Little steps can lead to BIG change

Significant initiatives by big business may feature in the spotlight and reflect the ‘big stuff’ but small businesses are taking ‘little steps’ that make big differences too.

Whilst these ambitious initiatives from big companies capture the headlines and some well-deserved attention much of the ‘big stuff’ can take a long time to materialise and some initiatives never actually even see the light of day.

Meanwhile, smaller businesses are taking what some see as little steps that often go unnoticed, but which – as in the story of the tortoise and the hare – end up getting them to their end goals faster in the long run.

While these little steps might not be headline-worthy and reap too much attention, more and more small businesses across the Island and UK are finding that little steps can make real difference to their success and positive change to their bottom lines. That's a big deal considering that most of the businesses across the UK are small. With such numbers the potential for small businesses to make a difference with little steps can truly be massive.

Smaller business have some real advantages over big business; they are more nimble, they can tweak an idea until they get it right or realise it was all a bad idea in the first place and simply move on to try something else without worrying about shareholders, career progression, status and all those things which can inhibit success in big business.

Small businesses are often the ones who tend to spot a local market gap or a niche that nobody else is filling and then go on to create and change whole industries. The ones that can evolve to be the next Facebook or Apple.

The issue is that in going about our everyday lives, we interact with so many ‘big’ things and we forget or don’t know how they originally started. Well they all start with one thing in common a little step towards something they want to achieve. We’ve all had that breakthrough idea, that moment of inspiration and have all said ‘someone could make a fortune if they’d just…’ but few of us act on it.

Dale Carnegie’s book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ has sold over 20 million copies and it all started with a ‘Little Step’ as he puts it “I prepared a short talk. I called it ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People…but it soon expanded to a lecture that consumed one hour and thirty minutes.” After giving the lecture for some time it developed into a course with a need for text book and that’s how the now famous book became a reality.

Apple, until recently the world’s most valuable brand started in a small garage in Cupertino, California when in 1976 Steve Wozniak created the very first Apple computer (Steve Jobs came later). One of their first ‘little steps’ was an aim to sell 50 computers at $500 each – they did this in just 30 days!

Liz Earle Beauty Co Ltd started in 1995 with two close friends Liz Earle and Kim Buckland seeing an opportunity in the market for a personal range of skincare products. From humble beginnings the company is now a multi-million brand. One ‘little step’ for the company was back in July 2008 when they introduced the first of their men’s range and saw sales of men’s product exceed their initial forecast by 635%.

So, think in ‘little steps’ and seize the opportunity. Be nimble and tweak.  You are more likely to achieve success in business and life.