Peter Pan, hidden Peter Pan, and hidden pseudo-Peter Pan Do you REALY want to grow your business?

By Amos Beer 

In my journeys as a mentor in Neverland I have come across various types of business owners:

• The genuine Peter Pan: small business owners, mostly solopreneurs, or them and an assistant that just love what they do and never want to grow.
• The hidden Peter Pan: those who say (and may even think) that they want to grow, mostly because they (or people around them) think it’s the “right” thing to do but deep down inside don’t really want to grow. The reason for this reluctance to grow can be that they actually like to run a small business.
• The hidden pseudo-Peter Pan: they say they want to grow, take action, but do it wrong. This may be due to fear of losing control, reluctance to be overwhelmed with work, or simply because they don’t know how to do it.
• Those that left Neverland: business owners who genuinely want to grow in spite of the difficulties that are associated with it.

The first challenge is to identify which of the above types is the business owner. It can be done by active listening techniques and usually not that difficult to do.

A genuine Peter Pan is usually easier to support. They already know they feel comfortable with their business size as it as and may need practical support in daily issues like managing cash-flow, sales and marketing, pricing, etc.

A hidden Peter Pan is a bit trickier because first you need to uncover their true desires and then find ways to make them realise that it is OK to not want to grow and that they need to pursue their dreams and not other people’s expectations of them. Only then you can proceed to dealing with the practical part that would not be very different from a genuine Peter Pan.

A hidden pseudo-Peter Pan is the hardest of them all. First you need to make them realise the gap between what they say and what they do, which is usually the reason for their failure to grow. This is not easy because a camel cannot see its own hump, so some psychological physiotherapy is needed. Only once they understand this be-do gap you can move on to helping them. Because in this case growth is the ultimate outcome the process needs to include some sort of strategic planning, on top of practical support with common business management issues.

Those that left Neverland are easier to deal with. They know they want to grow and really do; they understand they need help with it and are open to get it. This doesn’t mean that it is going to be a smooth ride – knowing you have a problem and actually solving it are two different things but in any case it is easier than with someone who does not even acknowledge the problem like a hidden pseudo-Peter Pan. Here as well a strategic growth process can make the result more attainable.

So what are your growth wishes?