People think they are smarter to purchase from big public companies with millions of customers and hundreds of products. It’s not true. Here’s why:

Misalignment of interests
Your interests are not aligned with the interests of big companies. To a big company, you are a number, but to a small company, every customer counts. Ask the CEO of a large company to take a moment to speak with a solitary paying customer, and they probably won’t make the time. Their customers are analysts, shareholders and partners. How does that align with your interests? It doesn’t.

The Elephant and Castle on King Street in Toronto is a big place. I once got lost trying to find people I DID know, so I made extra sure that a bunch of people I DIDN’T know would have a few signs to show them the way.

It’s possible other patrons raised their eyebrows at FreshBooks business cards sticking out of picture frames with encouraging messages like “This Way!”, but we didn’t receive any complaints.

If there’s any way to start a week right, it’s to be recognized for all the hard work we’ve been putting over the year. We got quite the pleasant surprise yesterday when we found out we had been chosen by Backbone Magazine and KPMG as one of the PICK 20 top Web 2.0 leaders in Canada.

Winning an award is good, but when we saw the incredible caliber of our fellow winners, it made us blush. Here’s a hearty congratulations to our friends and fellow winners at ConceptShare, DabbleDB, Octopz, Standout Jobs, and b5media.

At Search Engine Strategies Toronto, Mike had the privilege of being interviewed by Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR, a company focused on improving public relations through search engine optimization. It’s no surprise then that Greg asked Mike to explain why SEO actually hamstrings your ability to grow your business’s reputation, and therefore your search ranking.

In case you are wondering, Mike was referring to our HOW Design stunt which Aaron made into a cool video.

Mike McDerment, CEO & Co-founder of FreshBooks, gives a fresh perspective on looking beyond rankings-based SEO to a search marketing strategy focusing more closely on SEO and user experience with Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR at SES Toronto 2008. McDerment uses the examples of rebranding campaigns on his website and offline marketing such as his company’s creative approach to promotion at a rece…