Growing A Small Business Is Really No Different Than Growing A Large One

Back in the day, I had a client who fired me. I’ve probably had a few, but this one sticks in my mind because of the reason he explained to me for his decision.
He said that the stuff we were doing for him was making him uncomfortable because it was making him too successful.
Too successful? What do mean by that, I asked him? And he sort of mumbled something about not wanting to be doing what he was doing any more than he was doing it at that time.
It all sounded pretty lame, but because he was a solopreneur, and because of the business he was in, I sort of understood.
Many solopreneurs are like that. They carry the same amount of fear about being too successful and not being able to manage it, as they do about not being successful enough.
Too much success for a solopreneur means becoming, or at least contemplating the idea of things like adding staff, more expensive real estate, benefits programs etc. and then being responsible for them.
But at the end of the day, this kind of thinking is ultimately quite short sighted. Especially, for example, if you are willing to build a strong network that includes people you like and trust who do what you do or can provide you withe the services you need without any worries about business poaching, (a lot more common than many think).
When you have a network like this in place, you have a lot more options at your disposal: You can broker their service. You can make a two way deal so that when they get busy they farm stuff out to you if you’re not too busy. You can even consider the idea of merging and creating a larger entity which will allow you to grow to some extent without having to add extra salaries.
The long and short of it is that if you’re going to hire someone to help you brand and grow your business, you have to be prepared not just for the responsibility of extra business, but you really need to have a strong, well thought out, workable system in place to help you manage the growth of your business.
This is a big part of the reason why Charlene Norman and formed Bullet Proof Consulting.
When Charlene and I created Bullet Proof to service businesses outside the GTA, we knew that there would be a number of opportunities to work with smaller businesses as well as larger ones.
And, believe it or not, in many cases, the mechanisms of branding or growing a business do not vary all that much between large and small organizations.
What they also have in common is the need for experienced allies to help them actualize this process and achieve their business goals in a way that doesn't make them crazy or cost them a small fortune.
If you work with people whose mandate and attitude is all about lending powerful expertise and experience and making that affordable, all of a sudden, the idea of growing your business doesn’t seem like such a daunting task.
Between Charlene and myself there is more than a half century of business building. A half century of accumulated wisdom. Half century of living with the reality our own businesses grow and thrive in direct proportion to the success experienced by the businesses we help.
The summary of this post is one simple idea: If you have the right allies in your corner thinking about your business, together you can achieve whatever goals you set for the establishment, growth or diversification of your business.
And with partnerships like Bullet Proof, you have those allies and can actually afford to have their skills applied to your business goals.

Jim Murray is a marketer, communication strategist, writer, art director and blogger His partner, Charlene Norman is a business systems and operational analyst. Their collaboration is called Bullet Proof Consulting, headquartered in St Catharines, Ontario. Bullet Proof is designed to help companies change their thin king for the better, to become more productive, efficient better branded and successful in today’s highly competitive business world.
You can find out more about us at: www.bulletproofconsulting.ca

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