FIRST-HAND LESSONS ON E-BUSINESS
(A Small-Scale Entrepreneur’s Experience on Internet for SMEs)

Much has been said about the internet being an effective tool and fertile venue for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). For businesses, the internet helps both ways – externally, because it provides a level playing field to all business, and internally, because it promotes efficient management.

The concept of internet use for SMEs, or E-Business, brings to mind a classical theorist – Frederick Taylor, whose “One Best Way” Theory of scientific management has survived the emergence of modern-day management theories. Applying his theory, there is no dispute that there are many good ways of conducting and managing businesses. But there is always this “one best way” of going about it, which will prove most efficient or that which will yield the best (or maximum) results from very minimal efforts. As the International Trade Forum, in 2000, has put it, the internet could be the new silk road for SMEs.[1]

But as they say, the real test of the pudding is in the tasting.


Putting Up A Business

In 2007, a classmate and I put up a tutorial center.

From the beginning, the internet has been a convenient means to promote the business and a good source of information and techniques for business neophytes like us. As the days went by, it continued to be a helpful venue for hiring employees. It also proved to be an economical means of storing office files and an expedient venue for exchanges and correspondences between me and my partner.

While the internet may have been helpful as to our internal management to a certain extent, let me cite the instances where it has not been that much of help, and try to provide the reasons for such.


The Internet and the Employees

As previously stated, the internet has been a tool for hiring employees.

Most of our employees are college students and graduates, or that sector which comprise the bulk of internet users in the country today. With the surfacing of many job advertisement websites (i.e., jobstreet, bestjobs, peyups), inviting many applicants became almost effortless. Also, applicants are easily short-listed by choosing the better resumes.

But we all know that quantity does not equate to quality. Employee-hiring in the past year could be described as looking for needles in a haystack. The embodiment of the qualifications we have been looking for, coupled with the specific requests/demands of the clients, are not always met by the applicants who have made it to the short list.

Further, the use of the internet to coordinate with employees seems to have stopped at the point when they are hired, even if correspondences could be well-documented and conveniently made through the internet. This is primarily attributable to the issue of access.
As it appears, though many college students and graduates comprise the bulk of internet users, not all of them have 24/7 access to the internet. The main reason why they rent computers to go online is to look for jobs. And they shell out money to rent computers, in the hope of finding sources of income. Once they have found a job, they cease to use the internet, unless their employers give them the benefit of free internet usage, something that a small business like ours could not provide for now.


The Internet and the Clients

As formerly put, the internet has been a convenient means of promoting the business.
Surprisingly, however, the majority of our clients found out about the business, and the services it offers, not from the internet but from other forms of marketing and promotion – fliers, tarpaulins, other clients’ referrals.

In one conversation I had with a client, who also happens to be a businesswoman, there is a common notion among clients, especially those from the mid-30s and up age range, that goods and services being advertised in the internet are usually expensive. Very few know are aware of the idea of free online advertising. Clients usually associate internet advertising with the use of credit cards and other virtual transactions, something which many are averse to.

Also, in the course of doing business, I have learned that not all potential clients (when I say clients, I mean those belonging to the mid-30s and up age range) have access to the internet. And even if they do, they are not aware of how much it could benefit them. But granting that they do, they reason that they don’t have the time. And even supposing that they do, they are not very willing to go online.

Our clients range from middle-income earners to high-income earners. Many, if not all of them, hire tutors because they do not have time to teach their kids because they are very busy earning for their families, or simply because they don’t have the patience to teach their kids.
As it appears, these career-centric parents do not bother to learn how to use the internet to their benefit because they reason that their jobs don’t permit them to go online or because someone else in the office does the online jobs for them.


The New Silk Road is the Road Less Traveled

The International Trade Forum, though having put forward the idea that the internet may be the new silk road for SMEs, never made an absolute claim that the internet is the “one best way” for SMEs. Maybe, not yet.

In the same issue[2], the Forum stated that there are challenges to be faced by small firms such as “understanding today’s global market place, telecommunications infrastructure, understanding the role of the internet.”

To me, the government, as the main provider of public goods and services, has got much to do about it.

As the internet access is not yet considered a basic commodity among consumers, the government has yet to invest in projects that would provide widespread free internet use. It is posed that this shall solve the issues of accessibility and public reluctance to its use. When there is availability of this internet service, already existing users are encouraged and those disinclined would be attracted to its benefits.

And after having laid the groundwork for widespread internet use, the government should refrain from heavily regulating internet-based activities to further enhance free, open, and transparent competition among SMEs.

Until this has been attained, this “new silk road” remains to be the less traversed. And hopefully, not using the internet in businesses will not cause the SMEs, and eventually the economy, much.
For if indeed, the future reveals that this “new silk road” is the “one best way” to do business, taking the road less traveled may have actually made all the difference.



(for the week 29 Jun to 05 Jul 2008)
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[1] “Internet for SMEs: A New Silk Road?” International Trade Centre, International Trade Forum, Issue 3/2000
[2] Issue 3/2000