[Note: with this post I introduce a second new author sharing this blog. I first met Lena in a delightful late-afternoon meeting at a cool little coffee shop in New York, several years ago. I knew instantly she was a smart person with a lot to say. I’m very happy to see her here on this blog. As with Cidnee’s post here the other day, I hope this one by Lena is the first of many. Tim.]
Okay, there are loads of reasons it’s great to be the owner of a small business, but the one I’m liking the most nowadays is the ability to turn on a dime.
Recently, I made an attempt to put together an uber-fabulous idea that needed to be in the works by March 1st. No problem, except the company we needed to work with is a huge, international company and getting the green light on such short notice was impossible. *sigh*
I know that when dealing with larger companies, this rigmarole is to be expected. I understand that, but I also know for a fact that this company is trying their best to solidify a connection with their market (they ARE a good company) and my idea was a boss way for them to do so at NO expense (front-end or back-end) to them; all they had to do was give the “go” sign on the idea, and they couldn’t do that within a week’s time. Which, of course, means they lost the opportunity to do something smokin’ and exceed their social media marketing goals in the process. What a downer.
Most of us want our businesses to grow either in size and/or sales/profit volume, but somewhere along that growth trajectory we forget how good it feels to just execute and get things done without 10 mandatory sign-offs and turf wars.
Yet, we have the gall to wonder why innovation is at an almost standstill or why employees want to pull the rip cord and slap up their own shingle?
Good people…the people you want working with you and helping steer your ship…want to be agile in thought and action. They want the freedom to be able to just GO and DO things. They want to be able to stretch out on a whim, put something fabulous together so they look like a rockstar, but if businesses pull out the duct tape every single time someone has an “out of the box” idea (clutch the pearls!), eventually, people stop wanting to share their ideas and they start squirreling their ideas away for their own launch.
Here’s the newsflash: people don’t “moonlight” anymore. They get a domain for 9 bucks, set up a WordPress website and they quit.
And, yes, it’s easy to poke a sharp stick at “big business”, but you know what? They really shouldn’t make it so darned EASY to do. Just sayin’ :-/
About Lena West
Lena L. West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist, technologist and the Founder of the Authentic Influencer Braintrust, a high-level, social media marketing membership program for business owners and Real Women Do Social Media, the only social media training initiative created exclusively for women business owners.
Lena L. West is the leading expert on how women entrepreneurs can monetize social media. She is also the founder of the Influence Expansion Academy, the only social media mastermind program created EXCLUSIVELY for women entrepreneurs.
