Think about it: a big company like Apple or Visa or US Bank will spend millions of dollars installing complex customer support software so that when you call a support person they can act like a close personal friend. They know everything about you. It the same personal service you could once only receive from a small firm but from a multi-national corporation.

On the other hand, if you are part of a small business, you will spend a lot of your time on customer support, and at all times of the day too. Customers have become accustomed to 24-hour support lines from big companies and when they contact you any time of the day they will want the same instant response.

How did this happen? There was a day when a big company could get away with acting big and a small company with acting small. Your size gave you a distinct advantage. You could offer crappy customer service but because you were big and your economies of scale meant great prices or good locations or whatever people would deal with you anyway. Or you could get away with limited hours and limited services because your small size meant you could tailor your service to each customer’s needs so they would put up with the inconvenience.

But the Internet has been a great leveler. Suddenly every tiny business is global and every giant company is local. It’s as easy for you to buy your books from Amazon online as it is to buy from some little book shop in Lawrence, Kansas no matter where you are.

Now, for the first time, big companies and little companies are competing directly and customers are comparing you. They want big companies to provide small company attention. And they want small companies to offer big company convenience.

Business has become a Big Act. If you are big, you must to learn to act small. If you are small, you must learn to act big. The good news is the Internet is also making this possible because companies big and small can get access to cheap, easy software that helps them give customers just what they are asking for.

So what is better: big or small? As a business owner, it really depends on what you want the business to do for your life. There are good and bad things about both. But the important point to remember is that no matter what size you really are, your going to spend a lot of your time acting like something you are not. If you sell on the internet, your customers will accept nothing less.

Later this fall, Sproutit.com will introduce the first web-based application to help you offer big company service by email in less time than you spend on it now. Sign up for more information.