Small businesses have their own perks – nimble and easily embrace changes.

Most of the small business owners I know work for themselves, and some others run a two or three person company.

From them, I learn that being small, often by choice, they are able to build an adaptable and adept business.

Many of them even have the revenue that match their bigger competitors that have a large amount of investment.

In term of investment, small business owners I know are all bootstrappers. They start with almost nothing, and currently have a five, six, even seven digits annual sales.

Why small business has all it takes to be big business

By being small, they can close control their businesses, while keeping themselves ‘off the radar’ from possible lawsuits, tax problems, harsh competitions, etc. Not that small businesses don’t face those issues; It’s more to the genetic feature of the small businesses themselves – small and nimble.

Small business requires a relatively low investment. This enables you to own multiple small businesses – consider this a diversification and spreading-the-risk techniques.

But most important reason of all, by being small, you can closely control your business and avoid the bureaucracy of big companies.

How to be a big business by being small

There are actually two routes to have a big business by being small – own a single business or own a multiple small or micro business.

Own a single business

Starting a business and focus on it for a long time can make the business big. You can stay in your business to control your business closely.

However, you must understand that all businesses have life cycle. In difficult times, you have to thrive by finding a way to keep your business running under difficult situation, like today’s recession, for example.

Own a multiple small or micro business

If you are adventurous, you can have multiple businesses to run. Don’t worry, although small businesses often requires thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to start, you can always have a bootstrapping business model.

You can have under 500 dollars business startups, and build as you go. If you are good at delegating, you can actually run multiple business units that are not only bringing you multiple stream of revenue, but also a well-spread risk.

I mentioned about business life cycle – multiple businesses mean different life cycle, thus giving you a sense of safety net when one or two of your businesses went wrong.

Small Business that has big business require big performer

You might feel that I inclined to multiple small business model – I actually am. Despite my inclination, whatever path you choose in your entrepreneurship journey, just make sure you are a big performer in order to succeed.

A big performer has all it takes to ace the small business competitions – guts, creativity, and resilience. Starting up or running a small business requires the same personal effort needed to start or run the bigger counterparts.

Do you have all it takes to own a small business that is big business?

Ivan Widjaya
Small business big business