StartupJournal | Strategic Management

StartupJournal | Strategic Management

Nowadays Appearances
Can Be Deceiving
By AMY CHOZICK
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal Online


Last January, Kelly Ford helped launch Oriel Wines, an international wine-import business that sells 24 boutique wines from 22 regions and eight countries. But what might surprise Oriel's clientele is this: The company has only six employees.

"We're a luxury brand, so customers have to think we're bigger than we really are," says Ms. Ford, managing director at New York-based Oriel.

The secret is technology. To give the new company the look and feel of an international player, Oriel contacted NetSuite Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., technology-service provider that helps small businesses develop and manage operations from a single, hosted Web site. For Oriel, NetSuite has implemented software that tracks inventory, handles all accounting and orders, helps maintain customer relationships with email newsletters and sends out targeted marketing campaigns.

In the small-business world these days, appearances are increasingly deceiving. Thanks to new technologies small firms can look -- and in many cases operate -- like only larger firms could just a few years ago.

"You want to give the impression that you are efficient, creative and professional, and that you have access to all the resources and capabilities that a large business does," says Bruce Judson, a faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management and the founder of three Web-based small businesses. "Certain technologies can help you do this."

Custom Sites

In the effort to look bigger than they are, small businesses can start with the Internet. In the past, hiring a Web designer to launch a site with the necessary links, animation, stereo sound and interactive navigation was prohibitively expensive for many start-ups. They could create a Web site -- but it would look as small-time as they were.