Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

 from One who Knows:

it`s Not the Media which are pushing growth, it`s a Simple function of capital Investment. one Invests to Achieve growth by %.  a Business does Not necessarily require Growth to remain Stable, but Simply to satisfy investors, be they Your Insurance company, Your Pension fund, your This or your that !

Simply view things from the other side of the table and it becomes clear to you, the Why and the what fore !

on the other Hand:

as a Business person, Stabilety is Great, year to Year !

in Dollar Figures, there`s No other Nation that comes Close to the Shear Size of the American Economy !

even the Second place Japanese are only Half what Our`s is! for Further clarification, the 3rd place economy, is only Half what the Second place is !

America= $11Trillion, Japan= $4T to $5T

the Germans are Third with $1.6T or so !

This simply means that while All we Hear is how Fast and how Big the Chineses economy is, it`s Only $1.5T.

Examples of Stupid Statements:

the Cuban economy Grew by 10% while the U.S. only grew by 4%.  Give it a Rest People !

the Cuban economy is Nothing to Start with, so 10% of Nothing, is NOTHING! 4% of the U.S., is a Whopping $750Billion, which =More than All of Canada !

you`re Welcome!

vincent,

this is a great question - and very clearly stated. "growth," as it`s pushed in all the media and from Wall Street, is not the right path for a lot of small business operators. lots of surveys indicate that entrepreneurs often are seeking ways to maintain exactly what they`re doing/generating with their business rather than ways to grow.

growth is great, but comes with sacrifice. that sacrifice may take the form of putting money at risk, having to spend more time working, managing a bigger team of people whose livelihood you`re responsible for, and other things.

i know you`ve spent a lot of time becoming familiar with our community boards and with the StartupNation content. along the way, you`ve tuned in to how we stress so strongly "Life Plan comes before Business Plan!" And your question relates directly to life planning. If you want things in life to stay the way they are--if you`re basically pretty happy--don`t fret over growth strategies. If you want things to change in life, you should consider how growth of your business could help cultivate that change you`re seeking...

would love to hear other people`s views on this

Rich,

I agree with what you said on a fundamental level, but do you not agree that every business must have at least a plan to change their "level of growth" depending on market conditions?  The saying "keep doing what you do and you will always get what you have got" is true to a point.  ie Ford, they always made big cars, and now they can`t give them away!   If market conditions change for Vincent, where he is no longer "maintaining" but losing market position, there needs to be a plan in the works to change that.

If you look at worked in business 25 years ago, some of the things dont work today, true? 

Another (personal) example: The old owner of the business that I purchased, would make a lot of money in the "summer" and hold some of that money in reserve for the winter.  He maintained, in the winter it is fairly easy to project what we will make.  I wanted to remove some of that stress, so I came up with the Performance Speed Pass, (more on this at www.performance-detailing.com)   It was my reaction to the slow down in the winter months (plus now I have a perdictable monthly cash flow), so I reacted to the market place.  With out having a plan to grow, and remaining "flat" you run the risk of running your self out of business don`t you think?  If market conditions change. (that should be a when not if!)

 

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Tony Sorensen Performance Detailing www.performance-detailing.com info@performance-detailing.com tojealca@gmail.com