This article over at the Entrepreneurial Mind is quite excellent. It discusses many of the issues that entrepreneurs face as their businesses grow.

I think that growth can be easier to manage if it’s identified as one of your objectives from the very beginning. Growth is one of my primary objectives in the new business that I’m starting (more on that later). Admittedly we’re in the early planning stages but the question “How will this affect growth?” is a central guiding principle to every issue we tackle. So we’re designing business processes, HR policies, and our culture with growth in mind. We’re ready and excited for rapid change.

Switching gears a bit, I particularly enjoyed the last paragraph of the article where Dr. Cornwall says:

… Some of these folks wanted us to take our business public. That is not where I wanted to go, but I felt the pressure to look seriously in that direction. Even though it possibly cost me some money, I am so glad that I ultimately listened to my own aspirations. I would have been very unhappy running a public company. Remember: it is your business!

One of the best things about being an entrepreneur is that you have total freedom to do things differently. That includes growth. One of my good friend’s parents have a really successful small business in the health care industry. It currently gives them everything they want, both monetarily and in quality of life. They see no need to grow it further. It’s their business.

I’m not going to listen to conventional wisdom that much when it comes to growth — creating the business that both me and my business partner want is far more important than going public.

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