Alistar Croll has a really insightful post on GigaOm in which he talks about the benefits of being a small start-up, and features two of my favorite online service providers: Wufoo and Freshbooks.
Small is a theme that has come up often during conversations at mesh and meshU this week. I’ve run into a lot of entrepreneurs happily doing business with just a handful of employees. Among them was Ryan Carson, whose meshU presentation included advice on creating a business where creativity is an important element in keeping employees happy and productive.
Alistar describes small startups as “lifestyle companies”, which is a pretty good way of talking about companies where how you work is as important as where you work and what you do.
I’m not sure whether this is a trend or perhaps something within the high-tech community but as much as people want to work hard and be successful, many people want a healthy balance between work, family and play, or perhaps the flexibility to spend time on work, family and play when and where they want.
The ability make “lifestyle companies” happen and live the kind of life that you want is easier than ever as development, distribution and marketing costs plummet. An online service that would have cost $100,000 to develop in 2000 can now be done for a fraction of the cost by a couple crackerjack developers.
And it’s okay to be small and stay small. It’s alright to build a business with 10 employees that generates $1-million/year and profits of $100,000 to $200,000. If that lets you enjoy life, spend quality and quantity time with your family and friends, and run a business that’s challenging, stimulating and fun, you’ve won the lottery.
Of course, small sometimes becomes big – really big.
A good example is Club Penguin, which went from a project start to meet the needs of the founders’ children, to a large business with more than 12 million registered years within three years. But as Lane Merrifield, one of CP’s co-founders, said during his terrific keynote at mesh, the goal wasn’t build an online behemoth. Instead, they built it as parents with a passion for creating a great children’s product. Club Penguin focused on being great rather than being big, and look what happened.
If getting big happens, it’s a bonus but if it never happens and you stay small, that’s okay. In fact, that’s better than okay.
One Comment
Mark,
I whole heartedly agree. When we started Project X Ltd it was not about building a new huge SI company but a boutique or niche consulting firm. Make it fun, make it real, make it relevant and make it intimate with your clients.
The rest will just follow.