Small can be perfect, it can be beautiful, it can certainly be successful and it can be enough!
Big is not always best. You don’t have to chase global domination and you don’t have to try and make everyone your customer.
Perfectly formed
There is something truly beautiful about building a small and perfectly formed profitable niche business around something that wakes you up in the morning and puts a smile on your face.
A business that wants to make a difference in peoples lives, a business that appeals to a loyal following and adds value to their day.
In fact, I would say that would be the perfect business.
You could call it a start-up and you could say you’re an entrepreneur.
OR you could just say you’re happy and small is enough.
So what is an entrepreneur?
“You want to see something in the world, and you do whatever it takes to make it exist.” – Founder of Twitter
For me entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, and a way of being. Most people think ‘inside the box’, some think ‘outside the box’ but for true entrepreneurs there is no box at all.
I have been starting businesses all my life and only in the last few years have I began calling myself an entrepreneur but I don’t anymore. Why?
For me the word ‘entrepreneur’ has become an overused and much misunderstood buzzword. Everywhere you look people are calling themselves ‘entrepreneur’. Social media is littered with image of fast cars, piles of cash, big yachts and ‘hustle quotes. It has become a shallow meaningless term selling a dream built on ego, arrogance, and instant riches.
The real deal
Entrepreneurship is about creating something new out of something others believe has no value. An entrepreneur has the ability to spot an opportunity and then create something of extraordinary value where others don’t.
It has nothing to do with size.
Unfortunately many people define entrepreneurship purely in terms of scalability, they believe ‘big is beautiful’. Others define it as the ability to start it fast, create profit as quickly as possible, step out of it as soon as you can and move onto the next idea.
Small is good
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction”. – Albert Einstein
There is nothing wrong with staying small and profitable, there is also nothing wrong with global domination.
Each to their own path and if you want to stay small it does not make you any less of an entrepreneur, or your business idea less valid.
For me personally, it’s all about creating something you are passionate about and making it profitable, around an equally passionate following.
“There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” – Jason Fried
Small can be incredibly powerful:
- You are not a faceless corporation
- You don’t have to worry about conflicts of loyalty to shareholders or your board
- You can keep the needs of your customers’ front and centre of everything you do
- You can react quickly to changing circumstances
- You can make big things happen
How to make the most out of small
Unless you say something new, something different, or something that informs and inspires, no one is going to listen to you for long.
Don’t just repeat what everyone else is doing.
If you’re small you have to stand out from the crowd.
Don’t be just part of the noise. Start a new conversation and sing a new song.
You cannot afford to be average. Average is safe. Average takes no risks, it makes no waves and climbs no mountains, it goes along with the crowd and it’s invisible.
Too many businesses limp along, without any real vision or passion, content with ‘OK’.
Surviving when they could be thriving. Don’t be one of those businesses!
“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” – Vince Lombardi – Head coach of the Green Bay Packers (1959-1967).
Small is beautiful 🙂
