Building to Enough

This week, I had the privilege of attending Gusto Next, it’s first live iteration since it began. I was excited to go because not only was I a speaker (!!!), I was once again going to be in rooms with a ton of other accountants that I would get to be in discussion and community with, which has honestly come to be one of my favorite things. And speaking of favorite things, many of you know that I’m deep diving into conversations around capping growth as a small business who wants to stay small, and let me tell you - I learned a TON, both from companies who want to stay small and those that are going big. Here are some of the revelations I had that reconfirmed why we plan to stay tiny.

MARGINS DECREASE.

The thing is it’s not just about growing revenue - nearly all of us want to do that. But growing a company generally requires that you increase expenses as well. Anecdotally, many professional service providers are able to maintain a relatively healthy gross profit margin up to our first 7-figures. But what I’ve found is around the $1.5 to $2 million a year mark, more is needed. The costs needed to expand typically include more people and or technology, which starts to decrease profit. At this point, I’m way more interested in what we keep than what we make, so I want to keep this in mind as I decide what my “enough” number is.

MORE VOICES IN YOUR EAR.

Remember when I said it takes more people? It’s not just team members. Many of the firm owners that I talked to took on partners to help spread the needs of the growing business, or merged with other firms to expand their client base. Not only was that a decrease in ownership, it invited another decision making voice to the conversation, which can extend how long it takes to make moves, and might lead to conflict as two or more people decide the direction and goals of the company together. Plus there are more clients, which are more people you have to answer to. None of these are bad, per se, but as a solo owned Black woman owned business, I’m not looking to share ownership, and worry a bit about the effects of expanding teams and client bases that I would have to manage as a result.

DILUTING CLIENT VALUE.

Client experience is the number one thing we focus on at Little Fish. Every thing we say, do, and promise is built around the premise of it being easy and joyful to work with us. But infinite growth usually comes with a less high touch experience. It makes sense - it’s hard to scale 1:1 service because everyone’s bandwidth will eventually be reached, but it feels like a hard balance to maintain between that and automating all of the processes. While clients will ultimately get the promised deliverables, the pursuit of growth can be antithetical to deeper relationships, and as we look to serve better instead of serving more, I don’t want what we consider as valuable to suffer as a result.

LESS TIME TO DO WHAT YOU WANT.

Everyone was in agreement - growth takes TIME. Basically all of the owners time and energy and work goes towards bringing on new clients, and augmenting or adjusting the company to accommodate that growth. And as a result, when I asked what their goals were, many large business owners are aiming to get out of the direct work of the firm in order to focus on passion projects, family and hobbies. Some were looking to constrict, others are staying on the rocket ship to bigness, but all were honest about the fact that big firms steal your attention from other things you might want to work on. I have a LOT of ideas that I want to execute outside the firm, and want to ensure that I have the energy and ability to do those without the pressure of making Little Fish big.

So that’s what I learned. That my decision to stay small is in alignment with the life that I want, which is really the point. Deciding to build my business around my life rather than the other way around makes me question growth and what it might do to and for me, so I’m looking forward to focusing on how to maintain with excellence in order to serve our team and clients in a way that gives all of us the freedom to chase our hearts desires. We want to focus on going beyond financial experts to focus on being business partners, and we want to do that for the right clients. not the most clients. Excited to see where that philosophy leads us!

This post was first published on hellokeila.com