Below is a snippet of her thoughts about the Small Business Success Index. For the full interview, visit the Grow Smart Business Blog.
Pamela Slim is a business coach, writer and the founder of Ganas Consuling LLC. She started her company in 1996 with the intention of management consulting, leadership development and most importantly – being her own employer. Throughout her experience consulting hundreds of organizations in the U.S. and Europe, she decided to help frustrated employees in corporate jobs leave to start their own business.
Pamela also shares her expertise in personal and business change through her blog Escape from Cubicle Nation, which is one of the top career and marketing blogs on the web. Her past experiences include consulting inside corporations such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Charles Schwab, where she coached thousands of executives, managers and employees. Her book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur comes out May 1, 2009 (Penguin/Portfolio).
IF YOU LIKE THE INTERVIEW YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ, YOU WILL LOVE THIS:
At the end of this month, Grow Smart Business – a new Network Solutions blog, resource hub, and home to the Small Business Success Index – hosts its first webinar hosted by Network Solutions CEO, Roy Dunbar
Learn from the risks taken, lessons learned, and success attained from a great webinar panel. Join entrepreneurs and business leaders for this free, live webcast. And get a chance to learn from their experience in securing capital and deciding their approach to marketing.
When: Thursday, April 30 from 2-3pm ET,
To register: Visit http://growsmartbusiness.eventbrite.com.
Network Solutions: What did the study reveal to you about the success of small businesses in 2008?
Pamela: Not surprisingly, given the current shift in the economy, those companies that are just beginning or who don’t yet have a strong financial foundation are going to be faced with some big challenges. Unless you can operate with a very small amount of cash, or have a lot of savings, getting access to credit may be an issue. But there is always a great side to problems and barriers: people will get much more creative with how to start businesses with low capital.
Network Solutions: The study captured six dimensions for measuring success: Capital Access, Marketing and Innovation, Workforce, Customer Service, Computer Technology and Compliance. What do you think are the top priorities for making small businesses more competitive?
Pamela: As the study revealed, most small companies are excellent at serving their customers and delivering what people pay them for. But this creates the classic entrepreneur dilemma, described in many books by Michael Gerber as working “in” your business, not “on” your business. In order to innovate, reach new markets and build a strong infrastructure, you need to step away from the day-to-day activities of your business. And many newer entrepreneurs are very uncomfortable doing this because they are much better technicians than managers.
To read the rest of the interview, head on over to Grow Smart Business.
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