Running a small business

For VC-backed startups, runway is the headline number. For small businesses, collections velocity is the headline number. The faster you collect, the more business you can do.

Three practical levers:

1. Charge upfront or by milestone. Net-30 invoices are killing your cash position. Negotiate 50% up front for any project work.
2. Subscription beats project. Even small monthly retainers stabilise cash. A $1,500/mo retainer is worth more than a $10k one-off project.
3. Collect aggressively. Day after the invoice is due, send the reminder. Day 7, call. Day 14, escalate.

Small businesses don't fail because they're unprofitable. They fail because cash collection lags cash demand.

What works for small businesses:

• Word of mouth + referrals. Ask every happy customer for one intro. Build the ask into your offboarding.
• Local SEO + Google Business Profile. A free Google Business listing with reviews outperforms paid ads for most local services.
• One niche community. Find where your customers gather (industry forum, Slack group, LinkedIn community). Show up. Be useful. Mention what you do without pitching.
• Strategic partnerships. Find a non-competitor who serves your customer and trade access.
• One specific piece of long-form content. "How to choose a [service] in [city]" ranks for years and converts.

What doesn't:

• General brand-awareness content with no specific CTA.
• Spreading thin across 5 social channels.
• Cold email campaigns to broad lists.

Most small businesses hire their first employee 12 months too late and the wrong role 50% of the time. Three rules:

1. Hire the role you hate doing, not the role you can't do. You'll keep doing what you're good at; you need someone to take what you avoid.
2. Hire a generalist for the first 3 hires. Specialists need management you can't yet provide.
3. Don't hire on potential before $200k revenue. You can't afford the runway to grow someone. Hire for capability now.

Common mistake: hiring a sales rep before you can hand them a working sales playbook. Pattern-match what works first; hire to replicate the pattern second.

The leverage in a small business comes from systems, not headcount. The four systems that compound:

1. Standard operating procedures (SOPs). Every repeated process — onboarding, delivery, support — should be written down. Your future self will thank you.
2. A simple CRM. Even a Google Sheet. Lose track of follow-ups, lose revenue.
3. A weekly rhythm. Monday plan, Friday retro. Skipping this is the difference between "running a business" and "running on a treadmill."
4. Automation where math says yes. If a task takes 5 hours/week and a tool fixes 80% of it for $50/mo, it pays back in week one.

Small businesses scale at the speed of their systems. Not their hours.