Why grow?

People ask, "How big is your company?" It's small talk, but they're not looking

for a small answer. The bigger the number, the more impressive, professional,

and powerful you sound. "Wow, nice!" they'll say if you have a hundred-plus

employees. If you're small, you'll get an "Oh ... that's nice." The former is meant

as a compliment; the latter is said just to be polite.

Why is that? What is it about growth and business? Why is expansion always

the goal? What's the attraction of big besides ego? (You'll need a better answer

than "economies of scale.") What's wrong with finding the right size and staying

there?

Do we look at Harvard or Oxford and say, "If they'd only expand and branch

out and hire thousands more professors and go global and open other campuses

all over the world ... then they'd be great schools." Of course not. That's not how

we measure the value of these institutions. So why is it the way we measure

businesses?

Maybe the right size for your company is five people. Maybe it's forty. Maybe

it's two hundred. Or maybe it's just you and a laptop. Don't make assumptions

about how big you should be ahead of time. Grow slow and see what feels right-

-premature hiring is the death of many companies. And avoid huge growth

spurts too--they can cause you to skip right over your appropriate size.

Small is not just a stepping-stone. Small is a great destination in itself.

Have you ever noticed that while small businesses wish they were bigger, big

businesses dream about being more agile and flexible? And remember, once you

get big, it's really hard to shrink without firing people, damaging morale, and

changing the entire way you do business.

Ramping up doesn't have to be your goal. And we're not talking just about the

number of employees you have either. It's also true for expenses, rent, IT

infrastructure, furniture, etc. These things don't just happen to you. You decide

whether or not to take them on. And if you do take them on, you'll be taking on

new headaches, too. Lock in lots of expenses and you force yourself into

building a complex businesss--one that's a lot more difficult and stressful to run.

Don't be insecure about aiming to be a small business. Anyone who runs a

business that's sustainable and profitable, whether it's big or small, should be

proud.