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Comments

Amen to the "Five Big Lessons from Small Shop Keepers", and a sixth "6. Self-sacrifice". No corporate perks, no pension plan, no health plan, no sick days, no long vacations, and your family will need to self-sacrifice as well.

Posted by Mike L. at November 13, 2009 6:05 PM

Thanks Mike for your contribution of #6. A good addition.

Posted by Ian Sanders at November 13, 2009 6:26 PM

I teach MBAs and have founded 6 companies. Too often the MBA or first time entrepreneur is busy on the 100 page business plan, raising capital, thinking about "the exit" and doesn't do the time in the trenches - the lessons from small shop owners is excellent stuff. The challenge is then to not get trapped in the day to day of your small shop and be able to spend time scaling up the systems that you develop in your "small shop". Our economy needs business owners who can 1) develop great systems and 2) scale them up. Great blog and great ideas. Conor

Posted by Conor Neill at November 14, 2009 5:12 AM

Thanks Conor. You're right, too many entrepreneurs get bogged down in business planning and certainly don't spend time in 'the trenches'. It's easy to forget the basics of business and the experience small shop keeper reminds us to stay grounded in the essentials.

Posted by Ian Sanders at November 14, 2009 7:24 AM

I'm a huge fan of Charles Handy. His anecdote: does "a job" mean an employer or a client? is touching on one of the fundamentals of how we approach work - whomever it's for.

Posted by RobCH at November 15, 2009 8:07 AM

Hi Rob - I agree with you about Charles Handy. I had the immense pleasure of listening to him talk for a couple of hours in 2005 in Birmingham at an international conference of 4 Management Gurus. Sadly Tom was not able to make that event. Professor Handy was amazing. Whilst all the other speakers over the two day conference used slick and flashy PowerPoint presentations he simply strolled around the stage telling stories calling upon all his experience. The closest he came to using technology came when he wrote on the old fashioned overheads at one point to emphasis a point. I could have listened to him for another three hours! There is nothing to beat authenticity and Professor Handy oozes authenticity without the aid of technological props. Tom is similarly authentic in my view. I saw Tom talk in an all day Masterclass in London in 2006 – Tom spoke for 6 hours!!!

Tom is another who uses slides to assist the story not to tell it.

Posted by Trevor Gay at November 15, 2009 12:07 PM