Being a business owner can be fun but there are no shortcuts to sustainable success. Every situation has something valuable to teach us. On the bright side, there’ll be successes and victories. And after each one, questions like ‘How do I replicate this?’, ‘How do we replicate this?’, ‘How do we sustain this trend?’ will be in focus. On the flip side, there’ll be failures, shortfalls and near catastrophes. After each (assuming your business survives), questions like ‘Why did this happen?’, ‘How could we have prevented this?’, ‘What can we do to guard against this in the future?’ will loom large.

It’s all part of the constant learning business owners must engage in if they want to succeed. Learning is a priority for all entrepreneurs and leaders, no matter the size of the establishments they run. As this writer for HBR points out, the CEO of a large multinational has just as much reason (if not more) to care about learning as a struggling entrepreneur.

There’s renewed emphasis on the importance of learning for entrepreneurs and working professionals. An HBR article links ’employability’ to ‘learnability’ which is “the capacity to keep learning and developing new skills and expertise, even if they are not obviously linked to one’s current job”. Writing for HBR’s Managing yourself column, Monique Valcour explains why Learning Agility is a vital skill and how it can be developed. Learning agility is “…the capacity for rapid, continuous learning from experience.”

And in my entrepreneurial article for The Evolve Issue, I also focus on some learning objectives entrepreneurs need to keep in mind as they position themselves for success.

The message is more or less the same wherever you look. How well and how quickly we are able to learn, unlearn and re-contextualize knowledge, will influence our ability to succeed at work and in business.

In many ways, starting small can be an immense advantage when it comes to learning. The agility and flexibility of small and micro businesses should facilitate learning for the entrepreneur and her team. Here are 5 ways starting small can help you learn quicker for business success.

– 1 –
>>>>>> It’s Easier to Experiment With New Knowledge

When it comes to business, the objective is not to enlarge our store of knowledge, however gratifying that may be. The objective is always to apply knowledge towards achieving a positive outcome. And oftentimes, it takes some work to discover how new knowledge should be implemented. Often, it is only through trial and error that the right / suitable way to implement new knowledge is found.

Small and micro enterprises can be ideal for this kind of experimentation. The scale and cost of trying out new things is relatively low and this can make it easier for entrepreneurs to learn.

– 2 –
>>>>>> The Cost of Experimental Mistakes are Relatively Low

Big businesses are often risk averse because of the potential cost, tangible and intangible, of mistakes. They can lose present and future profits, damage their brand irreparably and lose ground to competitors. It is a dynamic that favours a ‘business as usual’ approach where everyone is told to avoid ‘rocking the boat’.

For small and micro enterprises, the risk is much smaller and therefore, more manageable. This is true of knowledge limitations (when key knowledge is lacking in a business) as well as experimental mistakes. The manageability of risk within small businesses has favoured many entrepreneurs. It is an advantage that you can embrace as a means of growing your hands-on knowledge as an entrepreneur.

– 3 –
>>>>>> It is Relatively Easier to Course Correct

Big businesses tend to be limited by the very bureaucracies that keep them organized. Features of bureaucracies include: Chain of command (hierarchy), Unity of command (everyone reports to one boss), and Span of control (a manager is in charge of a limited number of people). These features are notorious for making big businesses slow to make decisions and generally less responsive than is desired.

While it is true that many big business today are structured to avoid the pitfalls of classic bureaucracies, it is generally accepted that the responsiveness and agility of a business tends to be inversely related to its size. This means that not only are decisions reached slowly, but mistakes in the implementation of knowledge often take longer to correct.

In contrast, small and micro enterprises are not only able to experiment with new knowledge, they can easily course correct whenever a mistake is identified. While small businesses may not always be able to identify mistakes early, they are quicker to effect corrections, and this can reduce the cost of mistakes significantly.

– 4 –
>>>>>> It is, in some ways, Easier to Make Time for Learning

I’m sure some will dispute this point based on studies in the US which show that employees at small businesses tend to do more work. I am inclined to agree that this trend also applies to small businesses here in Nigeria. Entrepreneurs have to stretch their resources to the limit and that often includes themselves and their employees.

That said, being a small business often means that the scale of operations, and demand for products and services are within manageable limits. Businesses such as HMJServices, which cater to niche markets with strong seasonal trends, will experience periods of relatively low activity. These periods are ideal for all kinds of learning.

Indeed, it is this very pattern of activity that enables people start small businesses while keeping their day jobs. Expanding to other markets or growing demand will become a priority once the entrepreneur decides to scale her startup. But till then, the small scale of operations and demand leave ample time for learning and experimentation, and that can be a very good thing.

– 5 –
>>>>>> It is Easier to Manage Knowledge Needs

Every entrepreneur or business manager has to do a SWOT test. If you’re familiar with this test, then you know it should facilitate sound planning. The general template of plans following a SWOT test is to align strengths with market opportunities, develop new strengths to leverage emerging opportunities, eliminate weaknesses where possible and defend/shield weaknesses which cannot be eliminated from external threats.

It is a balancing act that requires both sound prioritizing and attention to all moving parts (irrespective of where they lie on your scale of priorities.) Many weaknesses take the form of knowledge and skills gaps. Such gaps can be very costly in the world of big business where competitors often use hard tactics like espionage to discover and leverage each other’s weaknesses.

For SMEs, competition can be just as vicious, but the flow of information and scale of exposure is easier to manage. For instance, starting a beaded jewellery business does not require that you know each and every beading technique out there. By using smart product planning and managing the scale of operations deftly, you can exploit the beading skills you currently possess while learning other skills to propel the future growth of your business. In this way, the size and scale of SME operations can be an advantage when it comes to managing knowledge needs.