Does it feel like everywhere you turn new businesses are popping up, impacting our daily routines, our shopping habits, the way we work, and generally making our lives better, more convenient or more interesting? That’s because they are! In fact, entrepreneurs and small, fast-growing businesses create between 70 and 90 percent of the world’s jobs. As we kick off National Small Business Week (or Small Business Month as we like to keep the celebration going all month!), we not only want to celebrate the positive impact of small businesses around the world — and the passionate people who run them — but we also want to look back at how and where our company all began.
Entrepreneurship is embedded in Dell’s history and culture and we have familiarity with the challenges small businesses go through every day. That’s why we are wholeheartedly involved in a number of initiatives to support the movers and shakers, the doers, the dreamers — the women and men who took a leap of faith and started their own companies.
Technology to Scale
We know that at the root of establishing a business, small business owners need reliable infrastructure to run and scale their operations, while wearing multiple hats to successfully manage their company. With the Dell Small Business advisor program, owners can catch a break on playing that IT manager role. We offer companies free assistance on how to best optimize technology for their needs. Now, throughout May, we’re also offering tremendous deals of up to 45 percent off on multiple product lines at dell.com/businessdeals.
Along with our expert advisors, Dell is the only PC company to offer products dedicated to small business needs, and provide solutions from the device to the server to the cloud, to help protect and manage their data. Most notably, our Vostro laptop line is designed to deliver the productivity and security features small businesses demand. Just ahead of Small Business Week, we expanded the Vostro brand with two new laptops, Vostro 15 7000 and Vostro 13 5000, to offer additional high performing and sleek options to our small business customers.
Improving Access to Capital
We’ve even created our own venture capital firm, Dell Technologies Capital, to help drive and guide the growth of passionate startups. Now, two years since its inception, the firm has invested $100+ million a year in a total of 90 early stage startups, completing 38 exits. In addition, Dell Financial Services offers small businesses the option to finance Dell products and services over a period of time to help ease the burden of purchasing new technology and infrastructure.
Empowering Female Founders
We lead multiple initiatives to support women entrepreneurs. We are hosting a panel in partnership with WeWork on May 7, Women Who Scale to Win, highlighting multiple incredible women entrepreneurs and discussing the 360 degree strategy that goes into building your business. Join us in Brooklyn and chat with our Small Business advisors on any tech questions you may have to power your small business!
Women make a critical contribution in every aspect of Dell’s business – employees, leaders, customers, suppliers and partners; and we remain committed to driving the success of women entrepreneurs through a number of key programs. This includes the Dell Women Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, where we connect female founders around the globe with sources of capital, knowledge and technology, through ongoing forums and an annual global summit.
In addition, Dell, along with SpringBoard Enterprises, co-founded Women Funding Women, an organization which addresses the challenges women entrepreneurs face to receive venture capital. The group’s goal is to bring women entrepreneurs together and show that there are other ways to secure funding beyond VC.
Generating Valuable Partnerships and Communities
We also remain heavily tied to the veteran entrepreneur community. Almost a quarter of US veterans want to become entrepreneurs, but only six percent achieve that goal. Dell works closely with Bunker Labs to educate and connect current and retired military members to the resources they need to start their own businesses.
Dell is always looking to align itself with brands that support the same goals to grow and invest in the small business community. One of these major partners is American Express, which we recently teamed up with to deliver technology credits to Platinum Card Members to effectively run their businesses.
We always look at Small Business Week as a time to celebrate wherever you may be in your small business journey. Whether you are still dreaming of your next big idea, or you are rapidly scaling your company, we salute you for chasing your dreams and never giving up.
