The Big Enough Company: Creating a Business That Works for You

319 Pages·2011·1.19 MB·English

by  Adelaide Lancaster

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Introduction

PART ONE - THE BIG QUESTIONS:

Chapter 1 - What’s In It for You?
Chapter 2 - What Will Your Business Be Known For?
Chapter 3 - What Do You Do Best?
Chapter 4 - Where Do You Go from Here?

PART TWO - THE CRITICAL SKILLS:

Chapter 5 - Progress Makes Perfect
Chapter 6 - Perfection Is a Trap
Chapter 7 - Enough Is Enough
Chapter 8 - Don’t Go It Alone

POSTSCRIPT
IN GOOD COMPANY: ADVICE FROM ENTREPRENEURS INCLUDED IN
THE BIG ENOUGH COMPANY
Acknowledgements
ABOUT IN GOOD COMPANY
INDEX
PORTFOLIO / PENGUIN
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First published in 2011 by Portfolio / Penguin,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams, 2011 All rights reserved

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Lancaster, Adelaide.
The big enough company : creating a business that works for you / by Adelaide Lancaster
and Amy Abrams.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN : 978-1-101-54429-7
1. Small business. 2. Business enterprises. 3. Businesspeople—Case studies.
I. Abrams, Amy. II. Title.
HD2341.L265 2011
658.1’1—dc22 2011013124

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We are forever indebted.
INTRODUCTION

The Promise of Entrepreneurship

They didn’t start out unhappy. They started out eager, excited, ready for a
challenge, and hungering for meaning. Looking for freedom, autonomy, and a
sense of accomplishment, they had decided to start their own business and were
determined that their company would provide them the satisfaction no other job
could. But somehow they lost their way.
Maybe they had compromised on what they wanted, or maybe what they
wanted had changed. In any event, their businesses no longer met their needs
and they were stuck with jobs they didn’t enjoy. They came to us looking for
advice.
There were those who had settled for a business that worked well enough: the
consultant who had grown weary of consulting but kept doing it because that’s
how she made money; the counselor who had perfected her craft and was
making a decent living but still found herself asking, “Is this all?”
And there were others who had pursued growth for growth’s sake: the
recruiter who hired staff, only to learn she hated managing people; the jewelry
designer whose collection grew stagnant because she was too busy handling
wholesale clients to actually design new pieces.
These entrepreneurs aren’t unusual. In fact, their stories are all too familiar,
their fates all too common. In nearly ten years of working with entrepreneurs
through our business In Good Company, we’ve heard countless stories and
lamentations like these. And that’s what concerns us. All of these entrepreneurs
started their companies because they thought it would give them freedom—
freedom to work on their own terms, be their own boss, and create a company
that met their needs. But in the end the opposite happened, and they ended up
encumbered by businesses that bore little to no resemblance to those they had
envisioned. They were working for their companies, but their companies weren’t
working for them.
Chances are, if you run a small business, you’ve felt the same way at one
point or another. But that doesn’t mean the game is over. The beauty of
entrepreneurship is that no matter how off course you may feel, your future and
fate are in your hands. Even the best of us can get stuck from time to time. We
just need a little help to get going in the right direction again. And that’s what