Quote
“Growth, as a business, isn't always a good thing.”— Paul Jarvis, in Company of One (2019) · Company of One →
Why it was said
Paul Jarvis opens Company of One with this sentence after twenty years of running a one-person design business and turning down every chance to become an agency. It is aimed at the assumption every other business book makes without stating it.
What it actually means
Growth has costs that do not appear on the spreadsheet: management, payroll, obligation, the loss of the reason you started. Jarvis is not against growing; he is against growing by default. The sentence asks the owner to treat each increase in size as a question with two answers, better or merely bigger, and to be willing to hear the second.
How to use it
- 1Before any hire, location or product line, write what it would cost you that you cannot see yet.
- 2Ask 'better or bigger?' and improve, price, systems, customers, before you expand.