One of the problems with growing your business large (a challenge we are facing more and more each day) is maintaining human relationships with your clients. Good relationships, Good will between businesses and their customers, builds loyalty and earns referrals the old fashioned (and stable) way.

Already I see this problem in Gutensite, because I no longer have a personal relationship with all our clients (I only know the really old clients that remain loyal because of the personal attention we have given them over the years). These days though, my employees interact with our clients on a daily basis and I usually only get involved with larger clients (initially for planning) or when a client has a problem that needs special attention. This is something I don't like, I want to show all clients personal attention, but it's just not possible. At some point you have to trust your employees to carry on the values that you have carefully infused into the culture of the company. Company values are probably the most important thing a business can establish and protect.

As you grow larger, there is pressure to focus more on profit margins, operational systems, and policies. You have to do this if you want to be efficient and profitable and reproduce yourself in others. These are good, important parts of being a successful business. And clients want their vendor companies to be profitable so that they can offer good services at affordable prices far into the future.

However, you have to maintain a commitment to view your customers as people. Not just people, but individuals, small business owners, husbands, wives, students, secretaries, pastors. Neighbors with professional and personal problems and enough stress in their life that they don't need hassles from the companies they do business with.

People just want to be treated fairly. Pay a fair price for a good product or service that they need and then not have to worry about it anymore. People want to know that if a problem occurs (which everyone expects and is willing to accept once in a while), someone will take responsibility for it, apologize and fix it. It's simple, but we all can name a lot of businesses that don't get it, businesses that have staffed their ranks with people who don't care or who don't have enough power to do anything.

In most large companies, when you speak to someone in customer service, they aren't empowered enough to make a difference. They are paid to listen to complaints, to take the blame and attempt to soothe the frustration, but they can rarely help (even if they want to), because they are working in a system that limits their options and does not allow them to take personal responsibility or initiative. The customer in turns feels helpless, like they are raging against the machine, because they have no access to the decision makers, to anyone that can actually help them. This is a dehumanizing experience. Unfortunately, in order to compete in price, many of these companies have determined this is an acceptable way to treat their customers in exchange for cheaper prices. Plus usually these companies don't have any real competition (or the competition employs the same practices), so customers really have no options.

Of course, you won't be able to satisfy all customers all the time. Some people will never be happy, and will always find fault. This is a lesson you have to learn the hard way. And it's usually best to recognize those kinds of clients and determine to give them the same level of service that you give others, but if that's not good enough, suggest they take their business elsewhere, because they will only drain your energy and resources and you'll never make them happy. So I'm not suggesting that you have to always avoid frustrating clients. It's not realistic. Some clients simply don't have realistic expectations, they want the world on a shoestring budget, they want perfection, etc. But you should aim to make sure that the majority of your clients are given personal attention, from employees that do care about their needs, and who do have the power to do something about it (or have access to other people that can).

I don't believe in the mantra that "it's not personal, it's just business". It's always personal to someone. The moment business is no longer personal, is no longer concerned about the person, you have crossed the threshold and are in danger of losing your heart as a company. When it's no longer personal, then the only thing that's left is profit margin, that amoral incentive that looks through a person as if they were an old glass window. When it's no longer personal, then you no longer care about how your product effects your customers, about your customer's experience with the service, about the stress or joy you bring to your customers, about the quality of the product. And what joy is there in participating in a business like this. Sure you make money, maybe even loads of it, but is it worth it? What have you accomplished? And what have you given up?

Where did october go? I remember having a birthday at some point, but the rest is a blur. The good news, I suppose, is that the economy has finally picked up (for us at least) and we have more work than we can handle. We need to hire another designer and programmer, immediately. The bad news is, due to the sudden influx of work over the past couple months, I have been sucked back into the vortex of project management and programming, which means I have had no time to do any pro-active business development, partnership development, or strategic leadership for the company. This is the story of all small businesses, and it happens far too easily. But responding to the immediate crises, though it seems responsible, is counterproductive to growth.

I'm sharing this, because I'm sure other small businesses have experienced the same thing. And it's a good reminder to all business owners, that your business' success is not based on your ability to personally address every need that arises, but your ability to build a team that can do more than you can do alone. This involves added financial risk in even the most stable economy, and it requires trust in your team (if they only do things half as good as you would do them, it's still a net gain). But if you find the right team members, and you create the right environment that is both enjoyable and productive, then you will all be able to accomplish much more.

I read an article this weekend that argued it was false to assume that slow steady growth was the best way to grow a business. Responsibility, Integrity, commitment to customers, yes of course, but without fail, the businesses that succeed are not always the ones with the best product or services, but the ones that grow faster than their competitors and become the de facto standard for the industry. Once a business reaches a critical momentum, customers prefer to do business with the company that is recognized as the leader, and slowly the market share shifts away from the slow, steady growing business. It's something to think about.

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