Ivy Sea Online: Are big-vision enterprises practical?

Big-vision enterprise essentials
ARE BIG-VISION ENTERPRISES PRACTICAL?

To many business traditionalists, anything that sacrifices a portion of potential profits seems "wrong", particularly when it's so challenging to survive as a small-enterprise owner — and even moreso during economic downtimes.

Other people, though, are hungry for "real world" stories of entrepreneurs (or solopreneurs) who attempt the seemingly impossible — creating an intentionally big-vision enterprise that, while reflecting the need to be profitable over the long haul, also experiments with business models and reflects values that are aligned with their highest spiritual or philosophical priorities.

I wrote Big Vision, Small Business to share just these kinds of stories, about small-enterprise owners who are defining their own standards, setting goals based on their own values, deciding what is "enough" for them, and experimenting with their own models of what might be possible in how they run their businesses.

Are big-vision ideals and values practical?

Many of the small-enterprise owners featured in Big Vision, Small Business have seen their way through most of the challenges inherent in being a small-business owner, as well as additional or magnified challenges inherent in creating a sustainable enterprise that reflects the owner's "big vision," right-livelihood values and priorities.

For most of the enterprise owners featured in the book, this has been the second (and for some the third or fourth) economic recession or downturn that they've had to navigate. Indeed, many are well-past their tenth anniversary in business, making a strong case that their "impractical" big-vision values might have practical value after all.

For quite a few of these big-vision business owners, their decision to integrate their "idealistic" big-vision or right-livelihood principles — several of which are shared in Big Vision, Small Business — is for them among the chief reasons that they've been successful, according to their own definitions of success, as well as the more mainstream success noted by being in business long past the time when many other businesses fail.

More importantly, they credit their own big-vision principles with making the long hours and intense energy required by business ownership more worthwhile. And most are well aware that they could no doubt increase their profit margin by dismissing their commitment to the tenets of right-livelihood. This is often a choice that they make because, for them, while profitability is a key goal (as with any business), it is not the only goal.

Most big-vision enterprise owners intentionally, and with full awareness, sacrifice a portion of profit margin for big-vision, right-livelihood practices they deem important — such as being ethical, respectful, and offering something positive, unique, and worthwhile to their employees, customers, community or the world.

Do "big-visioners" have different priorities"

Perhaps, in comparison to business traditionalists who focus first (and often, singularly) on maximizing profit and eliminating any efforts that don't directly and immediately boost profits, big-vision enterprise owners simply have different values and priorities.

Then again, "profits-first" business traditionalists brought us the likes of Enron and their ilk, which focused solely on maximizing short-term profits, and fostered a culture of unbridled greed, regardless of the impact on their employees, customers and the public good. And then there is an abundance of data that points to increases in workplace stress, absenteeism, workman's compensation claims, on-the-job violence, and yearnings for more meaningful, relevant work — all of which carry very real pricetags. So there is clearly room for more inspired, big-vision values in the traditional business world.

Traditionalists' profit-maximizing strategies, when untempered by more inspired vision and more ethical values (in action, not just words), may be highly profitable to some but clearly carry long-term costs for many others. And this reveals a key value for many big-vision enterprise owners, who don't believe that it's ethical or spiritually aligned to maximize one's own wealth at the expense of, and often with a harmful impact on, others. Nor do they believe that it's necessary, so they set about to experiment with and model potential alternatives.

While endeavoring to be profitability conscious, big-vision entrepreneurs are not profit-ravenous like some of the business-traditionalist enterprises exemplified in the news headlines these past few years. Having decided clearly that profit-gluttony was not aligned with their values, they set about to define their own standards and experiment with business models that would allow the integration of their values and priorities in a way that sustains the enterprise, a priority aligned lifestyle, and their interest in contributing products, services, and ways of being and working that foster, not degrade, the public good.

Statistics and financial management.

Any small-business owner is familiar with the harrowing statistics, and big-vision enterprise owners are no different. From their own experience bumping up against those walls, big-vision business owners know only too well that most small businesses don't make it past the third year in business, much less the eight or ten or more years logged by most big-vision interviewees featured in Big Vision, Small Business.

And all of us would agree that sustaining your business through peak and valley cycles requires not just courage but also sound financial management over the long haul. Indeed, skillful, conscious financial management is key to using one's business as a vehicle for implementing the big vision in the world.

As veteran business owners, we also know that sound financial strategy doesn't guarantee relief from challenging down-cycles or unpleasant surprises. There are many times when external factors shock and stress all enterprises, whether big-vision or traditionalist, shaking even the best-laid plans and requiring investment during periods where nice profits seemed assured.

That's the real world experience of business ownership, not the sanitized, glam version you see celebrated in the glossy journals — which usually feature dazzlingly impressive snapshots during up-times. Follow most of these enterprises, if they survive their third birthday, and you'll see that most of their business journeys feature valleys as well as the more desirable (and fun) peaks.

Without an engaging vision and a hefty dose of inspiration, small-enterprise owners won't find the will or the way to the other side of the darkened valleys that are inevitable along the long-term business journey. These realities are reflected in the many real-world profiles shared in Big Vision, Small Business, in which business owners share not just the "glam" experiences, but the harsher ones as well. Look to most long-term small-enterprise veterans, and you'll likely find similar stories of perseverance and fortitude.

More vision and inspiration, please.

As I emphasize in my Introduction section in Big Vision, Small Business, my purpose wasn't to provide a tax-prep, business plan, financial management, or accounting how-to book — there are many excellent books that already exist on those important topics. In fact, that's what most business books are about.

I wrote Big Vision, Small Business to fill a gap that many enterprise owners told me existed (and that, as a business owner myself, I also saw) for real-world perspectives on what the experience of business ownership is like, particularly for those who endeavor to alter the traditional business model to reflect their spiritual, right-livelihood, or other key lifestyle priorities. I wanted to present the stories of people who were attempting to do just that, as well as help to raise the general awareness of the important contributions that micro-enterprises make to our economy and quality of life.

And since many of the big-vision business owners featured in the book have navigated a variety of start-up and economic-cycle peaks and valleys, they provide an inspiring example of what might be possible, as well as a real-world perspective that big-vision ownership, like business ownership of any kind, is not without its intense challenges and occasional failures.

Still, most have found a way to face and persevere despite such challenges, and celebrate yet another anniversary for one more year in business. The challenges of enterprise ownership and entrepreneurship are steep; the statistics are discouraging. Big-vision, small-enterprise owners say, if this is the case, let's make it as meaningful, rewarding, and learning-rich a journey — and contribution to others — as is possible.

In that way, Big Vision, Small Business is intended to be an ideal companion to the more linear, practical books — on topics like business accounting, preparing a business plan, or doing your taxes — that take up most of the shelf-space in the "Small Business" section of most book stores.

Added to the current roster of highly pragmatic collection of how-to books, Big Vision, Small Business offers one perspective — based on the experiences of many veteran big-vision business owners — of why to, as well as how to create and sustain an inspired enterprise that reflects your highest philosophical, spiritual, and lifestyle priorities and values. And how to create an enterprise that is worth the significant time, energy, challenge, and sacrifice that is part of the job description of the average enterprise owner and entrepreneur.