Fuck the Fortune 500, It’s All About the Fortune 5,000,000!

Monday, 24 August 2009 14:17

The Fortune 500 makes up the biggest companies in the U.S. The smallest of the 500 companies, Legg Mason, brings in a bit more than 4.6 billion dollars a year and the largest company, Exxon Mobile, brings in around 442 billion dollars a year.

The Fortune 5,000,000 on the other hand is composed of small companies. Most of them don’t even generate a billion in revenue and surprisingly enough, a lot of them may not even revenue a million dollars a year.

I know this doesn’t make the Fortune 5,000,000 seem attractive, but in actuality it is. Before I go into why you should target the Fortune 5,000,000, lets break down why you shouldn’t go after the Fortune 500:

1. Slow and steady doesn’t win the race - if you want to lock in a deal with a large company, it is going to take a lot of time. These companies move slowly due to their chain of command. You never know if you are dealing with the decision maker and even if you are, it doesn’t mean things are going to move quickly.
2. Time is money - in addition to the time you’ll spend trying to lock in a deal, you’ll spend a lot of money. From wining and dining to making multiple presentations to an executive team, it will all add up. And if you happen to get lucky enough to get to terms, just imagine the legal fees.
3. The money isn’t always great – there is a big misconception that you’ll make a ton of money if you lock in a Fortune 500 company. What you probably don’t realize is that the big bucks usually go to other Fortune 500 companies. Your company will usually get a small contract and even if you happen to provide a great service or product, you’ll be lucky if you get the opportunity for a large contract.
4. You’ll be a bitch – whether you end up getting paid a lot or a little from a big company, you’ll be their bitch. They’ll expect a lot from you, and in most cases you’ll end up doing more work than what was listed out in your contract.
5. You may not get paid – the bigger the company, the slower they tend to pay their bills. Just think of this way, if they hold their money for an extra 30 or 60 days to all of the companies they owe money to, they’ll end up earning a lot of interest. Although 2% interest from your bank may not seem like a lot to you, it adds up if you have over a billion dollars.

Targeting the Fortune 500 may have seemed like a great idea at first, but hopefully the points I mentioned above shows you why you shouldn’t target them.

So now, lets look into the Fortune 5,000,000:

1. They move quickly – small companies move much faster than larger companies. Yes, they might not have the big budgets, but it is easier to get money from them.
2. You can easily reach them – through normal means of advertising, you can reach the Fortune 5,000,000. You don’t have to build out a sales force and spend thousands of dollars like you may have to if you are targeting the Fortune 500.
3. Your income will be recession proof – most of the Internet companies that didn’t get affected by the recession are those that targeted the Fortune 5,000,000. It is much better to have 100,000 customers paying you $10 a year compared to having 4 customers paying you $250,000 a year. If you end up with a client who is paying you $250,000, they own your ass.
4. They can pay more – if you are going after big contracts, there are big enough companies in the Fortune 5,000,000. If you want someone to cut you a million dollar check, they don’t have to be making billions of dollars a year, they just have to be making millions.
5. You’ll have more evangelists – as long as you treat your customers’ right, it is better to have more than less. The more customers you have, the more people that will be telling their friends about your company, which will indirectly grow your revenue.
6. Smaller valuation periods – larger companies typically want to try things out for at least a few months before they make a decision. Smaller companies are fine with short valuation periods, if not any at all. This will help you with cash flow issues.
7. Less competition – because the Fortune 500 looks more lucrative, more companies are targeting them. If you target smaller businesses you’ll end up with less competition, which will lead to better market penetration.

Conclusion

Targeting the Fortune 5,000,000 doesn’t mean you can’t go after the Fortune 500. If you target smaller companies, sooner or later the Fortune 500 will flock towards you.

But instead of concentrating your efforts on the larger companies, concentrate on the smaller ones. This will cause your company to grow faster and your revenue will be more stable.

And as a final thought, every time one of my companies targeted the Fortune 5,000,000 the juice has always been worth the squeeze.