NFIB

Welcome to Hollywood
09/ 27/ 2005
by Rex Hammock

I recently read an interview with a well-known Oscar-winning Hollywood screen writer who was asked how he survived an infamous flop he’d written early in his career. “To succeed in Hollywood,” he said, “the most important skill is to figure out how to stay in the game.”

I often hear variations of this advice from seasoned small-business owners. Decades of experience teach business owners to remain flexible when faced with overwhelming challenge. In this issue of MyBusiness, we examine the strategies of several small businesses who managed to successfully face a challenge rarely considered a problem—except by those who have faced it.

Growth, the rapid kind, can be one of the most taxing challenges a small business can face. Managed in the wrong way, rapid growth can lead to painful and ironic circumstances. On the surface, opportunities abound, but well-meaning actions you take in the midst of growth can find a way of cropping up later in the form of harmful unintended consequences.

Hanging on and staying in the game too often becomes the default strategy of business owners in the midst of rapid growth.

For the article “Five Big-Business Traps to Avoid” on page 34, we talked with several small-business owners around the country about what they learned from successfully navigating their companies through periods of expansion. Through these business owners, we learned about the hidden threats often revealed by growth.

Another threat to your business—and your life, really—is time, or in a small-business owner’s case, your lack of it. If you’re like me, you often start your day with more on your to-do list than in most cases is humanly possible.

But as the small-business owners tell us in our story, “Time Management” on page 28: It’s not as much about getting more done, as it is about working smarter. Their tips on packing productivity into your day will help you leave the office feeling more accomplished than you have in a while. And you’ll not only stay in the game, but you may even end up with an “Oscar-winning” performance.

Rex Hammock
Editor and Publisher

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