an open letter to small business owners by charlie gilkey

when i read the title of this piece, i feared it was some advice i didn’t want to hear, but i followed the link anyway. after reading the first paragraph, i was hugely relieved to see someone speaking to my attitude in running a small business. for the foreseeable future, i’m not interested in growing it with employees or positioning it to sell. i love the actual doing of design, and want to focus on doing it for years, maybe with the help of a few independent associates when things get busy. though i loved the e myth revisited as a primer for branding a business from the inside out, i also loved this quote:

Michael Gerber be damned, we want to make the pies, not build a franchise around our pies.

i suspect some others out there feel the same way, so i wanted to share it. if you have felt like the advice about growing your business for the goal of selling it was never right for you, you’re not alone!