Three Tips From Microsoft to Apply to Small Biz

If there ever has been a small business lesson to be learned from a big business brouhaha, Microsoft's (MSFT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) bid to buy Yahoo! (YHOO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) is it.

Of course, it is no wonder why the behemoth from Redmond wanted to buy the behemoth from the Silicon Valley ... namely a Google (GOOG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr)-sized behemoth that has passed them both by, at least online.

In the end, Yahoo!'s price was too steep (at least for now) and Microsoft walked. So what are we to make of it all?

The answer: Listen to Steve Ballmer.

Steve Ballmer was the first business manager hired by Bill Gates and has risen through the ranks to become Microsoft CEO. This guy knows business as well as anyone on the planet.

On May 1, Ballmer spoke with Microsoft employees to talk about the Yahoo! deal, and more broadly, to discuss what their business needs to do to compete in this new, 24/7, interconnected, global economy.

The interesting thing is, Ballmer's lessons for his big business apply equally to our small businesses:

1. Do the basics very well: No matter what business you are in, you cannot take things to the next level, or withstand a recession, if that is your situation, if you are not handling the basics.

Remember Pets.com? An Internet start-up back in the heyday of Internet start-ups, the company had a popular sock puppet mascot and million dollar Superbowl ads, but, strangely, no workable plan to master the basics of what it was supposed to do, namely sell pet accessories.