“Think Big – Act Small” – I have never heard of a bigger Cliché. Meeting with a member of our advisory board, a seasoned veteran in the technology startup space, he kept repeating the same thing, think big – act small, think big – act small. What does that really mean? While a lot of entrepreneurs come to us for help with capital raising and general business development, I find there is a common characteristic that separates the avid “googler of all things business” and somebody who actually thought about their game plan and business strategy and came up with realistic and achievable goals. More often than not, the less experienced business owner gets hung up on micro managing every aspect of their business – which in their mind translates to “acting small”. Then, they set out to make large and unrealistic projects assuming they have multiplied the time they have in a day by a multiple of 10 – “thinking big”. What’s the outcome of all this you may ask? Yet another cliché- a failed startup. On the flip side of this, the business owner that takes the Socratic approach to their business and tries to ask questions internally and externally such as ” Do we have our market right? How can we achieve a specific revenue target? How do we grow on a limited budget?”, ends up quickly finding out their core strength and core weaknesses. Only then can they come up with realistic goals as well as a rational approach to getting the kind of help they need to achieve those goals. Translation – now the business has a fighting shot of making it another year.
