It is very odd how things line up as you have a certain topic on your mind. I was having a conversation the other day with a close friend of mine about business. We were chatting about my business and he asked me an interesting question: “Are you ready for your business to go big ?”. I had to think for a second, and answer honestly, “No”.
He told me about a school of thought in business, that no matter how small you are, think you are big, and going to get bigger, that way you are prepared for what is to come. It hit home with me, as I am a one person company, and while I have aspirations and dreams, the little pessimist in me says “Oh you arent going anywhere”. But what if I do ?
So as I had these thoughts of business and startups fresh in my mind, I ran across two posts that had great points. The first one I saw was over at the 37Signals blog titled “Start a business, not a startup” by Jason. And the other one was by Nick O’Neill at the Social Times called “Talking About Real Businesses Thanks to the Recession“.
They were different posts, but had the same point: Start a sound business.
Nick argues that the recession is forcing people into
managing cash flow, building client lists through business development and all the nitty gritty details about running a business. We can also talk about how are passions help get us through the hard times.
Jason states that
At the atomic level, all businesses need to generate revenue to pay their bills, grow their business, and stay in business.
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A poorly run startup is a poorly run business. A wonderfully run startup is a wonderfully run business. I don’t believe there are many great startups that are bad businesses.
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So if you start something up, start a business, don’t start a startup.
Honestly, great points by both guys. No matter in good times or bad, sound business fundamentals is what will allow you to run the marathon and not just the 100M sprint. I think personally, I have always had this “I am a one person startup” mentality, not really thinking big necessarily. But now I understand that I am the founder of a business and need to think of it as such and more importantly act accordingly.
So put down that startup moniker and start building your business instead.
