Often small businesses do not consider operating in the same mode as large corporations with divisions like accounting, operations, or human resources. Indeed, exactly replicating division may not even be possible due to size constraints. Many small businesses consider such ideas as being top heavy and unnecessary. Yet, they deal in these very categories daily. An entrepreneur may be human resources, accounting, management, operations, and maintenance all in the same day. By beginning to think big, a business can grow larger.
One of the most over-looked categories small businesses miss is operations. Business operations is the what a business does. And the main reason it is over-looked is that it is so obvious. It is taken for granted. An entrepreneur is so often focused on bookkeeping or marketing, some new aspect to their business that they forget about the core business. They do not even think about what they do as a business. Yet, if a small business would continually look at how they do business, there could be cost savings and efficiencies that boost their bottom line. Looking at new suppliers or how they do what they do could mean more net profit to the owners. Something as simple as looking at how someone in the trades makes service calls could help a small business save money by being more efficient. Or it could mean more billable calls in a day and therefore more gross profit.
Another thing a small business could learn from large business is to mimic its divisions. Indeed, when starting out an entrepreneur has to wear many hats, but as he or she matures as a business owner they can begin to delegate. Entrepreneurs should start to outsource as much as possible what could be done by others. Large companies have enough business and revenue to hire entire departments dedicated to those roles. Fortunately, small business have other small businesses that can do much of the same thing. Things like payroll, marketing, bookkeeping, administration, etc. can all be outsourced to other small businesses. This can help a small business owner stay focused on their core business.
When it is time for a small business to grow, one should consider growing its core business. Again as an example, if a business was in the trades, it should hire more tradesmen and buy more trucks to make service calls. This is opposed to hiring more support staff to do the peripheral duties. Those duties can be done by outsourcing. Only when the outsourcing costs far outstrip hiring a full-time person to do them, should one consider bringing them in-house.
There is a big difference how small and large businesses do business. Still, there is much they could learn from each other. And for the small business learning from large business it could translate into growth in size and profits.