October is Small Business Month: @MicrosoftCanada asked What's your #SmallBizSuperHero Super Power? @MSFT4Work_CA

October is Small Business Month. 

I regularly participate in Microsoft Canada's Twitter and MSFT for Work CA Twitter Wednesday Question, so when I saw this go by in my twitter feed it got me to thinking.

What super power did I think was essential for Small Business success? In my mind success includes going above and beyond for customers.

And since at Cathy Thinking Out Loud I like to share what I think, here is what I came up with:

The super power I see as vital for small business success is vision. I don't mean a vision for the business, although having a vision and plan for where you want to go is important. I am referring to sight and insight. You need a good pair of small business bi-focals! Not the old fashioned ones with a hard line dividing the your near/small and far/big vision. I mean a modern pair of no-line bifocals that allow the user to seamlessly move between and focus on both near/small and far/big picture.

Being able to see and respond to the big picture is vital to success in small business. You must stay current and understand the big picture; your market, industry, world trade agreements, world events, and how they impact your small business, and the industry as a whole. How will you stay up to date on this information for your small business to better compete and fit into the larger picture in an ever changing market? For example, how will an increase in gas prices due to world events impact your shipping costs, and your bottom line?   

As a small business owner it is vital that you are able to focus on the small picture, and the day to day details of running a business. You must have oversight, and insight into: hiring staff, inventory, suppliers, when and what to outsource, pricing product(s) or services, customer service, and your on-line presence to name a few. 

It does appear that you must indeed be a Super Hero to stay on top of all these aspects of running and owning a small business? How do you see both the forest and the individual trees? You would need 20/20 vision! How does a small business owner without 20/20 vision grow their business to it's full potential? Many of us aren't born with perfect vision, but if you "look" there are resources, tools, supports and prescriptions available to correct or improve your vision and bring the big picture and the small picture into focus and balance. 

Below you will find a few links to get you started on your quest for 20/20 vision for your small business and in your life:

• Have You Heard the Super Power Secret? via Leigh Mitchell - WIBN
• Small Business: Pricing 101: The Ultimate Guide to Pricing Your Product or Service via Staples Make More Happen Blog
• Aligning Business and Life via Jonathan Fields - The Art Of
• Not Accomplishing Enough? Narrow Your Focus via YouInc.com
• How to Keep your business Safe in the cloud via Claudia Salguero - Telus Neighbourhood - Business Blog
• Six tips to avoid BYOD disaster via Ann Newman- Dell World
• Various articles and posts about small business via Microsoft- For Your Business

Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about #smallbizsuperhero powers.

Note: I was not compensated in any way for this post. The purpose of this post was merely to share my opinion and some resources I thought might be of interest to my readers.