Yet often the first marketing act by new business owners is to put up a sign like this one.

Why?

If I liked the business before you got there, now I’m worried that it won’t be nearly as good.

If I didn’t like it, a sign announcing your arrival won’t encourage me to try again. I’ve already moved on, remember?

Here’s a better idea: forget the sign. Tell me a new story instead.

I wrote this last year for Shawn Murphy’s Wake Up & Shake It Up series. The article is now part of an e-book from Achieved Strategies.

Here’s what it takes to create a business of value:

Think big; act small.

This is the best business strategy that I know. Sound easy? I’m sure it does. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Thinking big means aiming high. It means making a decision about what you believe in and what you will relentlessly pursue. Big thinkers understand that they must constantly innovate, not just because they think they can change the world (which they often do), but also because if they don’t the world will change them.

But thinking big is only part of the equation – the key to the solution is to act small. The alternative (acting big) is a recipe for disaster, and every year companies of all sizes make this mistake and ultimately fail (big).

The difference between big and small:

• Acting big means trying to be all things to all people; acting small means you stand for something and dominate a niche.
• Acting big means ignoring customers; acting small means that you are always close to the customer, regardless of your level in the organization.
• Acting big means that senior executives generate ideas without input from anyone else; companies that act small execute grassroots ideas from employees.
• Acting big means that you advertise as much as possible; acting small means finding alternative ways to connect like-minded customers to one another.
• Acting big means making decisions based upon ego and perception; acting small means you make decisions solely based upon what is best for the performance of the company.

Companies that think big and act small are hungry and have an insatiable desire to perform. It’s incredibly difficult to maintain this state of mind, which might explain why it’s so uncommon.

Then again, great leadership isn’t very common either. The same goes for great success.

It’s not a coincidence.

Do you handle change well?

When was the last time you pushed a project to an unexplored edge?

It’s easy to resist the thing that scares you. And it’s easy to be afraid of the idea, change or edge that you don’t understand.

No one cares about a blog if someone isn’t blogging. I haven’t done that in quite a while, which has turned this site into an inanimate object (for now).

It’s no different with anything else. Do you care about fish? Paint? Bicycles?

I’m fairly certain that my friend Mike doesn’t care about fish, but he loves fishing. Just like others have a passion for painting or bicycling.

My challenge – and yours – is to clean up grammar. To change what we do from a noun to a verb.

Do that, and people will care.

Belief in the mission matters. Do you believe in yours?

“No…” I smiled, wondering if she would persist.

“Would you like to become one?”

“Not really.” Then, of course, I got curious. “How many people say yes?”

“Almost no one,” she said. “But I’m supposed to ask.”

No surprise there. Loyalty programs, once something of a novelty, don’t actually work. Consumers are smart enough to know that they’ll wind up with too much SPAM and a weekly newsletter they don’t want to read. Yet companies love to push them.

Here’s the tip: real customer loyalty has nothing to do with a program. If the experience or product is great (think The Apple Store), then we’re in. That’s it – no discounts, freebies or plastic cards necessary.

Especially those placed on the lives you’ve touched.

If you can explain why we do what we do in fewer words, you win.

Shawn (@shawmu on Twitter) just launched the Wake Up and Shake It Up blog series. Need a push to think bigger than you have before? Here it is.

The first post, Big versus Small, went live this morning. I think you know the author – check it out.

“Yes, I’d like to ship that for you, but you can’t use that box.”

“That’s a good idea. I’d like to say yes, but this isn’t the time to try something different.”

Somewhere along the line, people were conditioned to say no. What would happen if everyone in the company had to look for a reason to say yes?

A company’s story can’t be about convenience, low-cost, premium-value, and great selection.

A politician can’t talk about lowering taxes, increasing services, attacking bureaucracy, and reducing the deficit.

A Little League coach can’t preach health and fitness to his team and then sneak a cigarette while the kids are running laps.

I realize that it’s hard to take a stand, to tell people what they don’t want to hear. But it does no good to change your story to suit your audience. Sooner or later people will figure out that you don’t stand for anything at all, which means you’ll be gone tomorrow.