Who Are SMBs?

EWHO ARE SMBS? THE PEOPLE, DEMOGRAPHICS, AND IT CHARACTERISTICS OF TODAY'S SMALL AND MID-SIZED BUSINESSES Small and midsize businesses are frequently talked about as the engine of the new cloud economy but are rarely defined. Who is this broad category of business owners? What do these companies actually look and feel like, beneath all of the generalities? Here, we take a closer look at today's SMBS, examining company sizes, demographics, and decision makers, as well as how rapidly SMBS are adopting new cloud-based technologies in the workplace. COMPANY SIZE, DEMOGRAPHICS, AND DECISION MAKERS THE MOST RECENT CENSUS BUREAU DATA OFFERS A GLIMPSE INTO THE SIZE OF SMBS AND HOW MANY COMPANIES OF EACH SIZE THERE ARE: 1-4* 3,617,764 509 1,044,065 10-19 633,141 20-99 526.307 100-499 90,386 500+ 18.469 500-749 I 6,060 750-999 I 3,038 1,000-1,499 1 3,044 1,500-1,999 | 1,533 2,000-2,499 | 904 2,500-4,999 | 1,934 5,000+ I 1,956 5,000-9,999| 975 10,000+| 981 NUMBER OF FIRMS *Firms with 1 to 4 employees or with no employees as of March 2012. IN A ZOOMERANG SURVEY OF MORE THAN 1,000 SMBS, BUSINESS OWNERS WERE POLLED ON WHAT ASPECT OF THEIR BUSINESS THEY SERVED AS PRIMARY DECISION MAKER: 27% 26% 13% 13% 13% 5% 4% Operations Administration Communications, Financial Technology Human resources Research and marketing, and sales development HERE IS THE AGE BREAKDOWN ACROSS THE SURVEYED BUSINESS OWNERS: 45-54 55-64 34-44 25-34 75+ 18-24 65-74 24% 21% 20% 17% 4% 3% 11% TOP-PERFORMING SMB INDUSTRIES WORLDWIDE SMBS COVER A LOT OF TERRITORY, ENCOMPASSING EVERYTHING FROM RESTAURANTS TO SPORTS AGENCIES TO CONSULTING FIRMS. YET, ACCORDING TO IBISWORLD, SIX INDUSTRIES STOOD OUT LAST YEAR AS THE GLOBAL TOP PERFORMERS: O0.114 Q 0.119 Q0.117 b0.088 2011 VALUE ADDED GROWTH Q0.065 Q0.041 2011 REVENUE GROWTH 20.034 2011 EMPLOYMENT GROWTH Environmental Real Estate E-Commerce/ Debt Collection Consulting Appraisal Advertising Job Training/ Online Auctions Agencies Agencies Career Counseling WHAT DO THEY HAVE IN COMMON? ALL SIX INDUSTRIES ARE SERVICE BASED. VALUE-ADDED GROWTH REFERS TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PRICE OF GOODS/SERVICE AND THEIR PRODUCTION COSTS. SERVER VIRTUALIZATION AND CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION IT'S NO SECRET THAT SERVER VIRTUALIZATION AND CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES HAVE FUELED SMB GROWTH BY STREAMLINING PROCESSES AND LOWERING COSTS. BUT NOT ALL SMBS HAVE ADOPTED THESE TECHNOLOGIES RAPIDLY. VMWARE EXAMINED THE SERVER-VIRTUALIZATION JOURNEY OF VARIOUS SMBS WORLDWIDE TO SEE HOW FAR ALONG IN THE PROCESS COMPANIES WERE: FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES NONE ILEARN/PLAN PILOT/DEPLOY RUN/OPTIMIZE 1-24 66% 14% 12% 68% 25-99 37% 20% 25% 100-499 OF SMBS ARE SPENDING MORE ON VIRTUALIZATION 25% 22% 31% AND CLOUD COMPUTING THIS YEAR THAN IN 2011. 500-1,000 21% 21% 17% 41% HERE IS WHERE THE SAME-SIZED BUSINESSES STAND WITH CLOUD COMPUTING: FULL-TIME EMPLOYE ES ILEARN/PLAN I PILOT/DEPLOY NONE RUN/OPTIMIZE 68% 14% 10% 9% 25-99 47% 20% 14% 19% 100-499 33% 21% 20% 26% 500-1,000 27% 22% 18% 33% IN EACH CATEGORY, THE SMALLEST SMBS ARE THE MOST LACKING WHEN IT COMES TO SERVER VIRTUALIZATION AND CLOUD ADOPTION. YET OVER 20 PERCENT OF COMPANIES WITH 500 TO 1,00o EMPLOYEES HAVE YET TO IMPLEMENT A SOLUTION. Today's SMBS are predominantly small shops, thrive in service industries, and stand to realize vast gains in productivity and efficiency from server virtualization and cloud technologies. SOURCES: ZOOMERANG, VMWARE, IBISWORLD vmware VMwareSMB t facebook.com/vmwaresmb community.spiceworks.com/pages/vmware blogs.vmware.com/smb SIZE OF SMB (NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES PER FIRM) 0.0720.07s 0.0380 0.061 0.051 80.005 O0.092 20.039 0.035 Q0.079 0.021Q