This post has nothing to do with actual size of people but rather the size of our dreams and companies. I see myself as an entrepreneur and I’m certain most of you does it as well. For some reason entrepreneurs have a tendency to work 100 percent with everything they are doing with the purpose of becoming the best. This will help you archive your goals but you can archive so much more by accepting to become the second best.
Why most entrepreneurs fail
Have you ever heard about Amazon? I’m sure you have. To my knowledge Amazon is the largest ecommerce ever — selling books. Have you ever heard about the other hundreds of sites trying to outrank Amazon? You have most probably not. Why? Simple because Amazon is the largest.
“Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.”
W. Clement Stone
For some reason a lot of entrepreneurs always aim for the stars with the objective of becoming the best. Unfortunately there’s no room for everyone to become the best and this is why you can benefit from being small.
Why you can succeed by being small
Last week I told you briefly about a case study I’m working on for one of my small niche sites. The gist of this case study is the same information I will tell you about right now.
All over the world there’s plenty of sites trying to cover everything. We have for example link directories, forums, search engines, etc. If you try to rap Google over the knuckles on becoming the worlds largest search engine you will most defiantly fail. If you on the other hand decide to create a search engine for books on torrents, you might succeed. Why? Because you are targeting a small niche with a better service.
Later this week I will publish my case study and tell you why my simple site will succeed against my big competitors.
Where you can benefit from being small
While doing some research for my post, as I always do, I found a post by Seth Godin listing a few examples on when it’s great to be small.
A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.
Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.
Small means that you can answer email from your customers.
Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.
Another great thing about becoming small is that you will have a better chance of ranking high on Google. If you have a site dedicated to a specific artist the Google Algorithm will give you higher rank than MTV since your site is dedicated to the specific artist and should therefore know more.
Can you think of more examples when it’s great to be small?
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
I couldn’t agree more. i think this is where people fail. They aim big and when they can’t reach their big ambition they think they failed. They don’t even realise, they achieved more than what they achieved before. Because their mind is more focused with the bigger picture, those small achievements don’t count for them. That is why, when we think that we failed, we need to analyse the situation. Where were we before and where are we now?
Too many people make these mistakes. They aim big but are not ready for it which causes the failure.
This is a good point. I recommend everyone to aim big since we are all humans and if one person can do it I’m sure you can as well. What you’ve go to think about though is making a plan. Without a plan many will give up before reaching the goal.
Being small definitely has many advantages, including economies of scale. A big business has so much more overheads than a small one and therefore operating costs are higher. Sure they may have more buying power but in a lot of cases this is eroded away. It’s just as you said Stefan, there are many advantages to being small.
You are right Sire. This is why most big companies are so ineffective.
No doubt live in small is the best for popularity but I know bottom is always crowdy but top is always for one.
Stefan
You are right there are advantages to being small. Your comment about the small resturant owner that greets people reminded me that there is a personal touch to being small. You can interact with your customers on a personal level because you are not trying to reach or connect with everyone. I think that can definately be an advantage. I currently work for a large company (my full time job) and basically I am just a number. The owner doesn’t know who I am. If you have a small business you can personally interact with not only your employees but your customers as well. Customers do appreciate the personal touch.
Great point Jim. This is probably one of the most important reason when it comes to growing your company. You always need to be personal with your customers. If you don’t do this they will feel like talking with a faceless wall in who would want that?
Stefan,
Outstanding post. Really gave me a real boost, being one of the very small ones out there trying to get started. You posted on my blog earlier about putting headlines in the post and I knew when I came here I’d find an excellent example. Thank you for taking the time, and I’ll be back. Lots of great information here.
Sincerely,
Tammie
I’m glad to hear Tammie. I’m looking forward to see the result in your next post and I hope you will subscribe for my blog.
Hi Stefan.
I think your site is very good and helpful to me.
Why is it that some of your “links” do not work …. they are not even blue:(
I was trying for your free tool for looking up domains- but it didn’t work.
Thank you and best from iceland
There are actually two links on my site not currently working. My tool to get PageRank from a specific page and the tool to find free domains. They stopped working when I changed theme to Thesis, but I will try to fix it next week.
Yeah, I’m actually using Thesis on another blog and there are a few plugins that I loved that I can’t get to work on it, and no-one in the forums can help me.
Maybe I can give you a hand? Just send me a mail through my contact form and I will have a look at it.
Thanks, I will do that especially seeing as how I’m not getting any satisfaction with the forums.
Just a comment about the bigger companies. The smart ones who train their staff properly, making sure they understand that the customers are the most important part of their job and should be treated accordingly can still give their company that personal touch.
Good post Stefan. I think we should all take some pride in shooting to be the next little guy to come out of left field. Bloggers would do better to ask themselves “Why not me?” instead of the more natural “Why me?”
either everyone is special or nobody is.
Take care friend
Good point Josh. By doing so they will also figure out what separates them from other bloggers instead of only thinking of what others boggers have that they don’t.
I definitely agree. Having big dreams and ambitions is great, but also it is important to think realistic in terms of money and so on. Working on a smaller niche blog may not be able to make you millions that “get-rich-blogging” guys are telling you but it may make you $500 $1000 or even more monthly which still helps you a lot to enjoy your life.
Exactly my point Marko. A lot of people are trying to get rich simply because they think they can sit still and do nothing then. Instead they should try to find something they like and enjoy life with their extra $1000 each month.
Success is not about size. It’s all about quality. Being big or being on top is the result of every small efforts we do at every waking moments of our life. If you do your best and put service above everything else then becoming big and the best becomes inevitable.
We don’t have to measure ourselves based on the achievements of others. We are all achievers, but not all of us has the wisdom to realize this fact. Small is beautiful because it all started with it.
I agree with you Walter. Running a successful business is all about quality. The thing about being small is that it’s so much easier to have control over everything and have high quality everywhere.
Some people start small and it works 100%, then they go big and it’s a disaster. They never go a bit bigger, it has to be huge.
When you go big, you lose some of the reasons why you were a success. It’s usually the small things that matter to others.
I think this is often because companies tend to lose their customer interaction when they grow bigger. When you start getting to a different level than your customers you usually also lose the knowledge of what they want.
It was a fabulous post Stefan! Awesome s & I feel you lead by example. Great!
Interesting post. I think that it’s better to say ‘do one thing and do it well‘ than to say ‘being smaller is better’. A business should grow as it can but continue to do that one thing well.
You are right Austin, the most important thing is to keep delivering quality and keep personal contact with your customers.
Hey Stefan!
I don’t know why I never subscribed to your blog last time, Anyways, I did so now, So I’ll be getting all your posts in the mail:) hehe
I agree that being small has its advantages, and when being small it is good to keep all relationships with customers and readers very personal. As you get bigger this becomes harder to do, but then the money starts coming easier.
Everything is a big journey for the long haul!
Keep well and until next time
Diggy
Thank you for you comment Diggy. I’m glad you decided to subscribe. I’ll check out your site in the morning.