Small By Design

The Entrepreneur's Guide For Growing Big While Staying Small

David Feldman

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781631958861
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

Small companies create value in unique ways, often outperforming much larger competitors. 

In Small by Design: The Entrepreneur’s Guide For Growing Big While Staying Small, entrepreneur David Feldman reveals how small businesses can make a major impact with a minimalist mindset. The value a company creates is not a function of its size, and according to Feldman, the clutter of conventional growth often crowds out actual impact. It’s far better to assemble the truly essential resources and learn to apply them well, all while staying deliberately, intentionally, and proudly small by design. 

Small by Design is not for companies hoping to appear bigger than they are; it’s about becoming confident in their small size and being proud of that choice. Staying small often lends itself to a competitive advantage, and though this doesn’t happen automatically, neither does mimicking the strategies of multinationals.

Chapter 1:

TAKE SMALL OFF THE TABLE

From Securing Baghdad to Building the American Dream

Ron Perry is the president and CEO of Perry Construction Management, a small construction management company that oversees major building projects for Fortune 500 clients including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, and Starbucks, as well as for the U.S. Federal Government.

As a West Point graduate and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Perry was no stranger to leading people through complex and challenging missions. Then a divorce led him to leave the military and prioritize raising his children.

It was a new chapter in his life, and he needed a new career. Through a headhunting agency, he was hired to manage construction projects for a large general contractor, even though he knew almost nothing about construction.

“I still don’t think I can install an interior door in my own home,” he says, “but that’s not what I was hired for. The work is actually about understanding people, building teams, building consensus as they work toward a common goal, making decisions, and executing.”

His education at West Point and his experiences in Iraq had amply prepared him for the work, even without a construction background. Both his employer and the clients they served were delighted with the quality and efficiency of the projects he led.

Several years later, when Perry started his own, initially solo consultancy, the same abilities helped him convince his clients they could trust his small company with their big-budget construction projects.

Perry never pretended his new company was big. He simply took any concerns about being small off the table.

They’re Not Worried You’re Too Small, They’re Concerned You Aren’t Reliable

As I described in the preface about my own first big opportunity, Mellow Mushroom saw early on that my startup agency had great ideas for their brand, no matter our small size. Similarly, Perry speaks eloquently to his clients, sharing his big ideas for managing complex projects, building consensus among stakeholders, and assuring quality and accountability.

For Perry and for myself, convincing clients that we know what we’re talking about is easy. No elaborate theatrics to make ourselves look bigger are required, because we do know what we’re talking about. Simply sharing our thinking puts any worries about that to rest.

What’s harder when you’re small is convincing big clients you can execute on your excellent ideas. They want to know if you can do the job. They’re concerned you might not be reliable.

Sure, you may be brimming with confidence that you can deliver your enchanting dream into the bright, waking world. But consider the decision from the client’s perspective: You’re asking them to trust you with a large budget —often millions of dollars in Perry’s case, usually hundreds of thousands in mine—to create, improve, or manage something that’s critical to their company’s stability, growth, and success.

Meanwhile, with large clients, you’re almost never personally dealing with the founder or CEO, and, even if you are, they’re still answering to a board of directors or other stakeholders. Your point of contact is held accountable for the consequences of the decisions they make, the resources they spend, and the people they trust. Their own careers may rise or fall based on the success of your project.

In the movies, underdogs like you may win big contracts because someone at the company likes your style or has a good feeling about you. But in the real world, decision makers know that their “gut feeling” would be a poor justification should your project go south. They’ll need to show they did their due diligence.

If they like your ideas, they want you to succeed. But as responsible leaders, they also need to be convinced you won’t fail.

Show Them They Can Count on You

Here’s what’s not detailed in my triumphant preface story: After my agency won the contract with Mellow Mushroom, I still had to spend a lot of effort and energy, throughout the project engagement, reassuring everyone that we were making timely progress and would deliver on the promise of the pitch I had made.

Pretending to be bigger than we were hadn’t solved the core problem. Instead of focusing on spotless baseboards and bustling desks, I should have addressed directly their worries about reliability and taken those off the table.

That’s what I do today, in my agency that is bigger but still small, by design. From day one, I say with pride to prospective clients that my agency is small. Then I show them why they can trust us to deliver what we promise.

So how do you do that? Here are several things I wish I had done with Mellow Mushroom, several strategies I now use with every new client.

A Playbook for Putting the Reliability Worry to Rest

Small Business Does Not Mean Small Vision

Big ideas on their own aren’t enough to take small off the table, but they are where the client’s confidence begins.

With that in mind, don’t be a commodity vendor: a provider of goods and services with no investment in the client’s strategic direction. Instead, be a partner: interested and engaged in all aspects of your mutual success.

Show them, from the start, that you understand their business, and that you have a bold and clear vision of how you can help their company grow. Articulate that vision early and let it be the lifeblood in all of your conversations: the lens through which you view the project.

For example, the major construction projects Perry Construction Management takes on always have several stakeholders on the leadership team, each with their own priorities. In the initial discovery phase, Perry meets with every stakeholder, including workers on the front lines. “What’s important to you,” he asks them, “and how can I best represent your interests on this project?”

Their priorities often conflict. The safety manager at a food processing plant wants grit in the floors so workers won’t slip, while the food safety manager wants a smooth floor that’s easier to clean and sanitize.

Each person involved brings their own role’s perspective to defining the project’s success. In poorly managed construction projects, that can easily lead to political infighting, which causes delays, budget overruns, and a lower quality end result.

So Perry begins with gaining an understanding of each stakeholder’s priorities, then works with the full leadership team to build consensus. He rallies everyone behind an integrated vision of the project’s success—one that each player can support.

It’s bigger than managing a construction project per the client’s specified requirements. Instead, Perry facilitates a clearer, more unified understanding of what everyone needs.

I do the same for my clients all the time. As I’ll discuss at length in chapter 2, a network of clinical trials sites once came to my agency wanting to improve their existing online presence. Their website attempted to serve both clinical trial sponsors and participants, but it wasn’t doing either particularly well.

After carefully studying their business, we came back with a bigger idea: split the website in two. One site to serve the pharmaceutical companies and scientists. One to serve the participants. We also proposed to integrate several backend tools that would not only simplify management of the two sites, but streamline their back office operations.

We proposed a bigger budget than they had originally anticipated, but it was based on a bolder vision of how a multisite network and a well-integrated digital experience platform could help their business grow while operating more efficiently. The company appreciated our understanding of their business and the broader perspective we had brought to what started out as a straightforward website redesign. They approved the larger spend.

Thinking bigger in this way for your clients doesn’t have to cost you more money, but it can certainly raise your project budget!

“When in Charge, Be in Charge”

On any project you take, there will be boundaries to your authority: decisions only your client can make, actions only they can take. But within your areas of action and authority, embrace your responsibility and lead the way.

There are many styles and modes of leadership, and I’m not saying you must issue orders and demand unquestioning obedience. Collaborative leadership is a powerful thing.

But entrepreneurs are not followers. Meek deference and people pleasing will not teach your clients to trust you. However you lead, do so with conviction and all the confidence your expertise deserves.

“When in charge, be in charge,” Perry says, quoting a military aphorism. The idea behind it is that, within the bounds of the mission and their commander’s intent, military units shouldn’t wait for detailed directives. They should take initiative, make decisions, and get the job done.

When Perry starts a new project, he declares his responsibility to everyone involved, including all the company personnel on the floor. “If you see any contractor not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, call me,” he says. “I personally will handle it.”

Don’t complain to the company’s project manager, he tells them. Don’t take it to the construction contractor. Perry Construction Management is managing this project, so bring all your concerns to me.

Not only does this declaration send a strong message about Perry’s leadership, it’s also a relief to the company project managers, who mostly dread all the complaints they’ll get during a typical construction project.

Similarly, my agency’s clients come to us because of our expertise in tech-forward brand development and integrated digital experience platforms (DXPs). I don’t tell them how they should run their restaurants, universities, performance venues, clinical trial sites, or residential communities. But I confidently take charge of developing and implementing their digital brand strategies.

That’s what they hire us for, so I lean into the challenge and lead the way. That’s what reliable agencies do.

Invest Early In The Relationship

Do you see a potential client turning into a long-term partnership? Are you particularly interested in winning a project? Do you want to take small off the table right away? Invest early in building and strengthening the relationship. Maybe right when you get the project, or even before you do.

A few examples…

My agency was courting a client who offers high-end luxury cruises around Aruba. The owner happened to mention that he would be staying in his favorite hotel in Aruba the week my proposal was due. So I arranged to have a bottle of champagne and a handwritten letter waiting for him in his hotel room when he arrived. He approved my proposal the same day he received it.

Another time, we signed a franchised client for a website project. Branding wasn’t part of the initial deal, but I threw in an initial brand workshop. (I normally charge $10,000 for this service.) This added value built trust early on and encouraged the client to think bigger about what we could do. They’ve since expanded the scope of our work well beyond their website.

One last example: We signed a famous national restaurant brand based 1,000 miles away from me. The initial project was small, and there was no practical need for any of us to meet in person. No matter. I flew with my leadership team up to their headquarters, and we all went to dinner at their restaurant to meet their C-suite. We’ve since become their agency of record. We’re also building a strong relationship with their chief investor and hope to work with more of their brands.

These early investments build stronger client relationships, just as they do for big businesses. But there’s an added benefit when you’re small by design. Generosity early signals that you have money to spend. It’s a cue that says “stability” while previewing for the client the pleasures of working with your company.

So show them, early, that you aren’t pinching pennies. Give them some added value when appropriate. Surprise them with your commitment to the relationship. It will take small off the table!

Lead With Your Values

Just like big ideas, strong core values can have an outsized impact no matter how small you are. If those values are truly held, consistently lived, and aligned with your clients’, they can go a long way toward building trust and confidence in your company.

At a small by design company, you have direct and daily access to your company’s values, an advantage no large corporation can match. Those values are not the artifacts of some committee or consultancy, perceived dimly and distantly through corporate policies and practices. They’re your values. You lead with them. You and your team live and breathe them every day.

“I learned in the Military Academy that there’s one thing no one can take from you, and only you can give away,” says Perry, “and that’s your integrity. It’s our first core value and central to my company. There are no circumstances, no dollar amount when we would compromise our integrity on the job site.”

This isn’t a sales pitch for Perry. It’s who he is and how he would run his company no matter how his clients felt about it. That is, after all, how core values work. You don’t just say them; you live them, consistently, even if the people around you don’t care or...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface: Playing Extra Large for Pizza Money
• Introduction: The Dawning Age of Small
• Section One: Sustainable by Design
• Section Two: Impact by Design
• Section Three: Relationships by Design
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• About The Author