The small business hurdle.

A common constraint within a lot of small businesses, well let’s be honest… a common hurdle among all businesses is the constraint that is limiting their defined success; people, processes, etc. Yes, small businesses face a lot of the same problems or constraints that large enterprises face but with a key differentiation of scale in addressing those constraints.

But let’s be more specific on both the hurdle we are talking about and the key difference in overcoming it. Let’s rule out financial constraints as this is something that (in my humble opinion) can be addressed with creative thinking and lump the rest in the bucket of Time…

(This post is sponsored by Ythos consulting…. obviously)

I know, Time, VERY profound… but let’s dig in a little bit on this from a standpoint of the small business owner.

Common is the theme here, but in many of my engagements over the years with small to even medium size businesses, the owner/operator shouldered the responsibility of providing time to focus on the essential components of driving success. Quick ego check for consultants… they don’t need you to tell them what to do, they usually know what’s best for their business. Small business owners are savvy, intelligent, and more often than not know what they need to do to scale or grow their business.

What small business owners need is the time and capacity to do so… They have families, personal hobbies… many of them may have been sacrificed along the way, but work/life balance is still an equation. Couple that with a large majority of them being essential too the function of the business (Contractor, Therapist, Designer, Welder, etc.) and you can quickly see where the burden of business ownership can tip the scales on capacity.

Shifting perspectives to large entities and you have a very different solution to this constraint, scale of resources. This is in no way a jab at larger organizations but for many of us who have worked in these settings we know all to well how a new endeavor can trickle down and our work week increases by 5 hours here or there.

·       New software that will allow us to better manage transactions gets pitched?

·       Great! We have the layers of leadership already in play on rollout strategies and their ongoing support to ensure adoption in the field.

You have taken a 180-hour project and spread the burden across teams.

·       But, but, but it wouldn’t be 180 hours for a small business…

While there is truth in this we all know the scale tips with these types of projects. The startup burden or number of hours it takes for basic deployment (ruling out additional training hours for scale of business/total staff) will largely be equal in many situations.

To summarize my thoughts, support your local businesses but keep an open mind. They may not look or function like your Apple store or have the scale to serve the massive rush of customers just yet but give them time. Or if you are the small business owner looking for someone you can trust that can offer that much needed resource of Time, reach out!