It involves a genie!
The most important output of your company is not profit, free cash flow or even satisfied customers. It’s what your company provides to you – the owner. Why is that the most important? Because it’s why you and your partners are in this business at this time in your lives. You want something FROM the business.
Suppose your company was a genie. What would you ask it for?
That’s another way to think about it.
For SMB owners it’s more than money.
I own Google. Obviously only a (very) small part. But the only thing it can give me is money. That’s true with every company you own as a passive investor. But owning an SMB is different, especially as an operator. It can give you more than money. I’ve been working with SMB owners for over 25 years and have been one myself for over 40. Here are the universal things every owner I’ve ever worked with wants their company to give them.
More Money
Less Time at work
Faster HorsesWork that they love that lets them use their superpower.
Here’s what I mean by superpower at work:
Besides those universals, there are a couple dozen other things I’ve noticed people want from their companies which are not shared by everyone. Things like freedom, a holdco, a family legacy, serving a mission, building a community, and more.
What do you want?
Have you ever articulated it? If you haven’t it’s likely you’re building your company just hoping it will give you what you want. But when you specify what you want, then it’s easier to build your company in a way that’s more likely to give it to you. Here’s what I mean.
Do you love to travel? Then you might work to build a company that serves customers in many different locations. Hate to leave home? Then you’ll reject projects that take you out of town. Your desires will affect your business decisions. But if you’ve never articulated what you want, that effect is likely to be non-conscious. Put your desires on the table and you’re more likely to achieve them.
How important is money?
The answer depends on what money means to you. For some, more money means a change in lifestyle. For some, it is mostly a scoreboard. For some, their net worth is equated with their self-worth. People much wiser than I have shown the danger of loving money as an end rather than a means to something else. And yet, it still drives many people. What’s that about?
Two things have recently crossed my path that are relevant to this question.
I started reading Small Giants – Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham. This book profiles 14 companies that have made the conscious decision as he says, “not to focus on revenue growth or geographical expansion, pursuing instead other goals that they consider more important than getting as big as possible, as fast as possible.” [pg xv]
These companies have a broad range of size, longevity, industries, and locations.
The smallest, Selima Inc., is a two-person fashion design and dressmaking firm in Miami Beach that has been in business for almost sixty years. The largest is O. C. Tanner Co., a seventy-nine-year-old Salt Lake City company with about nineteen hundred employees and annual sales of $350 million that helps customers set up employee recognition programs and makes the service awards used in them. It also produced the gold, silver, and bronze medals for the 2002 Winter Olympics. [pg xxiii]
The beauty of owning and running an SMB is you have the flexibility to pursue other goals beyond just financial ones. The book does a great job of sharing the different goals those companies pursued, and the challenges they overcame. Not to say that these companies didn’t make money (they wouldn’t be in business if they didn’t) or didn’t grow. It’s just that they put other goals first.
The second thing I read recently is this article that said nearly half of people working W-2 jobs don’t want a promotion. They are willing to give up the extra money to keep a job they enjoy.
It brought to mind a survey I heard about (many years ago) by the Hartford insurance company that showed 48% of small business owners didn’t want their companies to grow. That number shocked me at the time. But I think I understand it better now. Honestly, every one of my clients has wanted to make more money. But there are always other things that drive them as well. Often those are as important.
20 Questions
I’ve put together a document with a framework to crystalize what you want from your business. It’s based on the many things I’ve learned that drives people to run their own companies. If you’d like a copy, let me know where to send it and I’ll email it to you. When I started using this with clients, it surprised me that this process freaks some people out. But I came to realize that for some people, it is easier to be reactive than proactive. And truthfully – that’s OK too. It’s your company, it should give you what you want.
If you’d like to discuss this further, you can book a free coaching session.
My book, Output Thinking is NOT about what you want from your company, but after you’ve determined that, it will help you get it.
