A lot of people look down on small businesses.  We don’t have all the benefits that come from being a larger business.  We don’t have minions responsible for ensuring that all the various aspects of our business run smoothly and yes, ok, we might look a little frazzled at times.  BUT (and this is a big BUT) we have something that larger businesses lose along the way as they grow.  We have personal service.

Never underestimate the power of personal service.  A small business can give personal service and build relationships like no larger business can ever hope to.  Sure you can have account managers and customer service people but, no matter how good your employees are, they will never have the same passion for the business as you do.  It’s your business after all.

This point has been perfectly demonstrated to me recently.  I ordered a bespoke piece for our upcoming nuptials from Cherry Pie Lane.  Charlie, the owner, has been amazing.  She’s helped me with decisions and choices throughout the process and what’s more, she even sends me photos showing progress of the piece.  Her love for what she does shines through but it’s her personal service that sets her apart. 

After my last post, secret confessions of a business owner, I had a request from a Twitter friend to expand on a couple of the points I’d made, namely why having our own business is harder than I ever could have imagined but equally, so much better than my imagination would ever have allowed me to glimpse.

So, since I like to end on a positive note, here goes with the list of why having our own business is harder than I ever thought it would be.

It’s uncertain.  Yes, I know, nothing in life is certain apart from death and taxes.  Having our own business is really uncertain though.  Starting it, as we did, from scratch with no working capital and no customers is even more so. 

Just recently I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learnt since running my own business with my other half, future husband and all-round top bloke Jason.  My conclusion is that I’ve learnt quite a bit and I thought I’d share some of that with you.

On being my own boss:

Working ON your business, not IN it.  That was the premise of the Inspired Group event I attended last night and the subject addressed by the speaker, Richard Fisher.   Richard made some excellent points but the thing I found most interesting was how the audience reacted to certain key things he said.

Richard talked about businesses who focus too much on the product or service rather than the processes and people, thus hampering their business growth.  He suggests that the correct perspective is to spend more time working on the people, then the processes and finally the product or service. 

I spent some time recently talking to my good friend Maxine Welford of maxxy.co.uk.  Maxine has a very successful telemarketing business and she's absolutely fantastic at what she does.  We were discussing the difficulties of recruiting the right people and that, quite apart from the financial cost, there are other implications of getting it wrong.  Maxine has written a blog post about it which I'm delighted to share with you. 

"I have learnt a lesson recently and wanted to share this with you.  Maybe it will help others to avoid the mistake I made.

In my last post, I talked about the first company to be prosecuted under the Corporate Manslaughter Act and how the fact that they are a small company hasn’t made any difference to their duty of care responsibilities. 

Late last week it was announced that the company had been found guilty and fined £385,000.  They can pay the fine back over a ten year period which means that it won’t put them out of business but still, paying out almost £40,000 per year for the next ten years is a significant sum.  According to one of the solicitors involved in the case, the magnitude of the fine is unprecedented but then again, this is the most serious criminal offence a company can be convicted of. 

I’m not usually one for watching the news for details of court cases.  It’s not as if the outcome won’t get reported and, where appropriate, any effect the ruling has on HR good practice.  There is one case that I’m currently watching with interest and that’s the first ever corporate manslaughter trial against a company (charges against the then-director were dropped due to his ill-health). 

So why am I watching this one so closely?  The company charged with corporate manslaughter and breaches of the Health & Safety at Work Act is a small company.  It’s not a huge corporation where employees are just numbers and where they have whole teams of people responsible for Health and Safety.  This is a small company but the Crown Prosecution Service have still deemed it necessary to lay charges against them. 

This morning I received an email asking if I am a woman in business.  My mental responses ranged from “well I was last time I checked” to “if I’m not, you really need to clean your database”. 

It transpired that the email was inviting me to join an online business directory for women.  Lots of pink text, pretty pink pictures and oh heavens, is that a female gender symbol in the logo?  Well say no more and sign me up!

So, you run a successful business.  You have a team of people that you pay to take on specific tasks and responsibilities.  So far, so good.  What happens though when you don’t or won’t delegate anything?  You end up with a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. 

As the owner of the business, you are intimately acquainted with your business.  You know that most of the time, if you want something done, you’re better off doing it yourself.  You know that your decisions are the right ones and let’s face it; no one else is capable of doing what you do. 

Around this time of year, I used to be worn to a frazzle, mainly because of the company Christmas party.  Who knew that so many people wouldn’t bother RSVP’ing to a personal invitation?  Not emailed round, I might add, but carefully and lovingly posted to each and every one of them at their home addresses.  No response meant hours of chasing, polite reminders followed by less polite reminders, followed by thinly veiled threats. 

This year though, I don’t have any of those problems.  Chasing for a response to the Christmas party this year has meant turning round in my chair and asking Jason if we should organise a night out.  Fantastically easy and zero hassle.