BIG POT vs. LITTLE POT

After two years of owning my own shop, the greatest lesson I’ve learned (and there have been stacks) is this: never, ever think of yourself as a “small” business. As a business owner thinks, so they are. We’ve all seen this principle communicated in a thousand different methods, mugs and memes. The picture of the kitten looking in a mirror and seeing a lion as his reflection, or the classic “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” saying. I could go on, but I’m sure you’re thinking of at least five similar examples right now, so my job is done.

I functioned in a “small” business mindset for a long time and it crippled my capacity and my ability to experience real growth. Both as a business and a business owner. Yes, the amount of business I did was small. But I did nothing to create a “big business” environment for it to grow in. So grow it did not. If I had a dollar for every time I said “I don’t need to bother with that — we’re still too small” I would have, well, lots of dollars.

As someone who worked in corporate retail management for 10 years, I am well acquainted with the systems they utilize in order to operate at crazy large volumes while maintaining high and consistent standards. But for some reason, I acted like they didn’t apply to my small business so I never used them. However, two years and much mud on my face has led me to see the greater value to these “big business” practices. They are designed to facilitate, manage and sustain success.

Truth be told, I only fully grasped this concept about six months ago. It’s like when you’re a kid and rules are rules for the sake of being rules and you think your parents just like telling you what to do. But then you grow up and you realize that those rules were in place because they kept you safe and gave you manners and helped make you a reasonably respectable human being. The same can be said for implementing seemingly “corporate” practices into small businesses. It’s not about turning our small business into corporations, or forcing ourselves to conform to a traditional business mold, but about understanding the fact that these systems and structures have a purpose. They prepare us for and support us in our growth. They equip our small businesses to do big business and not fall over. Furthermore, it empowers us to think bigger because they give us the backbone we need to support a heftier vision.