500 Words on Starting & Running a Small Business

If I had to condense everything I had learned about setting up and running a small business into 500 words, these would be they. The points may be generic but are, nonetheless, important.

Don’t become risk adverse.

• Starting a business is a risk to begin with so it proves that you have the courage. Trouble is once a business begins to take off, people become cautious. They don’t want to upset the success they believe they have created. No business, however, can afford to remain static.

• Take time out regularly to examine your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. That is time away from the office to get a clearer perspective.

• On the subject of time out, take time off regularly. Running a small business is very stressful. Stress in the right proportion helps a business. Out of proportion it blurs your judgement and stultifies your decision-making abilities. You will be surprised how a long weekend break can and will restore your insightfulness and decisiveness.

Involve the people you employ.

• Educate them. Some businesses inherently have a high turnover of staff because they employ casual labour. Others because the employees become bored and demotivated. Courses may seem expensive short term but, in the long run, can cut costs by cutting staff turnover by motivating them. And motivated employees equate to better business.


• (This applies to you. Appropriate courses will reinvigorate you and open your eyes to new opportunities and better ways of doing things.)

• Encourage them to be creative. Learn how to manage their creativity. Being receptive to new ideas doesn’t mean having to act on all.

• If you want them to act responsibly, give them responsibility. Work towards doing yourself out of the job so you can concentrate on developing the company and flexing your entrepreneurial skills.

• Hire people better than yourself. Too many small companies grow only to a size of the owner’s level of incompetence. The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong, Laurence J. Peter, though published in 1969, still applies.

Understand your market.

• Talk to the people who buy your services or products. Not occasionally but frequently. Be open to negative comments. Praise is good for the ego but teaches you nothing.

• Test new ideas for products or services on favoured clients or customers. Not only will it provide good feedback but will help cement the relationship. People love to voice their opinions and love those who invite them to do so.


• Do you really know what your clients buy from you? You may think you are selling power tools but your customers may actually be buying your know-how on which tool is best for the job.

• What kind of individual buys your services or product? How old is he or she? What are their interests? What motivates them? What influences them? The tighter you can define the demographics of your market, the better you can serve it. Also, the better you anticipate new trends and so identify new opportunities.

Last but not least, understand your market. I am, of course, repeating myself but on this issue I cannot repeat myself enough.

(All images courtesy of http://www.freefoto.com/)

Get Creative about Being Creative - or How to Brainstorm Successfully

Ideas are at the heart of any business. Be they the original conception of the business or thoughts on how to improve its efficiency. But ideas are delicate flowers. They rarely blossom in the same environment where the routine of day to day to business is conducted.

It is inhibits creative thought.

For small businesses, the usual solution is for a small group of key individuals to retire to a local pub or bar to discuss the issue. Not a great idea. The variety of inhibition that alcohol unlocks is seldom productive and often personal.

Getting out of the office is important. But it doesn’t have to be conference centre or hotel room. It can be the park or the beach. Use your imagination to think of somewhere people will feel at ease and that won't cost a fortune.

Most important, though, is the brief.
The brief should nail down the parameters of the issue in hand as tightly as possible. The tighter the definition, the better. Contrary to some people’s opinion, the smaller the room you have to operate in, the more creative you can be.

Circulate the brief some days before the meeting. A brief is essentially a vertical piece of thinking that should flow logically from the objective. Ideas are lateral in that they flow in from the edges of the imagination. It is very difficult to switch from one intellectual process to the other. Far better that people have time to mull over the brief subconsciously before the event than have to try and absorb it and then provide solutions.
Be inclusive. If you are a small company, involve everyone you possibly can. Hire a temp to look after the phones if necessary. Everyone has an opinion and anyone can have a great idea.

Write every idea down. Don’t edit as you go. It will encourage participants to participate and lessen their inhibitions. Also, by writing the idea down, it turns it into an object ‘out there’, and so helps prevent individuals becoming subjective and defensive about their contributions.

Invite an outside mediator. It is difficult for someone within the organisation to be totally objective about proceedings. An outsider, indifferent to factions, individuals or politics, can encourage everyone to contribute with confidence and ensure the meeting is productive.

Don’t rush to judgement. After the session, allow yourselves a break before deciding which ideas should be progressed. A good mediator will prove invaluable in assessing the worth of each idea.

Above all do not invite people to, ‘Think outside of the box’. Thinking outside the box is today’s thinking inside the box. The phrase is now so mouldy it can seriously damage the health of any imagination.