What do I mean by “a GREAT small business”?
A company, regardless of its size, that gives its owners GREAT lifestyle!
If you take a closer look at the entrepreneurial world, you’ll quickly realize that a great deal of small businesses fail – leaving their owners frustrated and stressed-out, or even burned out and broke. And over eighty per cent of the companies that survive are mediocre – they don’t generate enough net profit for their owners. Those are facts, and most people seem to accept them, which is the first step towards making those gloomy stats.
As a business coach helping entrepreneurs to develop GREAT companies, one of the first questions I ask are:
- “What is your definition of a GREAT company?”
- “How GREAT is it already?”
- “What do you focus on now to make it even GREATER?”
I only work with Clients who have very high expectations, and who want to make it to the 1% of the most successful people in their area, for whom having a GREAT business is one of the top life priorities. Why am I so selective? Wouldn’t it be easier to coach anyone who reaches out to me? Because I know that if you are not really driven, almost obsessed about your business, you’re likely to make those stats. You can try to fool yourself, and other people around you, but you will give up.
Creating a GREAT company is a marathon, it will probably take longer than you think, and longer than most people are willing to persevere. So you need to set your standards bloody high and just refuse to accept any other “Plan B”. I personally hate compromises, as I believe they usually give pathetic outcomes. Just imagine: your partner wants to spend a long weekend at the seaside, while you would prefer to go to the mountains. If you compromise – you end up in Luton, which, according to a Cobalt Recruitment report heads the list of the ugliest UK towns! (Hope no-one from Luton is reading this!).
As an entrepreneur, you don’t need to compromise – you can decide what a GREAT company means to YOU – you don’t need to take into account what other people think about, or what they believe is possible or not, as most probably they are wrong!
So, over eight per cent of business owners get it wrong on at least three counts:
- They don’t define what a GREAT business mean to them.
- They don’t make making their businesses GREAT their top priorities.
- They are satisfied with mediocre results.
Please note, that by “satisfied” I don’t mean that they like the results they achieve, they accept them. And you either accept something, or you change it – otherwise you want to have a terraced house in Chelsea, end up living in a council flat in the worst part of Luton, and bullshit yourself that it is absolutely fine!
A GREAT business has nothing to do with its size. In this context size really doesn’t really matter! I have worked with many entrepreneurs whose goal wasn’t to develop a large company that would employ dozens or hundreds of people. They wanted to keep their businesses small and highly profitable. Other business owners aim at growing larger companies that become desirable workplaces. There is no “right or wrong” approach – it all depends on your definition of a GREAT business.
What do all GREAT small business have in common – regardless of their size?
Their owners reach their goals and live their lives the way they like: generating enough net profit, having enough time and energy to do things they enjoy, and – in short – not having to do anything, but CHOOSING to do things they want.
“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.“
How GREAT is YOUR Business NOW?
