The assumption of nearly every entrepreneur is that with some hard work and a bit of luck, their small business will someday become a BIG business. The accepted goal and expectation is that small is just a starting point on the way to big, and big is a temporary destination in pursuit of huge. Working within that paradigm, many business people become frustrated with the misalignment between what they think they need to pursue and what actually provides them with a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

Why Are You In Business?

In the rush to grow the business, an important consideration may be overlooked. Assess what is it about being in your own business that appeals to you. Determine what it is about the business that is most rewarding or provides the most satisfaction. As the owner of the business there will be tasks that you may have to perform that do not deliver much pleasure - but those tasks should not constitute the majority of time, energy, and effort. If the business is no longer fun - then the owner should seriously consider making the changes necessary to recreate the enjoyable aspects of the business for him or herself.

Unfortunately, the default way to keep score in many people's minds is to try to gain as much market share, sales, profit, or other quantitative measure. While there is nothing to say that for some that may be the definition of fun, excitement, and success; there are others that do not necessarily have to assess their

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success by that scorecard. Being able to purchase the latest luxury import car, wear designer clothing, or jet off to a vacation home in the islands pales in comparison to the joy these people receive from having performed a job well, made a customer happy, had the chance to use their skills productively, or a whole host of other metrics not designed to lead to expanded business growth. Wanting to remain small and manageable is not an admission of weakness nor something to avoid admitting to with others.

The Benefits To Small

The truth is that most entrepreneurs opt to keep their businesses small and are perfectly happy remaining there. The number one reason that most small businesses do not grow is because growth requires people. And with the hiring of people come a whole host of managerial concerns, costs, need for policies and procedures, more people to manage the hired people, etc.

Now, the work to be done with clients and customers must be accommodated along with the work to build an infrastructure and maintain an internal organization. Costs begin to escalate as functions pop up to handle tasks that were not necessary previously. Suddenly, a person needs to be responsible for hiring, training, handling payroll, etc. Another person may need to be brought on to handle information technology issues. Equipment costs skyrocket as every person needs to have a telephone, a computer or other resources and tools, an office, desk or work area, etc. Suddenly, what was a passion of the owner that evolved into a business has now morphed into an entity that manages the owner and absorbs all of the available time and devotes it to tasks that are outside the reason the business was created.

The example has been proven out any number of times in sports and entertainment. The successful athlete ends a storied career and then is provided with a team of his or her own to coach or manage. For many, the skills of being the excellent player and being self motivated do not translate well into having to manage others. The number of actors who decide to direct or produce their own movies to less than stellar results is equally as high as the former superstar athlete unable to extract the same commitment and performance that they were able to provide. It is folly to assume that because one has skills in one aspect of performance that they naturally will have the same level of skill in coaching, managing, or running a very different looking business.

Control Issues

When the business is small - meaning an entire company meeting can occur around a conference room (if not a dining room) table, decisions can be reached and executed at the whim and discretion of the people in attendance. Formality need not be adhered to, and rules of governance are not commonly needed. Introduce a few more employees though, and now the control of the company takes on a much different light - the quantity of relationships grows faster than can be counted. There are employee to employee relationships, supervisor to employee relationships, group to group relationships, etc. Trying to control the communication and information flow between and among employees is a full-time endeavor and usually not one that the entrepreneur ever intended to be focused upon when the business was started!

The pursuit of getting larger may appear to offer more control and power as one's span of influence increases, but the truth is often the reverse. The business eats up more of the entrepreneur's time, not less and the people that typically get hired to advance the business possess technical skills, but require strong managerial oversight. Unless the entrepreneur has terrific people management skills and strong leadership potential; the work of the entrepreneur can start to shift from being customer focused to plugging holes in the dike of the internal organization.

When the business has been built on the unique skills, insights, or capabilities of the founder, it is often very hard to maintain the same level of performance and provide the equivalent customer satisfaction and experience with employees. In certain businesses that lend themselves to franchising, where standards can be put in place, quality can be maintained, and the execution of the work is relatively formulaic, the owner need not be the one providing the service or producing the product. In other businesses where the product or service is very much a function of the person providing it and removing the person changes the effectiveness of the product or service, growth is not a strategy worth pursuing. To put it in context, Michelangelo was an artist and a craftsman, but it is unlikely that any of his clients would have accepted one of his employees as a suitable replacement for him when they contracted for his work.

The Decision

To remain small is not a copout or the lazy person's way out. Just like growth should be a decision made with much forethought and consideration, so should purposely remaining small. The owner needs to examine:

1. What are my goals? - What do I want the business to provide (income, satisfaction, control over destiny, etc.)?

2. What is the positive to expanding/what is the negative - (increased revenue potential vs. greater risk and costs)?

3. Could growth actually harm the business - how does it change the company's performance (will it dilute the personal touch, the chance to be with customers, etc.)?

4. What tasks do I want to perform? - going from the primary driver of a business to having to spend time in administrative tasks may not appeal to everyone, even if the business is growing.

Choosing not to grow is as valid a decision as the one to pursue growth and may be a smarter business and personal decision once all of the factors are appropriately weighed and considered.

David Zahn is a serial entrepreneur and consultant to Fortune 100 businesses (www.zahnconsulting.com) as well as entrepreneurial startups (www.startupbuilder.com).

The opinions expressed are the author's and not necessarily those of connpost.com. Please direct comments to cdauber@ctpost.com.