The nine things you need to know if you plan to do business with a BIG business

Having a Big Business as a client when you’re a small business sounds awesome. You’ll get a decent quantity of work, over a longish period of time with a business that can afford you and will pay your bills. Yay? Not so fast.

Big Businesses can be a pain in the derriere to deal with.

If you’ve had a Big Business client you’ll know that when you work out the hours (and hours) it takes you to win the work and then the hoops they make you jump through to keep it, having a contract with a Big Business isn’t always fabulous.

That’s not to say don’t do it. Do. I’ve worked on both sides of the Big Business/Small Business fence and it can be a fantastic arrangement, you just need to keep your wits about you and follow these tips:

1. Be clear about what you want

 

Before you meet with the Big Business (BB) be as clear as you can be about what you want from them.

 

It will be easier for them to make a decision to hire you if you give them something concrete to decide about (“I’d like to have the contract for your birthday cakes which I think is about 5 a month”, “I’d like to give Health Training to your executive team with a program that looks like this…..”)

 

BBs like to work with small businesses who are articulate, confident and decisive. If you don’t feel like you are any of these practise a bit before you meet them. You’ve got a great product, believe it.

 

2. Meet with the right person

 

An annoying tactic of BBs is that they organise for you to meet with one of their employees who is way too junior to make a decsion. When this happens you find yourself spending ages with a ‘junior’ who acts like she really likes your stuff, says all the right things and then does nothing with it. Grrrr!

 

At your first meeting with BB ask the ‘junior’ if they are the one who makes the decision. Press them a bit because they might not like to admit that they’re not! Once you’ve got the ‘no’ answer ask them who does make the decision and then ask that you meet with that person next time.

 

3. Use what you’ve got

 

Some really Big Businesses have diversity programs which means they need to work with more ‘minority’ groups. Fabulously, women fall into this category! So if you’re a female-run small biz, make a fuss about it!

 

4. Make a deadline

 

Big Businesses are hopeless at making small decisions. You’ll find that they procrastinate and keep stringing you along.

 

To get round this,  give the BB a deadline. Tell them that you want a ‘yes’/’no’ decision by a certain date. and stick to it. Yup this feels mighty hard to do  – especially when you really want the work – but it’s better to get the ‘no’ now than in 12 months (and many meetings) time.

 

5. Have a walk-away price

 

BBs don’t get to be big businesses without being very good at negotiating. And that can be a bit painful for the small biz owner.

 

So what can you do?

 

Your best tactic is to have a ‘walk away’ price.

 

Before you start negotiating on price decide the (absolutely) lowest price that you will accept. Write it down and pop it in an envelope somewhere safe. When you’re about to start talking price with the BB open the envelope, look at the number and remind yourself that that is your ‘walk away price’.

 

If the price falls below your ‘walk away’, just walk away.

 

If the BB really wants to work with you they will match your ‘walk away’ price. If they don’t then you are better off without the work.

 

6. Request a single point of contact

 

Once you start working with a BB you could find yourself getting calls and emails from lots of different BB employees. This can be confusing, time consuming and irritating! Ask the BB for a single point of contact (two if you must). They won’t mind.

 

7. Invoice regularly

 

Let’s be honest here. If you send small regular invoices they’ll slip easily through accounts without too many questions being asked.

 

If you save up your billings and present one big invoice at a random moment you’re likley to alert the bean counters and you’ll get questions about the price and quantity of the work you’re doing.

 

Put it this way. Mr Frugal in accounts won’t notice a weekly invoice for 3 celebration cakes but he’ll be onto to you like a bee to honey if he sees a quarterly invoice for 36 of them!

 

8. Chase your cash

 

If you think getting a BB to pay your bills will be easy, think again. It’s like getting water out of a stone.

 

BBs are very happy to hang onto their cash and spend it on other things. So you have to chase, chase, chase your debtors. I know one small business that waited 5 years (5 years!) to get paid by a big business and when he asked them why it took so long they said it was ‘becuase he hadn’t asked!’. Ugh!

 

9. Get a testimonial

 

One of the reasons we small businesses like to work with BBs is that it gives us credibilty. We figure that other companies will think that if we’re good enough to work for [insert BB name] we’ll be good enough to work with them.

 

It makes sense then that  if you’re going to go to the bother of putting the hard work in with a BB, ask them to give you a testimonial!

Working with a Big Business can be great for your small business, but you have to make it right for you. And if that means being a bit bossy, then do it!

 

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