In a battle of David vs Goliath, the audience always cheers for David.
Yet companies try to cover up and hide their smallness. They try to appear as Goliath, even when the audience wants David to win.
Embrace the small.
Proudly wear the badge of independence, and bravely wave the flag of small.
Use your competitors size against them. Their 10’s of millions of dollars in sales. Their hundreds of employees they don’t know by name. Their new rounds of funding. These are the reasons you can win.
Small companies are faster, less bureaucratic, more personal, and by default closer to their customers. These are all good things. All things to make your customer value your relationship more. Not less.
You don’t need a massive email list, bank loans, or tens of thousands of customers — you need 1,000 Maniacs to transform your life and business.
These are the reason you will succeed by staying small.
Small companies can do big things, by finding scale in your actions, and staying true to the small philosophy.
Embracing the small goes beyond customer interactions.
Think small when building products.
Fewer features.
Reduce options.
Eliminate preferences. (Hell, maybe have none at all.)
Delete templates.
Create less product for fewer people.
Become more valuable to those who matter, by doing less.
This is not about ‘less being more’. This is about being small and being proud of it.
Less is not more. We want less, in order to stay small.
Small is not a tactic, it’s the goal.
Be proud. Be Small.
Hi Jon,
I just ‘discovered’ you through your podcast, and I’m loving your stuff so far. This post, especially, comes close to home as I recently transitioned from working in a large University environment to a smallish digital marketing agency. There is so much freedom and passion in this environment that it is a joy to come to work, and I can attest to the value of being smaller and being able to be closer to your clients and more personable. In fact, that’s the first think clients say about us – that we are a bunch of bananas to work with. It’s hard not to be inspired and driven in that kind of environment.
-Spela, Marketing Gorilla at Cheeky Monkey Media