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Keeping Your Business Small Does’t Mean Sacrificing Success

For many entrepreneurs, it’s the small business version of the American dream: a startup that is hugely successful and grows beyond their expectations.

BY JOYCE ROSENBERG The Salt Lake Tribune

For other entrepreneurs, the dream is very different — a company that provides a good living but never grows beyond a certain level. They’ve come to believe that a small business can remain small and meet all their goals.

When Ellen Kruskie started Carolina PetSpace, a store where dog owners can wash their pets, "I did not open my business in order to become the Dave Thomas of dog washes," she said, referring to the founder of Wendy’s, the fast-food chain.

Kruskie said that soon after she opened her Raleigh, N.C., store nine years ago, other business owners suggested she franchise it. She started working on a franchise plan, but in the end decided against expanding.

"I’ve had a lot of opportunities," she said. "But I opened this place to make a living for me — period, end of conversation."

Scott Gross, an author and speaker on customer service, scaled back his business — which used to include video production and video-based training programs — because it wasn’t fun anymore. As his company had grown, there was too much work to do.

"I’d have to get a president to do the junk stuff I don’t have any interest in, or give up some of our spare time and pay attention to management," said Gross, who lives in Center Point, Texas.

By downsizing his business five years ago — Gross now has four employees, compared to 12 a few years ago — he has the easygoing lifestyle he wanted.

Many successful business owners don’t think twice about growing and expanding, building a bigger company to meet the increasing demand for their products and services. They are thrilled to have their hopes for the business fulfilled.

But some, like Kruskie and Gross, start second-guessing the small business dream.

"They had followed the ‘this is what I’m supposed to do’ model. Then they came to the conclusion that this couldn’t be the only way to do things," said Jamie Walters, author of Big Vision, Small Business, a book that looks at ways to have a small yet successful company.

Walters said there are many pluses to staying small, including the ability to focus on customers that are the biggest revenue producers.

"You’re working with customers that serve you best," Walters said. "You can provide a master craftsman level of quality that small groups can do best."

Elizabeth Lake Key, a consultant and owner of Lake Business Development in Denver, agrees that it takes some fortitude to say no.

"No matter which way you go, it’s a risk. It’s always a balance," she said, acknowledging that when companies lose customers, owners will have to increase their efforts to bring business back to the level they want.

Key said she had made the decision to keep her business small — enabling her to leave work by 3 p.m. every day to pick her children up from school — after having worked 80 hours a week in a company she co-owned 12 years ago. But she said she has increased her revenue and makes a good living in her current business, which is 5 years old.

Key, who helps other business owners structure their companies to be small but successful, suggests owners focus on adding services for existing customers.
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Joyce Rosenberg writes about small business for The Associated Press.

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Mar/03232003/business/40515.asp

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