It’s written in nearly every business book and spoken from the lips of nearly every business guru: more products, more services and more revenue. Achieving growth is the pathway to retail business happiness. Bigger is better, right?There’s no shame in declaring that you want to keep your business small.In fact, the endless push to increase businesses to the next level – whatever that means – may not be the right thing for many of us especially in professions such as optometry practices.This article isn’t about people who rain small because they’re scared to take risks or because they don’t have the skills or the financing to grow larger, moreover it’s about people who choose to keep their businesses small because that’s what they really want.{{quote-A:R-W:450-Q: People start businesses to provide the services and products they love and to work in a way that gives th personal fulfilment and a creative challenge }}There’s an unspoken taboo in declaring an intention to keep a business small. In his book The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber says that those who elect to stay small and work in their businesses have a job and not a business. This logic ses wrong.In fact, there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with wanting to stay small and do the work yourself. Most self-ployed people start their own businesses because they love what they do.Gerber’s principle is that a business should be created to get more out of life. Certainly the work that business owners do should allow th to have the lifestyle they want but people don’t always start businesses to make heaps of money.If that were the case, why not get a corporate executive job and do that instead. No, people start businesses to provide the services and products they love and to work in a way that gives th personal fulfilment and a creative challenge. Of course, there’s also the freedom that self-ployment provides.Staying small and being greatThere is a new way of looking at small business that challenges the notion that all growth is desirable.In Bo Burlingham’s book Small Giants: Companies that Choose to be Great Instead of Big, he discusses small-business owners who had a choice to increase their business to majestic proportions and chose instead to rain small and perfect what they had rather than sell out to the ‘growth’ ideal.Those business owners who elect to stay small and create a great business are generally more interested in the qualitative aspects of their work than in sales – they want to be great at what they do and offer the best service and products possible. For me, the only way to do this is to rain small.The boutique-business model allows owners to connect intimately with their customers, to listen to their needs and create solutions quickly. This model gives owners a level of independence and joy that they might never find in larger businesses. This could not be truer for independent optometry practices.{{quote-A:L-W:450-I:3-Q: Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model, -WHO:Seth Godin, American Author and Entrepreneur}}American author and entrepreneur Seth Godin believes small businesses provide untold flexibility.“Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model,” he says.“Small means you can tell the truth on your blog. Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others while you keep the power because you invent the rarkable.”Learning to love businessA business starts as a means to an end. Perhaps the aim is to achieve a certain lifestyle or pay the school fees but there’s no reason a business can’t also be enjoyable.Those who want to be the owner of a large number of practices with an army of ployees should go for it, there’s nothing stopping th.But those who want to get their hands dirty every day should stay focused and build a business that’s small and great.
| Business is like gardeningThose who love gardening aren’t trying to find ways to delegate their gardening work to others.They’re getting their fingers in the dirt and doing it thselves because the very act of working in the garden is enjoyable to th.Getting their hands dirty is part of the fun.Seeing their pretty garden at the end of all the hard work is part of the satisfaction.Sometimes this means they need a smaller garden.In business also, many self-ployed people don’t want to be absentee owners.They don’t want to lose touch with customers or the reasons they work.They don’t want to manage ployees and would rather work with partners who love what they do. |