HOW BIG IS YOUR COMPANY?

When asked the question, “How big is your Company” how do you feel about your answer? People are impressed if you can say” I have 100 employees,” but as small business owners our answer, many times, is “it’s just me”.

As a small business owner your goal is to find the right size and to stay there; I don’t believe that expansion should be the main goal. The right way to look at the growth of a business is to grow slowly and see what feels right. Hiring too many people too soon, has caused the demise of many businesses.

 Small businesses have many advantages over big businesses: the most important advantage is that of flexibility. Other positive factors are not having to worry about hiring and firing employees and having a lower rent and operational expenses.

Pride in who you are, what you do and how you do it should always be in your mind, and you should be able to share that pride whenever someone asks.

The two most important things for a small business owner to be concerned with are profitability and sustainability. By constantly working on improving internal and external systems, the productivity and, thus, the profitability of a small business can usually be greatly increased.

The following is a short story about a real company that opened its doors in 1971. Its first office was in a closet in the owner ‘s master bedroom. Over the next four decades the company showed that it had sustainability as well as profitability. The largest firms in the same business have all disappeared. Through all the economic downturns this little firm survived. Similar new firms have come and gone; the majority of them believe that big means success and rapid expansion is their goal. The topic of my story is still small; the home office has moved from a closet to an enclosed garage and, yes, it is still sustainable and profitable.

Remember, a profitable and sustainable small business can be a destination in itself.

“Strive not to be of success but to be of value.”  Albert Einstein