What topics would everyone like to talk about? Comments, questions, concerns or just talk about your own business! Let's all get to know each other. My name is Nathanael Bagby I am the CEO of a company named Arion Innovations, we are primarily a software company, but we are dedicated to innovation in as many fields as we can get our hands on. Right now we are looking into innovations we can bring to the small business community. How about you?
Hi, my name is Gus and I am the owner of a small business of software development. I am looking forward to meet people to discuss innovative ideas and share opinions.
About Andy's comment, I think it is very important not to forget to have touch with the people, employees and customers all throughout the company's growth. I believe company's only purpose shouldn't be to make as much money as possible. The way I see it, companies shouldn't be that different from hospitals. Having the ability to make money while doing some good to the community. We should all seek the balance that makes our company a good company to the society.
I apologize I forgot to reference who the article with Peiro was with, you can read this article on this very site, Fastcompany.
Great question Andy. In a recent interview with Andrea Peiro titled "A Passion for Small Business" Peiro says, "A common misconception is that most small businesses want to grow and need to grow, but this is not necessarily the case. There are some small businesses that are suitable for growth and expansion, but the majority of small businesses are structured in such a way that they will want to remain small. Entrepreneurs are in business to make money through doing what they like, and growth often requires them to spend more time outside of their "core competency" than they would like." No one is implying that a small business owner should avoid growth, obviously this would be a laughable assumption, some may even see growth to the point of becoming a "big wig" as you put it. I say congrats to anyone experiencing growth, but what I would warn against is the cost that growth comes at. It would be far more productive in my view to think more in terms of becoming "Great" than "Big". A good read on the subject if you can find it is "Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big" by Bo Burlingham. Burlingham describes how there are 2 differing types of growth a small business can experience, the first is bigger, the second is better. To answer your question on what characteristics you should be on the look out for, I think you will know them when you see them bigger has a dollar amount behind it, better is taking pride in what you do.
Big Business vs. Small Business.
If being successful with our respective businesses is our goal, at what point do we become one of those "Big Wigs" and what characteristics should we look out for?