The one sentence summary

Staying small is the next big thing for business.

Can’t be bothered to read it? Listen to the 5-minute summary in two parts.

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WHAT THE BOOK SAYS

  • Remaining small can provide the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life – running a successful business that focuses on getting better rather than bigger. Doing this on your own terms allows you to avoid the headaches that routinely arise in the day-to-day grind of a traditional growth-orientated business.
  • A company of one doesn’t necessarily need to involve just one person. A company of one questions growth first, and then resists if there is a better, smarter way forward. The question should always be What can I do to make my business better? not What can I do to grow my business larger?
  • The main traits of a company of one are resilience, autonomy and control, speed and simplicity. The build-to-sell mentality, in which growth is seen as the sole purpose, is flawed. 74% of high growth tech start-ups fail.
  • Growth and scale at all costs is a broken, outdated, and unsubstantiated model that disregards what research has told us about the hazards of growth and scale.
  • The system and structure needed to cope with growth is sometimes described as feeding the beast, or a hungry ghost – a creature with an insatiable appetite that is always looking for more. It’s the disease of more.
  • Overhead = death. The less you have, the freer you are. Work out the upper boundary of what you need and stick with that.
  • Growth as a one-dimensional metric for success is useless in the absence of real reasons for it. It is usually desired from the start because of inflation, investors, churn, or ego. Growth equals success as a philosophy leads to vanity metrics – measuring social media followers, subscribers or clicks, but not the stuff that really matters. This is often called collecting not connecting. You can’t own an audience, because they don’t think about your company all the time.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT

  • Introverts can make very successful leaders. Like all good leaders, they require psychology, communication, resilience, focus, and decisiveness. What they don’t need is workaholism, because it doesn’t work.
  • Companies of one need to become adept at single tasking – doing one thing properly without distraction. Multitasking doesn’t work, and priorities (plural) were only introduced in the 1950s.
  • You can’t please everybody and trying to do so doesn’t work. You should proudly exclude audiences and tasks if they don’t suit what you are trying to do. To flush this out, try placation (trying to change the minds of people who hate or don’t want your stuff), prodding (taking a deliberately polarizing stance) or amplification (singling out a characteristic and leaning heavily on it – think Marmite).
  • Many businesses suffer from commitment drift – they fail to keep their promises – whereas with a company of one your word is your contract.
  • There are three types of trust:
    1. Confidence: “I believe what you say.”
    2. Competence: “I believe you have the skills to do what you say.”
    3. Benevolence: “I believe you’re acting on my behalf.”
  • A company of one needs to advocate for their customers in an honest and transparent way. Looking after your customers is better than blindly chasing new ones.
  • Some customer statistics:

~ 9 out of 10 are willing to spend more for great service.

~ 79% of people do not buy because of a bad service experience.

~ 88% of customers are less likely to buy from companies that don’t answer support requests on social media.

~ 83% of business comes from word of mouth referrals.

~ 83% of customers are willing to provide referrals, but only 29% do.

~ 60% of profitable innovations in companies originate with customers.

  • In Japanese, shinise means long-lasting company. Interestingly, 90% of all worldwide businesses that are more than 100 years old are Japanese. All have fewer than 300 employees, and never grow quickly without reason.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH

  • This is good advice for start-ups and small businesses but the majority of examples come from the online world, especially technology, so those involved in more conventional businesses need to aim off for that.