Intentionally small

Following on from yesterday’s humble-rant on cautious growth, some books have been written by pretty smart and cool people, who actually have data to support the choice to stay “small” in business.

These are some favourites I struggled to rank.

Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham. A set of stories about companies who chose to control limit their growth in favour of things like maintaining company culture or deepening customer relationships. The companies are still huge compared to us solo operators, but it’s a very refreshing take on “growth”.

Small Data: Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends by Martin Lindstrom. Serious page turner about how observing subtle, often overlooked clues in people’s daily lives – like what they keep on their fridge or in their bedside drawer – can uncover insights about their desires and behaviours. It’s not about staying small in business exactly – more a way of thinking about gathering useful data for folks like us who may not have massive datasets to gain insights from.

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug. It has nothing to do with staying small, but it’s so broadly beneficial to just about anyone that I’ll find a way to include it in a book list. The title calls out web usability, but it’s a handbook for simplifying a lot more than that. Minimising cognitive load for users (or customers), making their next-steps obvious, not hiding important information where it can’t be found – it’s absolute must-read stuff for designers, but really anyone who’s selling anything will get very practical advice from this book. And it’s short.

Happy reading 🙂