Why do most small businesses stay small?

Photo Credit: Tope A. Asokere 

We’ve just started our company and starting small, yes we’re starting small but we don' t intend to stay small.

The decision not to remain small has driven us into investigating why small business remain small, and so far we’ve been able to gather a reasonable amount of knowledge. Some of which I will be sharing with you.

Mr. Ron Rule wrote an answer about why small business remain small. His answer, I have put below for your digestion. If your intensions are not to remain small like us,  Please continue reading I believe you will find this  article  helpful:

1. Not all businesses can scale. If your business is based on your skills (something you know how to do in exchange for compensation), there are only so many hours in a day you can bill for.
    
2. If your business services a local area, your growth will always be capped by the population/traffic to that area, and split between the other competitors in that area.
    
3. Many small businesses don’t want to be big businesses. I know a semi-retired chiropractor who owns four clinics. Each is run by its own staff, and he visits each one for an hour or two once a week, then takes the rest of the week off. He has no interest in opening a fifth location.
    
4. Lack of funds to grow. There’s nothing that stops a local tire shop from selling tires online - except the cost. He would have to warehouse those tires, set up carrier accounts, employ people to build, manage, and market the site, ship the products, etc. If he doesn’t have the capital for that, it’s not going to happen.
    
5. Access to customers. Retailers like Walmart buy millions of units - at least four times more product than Amazon, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and every other retailer we sell to combined. Most companies simply can’t produce enough to meet the demand and pricing requirements of big retailers, and as a result will never get their products accepted into them.
    
6. Knowledge and logistics. Moving a lot of product requires a lot of coordination - if you aren’t sure what needs to be done, you won’t know how to hire the right people to do it.
    
7. Time and money constraints. Even if you know what needs to be done, if the day to day of what you’re currently doing is taking up all of your time, and isn’t profitable enough to still cover you and hire another person to take some of the load off, you’re stuck. You’re just running in place and there’s no time to focus on growth.
    
8. Most people who start a business are subject matter experts, not business development types. Great mechanics open auto shops. Great salesmen open dealerships. Great doctors open their own practices. Great architects, lawyers, and builders start their own firms. But these aren’t business people. They know how to do what they do, and they love what they do, but they aren’t interested in the behind the scenes requirements of running a business. They consider their work quality the product, and market themselves on their work quality. They consider the rest of what goes into running a business to be a chore. If you want to be a big company, that “chore” is more important than your work output.
    

If you're starting small like us, follow us on this trend as we investigate small business and explore options for expansion. We're Open to collaborative options with other small business to grow our company step by step. Just like the old saying we rise by lifting others.

We employ you to reach out to us via our email if you'll be interested in collaborating with us. We want to work with you; if you want to work with us: connect@tecumus.com.ng or call the office +234 901 248 6857