Tuesday, January 11, 2022

"Stay small? How unAmerican!"

Imagine, if you will, that you've had a very successful year in business. You see an opportunity to expand. You seize it.

That's the great American way, you know. 

But stretch your imagination a little further. You've had a very successful year in business. What if you just...you know...took the profits and did nothing? What if you continued doing the things that had made the year successful? 

Believe me, I understand the urge to grow. I had four stores at one point. It seemed like a natural progression at the time. 

Here's the thing: You never, ever, hear anyone say, "Stay small." 

When my four stores crashed, I was forced to consider what my goals really were. Basically, I only bought the store to have a place of my own. It hadn't been my goal to be a tycoon. I'd seen my former boss go that route and while I was impressed, it didn't look like something I wanted to do. And yet I was seduced by the myth. 

I came up with my ancillary to the Peter Principle: A business owner will expand to their level of incompetence. 

About ten years ago, before Dudley's really got going with new books, I looked around downtown and realized it could support a bookstore, and that I had the knowledge and resources to pull it off. I would have needed some new management skills, but I'd identified them and could have tried to learn them.

But I was 60 years old, my business was doing well, and...well...I'd done that sort of thing before and I know that:

1.) It would take away from my current business which was doing well.

2.) It would cost twice as much, take twice as long, and be four times the work as one store. 

Now, ten years later, I've created a new bookstore within the perimeters of my own store. It works--and it doesn't need the extras that a brand new store would have needed. Admittedly, I didn't know that I'd take it this far or that it would work out so well, but it does sort of prove my point.

Stick to what you're doing and try to do it even better 


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