Is staying small the next big thing?
Growth is often seen as a measure of success in business but its not what everyone wants
When you're booked to capacity and your earnings are limited by how many hours you can work, and you don't want to employ other people or outsource, what's the next step for your business?
This is the question many small businesses, freelancers and consultants face. They're often urged to adopt tactics that them away from doing what they love and into the realms of managing other people which is not everybody's idea of fun.
Bianca Botten was pondering similar questions about developing her busy VA business Neon B when she read the book Company of One by Paul Jarvis.
Jarvis is a veteran of the online tech world who realized that working in a high-pressure, high-profile world was not his idea of success. He now works for himself and no longer has to contend with an environment that constantly demands more productivity, more output and more growth.
Bianca wrote the following review of the book:
Company of One is a book about improving business and providing the best service to your current clients. It questions whether growth is right for you, or if having a business that fits around your lifestyle is better.
I found myself nodding along with the author for the first half of the book, agreeing that you should build long-term relationships with clients, (so they send you repeat business). Continuously searching for new customers is time consuming and costly whereas, “maintaining good business relationships with customers doesn’t require superhuman efforts. Rather, you simply need to do what you say you’ll do and customers will be grateful”.
I love the idea of becoming better at what you do by improving systems and processes to be more efficient in how you run your business. For me this feels like mastery and being the best version of myself.
The end of the book didn’t hold my attention and I found it a little repetitive. Throughout the book the author kept mentioning being a “Company of One” at an organisation, and I felt he was trying to appeal to people who work as contractors inside big businesses rather than microbusiness, freelancers and solopreneurs.
Company of One confirmed how I felt about my business and reinforced that I would prefer to provide a good service to a small group of loyal clients, as opposed to exponential growth, which would mean more noise and chaos.
I much prefer a business that fits around my lifestyle of raising children and being the best, least stressed version of myself.
I can recommend reading this book and give it 7 out of 10.
If you've read the book or find yourself asking the same questions as Bianca we'd love to hear from you - leave a comment below or get in touch at info@drivethenetwork.com
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What can we learn from puppets?
"Puppets help us to learn about ourselves."
I asked Drive Cambridge member Jo Bryant of The Hands On Company, "What’s exciting about your business and why should anybody care about it as much as you do?"
This is what Jo said,
"Whatever our age, we use play to learn about ourselves. The Hands-On Company provides a vehicle for people to do this. We bring puppets to nursery schools, care homes and many other institutions and through different activities encourage people to play and create dramas that allow them to examine ideas and feelings that are sometimes too deeply personal to express in any other way.[pullquote] "An elderly man living with dementia suddenly started waltzing with a puppet, unaware that I was behind it doing my absolute best to keep up with his fancy footwork."[/pullquote]
Parents learn how to play with their children
One session we ran was with a group of parents who wanted ideas on how to improve the way they played with their children. There were a lot of social workers present, which made for a slightly uptight atmosphere, but the minute the puppets were unpacked the fun was irrepressible. One boy, who was was labelled a selective mute, amazed us all. He began to converse through the puppet he created with his mum. It was a truly touching moment to hear his puppet voice explain exactly what his puppet likes to do.
A member of another family group got in touch with me three years later and told me they were still using their family puppet to discuss personal changes and issues.
Making new friends
In a workshop about friendships, each child had a puppet to represent different types of friends. A nine-year-old girl called her dog puppet Meatballs. She decided he looked like a meatball and that this was his favourite food. 
We had great fun building up his character and deciding that he was a true friend as he was caring, but needed lots of meatballs to keep his energy up. In the feedback for this session, the leader told me that this girl's younger brother was very ill with leukaemia and she had not been eating properly. Her parents were thrilled that she had asked for meatballs for dinner that evening and excitedly described her play with the puppet. Naming and playing with the puppet seemed to be a turning point for her.
In another session I encountered a thirteen-year-old boy who was brave enough to share a bullying incident through the voice of a large monster puppet.
Making decisions about sex and drugs
In the work we do with teenagers, they use puppets to act out dramatic scenarios and we ask them to consider these three statements:
where are you?
who are you with?
how do you feel?
The scenes they play out help them to make informed choices around sex and drug use.
Moments like these happen whenever we interact with people - from a senior manager becoming overly attached to a hairy puppet because of shared conflicts to an elderly man living with dementia suddenly waltzing with a puppet, unaware that I was behind it doing my absolute best to keep up with his fancy footwork.
Sometimes when we run our businesses, we get bogged down in the worries of cash flow and energy dips, but it is the magical moments that help us to keep working at it. I continually feel privileged to be a part of these and I have the profound hope that there are many more to come."
Jo and her team also make puppets to sell, so if you'd like your own Meatball or have a project that puppets might help you to explore, give them a shout.
You'll also find The Hands On Company on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Do you have invisible boundaries?
Instead of pushing against a barrier, what if you could just walk round it?
David Brown helps people to realise that most boundaries exist only in their minds.
The picture of a gate that has no fence attached to it symbolises the freedom we have to choose how we see things.
When I asked Drive member David what excites him most about his business, this is what he told me:
"I had a successful career in science for 15 years but always felt that something was missing. As a young man I was very shy and found that martial arts training helped me overcome my shyness and gave me confidence. It also gave me an opportunity to understand a lot about myself and to explore self-expression.
I eventually decided to change my career and use the techniques I have learned and developed from life coaching and life experience, as well as martial arts, to help people who want to develop the confidence to express themselves and to do more of what they love.
[pullquote]My job is to be playfully curious, to challenge, champion and encourage people to look inward and discover their own truth, potential and meaning. [/pullquote]I’ve learned that delving into their untapped potential leads people to greater personal, professional and life success.
There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing people realise that things don’t always have to be the same and that they have the power to change their lives, often just by looking at them in a different way."
David has co- authored a book, Nourish the Flame Within, and is involved in Our People’s Coach Flash Mobs, speed- coaching flash mobs on the city streets of the UK.
If you know people who would like to have more of what they love in their lives, a new career, engaging in a new hobby or nurturing important relationships, they can get in touch with David at Potentiality Coaching