3 Enterprises By Business Size

What are the different enterprises by business size?

1. SMB
2. SME
3. Large Enterprises

There are many ways that businesses differ from one to another — including size. Regardless of what industry you operate in, or what market you cater to, knowing the different enterprises by business size is crucial to helping you understand where your business stands. And, this understanding will help you better define your objectives, specify capabilities, and measure growth and achievements.

In this post, we get into the different classifications of business sizes, and how to differentiate each one.

SMB

The first is an SMB, which stands for “Small and Medium-Sized Businesses.” Though generally speaking, it is often used to refer to small and micro-enterprises.

Despite its name, this kind of enterprise isn’t a struggling company situated in someone’s basement. Many small and micro enterprises are pretty successful — they include those online clothing stores, mom & pop restaurants, and the like.

What characterizes an SMB is the number of employees the business has. In the Philippines, a micro-enterprise has less than 10 employees, while a small business has anywhere from 10 to 99 employees.

Generally, an SMB enterprise has limited specialized staff (such as IT people) as they lack complex or widespread operations — in short, their technology needs are limited. Any other specialized tasks, such as legal and accounting, are usually outsourced.

They are also limited geographically, usually only having one office and handling their operations in a central location. SMBs are typically sole proprietorships or partnerships, as these businesses choose forms of organization that allow their owners to exercise full control.

SME

SMEs are “Small and Medium Enterprises,” also called “Mid-Market” businesses. The difference between an SMB and SME is that the latter is used to refer to medium-sized businesses. These have anywhere from 100 to 199 employees.

Unlike small and micro businesses, an SME usually has more employees under specialized roles — which can include IT, legal, and accounting departments. Because they have more manpower, they can accommodate more complex operations, which prompts the need for specialized roles. They also have more manpower to deal with regular business functions, which reduces their need to outsource.

And, as opposed to SMBs, an SME’s owner tends to have a more hands-off role. This is because operations are more complex, so they need management-level employees to delegate some of their decision-making responsibilities to.

This kind of enterprise usually has more than one office or caters to more than one market location. They are also more likely to have remote teams and employees.

Large Enterprises

Large enterprises are, of course, the biggest kind of enterprise there is — but they are also few and far in between. They employ more than 200 employees and are often big industry players.

Their immense manpower allows them to take on all sorts of markets and operations, so it’s common for large enterprises to be involved in a variety of products and services. To support this, they also have several highly specialized and distinct departments, such as finance, sales, research, product development, etc. These departments are often independently managed by managers and are made up of specialists in their fields.

Large enterprises also tend to be international groups — while they can be based in one country, they may also operate in several other countries. Depending on the nature of their business, they can be handled remotely from their home country, or have branch managers that handle international operations.

This kind of enterprise is most often a corporation, which means they are directly owned and controlled by a group of people rather than just one entrepreneur. They are led by a board of directors that vote on all business decisions.

Key Takeaway

While all businesses in the Philippines contribute to the economy, they do so in different ways. One factor to keep in mind when measuring your impact and success against others is the different enterprises by business size — doing this will help you correctly classify your business.

Need more help with growing your business? Want to learn how to correctly measure and drive impact and success? Contact Benito Keh — a successful Filipino entrepreneur — for more tips on how to turn your ambitions into reality.