Mastering Growth: How Small Business Owners Can Balance Strategy and Operations
Key Highlights
- Unstable conditions can create significant opportunities for SMEs, but only if leaders are focused on growing their businesses.
- Solving problems within the business distracts from growing it. Find meaningful ways to allocate time for growth activities focused on the customer.
- Employ a strong team and empower them with the data they need to chart their progress independently. Ensure they know the priorities and what to improve on.
Running a small business is like flying an airplane; exciting, exhilarating and charting a path forward. Then you hit turbulence. The crew in the back needs help. Before you know it, you’re handing out drinks and peanuts, and no one is flying the plane.
That’s the predicament of small and medium-sized business (SME) owners. Problem-solving in the back of the plane is seductive and rewarding. Owners who get distracted by operational problem-solving risk losing opportunities to grow their businesses, especially amid uncertain economic conditions and a rapidly evolving tech landscape.
“The CEO and owner should be connected to the customer, no different from how the pilot should be in the pilot seat. They end up everywhere else,” said Kevin Lawrence, CEO of Vancouver-based Lawrence and Company Growth Advisors and author of "The 4 Forces of Growth: Defy the Odds and Keep Your Company Scaling."
The advantage for nimble SMEs plugged into the market is that they can seize opportunities amid the chaos of changing business environments. For example, while some small business owners worry about AI, others have their teams experiment with it and implement changes faster than large companies can, Lawrence said.
But if owners and top leaders divert their attention, they will inadvertently slow or even kill their companies' growth because fear or internal problems pull them away from scaling activities, he said.
The cost of solving problems
While operational issues come up, executives often don’t do the math on the problems they are trying to solve. That’s often because the problem generates so much noise that it demands executives’ attention.
“They literally will spend a couple thousand dollars of organizational cost on something that might be worth $100 bucks, and they don't even know it,” Lawrence said.
In the beginning of their business, SMEs may have improved their way to growth, but that won’t work long term, he said.
Lawrence, whose company consults with more than 100 SMEs monthly and quarterly, likened problems to wildfires. Fires near cities, homes and people need to be addressed, but wildfires, philosophically, are natural and meant to burn the underbrush.
“Not all fires need to be put out, but in business, we fall into the trap of thinking that we should,” he said.
While some small business owners worry about AI, others have their teams experiment with it and implement changes faster than large companies can.
Battle of two bicycles
Managing strategy and operations simultaneously is akin to riding two bicycles at once. One is the “strategic” bike, which is focused on the future. The other is the “operational and improvement” bike, which is zeroed in on today and this month.
“Riding two bicycles at once is next to impossible, but the job of the owner often requires that,” he said.
To continue the analogy, owners are typically more comfortable on one of those bikes than on the other. “What ends up happening is they end up only riding one, and then you get in trouble,” Lawrence said.
While maintaining focus and resisting the urge to jump into internal problems is important, the quality of your team may also be a factor. Here are some strategies Lawrence recommends to realign:
- Manage your time and attention to spend more time focused on growing your business than on problem-solving inside your business.
- Your direct reports need to be very good. If not, you will fill in for their weaknesses. That amounts to a part-time job. It’s one thing if a single direct report has a weakness, but if several do, you will take on several part-time jobs, robbing time from growth.
- Small business owners tend to be loyal to the people they employ rather than to performance. Use a structure loyal to performance.
- Make sure your team has the data they need to track their progress independently. If the team has those numbers, whether it’s the quantity of widgets produced, hotel room nights or guests at their restaurant, that data will help the team run autonomously without you having to get overtly involved.
Map your time
Many owners say they should spent 50% of their time on driving growth, such as attracting new customers, seeking new opportunities, developing new products and services and finding new markets. All of this should be an effort to drive sales of the company's key units.
The key is in how you structure your weeks. Lawrence suggests allocating one or two days a week to focus on improving and running your business, including internal meetings and handling operational needs. Include a focus on ensuring your team has goals set, understands their priorities, and knows what they will work on.
Spend at least two days a week focusing on growth, which can include meeting with customers, vendors, making strategic moves and developing new products.
Look at your calendar over the last few months:
- How much time did you spend on growth?
- How much time did you spend on improvement?
- What is the ideal time allocation of each?
“It’s about consciously structuring and getting enough time on the things that matter,” he said.
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About the Author
Andrea Zelinski
Contributor
Andrea Zelinski is an award-winning freelance journalist with a passion for translating complex issues, trends and strategies into clear, engaging content to help people improve their businesses and their lives.
She spent 15 years as a political reporter covering state governments in Illinois, Tennessee and Texas, reporting from the halls of state capitols for publications including Texas Monthly, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News. In 2021, she shifted her focus to business journalism, joining Travel Weekly as senior cruise editor, where she covered the travel industry’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
When not reporting, Andrea is probably hiking. Known for embracing ambitious challenges, she hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 2020 and the Pacific Crest Trail in 2025.
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