied as they are accountable for most, if not all, aspects of the business.

Understanding the time-sensitive pressures that small business owners are under may help marketers to better position their products and services. Here are a few quick tips to successfully positioning your products or services:

• Highlight your products’ ability to save time or improve efficiency, even if it only saves a small amount of time. Business owners will recognize and value the incremental time a product or service can save them.
• Emphasize how your product can help small business owners to eliminate an unwanted task from their daily routine.
• Recognize that many small business owners think about their businesses constantly, regardless of whether they’re at work or not.

Performing unwanted or tedious tasks reduces the time that small business owners are able to focus on their primary business goals. Business owners prefer to spend their time working in their business rather than on their business. Your product or service may free up some time for business owners and allow them to get back to what they enjoy doing. Focusing on these aspects of your products or services will help to increase the desire small business owners have for them and can lead to greater sales.