BUSINESS SUCCESS: Thinking big is great, but you need to think smarter

Thinking big is great, but you need to think smarter

Rick Spence | 28/10/13 9:33 AM ET
More from Rick Spence | @rickspenc
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FotoliaMany entrepreneurs have no problem thinking big. The key is for them to think smarter.

At a big-ticket event called “The Art of Small Business” held last week in Toronto, leading entrepreneurship expert Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth and The E-Myth Revisited, exhorted Canadian entrepreneurs to think bigger and dare more.

Two days later, I discovered that thinking big isn’t a problem for today’s entrepreneurs. The big challenge is thinking realistically. And while one might lament young startups’ pie-in-the-sky ambitions, this is a good problem to have. I’d rather have a team of entrepreneurs who believe they can score from centre ice than a bench full of bashful business owners afraid to take a shot.

These thoughts coalesced after I sat in on an “Ask the Experts” session at last week’s Small Business Forum in downtown Toronto. The organizers, Enterprise Toronto, recruited a dozen business specialists to provide free advice. I shadowed Steve Stunt, a business professor at Niagara College in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., and a guru of entrepreneurship and marketing.

Here is how things went:

10 a.m. The first world-conqueror is Attila (names have been changed to protect the naive). He has a formula for training business owners to become more successful, and wants to expand this knowledge across Canada. But he needs a partner willing to invest $500,000 in his startup.

Steve didn’t tell Attila he was crazy. Instead he calmly asked, “Where will you look for this person?” — putting the onus on the entrepreneur to explore his own misconceptions. Attila admitted he had no idea where to look for his saviour, so Steve suggested consulting his nearest Regional Innovation Centre.

Steve also tried to steer him into launching the business himself, and grow it slowly, organically, rather than count on elusive investors. Attila disagreed, saying the competition is circling. “I think the first company to market will be the winner.” Besides, he had already prepared a “pitch deck” (slides presenting his concept to potential backers). Steve gave in and offered him the name of a local group of angel investors, but warned they would expect a detailed business plan with three years of financial projections.

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Thanks for taking the time