Chapter 7

TWELVE PRIORITIES OF BIG-VISION SMALL BUSINESSES

BEFORE MOVING INTO a discussion of what vision might mean in a big-vision small business, it’s helpful to review some of the priorities that such owners have for their enterprises. The priorities speak to how the business owner wants others to experience his enterprise, how the organization affects the community or world at large, and what greater purpose the activities of the enterprise support. That the enterprise is small in size and more independent in ownership increases the likelihood that the priorities can be put into practice more deeply and sustainably in comparison to what’s possible—and necessary—in a large firm that’s more quantitative in focus.

Unlike many companies that seem to have a significant gap between espoused principles and actual decisions and effects, big-vision small-business owners may opt to limit quantitative growth, turn away a profitable account, or forego entry into a hot new market if it means casting aside their business’s core values or the larger mission to which the enterprise contributes. Interviewees for this book aspired to some if not all of the following guiding principles in their day-to-day decision making.

PRIORITY NO. 1: ENSURING MUTUAL BENEFIT

An emerging trend in corporate America, one significant enough to be cited as one of “Six Principles of Business in the 21st Century” by Civilization magazine, is to make your customers work for you.⁵ Consumers, in such a scheme, become so-called “prosumers” and are manipulated into assuming responsibility for beta-testing products and doing research and other tasks formerly handled by a company employee. Such disrespect for one’s customer would be appalling to small-business visionaries. Yet this behavior seems to grow more common in boom times, when fast growth and short-term wealth accumulation become ever more blinding priorities.

Boom or bust, big-vision small-business owners aim to ensure that both they and those with whom they do business—whether employees, customers, or vendors—genuinely benefit from the interaction. “Each interaction should be for the highest good of the people involved. I try to ask, ‘Is it in all of our best interests? What’s your best interest? How well do I understand what someone else needs, and do they understand what I’m about?’” says Barb Banonis, founder of LifeQuest International in Charleston, West Virginia. “For me, my business is about fostering well-being on all levels.”

PRIORITY NO. 2: CREATING RIGHT LIVELIHOOD

A term borrowed from Buddhism, right livelihood refers to our desire to do meaningful work, conducted in a mindful way, that contributes positively to the community or at least does no harm. The concept of right livelihood can be more readily applied in a small enterprise, where the heart and soul of the owner infuses the way the business operates, thus becoming the heart and soul of the business. Why?

In a big-vision small business, the enterprise owner is often the sole or major investor and is able to make decisions that are deemed less profitable, and therefore unacceptable, in a large firm with higher overhead, more investors, and a greater hunger for quantitative performance and return on investment. The big-vision small-business owner, in collaboration with others on her team who are passionate about right livelihood, redefines priorities in a way that generates a higher rate of qualitative return on investment, along with the quantitative performance necessary to fund those higher priorities.

“There are only so many hours in a week, and we spend a third of that sleeping. We have to make the rest of it count,” says Christopher Adamo, founder of Zen Myotherapy Massage and Oasis Onsite in San Francisco. “Instead, we commiserate—misery loves company! But we hoard our joy. In right livelihood, we share the joy.”

Eileen Spitalny, cofounder of Chandler, Arizona-based Fairytale Brownies, did just that, when she and her partner took their joy for after-school brownies and turned it into a small business with national distribution and a product that earned recognition in the Wall Street Journal. “I love seeing people get so excited about the brownies,” says Spitalny. “It’s just so much fun, and brownies are just so harmless.”

PRIORITY NO. 3: FOSTERING RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS

Big-vision small-business owners place a high value on relationships, not just as an image-boosting gimmick but out of a deep respect for others, whether employees, customers, vendors, or in the case of Ellen Kruskie in Raleigh, North Carolina, the furry beneficiaries of her efforts. Kruskie, founder of Carolina PetSpace, a pet wash and products store, provides supplies and services that ultimately help people create more respectful, rewarding relationships with the animals in their care. “Taking care of animals is serious business. Pets are not accessories; you don’t put them on a shelf when you want to go away for the weekend,” she says. “They’re living, sentient creatures for whom we have a responsibility.” Her passion for honoring the relationships between animals and their humans, as much as her interest in entrepreneurship, moved her to create Carolina PetSpace.

Other big-vision small-business owners take relationships with other people just as seriously. Iris Harrell, founder of Harrell Remodeling in Menlo Park, California, has a commitment to respectful relationships that permeates the workplace and her company’s relationships with customers. “I don’t see employees as pieces of wood to discard when I don’t need them,” Harrell says. “Others look at ‘the labor pool’ rather than John Smith, father and future vice president.” Contrary to the norms in the construction industry, Harrell Remodeling sets itself apart by demonstrating respect for people in its commitment to providing full-time employment with benefits and making sure that customers don’t have to endure noise, foul language, and litter, to name a few of the less pleasant things that are common to most construction sites.

In larger enterprises, the push for maximized financial return on investment renders the time and care required for deeper right-relationship practices unprofitable, though individuals or small groups of employees can always choose such practices to guide their own behavior. In an average small business, the tenets of right relationship are too demanding or troublesome and are thus not often a high priority. In a big-vision small business, right-relationship practices add meaning and maximize a potential strength of small enterprise. For big-vision small-business owners, right relationship offers a way to increase personal mastery or practice spiritual tenets in a way that also benefits the enterprise and its stakeholders. For a more in-depth discussion of right-relationship practices in a big-vision small enterprise, see Section Three.

PRIORITY NO. 4: GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

Whether being available to new business owners, doing pro bono work, donating to local causes, or choosing to work with charitable organizations that might not have the budgets of a for-profit organization, big-vision small-business owners make a commitment to giving back to the community. Such practices stem from a generosity of spirit and a goal of making a positive contribution, as well as from a desire to balance quality of life with quantity of profit. In a small enterprise, an owner can more readily sustain such commitments out of a personal belief in their importance, even when such a commitment reduces the potential financial profit margin.

Helen Hempstead, of Cor Productions, a St. Louis, Missouri, video production company, says that she and her partners do most of their work for nonprofits, many of which are religious organizations, though corporate video projects are much more lucrative financially. “Some of the promotional videos we do, particularly for religious orders, involve going and staying in those communities,” she says, “so you really develop a sense for what it’s like. It gives our work meaning.” Hempstead says their work with nonprofits is often comforting to the corporations with whom they do work: “Corporations look at our work for nonprofits and think, ‘If you do this type of work, I can trust you.’”

Other business owners, such as Bruce Hetrick of Hetrick Communications, a public relations firm in Indianapolis, strive to work with clients whose products or services contribute to a healthier world. “We don’t have a lot of clients who make and sell widgets,” says Hetrick. “Every client is in some way good for society, good for people. In my career, I’ve increased the use of safety belts, increased the use of condoms to prevent AIDS. I don’t know whose life I’ve helped save or who’s healthier because of it, but it feels good knowing that we’re in some way contributing to a better world.”

The smaller the group, the truer the saying: Time is money. Each of these commitments cuts into potential revenue generation, which, due to the group’s small size, can’t be made up by coworkers as easily as a large enterprise can. Pro bono work, compensated volunteer time, direct contributions—all create costs paid by the enterprise, and would be immediate candidates for cost cutting if the sole focus was quantitative return on investment. Since big-vision small-business owners define contribution and return-on-investment in both qualitative and quantitative terms, such social investments are critical to fulfilling the enterprise’s vision and mission.

PRIORITY NO. 5: ASPIRING TOWARD HIGH ETHICAL GROUND

Many big-vision small-business owners place a high premium on creating a business that’s known as being highly ethical and trustworthy. Whether that means admitting a mistake, compensating employees fairly, paying your taxes and other bills on time, or turning away business for which you’re not optimally suited, a business known for its ethics is built on a series of consistently honest transactions. In an era wrought with news of ethics breaches in large companies—the Enron scandal is but one example—holding to an ideal of integrity in daily business transactions can no longer be assumed for large or small business.

Business owner Bill Hayes says that creating a business based on integrity is a high priority for him. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Hayes founded his printing company and recently merged with another, creating Estey Printing. Since the firm he bought had a poor credit rating, Hayes found himself dealing with longtime suppliers who wouldn’t deliver to the newly purchased business. “It’s incredible to me, the companies that don’t pay their bills,” says Hayes. “We’d dealt with this supplier for 15 years, and they said they’d deliver to us knowing that I had bought the company. I’d never want someone to say I didn’t pay my bills.” On a practical level, Hayes’s reputation for integrity has helped him with such things as getting financing and quickly resolving issues with the Internal Revenue Service.

Other big-vision small-business owners practice their commitment to high ethical standards by turning away lucrative opportunities because the actions of the potential client company conflict with priorities for public health, cultural or environmental sustainability, and other social-responsibility interests.

PRIORITY NO. 6: CREATING A RESPECTFUL ENVIRONMENT

Owners of visionary small businesses are driven to create good work environments, using past experience or spiritual beliefs as guides to what they would or would not do in their own workplace. For some, like Nina Ummel of Ummelina International Day Spa in Seattle or Jessie Zapffe of Golden Bough Books in Mount Shasta, California, this translates to creating a beautiful, nurturing environment for employees and customers. Zapffe has done that by selecting a soothing décor for her bookstore and offering an inventory that is visually attractive while supporting well-being and spiritual development. Her store looks and feels like a sacred space.

Like Zapffe, Ummel wanted to create a gentle atmosphere for her spa that fosters relaxation and rejuvenation; she shares more details in an in-depth profile in Section One. For other big-vision small-business owners, a respectful workplace incorporates the practice of right relationship by encouraging a participatory environment, offering creative benefits or flexible scheduling, ensuring family-friendly policies, or providing a relaxing oasis for clients who stop by.

Cec Stanford, founder of Prairie Herb Company in Gillette, Wyoming, wanted to create a business that produced superior-quality specialty vinegars while remaining family friendly. As a result, she offers both flexibility and her understanding so that her employees never feel like they have to choose between taking care of a sick child or keeping their job. “I had two small boys and was faced with a dilemma if someone got sick. You worry about it,” says Stanford. “I was determined that if I ever had employees, they would never worry about something so essential as taking care of their families. Our focus is twofold: producing excellent products and nurturing good relationships.”

PRIORITY NO. 7: GENERATING REVENUE AS A MEANS RATHER THAN THE PRIMARY GOAL

In our culture, the dominant worldview holds that we’re in business to make as much money as possible; the more of it we make, the more successful we’re considered. That’s supposed to be our primary goal, and questions about our companies usually begin with “how many” or “how much.” The leader in a big-vision small business certainly pursues financial well-being but not frantically or blindly and not at the expense of the inspired vision and core operating values. The numerical bottom line is but one aspect of operational effectiveness: the numbers are a means by which the enterprise can be a reliable vehicle for contribution and quality of life.

With this in mind, a visionary owner works thoughtfully and diligently to find a healthy balance between his firm’s social mission and the need to generate adequate revenue to support the organization’s work and the quality of life for both leader and employees. The larger the organization and the more it is driven by maximized return to a larger group of investors, the more likely it is that socially responsible activities become servants in the quest to produce higher financial returns rather than existing as part of the organization’s primary purpose.

On a more global scale, seeking that balance stems from deeply held beliefs about the very role of business and our economic system. Mike Sheldrake, owner of Polly’s Gourmet Coffee in Long Beach, California, says that many small-business owners with whom he comes into contact have problems finding that balance. “Everyone seems to want to go into business for emotional reasons,” Sheldrake says. “Either they’re enamored with the industry, or they love their product, or they hate their current job. But if they don’t know their numbers and what they want to make each month, they have a hobby, not a business. Ideally, you have to have both the passion for your product and a handle on your books.”

“For me it’s a humanistic philosophy,” says Jim Amaral, founder of Borealis Breads of Wells, Maine. “The economy and business are there for the people, not the other way around. Ultimately, the business has to benefit the people involved. If it’s exploiting people in order to maintain the business, it’s not a healthy business.”

PRIORITY NO. 8: FOSTERING HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Whether literally or figuratively, many big-vision small-business owners envision their product, service, or work approach as fostering greater health and wellness in their world. For Debra and Ron Herrsche of Westhampton Chiropractic in Richmond, Virginia, and Karen Straight of Knead For Life Neuromuscular Therapy in Raleigh, North Carolina, helping people get and stay healthy is a primary purpose of their holistic health-care organizations. For Golden Bough Books’ Zapffe, the business promotes healing and wellness through its product inventory and atmosphere. “A lot of people need nurturing,” she says. “They’re either working with computers or they’re alienated from other people. So I really tried to create a space that’s very nurturing for people who come in the store.”

The controversy over so-called “corporate healthcare”—with physicians and nurses expressing concern that patient health and well-being is being subverted in the push for maximized efficiency and profit—is a good example of how the ideals for promoting wellness can fall under attack as financial return on investment becomes the primary operating requirement. In an independently owned, big-vision small enterprise, health and well-being are qualitative return-on-investment priorities even when sustaining the practices cuts into the potential profit margin.

PRIORITY NO. 9: PROMOTING AWARENESS AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Some big-vision small-business owners endeavor to cultivate greater levels of personal responsibility and, often above and beyond the operating necessities of their business, try to raise awareness to that end. Carolina PetSpace’s Kruskie, for example, stocks and reviews carefully selected books and sees herself as an information conduit, sharing knowledge about responsible animal care and encouraging discussion among her customers.

For Sheldrake of Polly’s Gourmet Coffee, promoting awareness and self-responsibility can sometimes mean the difference between surviving the entry of a big-chain competitor or not. On one hand, Sheldrake has seen several small, privately owned businesses in his Long Beach shopping district fold after the arrival of competing chain stores. He, on the other hand, viewed the new competition as an impetus to take responsibility and refine his operating model, an experience he shares in Section Four.

Other big-vision small-business owners might cultivate an internal environment that runs on individual responsibility, where employees have a greater than usual share of both the rewards and risks in operating the enterprise. This internal mission of personal responsibility might include employee-created job descriptions and even employee-driven performance reviews—in which the employees take responsibility for defining their roles and goals, gaining agreement from their employer, and seeking feedback on their performance. In larger organizations, there is more of a shift from personal to organizational responsibility, and human resource rules and processes are dictated by a division charged with enforcing the company’s policies, which leaves less room for individual expression or experimentation.

PRIORITY NO. 10: CULTIVATING CONSCIOUS-BUSINESS PRACTICES

Thanks to their reputation for agility and experimentation, small businesses can be vehicles for changing the very way business is done, as advocates of conscious and socially responsible business emphasize. And some big-vision small enterprises with an outwardly focused social mission are created for the purpose of fostering social or cultural transformation.

Whether driven by the big-vision small-business owner’s own humanistic philosophy or spiritual traditions or not, doing conscious work promotes—or is at least openly respectful of—values such as tolerance, compassion, sustain-ability, community, environmental stewardship, and respecting the dignity of all beings. In a larger corporation, socially responsible ideals may be offset by less mindful or outright damaging practices, thus minimizing or even negating the net impact of the company’s very worthwhile social-responsibility programs. Again, because big-vision small businesses are independently owned and small in size, such practices are more likely to fully infuse the organization’s way of operating and result in a more positive net impact.

This is the case with Melinda Moulton, one of two sustainability-focused partners in Burlington, Vermont-based Main Street Landing. “We want to make a change in the way business happens and the way construction is done and people build buildings,” says Moulton. “My business card says, ‘We’re not your typical developer.’ We’ve received a lot of recognition for simply being different in what we do.”

For Dagmer Chew, owner of Homestead Real Estate Co. in Cape May, New Jersey, ushering in a new way of working led to what is considered blasphemy in the real-estate business: closing her shop on Sundays so her employees could spend time with their families, go to church, or observe other sacred rituals.

PRIORITY NO. 11: SETTING HIGH STANDARDS FOR QUALITY

Whether pertaining to right relationship, personal mastery, or conscious enterprise, many big-vision small-business owners opt for self-employment so they’re able to do their work according to the high standard they believe they and their stakeholders deserve. In this way, they’re more like the master craftsmen of old than they are disciples of mass production. Shelby Putnam Tupper, founder of Shelby Designs & Illustrates in Oakland, California, is another embodiment of this concept. Tupper is determined to offer the highest quality work regardless of the client’s revenue category. “I see many other firms, many of them big and well-known, who’ll assign interns to pro bono accounts and send out swill for a product,” says Tupper. “Everything we do, whether it’s free or high budget, looks great. We might require flexibility on timelines for pro bono accounts, but neither quality nor care nor service slack.”

As Keith Rollins, the Portland, Maine-based entrepreneur, confirmed, highly refined standards for right relationship, service, or quality are more easily met in a big-vision small enterprise than they are in a large organization whose first priority is investor returns. Whereas larger enterprises can excel at mass-production and broad distribution, small enterprises with a conscious focus can easily surpass large-company norms for personalized relationship, quality, and service.

PRIORITY NO. 12: CONNECTING BUSINESS AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

For some people, unifying work with one’s spiritual or religious life is the ideal goal to be achieved, and running a small business seems a perfect vehicle through which to serve others and refine one’s own spiritual practice or apply wisdom gained from the contemplative life to the more practical tasks of the active life.

We often hear of Mary Kay Cosmetics and Service Master as examples of companies where the spiritual principles of the founder are deeply ingrained in the organization’s core values. Yet there are countless other businesses, perhaps smaller and less known, that serve as fertile ground for practices drawn from the owner’s spiritual foundation. Remember, for example, Dagmer Chew’s New Jersey real estate firm that closed its offices on Sunday.

“Where there is no vision, the People perish.”

PROVERBS 29:18

And then there is Marc Lesser, whose California company, Brush Dance, sells greeting cards, journals, and other products that feature spiritual messages. Lesser’s vision and leadership style are influenced by his Zen Buddhist training and his tenure as executive director of the Tassajara monastery before he decided to start Brush Dance. As emphasized in the company’s marketing materials, the very name of the company communicates the vision: “The Brush Dance is a Yurok Indian healing ritual where being true to yourself means giving your best to help a person in need.” Lesser envisions his company as one in which right livelihood, right relationship, and positive impact are operational norms experienced by everyone who comes into contact with the organization.

Big-Vision Priorities and Business Norms

To some, these principles may seem ordinary in today’s politically correct world, where the media is full of talk about socially responsible business and socially conscious undertakings are a crucial element of corporate image campaigns. An assumption that responsible practices are the norm in business, however, confuses public relations campaigns with the actual net impact when all of a company’s activities are reviewed and averaged.

If we look beneath the advertising hype and public relations spin, we too often see a wide gulf between rhetoric and action. For example, a study released in June 2000 by the Ethics Resource Center in Washington, D.C., showed a growing number of employees who say corporate integrity is as important to them as income, but about one-third of those surveyed said they’d observed misconduct at work, and almost half were fearful of reporting the unethical behavior. A study released at about the same time by the consulting firm KPMG found that 7 of 10 employees witnessed unethical conduct in the workplace.⁶ And that was before the Enron debacle, which showed that a culture of greed and questionable ethics ultimately revealed itself in a company that had only just before the implosion been lauded for its “good corporate citizenship” and touted as one of the best companies to work for.⁷

An April 2000 report in The Economist suggested that corporate ethics activities, such as growing trends for appointing an ethics officer or providing ethics training, were motivated more by a desire to avoid public relations fias-coes and costly regulation than by altruism. And, further distinguishing big-vision small enterprises and other small businesses, the same article reported that “small firms, in particular, pay far less attention than bigger rivals to normalizing ethical issues and to worrying about their social responsibilities.”⁸

So the commitment of big-vision small businesses to such high principles may be all the more admirable. After all, their tight, often bootstrap budgets, carefully allocated resources, and fewer personnel regulatory requirements could offer a perfectly legitimate excuse to avoid such potentially expensive and time-consuming operating philosophies. Instead, big-vision owners take on, and even enjoy, the challenge of shepherding their visionary ideals and ethical principles into action while tackling the more mundane operational issues common to small-business ownership.

Pursuing Big-Vision Values while Meeting Real-World Challenges

Achieving a balance between lofty values and an inspired vision, on one hand, and the day-to-day reality of running a business, on the other, is no easy feat. Doing so requires total commitment to visionary guiding principles, even when it would be easier, cheaper, and perhaps even acceptable as the norm, in the short term, to opt solely for personal gain, to maximize our investment, to do the minimum required for our employees and customers, to limit the quality of our product or service to the minimum the market would accept, and to settle comfortably into the status quo.

This is perhaps the real distinguishing factor of the big-vision small-business owner, who has multiple bottom lines and chooses The Work, service and qualitative growth, over expediency or short-term material gain. In doing so, she allows her business to sand away her rough edges and refine her ability to serve her family, employees, customers, and community and, through them and with her like-minded colleagues, the world.

With these priorities in mind and heart, the big-vision small-business owner relies upon a clear, inspiring vision to be his anchor or guiding star, depending on what the circumstances require. The next chapters offer a discussion of what vision, mission, and values mean; how to refresh and clarify the guiding vision; and finally how to bridge the vision with the day-to-day decisions and behaviors of all in the organization so that the ideals of the big-vision enterprise move further from myth and closer to reality.