Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) Opportunity Study

"Understanding the Business Next Door"

Answers to over 300 questions that financial institutions need
to profit from the foundation of the U.S. small business market.

With well over 20 million companies in the Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) segment (entities with sales less than $100,000, work out of their homes and/or have fewer than four employees), this is the largest business banking segment. Seven out of ten business customers fall into the SOHO category. These companies really are the businesses next door; SOHO businesses are often located in homes or shared office spaces and go unnoticed by the banking industry. Therefore, they are often underserved. The opportunities in this segment continue to emerge and those financial institutions that learn how to best serve this market will have an advantageous position.

Increased client interest in the relatively unexplored SOHO segment has prompted Barlow Research to conduct the SOHO Opportunity Study; a comprehensive, multi-sponsor study focused on defining the financial habits, value and technological behaviors of SOHO entities. This study also gathers rudimentary information about the intentions, personality and lifestyle characteristics of these unique business owners.

Research Objectives

• Segmenting the SOHO market
• Evaluating SOHO business owner's personality attributes
• Examining financial management, payment and credit card behaviors
• Measuring the Value of the Customer
• Analyzing current and future products and services usage
• Exploring business Internet banking and mobile device habits
• Measuring primary bank and non-bank market share
• Identifying key financial purchasing patterns and evaluating pain points

Sample & Methodology

• 6,000 responses expected
• Stratified across:
• Two annual revenue segments
• Four geographic regions
• Questionnaire development:
• Five versions of the questionnaire were created
• Over 300 questions asked regarding:
• Segmentation
• Payments, credit cards and financial management
• Technology usage
• Personality, value and pain points
• Banking relationship and business outlook
• Products/services and channels
• Fielding: Measuring the Value of the Customer
• October 2012 – January 2013
• Multimodal response: mail, Internet, telephone

Please contact your client executive or a member of the Barlow Research staff for answers to any additional questions you may have about this initiative (763) 253-1800, or fill out your contact information in the upper right of this page to be contacted by Barlow Research.