by Ahmed Zaki

Created on: May 01, 2008   Last Updated: May 08, 2008

Small entrepreneurship success stories are many despite mass production, mass marketing, global operations and multinationals and mass investment and finance in the current economic conditions around the world.

Small business owners must to know that their scale of operation is small but nothing else. Sometimes, entrepreneurs happen to disregard quality. That could be your first step towards greatest failure. Whether small or large in scale of operations quality matters the most. Information is just available at very short notice. People are aware of the fact that poorly served products or services let them down in every sense. So, nobody will ever like to go behind bad ones. The next most important thing is the process efficiency. Small business owners try to sacrifice quality for cost which is very unfortunate in today's business context. Quality should be enriched from time to time. Cost can be reduced through process innovations but never touch quality for cost reduction.

Let me share a real life example, I had a known person in my city that had a corner shop just next to my house. People of my area buy stuffs from him. Later, I used to be his business adviser and consultant in today's business terms. I helped him not for money but in exchange of friendship. Initially, when I started talking about human resource management, marketing, quality control and assurance, process efficiency and stuffs he was nowhere in the world. He used to resist me saying that they are for large businesses but not for him, the so called "small business owner". However, I kept convincing him changing little things inside the shop. For example, the cash counter was moved to a place inside that it was convenient for customers. Additional person was employed to assist customers find their needs easily from the shop. Items were then arranged to make a good look of display. Some attractive posters were also displayed outside the shop to attract more customers. I helped him set the place clear and convenient for the customers. I trained those few employees a little bit on customer care. But the scale of operation was still yet the same.

This small corner shop operator was fond of day book records. In a month time, it showed an increment of revenue by 200%. In just one year, he could earn a good deposit of money to for a new venture with huge capital. Now, he has shut down his small corner business and operating on a large scale in the central part of the city. The company operate a chain of supermarket outlets. He is no more a small business owner. Now, I am his accountant as well as his legal adviser paid with a very attractive salary and other financial plus non-financial benefits.

Yes, service quality matters. Customer service matters. Process efficiency matters. Innovation & technology matter. Human resources management matters. Marketing also matters. He is all together a different man today. I am so proud of him. A dear small business owner, what is the inference behind this real life story could bring you success. Successful people are those who forge clarity from uncertainty and ambiguity.

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