What’s the Lowdown?

WHAT’S THE LOWDOWN?

Defined, I’m referring to the noun – “the true facts or relevant information about something” – not to be confused with the adjective, often included in sentences such as “that dirty lowdown trick!”

You can make a quick stop at this blog to learn how best to use some of the materials being posted into Research & Trends (R&T). Generally, R&T offers insights to support your endeavors to market, manage or just mull over topics impacting the industry. I’m here to streamline that process with a few highlights!

This week, I draw your attention to a smart report called the Small Business Threat Index. It’s an easy read, packed full of interesting insights about the perception of risk shared by small business owners. So, if your market includes the “mom and pops” of your community, this is a very useful read.

HOW TO USE IT?

Referral Sources:

Think about who within your referral network would benefit from this report. If you have small business lenders in your network, sending them a copy with a quote like “Thought of you when I read this and wondered how accurate it is for our market?” It’s a nod to your understanding of the risks they face when underwriting small business loans. However, you might find that they aren’t even assessing coverage as part of the due diligence, which could lead to an insightful conversation over your next networking lunch.

“Alarmingly, 1 in 5 American small businesses wouldn’t even survive one month if sales completely stopped, and 3 in 4 would last less than 6 months…” Small Business Threat Index

Social Media:

Post an interesting quote from the text, with a link to the report, on your LinkedIn and feel free to engage your audience about whether they agree. Example: “In general, small business owners aren’t insuring themselves sufficiently against the threats they consider most damaging… 67% of owners with less than a month of reserves consider floods, fires, and other disasters ‘extremely damaging,’ but only 21% have insurance for these threats directly, and only 14% have business interruption insurance to maintain cash flow during a stoppage.” Engaging your network keeps you in their view. (We have social media share buttons on each landing page to make it quick.)

Client Engagement:

Does this report speak to any of the issues you are trying to address with small business owners in your market? It certainly provides you a snapshot into the perceived risks of the respondents of this survey. If you struggle to find topics for your own newsletter or email campaign to your clients, you may find useful data within the report. It will certainly make for good conversation.

So…that’s the Lowdown on a few ways to use the Small Business Threat Index to support your own content marketing efforts. If you ever need a little more clarification, don’t hesitate to ask in the comment section.

What did I find most interesting? Cyber threat and breach ranked far below physical damage as an extreme threat by these small business owners, and cyber insurance didn’t even make it onto their list of mitigating coverage. If you are working with clients to better understand the threat posed by cyber attacks and data breach, we’ve got a great report for that too! Check out the Ponemon Institute: 2017 State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium-Sized Businesses and give the above exercise a try with some of the data they’ve shared!

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Topics Cyber