Stay small or grow?

Wow, talk about a subject that has EVERY possible angle covered in hundreds of articles. And yet, it remains a neverending discussion: should we grow the business or stay small?

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of work in the CRM sphere -- not in our playground, anyway. We've got plenty of work to keep three full-time employees quite busy, without much investment in terms of marketing or sales efforts. We are fortunate to have loyal clients with which we've truly developed a good relationship, and that we continue to work with to help them get the best out of their CRM. Opportunities are coming to us -- directly and through select partners that we work with. We have to constantly remind ourselves of the importance of saying no, to maintain a manageable workload. The temptation to grow the business is strong... so why not?

Well, for one thing, we started the business because we like to do what we do, the way we do it. Sure, a couple of days a year, we have to do bookkeeping, pay bills, deal with office-related stuff. But the majority of the time, we focus on what we like to do and what we do best: delivering solutions, big or small, that help our clients. Would we be able to maintain that focus and share that vision as the company grew? Would we still be able to work in our business, or would we spend most of our time working on our business? Tidbit of wisdom from The E-Myth Revisited: understanding the technical work of a business doesn't mean understanding a business that does that technical work...

We like to do what we do, the way we do it. We're less driven by money than by non-pecuniary benefits (being one’s own boss, having flexibility of hours, etc.). As Nick says: "When you're your own boss, you get to decide which 20 hours of the day you want to work"... We like to think that we have the luxury of choosing who we work with, and who we work for. We work with like-minded collaborators (personally, I love the concept of the "managers of one") and find that we work best with clients whose corporate values are similar to ours. But what if the company grew and we had to say yes to work because we have to, in order to generate enough revenue to sustain the growth?

Here are a few quotes that I'll post next to my computer, for the next time this conversation comes up internally... again:

• The beauty of entrepreneurship is that it gives you the opportunity to create a business that delivers what you want. (Forbes)
• In order to be successful, a business doesn’t need to be big, it just needs to be big enough to achieve your goals.(Forbes)
• Every business has a sweet spot for size, often smaller than they think. It is at this sweet spot where you have the right number of people, the right skill sets, and the right customers. (http://launchany.com/grow-big-stay-small/)
• There should be no shame in declaring that you want to keep your business small.

Oh, and please don't hold any of the above against me if we meet in 5 years and Ready BMS has grown to a ridiculously larger size... "Il n'y a que les fous qui ne changent pas d'idée!"