Assurance for the Little Guy: B-to-B Recession Marketing

Hyundai will help you pay for your car if you're laid off. Jet Blue will refund your airfare. Recently, we've seen plenty of companies marketing safety nets for consumers. And we've also seen the safeguards (read: bailouts) for companies deemed Too Big to Fail. But what about the small business owners?

Inspired by the car industry's assurance plans, Dallas-based ASI Business Solutions, a provider of goods and services for document production and management, has implemented its own Economic Assistance Plan. If you're a company that leases equipment like a color copier and printer from ASI and you fall on hard times — meaning bankruptcy or major layoffs — you only have to pay 50 percent of your remaining obligation to walk away. That's no small favor given that most leases run 3 to 5 years.

The plan is potentially good for ASI, too. Company president Ken Copeland noticed a lot of local business owners becoming wary about leasing new equipment as the recession lingered along with banks growing skittish about lending. He thinks his plan will spur leasing and, in turn, the sales of equipment.

With over half of the nation's private workforce situated at companies with fewer than 500 employees, small businesses helping each other out is the kind of unsung solution that can help benefit our entire economy.