Best Business Expert

Although my blogging style is frequently conceptual and (hopefully) practical, from time to time I like to report on business success stories from which business owners an draw out lessons to incorporate into their businesses. So when I read about Digg as a success story, I was eager to post it here.

During the big, bold, golden years of the internet – when the economy was in full bloom – tech start-ups adopted the "get big fast" model in which they'd ramp up production and audience share as quickly as possible (without regard to cash flow or profitability) with the hopes of being bought out by a larger player. It's not a bad model… if you get bought out, of course. But in 2009, the recession gave a shake to lots of businesses that were hoping for this to happen.

Digg was one of them. Digg is the hot social bookmarking site that allows users to find, promote, vote, and comment on news and links. Digg CEO Jay Adelson had about 70 employees and was looking to "get big fast" and reach 150 employees… until the recession hit. That's when he needed to revise his ideas of success.

You can read the full article at Money.CNN.com but here's the short story: Adelson realized that he can still do great things with fewer than 100 employees. In other words, "get big fast" is no longer in his business plan. Instead, Digg is focusing on sustainable success for the long haul.

That's smart for your business, too.

It can be tempting for entrepreneurs to see dollar signs from the promise of massive success and they may make unwise sacrifices to get big fast in the hopes of achieving that success. (How many among us haven't heard a colleague talk about their hopes of slapping an ebook online and retiring in 3 months?)

Good business growth over the long term requires wise, sustainable decisions now. But it doesn't always happen. That's because sustainable business growth can be hard work with entrepreneurs forced to learn about metrics and financial statements and bookkeeping – none of which seem very exciting when you have dreams of retiring on a Caribbean beach. We see this kind of unsustainable short-term thinking when business owners look for the cheapest option to build websites, marketing their company, and add content.

A view of sustainable, long-term profitability accepts that businesses are stronger when the owner takes small steps forward instead of trying to jump the line. It really is the difference between a spark that flashes for a moment and dies versus a long fuse that burns.

How does this change your day to day activity?

* Start by thinking about your marketing. Are you engaging your customers and building long term relationships or are you focused on an immediate sale?

* Consider your marketing. Does it add value to your business or is it a short-term-view keyword friendly (but reader unfriendly) article?

* Think about your follow-up. Are you thinking about the first sale to a customer or are you making the first sale and thinking about the tenth sale you could get from them down the road?

Brought to by you by: Contemporary VA - Run your business instead of running in circles.

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