As a small business owner, an important to-do that needs to be done nearly every day is the acquisition of customers. For B2B businesses, serving small and medium-sized businesses as customers is often the entry point when you’re starting out. Eventually, though, you may face the temptation to serve large businesses… but is it worth it?

When you’re starting out, the small and medium sized business (“SMB”) is usually the right business to serve. Your products are the right size for them and they are the right price. (These SMBs may not be able to afford the large-scale, high priced solutions that your larger competitors are offering).

But this size of customer can be fraught with challenge: They’re fickle and price sensitive and, depending on what you sell, you might serve their needs and then they won’t need you again once you’ve solved their problem! The per-customer rate you make from each customer can be lower. By comparison, a large business is less fickle, is willing to pay substantially more, and will often have many departments, divisions, or new acquisitions who will also need your ongoing services. This seems like a more profitable scenario because there is a higher per-customer rate and less time needs to be spent looking to add new customers. But are big businesses really better customers for small vendors?

One entrepreneur tells us his experience: “I served SMBs for years then was hired by a huge multinational corporation. The money was good. But there were other challenges: I couldn’t solve their needs effectively because they were mired in tradition and habit and weren’t willing to break through the status quo… so my offerings were used but not to the point of transformational change that I had offered to my SMB clients. And worse yet, the multinational become my biggest customer, demanding 90% of my time (and paying for it, of course), but when the recession hit, their stockholders demanded cost cuts and I was on the chopping block along with hundreds of their other vendors. Suddenly, I had to scramble to build up my customer base again! I enjoyed working for a big company but I won’t ever do it again: My work is appreciated far more by SMBs who actually experience a solution to their problems, and no customer will ever become such a big part of my revenue that they would nearly destroy my business if they left.”

That’s one entrepreneur’s experience and it may not be your experience. You might have the right solutions for a big business and you might find that you can serve them without endangering your business or succumbing to the whims of their stockholders.

If you do want to pursue a big business as a client, I’ve found some good tips to remember. This article, entitled “Chasing Down Large Accounts”, appears in Entrepreneur.com and was written by author and speaker Barry Farber. Farber gives six tips for entrepreneurs who want to sell to big business. It’s a must-read while you decide if this is right for your business.

What size accounts are you after? Leave your opinions in the comments!

photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar