Recently, the WordPress.com design team spoke to 34 small business owners across the United States as part of a research project. The data gathered was vast, and incredibly insightful, but one thing has been sticking in my head after reading the results;
Small business owners want partners more than vendors
This goes to a fundamental part of the small business owners experience – building relationships with people and with service providers, (hopefully) built on trust.
One of our Design Principles at Automattic is Trust, and the challenge here, I think, is how do we continue to build a platform that small business owners trust, but also one that makes them feel like we are walking the journey alongside them, rather than simply giving them a product.
Something I really liked about the above statement – “Partners over Vendors” – is that when a partnership is mutually beneficial, it results in shared profits and benefits for both parties.
Automattic Design 