Small business, big networks: An open letter to SMEs

Traders at Soko Mjinga Market in Nyeri.[File, Standard]

Dear business owner.

Did you know that your suppliers are your first advantage?

I am writing to you because there is an important shift happening in how businesses grow. Technology is changing how people do business, whether you are a small or a large business.

Each day, your attention is rightly focused on your customers, your staff, and your business. But there is another part of your business that is just as important, yet often less visible, the network within which your business operates.

Your business does not stand alone. Every day, you depend on others to operate successfully. Someone supplies you with goods or services needed in your business.

Someone helps to deliver your goods to the end consumers. Someone enables your payments. Someone keeps your money safe and secure. Someone provides you with insurance to protect your business.

These relationships form your network or ecosystem, and how well you manage this network will determine how far your business can grow.

Let me illustrate this: a small supplier receives an order through a digital platform and confirms the order. The buyer pays through the same platform.

The supplier receives confirmation that the money has been sent to their bank account or mobile money. On the surface, everything appears to be working perfectly.

However, the supplier sends the delivery company to deliver the goods to the customer.

The delivery company delays the delivery. The result is simple but costly: the order fails. The trust that the customer had when placing the order and paying for it upfront was betrayed by the delayed delivery.

This is why I am writing to you.

Many small businesses focus their energy on attracting customers, which is important. But fewer pay attention to the people behind their business, their suppliers.

Yet your suppliers are a critical part of your growth. If your suppliers are strong and reliable, your business becomes stable and predictable. If they are inconsistent, your business will struggle, no matter how strong your product or service is.

It is therefore important to ask yourself a different kind of question: how well you work with your suppliers. Do you pay them on time? Are they reliable? Do you plan your orders, or do you create pressure with last-minute requests? These factors matter because trust flows in both directions.

When challenges arise, and they always do, your suppliers will make choices. They will prioritise the businesses they trust. They will allocate their best service, their fastest delivery, and their most flexible terms to those customers who are reliable and predictable.

Trust determines who gets served first, who receives better terms, and who is supported when conditions become difficult.

Technology is making this dynamic even more visible. Today, systems record payment history, order patterns, and delivery performance. This visibility does not create trust, but it makes it visible. At the same time, technology also creates opportunities by allowing you to find better suppliers, compare quality and pricing, and connect to wider markets.

 As your business grows, you will increasingly engage with larger partners such as supermarkets, manufacturers, exporters, and digital platforms. These partners expect reliability above all else.

Your suppliers shape your ability to deliver. Your delivery shapes your reputation. Your reputation shapes your growth.

This is how small businesses begin to grow beyond their apparent size. Even if you remain in the same location, a strong and trusted network allows you to reach larger markets and participate in broader business opportunities.

In time, this is how many small businesses become what I call micro-multinationals, enterprises that may be small in structure but are connected to large opportunities through technology, trust, and networks.

As you reflect on your business, I encourage you to look beyond what you sell and consider the strength of the network you operate in.

Because in today’s economy, your success will not be defined only by your effort, but by the strength of the network you build around your business.

The author writes at the intersection of the trust economy, digital growth and transformation in emerging markets