As has been identified in this paper, a variety of organizations provide support services to SMEs (e.g. government organizations, training bodies, service providers and economic development agencies). Many of these devote considerable energy and resources to identifying the businesses that are likely to engage most actively. The identification of two types of businesses that engage, albeit for different reasons, should be of interest to these organizations. As has been noted, growers engage to fulfil business-related goals, whereas lifestylers are pursuing industry-related outcomes. Business support organizations should have a thorough understanding of the businesses that they are targeting and their preferred types of knowledge. The present investigation has identified the categories of business that will be most responsive and the prompts that are most likely to elicit a response. The findings of this study should assist support organizations to be more accurate and less generic in targeting their support activities.