Small business owners should feel empowered to know that it doesn’t matter how big or small their wins are – they are all worth celebrating. Photo / 123rf
Small business owners should feel empowered to know that it doesn’t matter how big or small their wins are – they are all worth celebrating. Photo / 123rf
THE FACTS
Small businesses make up 97% of all businesses and are crucial to the economy.
Xero research shows 34% of Kiwi owners don’t celebrate successes, often focusing on the next goal.
Celebrating achievements can boost performance, morale, and wellbeing, despite challenging economic conditions.
It’s no secret it can be a tough gig being a small business owner. Despite half of all businesses failing within their first four years in Aotearoa New Zealand, small businesses are a significant and vital part of our economy – accounting for 97% of all businesses here.
When they win, we all win.
And yet, you’re more likely to hear about small businesses when something’s gone wrong or if they fail. You only need to look at the headlines in recent months to see the attention on businesses going into liquidation.
Take Michelle Dickinson and her business NanoGirl Labs, a brilliant initiative built by one of New Zealand’s sharpest minds. It helped inspire the next generation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
But when things got tough for the business, the story was about the amount of debt owing, not the incredible impact that had been delivered, or the ambition which drove the business.
Michelle Dickinson's business helped inspire the next generation in STEM. Photo / NZ Herald
Could this be our ugly Tall Poppy Syndrome that discourages success and ambition?
Newly released global Xero research into small business owners’ approaches to celebrating success suggests it might be holding us back.
The research found Kiwis are the most likely to say it’s not in their nature to celebrate (34%) and that they’re always thinking about the next goal (32%). This is distinctive from other countries, where the primary reason globally for not celebrating is because the idea had simply been overlooked (53%). Almost a fifth of Kiwi business owners don’t celebrate any wins at all.
How can we change that? How do we empower small business owners with the confidence to ensure the milestones they hit, the moments they’ve felt they have “made it”, are given the attention they deserve?
By their own admission, business owners know it’s good to celebrate – acknowledging in the same research that it would positively impact business performance, boost employee morale and improve wellbeing – to name a few.
More than that, those moments worth celebrating are not easily achieved and our economic climate isn’t helping. Nearly half (49%) of respondents said that macroeconomic conditions had some impact on them achieving goals, while 37% indicated the impact was big.
It makes it all the more important to celebrate success when it comes around – in whatever form that may be.
One of the things I love hearing from owners is how highly personal those measures of success are. Whether it is seeing their product “out in the wild” for the first time, being booked out, or receiving a great review. These moments are meaningful, motivating, and crucial to recognise if we want to sustain a thriving small business economy.
Small business owners should feel empowered to know that it doesn’t matter how big or small their wins are – they are all worth cherishing and celebrating.
If you are part of our vital small business economy, please know that you are valued. Forget Tall Poppy Syndrome. We need entrepreneurs and business owners who dream big, work hard, and celebrate the wins along the way.
