Small Wins = Big Business

In business we should always think big. There is small saying which we should take note of – “Aim high. If you get lower, it’s still good. Aim low. If you get lower, it’s really bad”. Don’t belittle yourself or your business. “I’m a small player, I should know my place”, “I can’t possibly beat the big guys out there”, “With the capacity I have, my business will never get a portion of the lion’s share”.

We should always dangle a piece of cheese in front of ourselves to keep us running. It is a psychological means to make us strive forward towards a goal. So we start thinking – “Today I will run my products through my entire contact list, push forward our advertising budget so that people know more about us, make tie-ups to all possible networks, and do all of this within the week! I should be able to see at least a 20% growth in profit by end month!”

Not quite so.

Of course the example given was over-the-top. But in some cases we do make the mistake of setting too large goals in such short periods of time. It is not necessarily a bad thing but it is a form of ‘over-promising’ ourselves. The most ideal scenario that most entrepreneurs would dream about is the “build it up, hit it once, and hit it big”. It is like a one-touch-go thing, similar to a bank robbery. But we all know that it is a far-fetched idea. 

Overnight success is a rare thing. There have not been many business successes that pocketed the world in one night and lived to see the light of the next day. These businesses usually run out of steam – very, very fast. The more ‘realistic’ way of looking at it would be to seek out undersized, but well-delivered profits. Consistency is the key word here. Now these, though small and probably insignificant, will lead you to a more fulfilling win.

Remember that sweep-stakes only last for a short duration. Resilient businesses take a good amount of years to hammer in a strong foothold. Bill Gates did not create his world renowned computer operating system monopoly of Windows in one year. Microsoft only managed to make it big 10 years after they first started. 10 years is a long time. Some businesses can fold up and resurrect themselves 3 times over in that kind of time period.