The operational gap – the biggest challenge for small and medium-sized businesses

What large companies have and small businesses do not 

In a large company there is a department for every problem. Workforce planning? HR takes care of it. Project status unclear? The project manager sorts it out. Payroll, documentation, job management – everything has its place. 

In small businesses there is one person for all of it: the owner. Every piece of information runs through them, every decision, every bit of coordination. And not because they want it that way, but because the system is built that way – because for a long time there was no suitable solution for their reality. 

This gap has a name: the operational gap. 

It describes the structural difference between what a small business needs operationally and what digitalization has offered it so far. 

Why digitalization got stuck here 

The technology exists. Software, AI, automation – technically, it is all there. What has been missing are pragmatic solutions for people who do not work at a desk. Digitalization first took hold where the infrastructure for it was already in place: fixed workstations, stable connections, an IT department to fall back on. That is understandable, but it has left a huge group behind. 

The numbers are clear: 80 per cent of all employees in Germany do not work at a desk. 99 per cent of all companies in Germany are small or medium-sized businesses. 60 per cent of all employees in Germany work in SMEs. 

Small and medium-sized businesses are not the exception – they are the rule. And they are still waiting for solutions that are genuinely built for them. 

What the operational gap means in practice

• Workforce planning. Who is available when? Who steps in when someone is off sick? In many small businesses this runs through phone calls and WhatsApp groups. It starts out manageable and quickly becomes error-prone and time-consuming as the team grows. 
• Job management. As long as the owner is on site, they have the overview. As soon as they are not, the phone calls and the paperwork chaos begin. 
• Documentation. Reports, proof, handovers – these are the tasks that come up once the actual work is long finished. They land with the owner. Often in the evening, at the weekend and on paper.

None of these problems is new or unsolvable. And yet for millions of owners in Germany this is still everyday life. 

Why this is not a personal failure 

At this point it would be easy to ask: why don't these businesses simply digitalize? The answer is not a lack of willingness. Anyone looking for a software solution for a business with twelve mobile workers often finds: too expensive, too complex, not made for the job site. Solutions that work without training, that are set up in a few minutes, that run on a phone while you are standing in a basement or out on a care visit – for a long time that simply did not exist. 

The operational gap is not a digitalization problem on the part of businesses. It is a supply problem on the part of the market. 

How the operational gap can be closed 

What small businesses need is an operating system. One that holds together the threads that have so far come together in the owner's head: people, planning, jobs and planning in one place, for people who get stuck in. When these areas come together in one system, the owner no longer has to be the hub through which every piece of information flows. Instead the team has access at any time to what it needs, and the owner keeps the overview. 

That is exactly what we are building clockin for. An operating system for small businesses that is set up in 15 minutes – without IT knowledge and without training. You start where the pain is greatest, and from there the remaining processes often fall into place on their own. 

We are building this to take the pressure off owners. So that they can get back to doing what they set out to do. 

Paula Menninghaus, co-founder of Strong Partners, shares that experience – which is exactly why she relies on a digital operating system herself:

“Nobody becomes an entrepreneur just to end up running the shop and checking where the hours actually are. You would much rather develop the company further and work on it strategically.” – Paula Menninghaus, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Strong Partners

Paula tells the story of how she made exactly that leap – from administration to strategic growth – at Strong Partners in the podcast episode “Angepackt”, which covers the founding and growth story of her company.