Being the CEO of a micro business is harder than being the CEO of a big business.

Being the CEO of a micro business is harder than being the CEO of a big business. It’s a strong claim, but I stand by it. If you’re a CEO of a micro business and you’ve been thinking it’s tough to run your business, you are not alone. It’s easy to think the bigger the business, the harder it is to be a CEO. And I’m not saying being a CEO of a big business isn’t tough. Being the CEO of any business is hard. But there are specific reasons why being the CEO of a micro business is much harder than being the CEO of a big business. Keep on reading to find out what those reasons are and what you can do as a micro business owners to make being the CEO of your business easier.

 

 

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BEING THE CEO OF A MICRO BUSINESS IS MUCH HARDER THAN BEING THE CEO OF A BIG BUSINESS.

 

1. You probably didn’t want to be a CEO. You wanted to deliver a fantastic service

Many micro business owners don’t want to be a CEO. Instead, they want to deliver a fantastic service, but to do that in a way that truly works for them, they started their own business.

I specialise in supporting service-based business owners and the journey can be seen over and over again.

A marketer works for a big company. They love marketing, but can’t stand working for someone else. They decide to go freelance. They do a great job for clients, they become fully booked with people eager to work with them, so they decide to take on a few members of staff to meet the demand and do some of the more junior elements of the work. Now they have a boutique marketing agency that they have to be the CEO of when they want to be actively delivering marketing support.

An accountant spends years working in practice and decides one day they want to have autonomy over when they work and set up their own practice. Over time, their reputation grows, they take on more clients and they start to hire. First someone for bookkeeping. Then someone for payroll. Now they are a CEO with a team to manage, and business to run, rather than an accountant who can spend their day focused on accounting.

A wedding photographer started their business to make money from their passion – photography. But the wedding photography landscape changed and now people don’t just want great photos from their big day, they want video content too. To stay competitive they hire a videographer and a wedding content creator. The move works and they become even more in demand so they hire a second shooter and an administrator. They are no longer just a photographer, they are now a photographer with a wedding content company.

In the examples above, you can see what happens. By being committed to delivering a fantastic service, it either creates increased demand, which is met by building a team, or it means you need to build a team in order to have more specialists and deliver an even better service. Either way, the team grows and a service provider who in an attempt to deliver a fantastic service ends up being a CEO of a micro business.

 

2. You probably didn’t study business

Not only did the majority of micro service-based business owners not set out to be a CEO, but most didn’t study business either. A lot of CEOs of big businesses will have studied business at some point. They might have studied business as a degree or even done an MBA (Masters of Business Administration). Whilst there are people who will say that studying business is not the same as running a business, there is no denying that having that education makes a difference.

 

3. You are having to perform other roles in the business. You don’t get to be only the CEO

When you are the CEO of a big business your only role you have to perform is the CEO. That is so far from the reality of being the CEO of a micro business. As a CEO of a micro business the reality is you’ll likely be performing other roles in your business. You might be doing marketing, administration, operations, client delivery, customer services and so much more. That means your time is split. Whilst a CEO of a big business will spend 100% of their working week acting as the CEO of the business owner, a micro business owner might find themselves only spending a fraction of their week getting to act like the CEO of the business rather than performing another role in the business.

 

PERSONALISED ONE-TO-ONE MENTORING TO HELP YOU SUCCESSFULLY GROW YOUR MICRO BUSINESS ON YOUR TERMS My one-to-one mentoring is tailored around your business and lifestyle goals. We’ll start with a growth strategy that is realistic based on the numerous roles you perform in the business, and the size and skills of the team you have. Then I’ll provide the ongoing support to ensure you continually make time to be the CEO of your business, and make the best strategic decisions possible, so that you can achieve your goals. For all the information and to apply click here.

 

4. You don’t have a C-suite to support you 

Not only does the CEO of a big business get to spend 100% of their working day as the CEO of the business, but they are also supported by their C-Suite or senior leaders. They might have to make the final decision on matters but they’ve got other, smart, people who are experts in their fields to support them. Their C-Suite or senior leaders will be gathering data, sharing their insight and making recommendations. This is very different to being a CEO of a micro business where you might have no one else supporting you at a strategic level.

5. You have fewer resources to absorb ‘failures’

It’s no secret in big businesses that there is considerable wastage. Time is wasted with people sit in meetings they really don’t need to be in. Money is spent on all sorts of things it doesn’t need to be. As the CEO of a big business you want to use resources as efficiently and effectively as possible, but if mistakes are made you can, to a degree, get away with having wasted some time and money and it not be detrimental to the business. That is not the same for small businesses and that makes being the CEO of a micro business harder. If you decide to take a route that fails then have devastating results for the business.

 

6. You might not class yourself as a numbers person

CEOs have to look at lots of numbers and data. That’s the reality of that role. Someone wanting to be a CEO of big business will know that looking at finances and data is big part of their job. It’s very unlikely you’ll find someone who would describe themselves as not a numbers person apply for the CEO. On the other hand there are plenty of CEOs of micro businesses who would say they are not a numbers person. If you are one of those people then that can make dealing with the numbers side of your business feel like hard work and it might even mean you avoid some of that work, which make it harder for you to perform well as the CEO of your business.

How to make it easier to be the CEO of a micro business

As you can see it being the CEO of a micro business is harder than being the CEO of a big business for many reasons. As someone who focuses on supporting micro business owners, I’ve not written this blog post to be all doom and gloom. I’ve written because I believe it’s important to understand that your role is hard, to understand the specific challenges you face and then address those challenges.

 

So being the CEO of a micro business is harder than being the CEO of a big business, but if you have no intention of building a bigger business what can you do to make being the CEO of a micro business easier.

 

1 – Ensure you set aside enough time to be the CEO of your business.

You are performing multiple roles in your business and the reality is most of those other roles will be more urgent. They’ll directly involve other people or the successful delivery of your service so they are what you’ll naturally prioritise. But you need to set aside time to be the CEO of your business and to work on your business. That means actually blocking time out in your calendar, just like you would a meeting with anyone else, to be the CEO. Ideally, you should make time every week to be the CEO of your business. Then, on top of that, you’ll want specific times for planning. I recommend you have time blocked out for your monthly planning, quarterly planning and annual planning.

 

CREATE A STRATEGIC PLAN TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS OVER THE NEXT YEAR – IN JUST ONE DAY! I’m the Annual Planning Queen and I specialise in helping micro service-based business owners plan for the year ahead. Success in business is a result of having clear goals and a plan to achieve them, and my annual planning day will help you to have both. By booking a Strategy Day with me, I’ll ensure you have a powerful and productive annual planning experience where we consider all the major elements to ensure you can achieve your goals for the year ahead. All you have to do is secure your date, block it out in your diary and get ready to be guided through my signature annual planning framework that guarantees that, by the end of the end of our time together, you’ll have a clear roadmap to achieve your goals and be excited for the year ahead. For all the information and to book a Strategy Day click here.

 

2 – Upskill yourself about business in the areas that are important to your business

You don’t need to have studied business to be successful at business. That being said, improving your business knowledge in key areas will make a huge difference for your success. For example, as a service-based business owner you don’t need to know about inventory management. But it would make sense to improve your knowledge around financial management, service delivery and operations.

 

3 – Build your own strategic support team

A micro business doesn’t need a C-Suite, but building a strategic support team will make a huge difference, especially if you focus in areas that you aren’t the strongest in. For example, if finances aren’t your strength then rather than just hiring your accountant for compliance you could upgrade to get strategic financial support. Or if you have aspirational goals to grow your business but struggle to see what changes need to happen across your whole business for that to happen, then hiring a business growth strategist (like me) will help.

 

That’s it. You now know why being the ceo of a micro business is harder than being the CEO of a big business.

 

Being the CEO of a micro business is harder than being the CEO of a big business, and if you’re a micro business owner reading this I hope it’s made you feel better. You are doing something that is hard. So it feels hard, it’s not because you are bad at it. It’s because it’s actually tough. But, as I’ve shown, there are ways to make it easier and if you are set on being in business for the long term, I would encourage you to take the steps outlined so the role becomes easier for you. Don’t make your life harder than it needs to be. Both your business and yourself will thank you.

 

If you’ve found this blog post useful, please do let me know over on Instagram or LinkedIn.

 

If you’re a micro service-based business owner who wants strategic support to grow your business, then I’d love to see if I can help you. There are two main ways I support business owners to grow their business.

 

1 – My Annual Planning Strategy Days are perfect for getting one-off strategic support to look at your business as a whole and map out how to achieve your growth goals over the next 12 months. For all the information, click here. 

 

2 – My 1:1 Business & Marketing Mentoring is perfect if you’re looking for ongoing support. This combines business growth and marketing strategic support, with ongoing accountability and training to ensure successful implementation. For all the information, click here.