Notes from RTOWN’s Mayor: The State Of Entrepreneurship Infographic
Recently, we caught up with our founder Luke Aulin, of whom we fondly refer to as the Mayor of RTOWN, to capture his current thoughts on entrepreneurship and the growth of our humble company to serve “local” business. This is what he had to say….
“RTOWN is passionate about helping local businesses succeed!
But hang on a second. We used to say “small business.” And RTOWN’s guiding definition of a small business was precisely what you see in the Infographic below. “Those businesses with 1-99 paid employees.”
So why the change from ‘small’ to ‘local’?
In the last 6 months of doing business, we’ve learned very quickly that this definition of a small business – while interesting – doesn’t tell the whole story.
For one, from a revenue perspective, there are lot’s of REALLY REALLY BIG businesses that are categorized as a “small business” so long as the number of employees is our only measure.
For another, RTOWN is now doing business with “small businesses” (as defined here) who don’t really consider themselves ‘small’ and, from a revenue perspective, some of them aren’t. What unifies ALL of our customers is that they see themselves (their passions, pursuits, products and the purpose of their business) as something sizable. They are trying to make their own dents in the universe – even if their universe is the size of a town or a community within a big city. There’s nothing “small” about entrepreneurs trying to bring their vision for the world to reality – no matter how many employees they have.
So what does “local” mean to RTOWN? Yes, it means their customers are mostly locals in their neighborhoods. To us, it primarily means we’re developing a relationship with and solving problems for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs that are investing in growing their business and honorably serving their communities.
There will be more on this from us in the future.
For now, please enjoy the colorful data below thanks to the entrepreneur-builders at Ryerson University.
