A recent article in Inc. magazine shared just why a business owner would set his or her sights on building a $2-million company instead of a $200-million business—or in other words on staying small instead of going big. The reasons why range from being able to do what you love, keeping all of the business equity for yourself and being able to hand pick the best people for you and your business, to being “wealthy enough,” choosing where you want to live and work since not every community can support a large business and being able to still catch all your kids’ school activities and sports games. In this spirit, we spoke to several NAWBO members at the recent National Women’s Business Conference in San Antonio to see what they enjoy most about staying small. Here’s what we heard:
“I definitely want to grow my small business in a big way. I’m trying to create more revenue for me, but not necessarily trying to be a multi-million-dollar company. What I love most about being a small business owner is the freedom—freedom of my schedule and freedom of my creativity.” —Pam Williams of PromoQuest, Inc. and member of NAWBO-Greater Raleigh
“With my business, we’re a cleaners, so I’m now growing in volume by doing extra services like pick-up and delivery. I have often been asked to franchise and open in other states, because we’re legitimately non-toxic, so that’s a consideration, but I enjoy being small.” —Derba Mills of Clothesline Cleaners and member of NAWBO-San Antonio
“I love being a small business, because I still have the opportunity to visit my family of clients on a regular basis. I work with a lot of very large corporations. I also have the freedom to know and understand my staff and spend time with them and their families. As we grow larger, it will get harder to have that level of personalization. I’ll delegate more of the things I am doing to spend face time with these influencers, because I think that’s important.” —Kelli Robbins of Contact One Communications and member of NAWBO-Pittsburgh
“I love that you’re your own boss. You don’t have to put up with the politics. People say to me, ‘Do you ever take a vacation?’ and I say, ‘No, I work for a nasty boss.’ The truth is: If it’s your own business, you don’t mind working all the time. I love not having to deal with the idiosyncrasies of others.” —Linda Elliott of Elliott Connection and past president of NAWBO-San Antonio