Making Small Business Boom 

What makes Google such a successful company? Their Silicon Valley location? The California weather? Lots of enthusiastic college grad employees? Good timing? Google began as a simple search engine and is now one of the most successful companies in the world. One significant reason is good business management—in other words, making their employees happy. Google employees enjoy extra benefits like an on-site doctor, a fitness center, and gourmet chefs. Putting that extra effort into making Google an enjoyable workplace builds team-work and a sense of community as well as company loyalty, drawing some of the brightest minds around. This is just one example of the business tool known as the “upward spiral.”

So What?
That’s all very well, you might say, but I’m no Google—I’m a local
photographer/entrepreneur/freelance writer looking to boost business on a somewhat smaller scale. How does this “upward spiral” thing apply to me?

The fact is, when you’re working in a competitive business world, traditional advertising doesn’t quite cut it. The upward spiral is your solution.

Expand
What small business owners in your position need to do is push business in an outwards direction, instead of traveling in the same well-worn circles. Think of it as driving up a mountain: if you take a straight route directly to the
top, you have to feed a lot of fuel into your overworked engine. On the other hand, a circular route up the mountain may take longer but it will stretch your resources farther—and you’ll have seen a lot more, too. In business terms, this means expanding your involvement in your community, rather than focusing intensively on one project.

Let’s look at an example. Pretend you’re a local photographer. Quick, pop quiz: which of the
following statements sounds better?

“I’m a photographer.”

“I’m a photographer. I also teach a summer class in photography for high school students, and
work with the annual Film Festival.”

Easy, right? The point is to stand out in the crowd. Instead of putting the money you make back into the same project that produced it—traveling the same well-worn circle over and over again —put it into a new project. Call your local high school, and coordinate a class there—providing a service in exchange for classroom teaching experience (and even a little publicity). Volunteer your services with the Film Festival and get your name out there. Every person you meet in these supplementary ventures is a potential client.

Reflect
Having a greater breadth of business development and involvement in the community makes you look a lot more professional and successful than the guy who just puts an ad in the newspaper. The people who benefit from your freebies will remember you and recommend you to others, if not come back to you with business even years later. Nothing attracts success like, you guessed it, success. So get out there. Join some clubs. Volunteer. Network. Build your résumé. That’s creative advertising—and that’s what will put you and your business on an upward spiral.

Photograph by Gary Denness www.flickr.com