The Alchemist & The Steward/ess
I love small businesses. I love and respect the energy, passion and pizzazz that small business owners and early stage startup founders have. It’s by far one of the main reasons I chose to work with start-ups and small businesses.
However, more often than I’d like, I’d meet some small business owners that are sheepish when we start talking about traction or growth. Not because there isn’t any, but because it’s not the hockey stick that is touted and celebrated in the press. Don’t get me wrong. Exponential growth is great and completely necessary if you have taken bucket-loads of other people’s money. Afterall, if the level of spend is exponential, why shouldn’t your investors expect exponential growth in sales? However, if you are self-funded or a service-based business with a small cost base, a linear growth is just as acceptable. Arguably, depending on whether you see your business as a lifestyle business, you can even forget about growth! If all you want is a business that provides a certain level of income to fund your lifestyle, you’re good if total revenue exceeds total costs. Talk about keeping it simple!
In our enthusiasm to celebrate the Facebooks and the PayPals of this world, there is a segment of business that I believe has been overlooked. A segment that has equally created jobs and sustained families in society. A segment that does this with quiet modesty; small owner-funded businesses. They may not be the investment vehicle of choice for venture capitalists looking for the next “unicorn”. However, the irony is this- most of these small owner-funded businesses, past the 3-year mark, are self-sustaining businesses. Let’s put it that way, there’s only so much credit you can get. And only so long you can go without the business paying for itself. Yet some of these business owners/founders are sheepish talking about their achievements. Lifestyle businesses or self-funded businesses with linear growth, are equally deserving of respect and celebration! If nothing else, it sustains at least 1 family.
The point of this post is sometimes when we read about the unicorns of this world, we forget to take stock of our own achievements. It’s often easy to overlook the fact that the skillset required to run a venture-backed business and a small self-funded business is different. We’re comparing apples and pears. Most “well-performing” venture-backed businesses experience high growth, but do not turn in any profits; not for years. Even household names such as Ocado, didn’t turn in any profits for 10 years. It’s a luxury most self-funded businesses cannot afford. Someone once said:
“If you measure a fish by it’s ability to climb trees, it’s going to spend its life thinking it is stupid.”
As a small business owner turning over a profit, you are an alchemist. You have created something out of nothing. This is completely different to a steward.
The steward has been chosen based on a certain set of subjective criteria, and entrusted with someone else’s money. Raising funding in itself is a complete different ball game to running a business. It’s a game of convincing others to trust you with their money. No wonder then that public relations and press coverage is such a big part of the growth strategy. It’s a fun and a completely worthwhile game, if it plays to your strengths. But this completely depends on the game that you want to play.
Are you in the game of creating a self-sustaining business? Or are you in the business of running a project on behalf of a group of people ? Are you growing a proven business model with your own money? Or are you experimenting with other people’s money? Are you an alchemist or a steward/ess? One isn’t better than the other. There is a need a need for both. But which one is you?
