A long time ago, one of my successful small business owners gave me this piece of advice, “Keep it small and keep it all.”  They had an interesting model in the Reno cash economy or “no credit, no problem.”  They sold used cars and carried paper.  The real money was made in selling, repo’ing and reselling cars.  The Reno cash economy has some interesting characters in it.  Lots and lots of cash, legally made, and it somehow distorted thinking.  If you got it, spend it, don’t worry about saving, don’t worry about paying your bills, because you can always go made a few hundred dollars for “walking around money.”

The husband bought cars (cheap, for cash when people needed it), got them fixed up and sold them.  His wife handled the accounting.  A lot of the people made their weekly payments on time.  Interest rate was lower than today’s credit card rates.  But still, there were some who didn’t make the payments.  Justice was swift - as they say in the repo business, “Fastest way to get on your feet again is to miss a car payment.”  (think about it, it’s a joke)

Other than a lot guy, they had no other staff.

Now fast forward, I have a “big business” in terms of clients, community and revenue.  But, in terms of staff we are small.  Technology has taken the place of a lot of the staff.  

I keep reminding myself that it wasn’t that long ago that I would pay a PR person $5K or so per month for uneven results.  In today’s world, I can do my own PR faster, WAY cheaper and much more effectively by using the Internet.  

My new firm has just launched with my partner Bill Bourbonnais.  We’re now in the throws of growth, brand new systems and success.  It’s tempting to hire staff (kind of “warm body” hiring) to handle support function.  I know I’m driving Bill crazy right now because I keep saying “no.”  I’ve been there before, it’s easy to hire people, and then be too busy to hire them so they find a way to make themselves invaluable by “creating” their own position.  In other words, break something so they have to be around to fix it.  ”Keep it small, keep it all” doesn’t mean that you have to have a small business in terms of money.  It means you have a small staff and that means a small “nut” you have to carry every month.

Oh, and if you talk to Bill, please be nice.  I really am driving him crazy right now.