Many small business and practice owners in Atlanta feel as though the way to success is
to become big. I don’t understand this
mindset. In fact. I would suggest that
instead of revenue growth being a key goal, that productivity and profitability
be better benchmarks of success. There are
a lot of advantages of being and staying small.
From the standpoint of the consumer, the mega-stores serve
their purpose as a place to get a wide variety at typically lower prices. But service typically couldn’t be better than
delivered by a small, locally-owned business. Some of my favorite places are served by small business owners who know
me and value my service to the point where there’s no interest at all for me to
try an alternative. On the other hand, at
the mega-stores I typically find myself hunting someone down who cares little
about my situation and whom I’m sure I’ll never see again.
In terms of the community impact, the advantage to the
community of being small is similar to the debate on the subject of domestic
versus foreign spending. Generally
speaking, when you spend at a locally owned business, the money goes back to
the community. This is not so with a
national chain. Yes, the employees of
the national chain are local, but much of the money is routed to the
headquarters and distributed there. Bottom line is that small businesses are more reliable generators of
good jobs, economic growth, tax dollars, community wealth, and political
participation than the large chains owned elsewhere.
Finally, the competitive advantages of small business are
numerous and should be used to their fullest advantage. Small businesses can offer highly personal
offerings, adapt and respond more quickly to local trends, and through today’s
available technology and automation can produce similar results as the big
guys. So I guess what I’m suggesting to
you small business owners out there is this…stay small and think big!
