Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Seven Virtues of Small Business

The Financial Post published its inaugural "small business edition" today. It's a weekly section (every non-holiday Monday) covering the people, issues and opportunities that make entrepreneurial busines so dynamic and ever-changing.

I'll be writing a weekly column for the Post called "Growth Curve."

For today's launch column, I chose to itemize the seven key advantages that small business enjoys over big business. Here's a truncated version of that list:

1. Small business owners are close to the action.
2. Big companies need permission to do things.
3. Recruit who you want when you want.
4. Small-business owners have more opportunity to make their employees care.
5. Today's best opportunities are in small, specialty markets -- and entrepreneurs are the nabobs of niche.
6. There's no substitute for passion.
7. Small businesses can't coast. They don't have the capital or the brand power to last long if they screw up - so they get the job done instead.

The point: if you're not making use of these secret weapons, someone else is going to eat your lunch.

For the complete story, click here.

1 comment:

Gillian said...

This is excellent.

I have been involved in small and large companies... you've nailed it on the advantages of being small... and also on why entrepreneurs need to retain their edge!