Company Of One Quotes

“In saying no to anything that doesn’t fit, you leave room to say yes to those rare opportunities that do fit—opportunities that align with the values and ideas of your business.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“From an evolutionary point of view it is explainable why we wanted to gather more and more: with more food, more water, more protection against predators, we may be less likely to die. But today, growth feeds our ego and social standing.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Whereas workers in 'doing' roles can be replaced by robots or even by other workers, the role of creatively solving difficult problems is more dependent on an irreplaceable individual.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“When you focus on solving problems or on making a difference, passion may follow, because you’re actually involved in the work you’re doing instead of just dreaming that you might be passionate about something.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business

“With all this “Work for yourself! It’s better than whatever you’re doing now!” messaging out there, people often end up falling in love with the idea of working for themselves without understanding the actual day-to-day work required to be their own boss. Or as Austin Kleon cleverly puts it, “People want to be the noun without doing the verb.” They want the job title of founder or CEO, or a business card and a fancy website with a new logo, but they forget or overlook the daily rigors of running a business of their own. Having a brilliant idea or a passion to build a successful business is not enough. Ideas and dreams are nice, but they’re also cheap and meaningless if you don’t take action and do the work to make them happen.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“There’s nothing wrong with finding the right size and then focusing on being better. Small can be a long-term plan, not just a stepping-stone.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“He believes that companies need to focus on becoming better instead of simply growing bigger.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Instead of imagining “if only this changed, I could thrive,” they have a down-to-earth view that most of what happens in our lives is not entirely within our control and the best we can do is to steer the boat a little as we float down the river of life.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Your purpose is the lens through which you filter all your business decisions, from the tiny to the monumental. We’re talking about who you work with, what you offer, where you focus your time and energy, and even how you define your audience. Determining the unique purpose that underpins your company of one isn’t always a quick or easy process, and there’s no spreadsheet that can crunch some numbers and spit out the answer. Figuring out your purpose requires actual reflection on both your own desires and the audience you want to serve. After all, doing business boils down to serving others in a mutually beneficial way. Customers give you money, gratitude, and a shared passion, and you address their problems by applying your unique skills and knowledge to what you sell them.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Every business, theoretically is a lifestyle business, in that each represents your choice of how you want to live. If you want to work in the fast-paced corporate world, you have to accept that your life will have little room for something else. If you choose the growth-focused venture capital world, you have to accept being beholden to two groups of people: investors and customers (and what each wants could be vastly different). And if you work in a company where enough profit is acceptable, then your lifestyle can be optimized for more than just growing profit.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“three aspects of trust: confidence (“I believe what you say”), competence (“I believe you have the skills to do what you say”), and benevolence (“I believe you’re acting on my behalf”).”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“not all growth is beneficial,”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Polarization can shorten a sales cycle because it forces customers into a quicker binary choice, to decided yes or no. After all, it’s hard to make money from maybes.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“the company had to totally shift its thinking—from constantly searching for new customers to making sure existing customers were so pleased with the service that they’d renew for another year.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“More is generally the easiest answer, but not the smartest.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Growth isn't always the most beneficial or financially viable move.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“To achieve autonomy as a company of one, you have to be a master at your core skill set.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“The more you understand your customers — their needs, wants, motivations, and desires — the more you can feel with them and the better you can serve them. This kind of customer service is more than just the lip-service corporate speak of “you matter to us.” This is customer service that takes specific actions and puts strategies into place that begin with listening and move toward understanding.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Today’s second wave of customer service as practiced by some organizations — and it should be the customer service delivered by all companies of one — focuses on emotion and ease. A study from McKinsey showed that 70 percent of buying experiences are based more on how customers feel they are treated and less on the tangibles of a product. The feeling of being treated exceptionally well can only increase in the context of a second purchase or a subscription renewal, because the customer has already developed a feeling about how the first purchase went or how any support requests were handled.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Guy Kawasaki, the well-known marketing specialist and venture capitalist, also thinks that we shouldn’t be afraid of polarization. Large companies search for the “Holy Grail” of products that appeal to every demographic, socioeconomic background, and geographical location, but this “one size fits all” approach rarely works and often leads to mediocrity (and vanilla ice cream). Instead, Kawasaki believes, we should create products that make specifically identified groups of people very happy and ignore everyone else. The worst-case scenario is inciting no passionate reactions from anyone — no one caring enough about a product to talk about it at all, either positively or negatively.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business

“What happens if you build your business without ever thinking about your purpose? What if you’d rather focus exclusively on acquisition and higher profits? Those activities can definitely seem more rewarding. But the more we busy ourselves with work and fail to consider why we’re doing it in the first place, the more likely we are to realize (often far too late) that we’re not enjoying what we’ve worked so hard to build.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business

“You need to know how and why people make decisions about your products or services. What leads them to buy what you create? What makes them hesitate? Where do they place value in their lives? If they do buy from you, what is considered a win for them? Where does churn happen in your business and why? Understanding these key factors can make you a better leader, a better salesperson, and a better marketer.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business

“truth is, you don’t need Super Bowl ads. Instead, as a company of one, you can be more effective by writing guest articles for websites and blogs, creating incentive programs for existing clients, or appearing in podcasts that cover your industry.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“If you don’t think it’s possible to do better, or you don’t care if it is, there’s no point doing your own thing. In that case, it’s fine to work for someone else—they’re already established and have people handling the jobs you probably don’t want to be doing anyway.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Alex Beauchamp, former head of content at Airbnb, said that she never wants any content she works on to “go viral.” She doesn’t want to ever be on the hook for making that happen. Moreover, going viral is often what happens with a business that, not understanding who its intended audience is, tries to appeal to pretty much everyone. If you want a piece of content for your business to generate a billion views, you probably don’t understand the purpose of that content or whom it was really created for. Engagement and connection with your niche are more important and far less costly to generate.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“The gist is this: you can pursue any passion you want, but you shouldn’t feel entitled to make money off it. Passion in work comes from first crafting a valuable skill set and mastering your work. This is great news, because it means you no longer have to beat yourself up for not finding your true, hidden passions. Instead, you can simply get to work.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“The tired business advice that we should all “follow our passion” implies that we are entitled to getting paid to do work that is always enjoyable.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“People sometimes tend to focus on the wrong things when starting a business, like office space, scaling, websites, business cards, computers. You can add expenses or bigger ideas later, once revenue is coming in. But if your idea requires a lot of money, time, or resources to start, you’re probably thinking too big too soon. Scale it down to what can be done right now, on the cheap and fast, and then iterated upon.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“Envy is hard to manage, as it’s a socially unacceptable emotion, even though it’s something most people feel. Envy also takes the focus off your work, your business, and your customers. When we give in to envious feelings, the best we can hope for is second best, since we’re focused on copying someone else’s path and not forging our own.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

“When you feel like you have to start out competing with the largest player in the market, you end up chasing your competitor’s growth instead of bettering your own offering.”
― Paul Jarvis, Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business