I have worked for a huge company, a tiny company, and some in-between and working for a small company has advantages and disadvantages. We’ll explore 10 advantages for working at a small company. Small is a relative term and in this case it can be thought of as 50 or fewer employees.
10. Not just stuck in a cubicle - At a small company you simply cannot show up for work, sit in your cubicle, focus on just your tasks and be very successful. It requires collaboration and communication with other teams within the company. Some people are scared of this interaction and would rather camp in their cubicles until the clock strikes 5:00 PM. If so, do not go to work for a small company.
9. More exposure to various area of the company - Even if you do not have direct input or collaboration to each area of a company you will have the opportunity to learn things from each area including HR, Sales, Marketing, Support, etc. Often, you will even be able to contribute to some extent to each area of the company.
8. Common goals among team members - In a small company everyone is dedicated to making the company successful. You are not likely to meet someone who is just trying to skate through to retirement. Each employee cares about the success of the company and is willing to work hard to keep it successful.
7. Not as much “red tape” (Agile) - When I worked for a large company (125,000+ employees) it never ceased to amaze me how slow we were to respond to requests that were out of the ordinary. We often lost business as paperwork would get stalled with the Legal department. A small company is much faster to respond and to adapt to a customer’s need or to the marketplace demands. A small company has to remain agile to be competitive.
6. Greater trust and freedom - The owners of a small company have to be more careful to hire trustworthy employees and as such managers within small companies tend to take a “hands-off” approach to management as they trust that they have hired a competent employee. The most important characteristic to look for when hiring someone is character. Skills can be taught but character is something that cannot be taught by managers. Small companies need to trust their employees or else they will spend too much time micromanaging their employees. This gives each employee the ability to make decisions.
5. Ability to influence policy- Many small companies do not have policies laid in stone due to the fact that they must be agile and ever adapting to the market place and as such do not have many policies worked out. Some small companies do not even have formal PTO policies but rather everyone works as much as they can and when things slow down they may take some time off. At a small company, you have the privilege of helping to establish policies. If your small company begins to grow you will need policies in place before you get too big or you will have management nightmares trying to make sure everything and everyone is able to work together using the proper tools and procedures.
4. Greater opportunity to expand skills - When working for a small company you often have to contribute in a variety or roles and areas of the company. For example, you may be involved with sales in some fashion even if you are a Software Developer. That may mean that you assist in pre-sales support by facilitating demos of your software to potential clients. You may have the opportunity to develop your marketing skills somewhat as often times a small company will not have a formal marketing department. You have the ability to bring your talents to the company and also develop many other abilities and talents.
3. More responsibility for success of company- When I worked for a very large company it was frustrating to realize that no matter how great I did at my job the company was still the same. On the contrary, I could have done a horrible job and still not had a significant impact on the success of the company. At a small company a tremendous amount of responsibility rests on each employee for the success or failure of the entire company. Some people shy away from this pressure and if so, small companies are not for them. Large companies provide safe havens for people who like to push buttons and not be responsible for anything critical.
2. You matter - Not only do you matter in the sense that you have a tremendous amount of pressure on you for the future of the company but you also matter as an individual. You are not just an employee ID; you are a person with a name and a face and a family. The small company culture resembles family.
1. No golden parachutes nor million dollar bonuses from federal bailout money - No need to worry that your fearless leader is going to be given millions of dollars for failing at their job.
Any company of any size will benefit by implementing these approaches to their environment. The most important principle is to treat employees as individuals, no matter the size of the company.
For a different point of view, see Top 10 Reasons Not To Work For A Small Company.
