Early on in your book “How to Win at Small Business,” you state that the needs of the average Canadian small business owner seem to have been forgotten. What do you mean by that and how does your book begin to address that gap?
Having spent my career working with small business owners, and as one myself, I realized early that almost every owner was passionate, determined and had a wealth of knowledge related to their chosen business. However, while owners typically possessed superior technical and/or operational knowledge, they often fell short on other critical aspects of running their business which largely determined its ultimate success. While there are many excellent business books, I felt there was an absence of practical guidance for Canadian small business owners written in a language they can understand and readily implement. I wrote my book to address that gap. It is a playbook for small business owners that they can refer to regularly during their business journey and help to ensure they are part of the minority of small businesses that survive long-term.
How and why were the 10 factors (or differentiators as termed in the book) for
small business owners to achieve lasting success chosen?
I have always been intrigued by small business and, more specifically, why some small business owners excelled and others did not. Regardless of location, industry, background, or competition some owners just “got it right.” Early in my career, given my interest and curiosity around this topic, I began to document what I recognized as the common issues almost every small business owner faced and what differentiated those businesses that prospered from those that did not. Eventually, I arrived at a list of 10 key differentiators.
These differentiators apply to virtually every small business. Through their adoption the differentiators identified also serve to motivate positive behavior and action in other important aspects of a small business.
The book includes both financial and non-financial differentiators of successful
small business owners. Can you list them and comment on several that you feel
are often overlooked but are still vital to achieve lasting success?
The 10 Differentiators – Successful Small Business Owners:
- Never Stop Planning
- Find a Trusted Ally
- Focus on Sales
- Understand Cashflow
- Stay Hungry
- Empower Employees
- Learn and Value the Language of Business
- Build Culture
- Commit to Learning
- Live Life
Small business owners are often good at some of the differentiators listed but for a
variety of reasons either ignore or overlook others. A few, perhaps less obvious
differentiators of those listed, are the importance of finding a trusted ally to provide
ongoing support to an owner(s), the necessity of a consistent “stay hungry” attitude to avoid a culture of complacency from setting in for the business and lastly, the final differentiator reminds us of the importance of continuing to live our life outside of the business with some tangible steps we can all take to make that a reality.
Why do you state that the first differentiator “Never Stop Planning” is most
important of those that follow and can you provide an example?
It can be summed up simply in that planning forces longer term strategic thinking about a business by ownership. Regularly taking the time to think strategically and plan for the business is more important than the resulting written plan itself. It is critical for both a startup and often, even more importantly, for an existing business. As the well-known adage reminds us “failing to plan is planning to fail.”
A quality plan for a small business doesn’t need to be complicated or lengthy. However, it should be written, revisited, and updated regularly. My book provides an outline of what a quality plan could look like for both a new or more established business. Again, what a plan looks like varies widely and it doesn’t need to be pretty – just having a plan is what matters.
A fitting example of this was a construction company I worked with for years. Despite being in a cyclical industry, the company had a long record of success and continued to flourish. The owner was a thinker and a planner. What was interesting, and admittedly somewhat humorous, was what his resulting plan would look like. His current and regularly updated plan was handwritten on a few sheets of paper. It included both short term and longer term goals for the business as well as other specific strategic objectives he wanted to explore and potentially pursue. Although his ongoing planning process and resulting written plan was far from textbook, it worked for him and that is what is most important for any owner
