I was talking to a client recently about preparing a long term plan for his business. He replied that while it was interesting he really didn't need all the stuff I do for others, like business planning, marketing, and systems.
He said that he thought he was a good business man, in his words "not brilliant but I know my stuff", because he had learned how to run his business through experience.
Now let me set the scene. Let's call him Danny.
Danny is not an older business person dyed in the wool in the old ways. He's in his 40's and while he struggles a little bit with tech, he uses the internet a lot to research and find new suppliers and markets. He's not what I'd call conservative and he has run his business successfully for over 10 years.
What do I mean by "successfully"?
Well, it's a small business that supplies raw material to manufacturers. It's not a big market so Danny keeps his small customer list happy and has only lost customers when the customers have gone out of business or after being beaten on price, never through dissatisfaction.
As a small business with a small customer list Danny doesn't care about...
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