Soho OS: Big Ideas for Small Business

An article by Ayelet Noff    16 Comments

When companies are trying to figure out who they want to market to, they usually think in terms of quality; meaning high end B2B sales to large corporate customers – Or quantity; meaning high volume B2C sales targeting the individual consumer. Who do you think gets lost in the mix? – That’s right, small business.

The reason for the neglect of the small business market stems part and parcel from the notion that this market has neither the ability to afford the high priced items reserved for big business, nor the volume to justify the push of lower end items. However, as it is with all matters of value, the truth of this perception is directly related to the breadth of one’s vision. If you view small business as a Hodge-Podge of unrelated individual vendors, each struggling to make it on their own in a sea of corporate waters, then yes, small businesses is less attractive than the higher end B2B markets and the voluminous B2C markets. If on the other hand, you have flexibility of vision and can imagine each small business as a piece of a unrealized collective whole, you may just have stumbled upon one of the greatest untapped markets out there, where large numbers combine with the need for high end competitive services – Essentially the best of both worlds.

Soho OS, a new and innovative social and business management platform, was one of the first to recognize the full potential of this unformed market. They set about converting individual small businesses into a “virtual corporate” whose size is dictated by the number of their members, whose borders span every corner of the globe where small businesses and an internet connection can be found, and whose talent pool is as deep and individualized as the business owners are themselves. Their strategy for creating a virtual corporate out of disparate parts was built upon the bold and unprecedented move of offering a fully stocked suite of core business services free of charge, a “Premier package” of cutting edge technology offered as an SaaS “pay-as-you-go” service, and a host of social media services built right into the platform.

The genius of Soho OS was to create an advantage out of a handicap. The size handicap of small businesses meant there was always a need to rely on a dependable network of capable business associates. As such, small businesses have evolved an inbred ability to form rock solid partnerships with each other. Soho OS has taken that ability into the social media age, giving it a global standards boost, and real-time capabilities.

New Job Market

A company like Soho OS was born with innovation in its veins and can never sit idly on one advantage for too long. Proof of this lies in the fact that mere weeks after opening up their closed beta with a fully revamped UI, Soho OS is announcing a partnership with Donanza, an online marketplace for freelancers to vie for projects. Projects are mined from over 300 separate web sources, and tens of thousands of new projects are added each day. Donanza offers a whole new measure of value for Soho OS users in that now they not only have the ultimate tool to manage their businesses; they have a fantastic resource with which to secure new business directly from the Soho OS interface.

New Bloggers’ SMS Widget

Soho OS is also announcing a new bloggers widget providing free SMS service for their readers. The idea is to show one small feature of the mix of features which Soho OS offers its users and enable bloggers to give their readers added value and a further reason to keep their pages open. You can check out the widget on my blog (look right).

What I love about Soho OS is that they are perpetually trying to think out of the box with regard to their own services. Large companies are usually very happy with their products, using them in a linear fashion without having a need to adapt them to other opportunities. If a new need crops up, they simply build another product. Small businesses don’t have that luxury and therefore try to milk each and every product of its full potential before considering other ideas. Soho OS did the same thing here. They already offer SMS service but thought, “What else can we do with that?”

If for no other reason than these clear demonstrations of vision and drive; you should want to trust your business in the hands of such entrepreneurial spirit. Make sure to stay tuned as Soho OS continues to innovate and revolutionize the way we think, work and communicate with one another.