Levelling the playing field

Today reporter Patrick Stafford looks at the incredible growth in Australia of Chinese online SME marketplace Alibaba.com, which allows SMEs to buy and sell with international suppliers and customers from the comfort of their own computer.

There are now 316,000 Australian businesses registered with Alibaba.com, with trade particularly high between Australia and China, Hong Kong and India.

To me, sites like this – which allow smaller Australian businesses to source and sell products without actually having to travel overseas – are a great leveller.

The expenses associated with travelling, marketing, getting on-the-ground help and representation and currency risks meant overseas trade was beyond many SMEs. But these markets are now offering entrepreneurs a way to at least dip their toe in the water.

This isn’t the only internet leveller for small business, of course.

Crowdsouricng sites allow SMEs to outsource in a manner and at a cost that simply wasn’t possibly even five years ago.

Social media allows small businesses to access mass communication tools for free, or at least at low cost (typically time is the biggest expense here).

Suddenly, tools and strategies that were only available to big companies are now within the reach of SMEs.

But entrepreneurs must be open to using, or at least trying these tools.

Yes, there are issues with using a site like Alibaba.com and crowdsourcing sites, in that it is harder to develop the sort of close working relationships that you might be able to build with a local supplier.

Similarly, it can be hard for small companies to get heard on Twitter and Facebook.

But entrepreneurs need to explore these types of sites and figure out how to make them work in their business.

Your competitors already are.