How true is this picture? (anonymous author). Supporting a small business is so rewarding!
I just wish to point out from the onset that I don’t have anything against big businesses at all, I just love small businesses! In my world, the small business owner is the real hero.
Who are the real Hero’s?
The small business owner is the person that stood up and said, “I can’t work for a corporate anymore, I want to be in charge of my own business destiny and making a success”.
He or she is the person that stood up and said, “I will not be dependent on a corporate pension fund for my retirement anymore, I will work on my own pension fund and retirement plans”.
The small business owner is the person that stood up and said, “I want to make a real difference to the world in a way that my kids will be proud of”.
The two opposite environments
It might seem that I am attacking the corporate environment, but there are basically two environments in which you can make a living. And they are definitely on opposite sides of the spectrum. They are the employment environment, shall we call it the corporate environment for now, and the entrepreneurial environment.
When I refer to the corporate arena, I am including all employment positions. When one is employed by a business, you are employed to fulfil a specific function, duty or task. You are not responsible for anything else. That is the inherent goal of employment, being responsible for specific tasks.
The corporate environment definitely has its own challenges. Working with other personalities… I mean that constant moaning and clashing and backstabbing (that was my own personal experience working in corporate companies). While I admire every single person that grinds every day to earn a living, I admire the entrepreneurs, and more specifically, the small business owners the most!
The guts and determination that one needs to run a small business are tremendous. Never mind starting a small business from scratch!
Small business owners also have the ability to employ the majority of our nation and create a world of opportunities for everyone around them. As a small business owner myself, I am responsible for my own marketing, meeting clients, meeting new prospects and getting my promotional material ready.
I am also responsible for getting invoices out on time, collecting the cash, managing my sub-contractors, ensuring they are performing, fighting with my laptop when it doesn’t want to operate and making my own coffee. Making your own coffee is probably the worst, as I get busy again and forget to make! And I am a snob with coffee…
The real difference makers
Small business owners make real differences in our world. During my decade of travels assisting small business owners to grow their businesses, I hear many stories of how they solved problems that bigger suppliers just could not figure out. How they helped a client achieve their goals when a bigger supplier just couldn’t understand the client’s goals.
A small business owner is not a person that fits into a corporate job, working in a company that already has working procedures in place which just need to be maintained.
They need to build something from scratch, get an idea to a prototype and build the end result that a consumer can use.
They need to be innovative to solve a client’s problems or achieve a client’s vision to ensure that they stay relevant in the market or ahead of the competition. And the best thing about this ability is that they are not doing it for the fame or awards, they are doing it to be in charge of their own destiny, provide their kids with the best possible foundation and make a difference to a world that their kids need to grow up in.
So the next time, you walk past a small business, support them. Even if you spend R10 with them. That R10 you spend with the small business owner makes a difference in this world that you and I cannot measure.
It gives reward to an entrepreneur’s effort, pride in the heart of the spouse and happiness to the kids and faith in the fact that our own efforts can change our destinies and improve the lives of everyone around us.
I hope you are supporting a small business owner as much as possible!
