Big Bets are Overrated

“Go big or go home” makes for a rousing slogan. But it also makes for a failed business most of the time.

Big bets have their place in business, but let us not forget such bets usually go away as a firm gets larger. There’s a reason for this.

A cautious approach is not just because a large firm is less nimble. It is also because big leaps are unnecessarily dangerous in most cases. They are a form of desperation. Companies such as Apple introduce new product lines all the time that change the world, but these are not usually “big bets” as much as small bets calibrated to make a huge splash over time.

A big idea can launch a small firm into success, but let’s not forget that far more small businesses fail than larger, more established counterparts. That’s partially a measure of the fundamentally more rational approach of the larger business. The big firm doesn’t have to take big bets. It isn’t desperate.

So forget the big play that will shake up the industry and change everything. Instead learn from the cloud services revolution by focusing instead on iteration, the small but constant changes that lead to big wins over time.

“It is much safer and ultimately more effective to make a small decision, examine its result, and learn what you can from it. Then make another decision based on that outcome,” wrote Barry Moltz recently on the Nextiva blog. “Think of each small decision as another piece of completing a puzzle. Never pin the future of a company on one decision, action, or resource.”

Nextiva offers business cloud communications solutions, which actually is a good example of the type of small adjustments that pay off far better than the big but risky big plays.

Adopting cloud-based telecommunications is anything but a big leap, because it requires almost no infrastructure investment and can be turned on or off at a moment’s notice thanks to its nature as a cloud-based service. It saves a business money instead of costing it more.

Yet, the relatively small adjustment of moving from an analogue carrier to something like hosted phone service can make a large difference in operations.

Hosted business phone solutions use voice-over-IP (VoIP), which instantly makes a business fundamentally mobile because office phone calls can start in the office but then forward to a smartphone or a home office phone.

One of the benefits of VoIP also is that it delivers added features, usually at no cost. These can include integration with CRM systems and services such as automated voice response (IVR).

Hosted phone solutions also cost less, since they transmit calls through the Internet. For most plans, unlimited national calling is offered for one low flat fee, and international calls are also cheaper because the majority of the call travels over the Internet and it only needs to connect back up with the traditional phone network during the last mile, so to speak.

It is the small but meaningful changes such as switching to a hosted phone provider that deliver the real results without having to put a business on the line.

As a wise tortoise once taught us, slow and steady wins the race.

Edited by Alisen Downey