

Fuck the Fortune 500, It’s All About the Fortune 5,000,000 - webtickle
http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/08/24/fuck-the-fortune-500-its-all-about-the-fortune-5000000/

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sachinag
I like Neil, but there was no reason to use "fuck" when "forget" would work
just as well.

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unalone
It's a syllable shorter and places emphasis on the statement?

"Forget that" versus "Fuck that", beyond adding a swear, adds some energy to
the sentence, which isn't a bad thing. Mind you, this was stated more
eloquently (and in 2005) by 37signals, who this post is rather paraphrasing,
who put it as:

"Who cares about the Fortune 500? It’s time to care about the Fortune
5,000,000."

[http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/sidebusiness_software_the...](http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/sidebusiness_software_the_neglected_software_market.php)

Nicer, also, because it doesn't use the obnoxious phrase "all about".

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10ren
DHH's great talk at startup school also covers this:
[http://37signals.com/svn/posts/981-the-secret-to-making-
mone...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/981-the-secret-to-making-money-online)

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jsackmann
One of my companies works with sports franchises--not Fortune 500, but pretty
substantial operations. This really hit home for me:

"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."

Now, if you stand up for yourself from the get-go, you can avoid that last
part most of the time. But certainly, you can be treated differently than
larger operations. They get the benefit of dealing with decision-makers (me)
instead of some lackey, and they will often take advantage of that.

(But...not only YMMV, but MyMMV. I've got clients who try to make me their
bitch, and I've got clients who worship the ground I walk on.)

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redorb
I think if your client relationship is something like "either I'm a bitch or
the client is my bitch" then you have a ego issue.

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jsackmann
Is it necessary to mention that some client relationships fall into neither
category?

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redorb
I was trying to imply that all should fall in bewteen (I.e. mutually
beneficial)

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edw519
Gross generalizations supported with no data and based only upon personal
experience. Almost everything he said could be said about many businesses,
both large and small.

The unnecessary and distracting profanity didn't help much either.

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fnid
The problem this post neglects is distribution. Hunting and finding potential
customers among 5,000,000 is a lot more difficult than among 500.

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andymism
Seems to me that if you're solving a real problem for a real audience and put
in the doing the market schlep, then it would be easy enough for you to reach
your customers in the 5,000,000.

No one publishes a list of the Fortune 5,000,000. But having a convenient list
of 500 companies published in a magazine once a year doesn't make them any
more likely to pay attention to you anyway.

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etherael
on the other hand, you have a lot more hit and miss with the small to medium
business market, they're more likely to not pay at all or simply drop an
entire project on a whim without having to have a reason that they can peddle
to the committee in charge of the project, at the same time they're only a
step removed from the general public attitude of "My cousin could make it for
800$, what can you add to the equation?" and tend to be far more budget
sensitive than their larger counterparts.

That said, the article does make some good points.

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rgrieselhuber
It's primarily about spreading the risk out to many more customers, so even if
this happens in a few customers, it doesn't affect your core cash flow.

