Putting Small In Perspective

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

There’s a mythology that's built up around the idea of growth that’s only accelerated in this age of on-demand news and ubiquitous social media. 

We’re so enamored by the pursuit of growth (and scaling and valuations) that we discount those who aren’t interested in that ethos. That the idea of lifestyle businesses and staying “small” is a “settling” of sorts. That not growing is a failure of some sort - of the idea, the offering and the entrepreneur.

The fact is, though, that staying small is a choice, just as much as growth is. That the idea of consciously staying small is a positive one and that, as Seth Godin says, “a small business is not a big business that hasn’t grown up yet. It’s different. A small business has an owner, someone who can make decisions without meetings, who can listen to customers and who can embrace the work at hand.”

The implication is very clear. Small in this context is about doing the work - in a way that’s meaningful to the customer, in a way that delivers material value for a profit. 

It doesn’t have to be accompanied by a need to institutionalize or to scale. Those aren’t meaningful or relevant goals for the small business owner because the end goal isn’t a valuation. The end goal is to simply leverage the owners specific skills, do good work and make a good living. 

Certainly there can be larger, overarching concepts that come into play - longevity and leaving a legacy, for example. These concepts are important, regardless of scale. 

But there isn’t the obsession to grow at any accelerated pace, no desire to grapple with the challenges of institutionalization (versus individualization). 

The obsession is much purer than that. It’s just to do good work, and to keep doing it. 

And for those who choose it, that’s more than enough.