The term small business defined as businesses with less than 100 employees. The average small business employs 5-20 employees, this is not a thoroughly researched number, but a close approximate. Many small businesses whose only employee is the owner operator; the printing industry is populated with 1-person offices as printing brokers.
The opening of small businesses increases during economic downturns. The driving force behind this increase of small enterprises is the unemployed people unable to find employment. The unemployed who stop looking for employment do not just sit at home crying in their beer, as the news media would have you believe. No right think person who has a family just gives up trying to supply for their families needs, many start their own business.
The small business to the medium sized enterprise employs approximately 70% of those employed. A medium sized business defined in the United States as a business with fewer than 500 employees. Small and medium size businesses are not so small since the numbers of those employed by these concerns are about 50-70 million employees.
Now that we have a base line for this article, I would like to expose the difficulties of growing a small business into a medium sized company and then transforming this business into a large business.
Most of us who hear the word entrepreneur we think of Henry Ford, Bill Gates, or some other larger than life business owner who has in our minds earned the right to be called entrepreneur. The dictionary defines an entrepreneur as a person who undertakes a commercial risk for profit. The everyday small business owner does not see himself or herself as a larger than life entrepreneur.
One of the underlining difficulties facing a small business is that the vision of the small business owner is small. I do not say this to demean the small business owner, because the vision of each owner of a business is how to survive today, next week, next month, and throughout the year. These business owners are amazing people who not only drive sales, marketing, accounting, and purchasing, but do it all themselves.
Most entrepreneurs are the persons who will learn of their future business, while working in the profession as an employee and tirelessly learns the pros and cons of a product or a service. These are the people who eat, sleep and drink their job; we used to call these employees a company-person. They are the people who become successful even in the most difficult circumstances.
This is the person working as a salesperson, a chef, a press-operator, office worker, we could name almost any job title, and this person goes the extra mile. These employees can do their job better; in fact, they become an expert in their field. Soon because of their level of knowledge, they become a resource for others, and they begin to see that they can do their jobs on their own.
This trait of being an expert, which causes the business owner to succeed, is the same trait that will keep them small. The reason is the owner of the business knows too much, when someone knows too much they are not open to new ideas.
Being oblivious to what cannot be done and doing what others say is impossible has an example in nature. According to aerodynamics, the bumble bee should not be able to fly. The reason the bumble bee has such small wings to body mass to be able to fly, but the bumble bee flies because no one has told the bumble bee of this fact. The self-made business owner who keeps on impressing to their employees that certain things cannot be done. Effectively, grounding their employees so they will not soar to new heights by apply new business paradigms that will change the vision of the company.
The entrepreneurs who are able to grow from a small business into a medium or a large company can traverse these boundaries if the founder does not tell the employees they cannot fly. If this entrepreneur vision allows for developing paradigms beyond the owners knowledge then companys growth will result.
Part two of The Small Business owner to follow
The opening of small businesses increases during economic downturns. The driving force behind this increase of small enterprises is the unemployed people unable to find employment. The unemployed who stop looking for employment do not just sit at home crying in their beer, as the news media would have you believe. No right think person who has a family just gives up trying to supply for their families needs, many start their own business.
The small business to the medium sized enterprise employs approximately 70% of those employed. A medium sized business defined in the United States as a business with fewer than 500 employees. Small and medium size businesses are not so small since the numbers of those employed by these concerns are about 50-70 million employees.
Now that we have a base line for this article, I would like to expose the difficulties of growing a small business into a medium sized company and then transforming this business into a large business.
Most of us who hear the word entrepreneur we think of Henry Ford, Bill Gates, or some other larger than life business owner who has in our minds earned the right to be called entrepreneur. The dictionary defines an entrepreneur as a person who undertakes a commercial risk for profit. The everyday small business owner does not see himself or herself as a larger than life entrepreneur.
One of the underlining difficulties facing a small business is that the vision of the small business owner is small. I do not say this to demean the small business owner, because the vision of each owner of a business is how to survive today, next week, next month, and throughout the year. These business owners are amazing people who not only drive sales, marketing, accounting, and purchasing, but do it all themselves.
Most entrepreneurs are the persons who will learn of their future business, while working in the profession as an employee and tirelessly learns the pros and cons of a product or a service. These are the people who eat, sleep and drink their job; we used to call these employees a company-person. They are the people who become successful even in the most difficult circumstances.
This is the person working as a salesperson, a chef, a press-operator, office worker, we could name almost any job title, and this person goes the extra mile. These employees can do their job better; in fact, they become an expert in their field. Soon because of their level of knowledge, they become a resource for others, and they begin to see that they can do their jobs on their own.
This trait of being an expert, which causes the business owner to succeed, is the same trait that will keep them small. The reason is the owner of the business knows too much, when someone knows too much they are not open to new ideas.
Being oblivious to what cannot be done and doing what others say is impossible has an example in nature. According to aerodynamics, the bumble bee should not be able to fly. The reason the bumble bee has such small wings to body mass to be able to fly, but the bumble bee flies because no one has told the bumble bee of this fact. The self-made business owner who keeps on impressing to their employees that certain things cannot be done. Effectively, grounding their employees so they will not soar to new heights by apply new business paradigms that will change the vision of the company.
The entrepreneurs who are able to grow from a small business into a medium or a large company can traverse these boundaries if the founder does not tell the employees they cannot fly. If this entrepreneur vision allows for developing paradigms beyond the owners knowledge then companys growth will result.
Part two of The Small Business owner to follow
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