Power of small businesses: You are not a drop in the stormy economic ocean

“You are not a drop in the ocean, you are an ocean in a drop” advised Rumi, almost 800 years ago. How does one leverage the advantage of being tiny? Is it possible to think differently about the problem of being like a water droplet?

Not more, but less exceptionally well: For some, small businesses in Kenya may seem like a drop in the stormy economic ocean. Operating from a position of a perceived disadvantage — limited capital, thin margins and intense competition.

Read: Empowering SMEs: Strategic savings role in unlocking growth

For the struggling owners, the default response is predictable: expand offerings, chase more customers and compete on price. But this often does not work. The result is a business that is busy, but not valuable. Remember business, whether big or small is all about – creating and capturing value.

Rumi’s idea – ‘that you are not a drop in the ocean, but an ocean in a drop’ -- offers a more useful perspective. For small business, it points to a simple but uncomfortable truth: value is not created by doing more, but by doing fewer things, exceptionally well.

Shift from activity to outcomes

Most SME sell effort — hours, products or services. Yet customers do not pay for effort. They pay for results. People buy a product on how the purchase will make them feel. For instance, a tiny accounting firm that ‘keeps books’ competes on price. One that ‘improves cash flow visibility within 60 days’ competes on impact. The shift is subtle, but decisive.

There is a strong temptation, especially in uncertain markets, to diversify early. Multiple services feel like multiple income streams. But in practice, they dilute capability. High-performing SME take the opposite route. They identify a narrow, high-value problem and solve it deeply. Over time, this creates expertise, reputation and pricing power. In crowded markets, clarity beats variety.

Leverage what already exists

Growth does not always require building from scratch. Often, it requires positioning yourself within existing ecosystems. Don’t think about how to, for instance, access a market, or deliver a product across the country.

Look for a partner who is already doing this, and think about how you can work with them. Somehow we have an instinct to want to grow bigger. But size, on its own, is not an astute business model. More useful ambition is to become more precise, relevant and effective.

That is what it means to be an ‘ocean in a drop’ not small, but concentrated. For the SME willing to adopt this mindset, the path forward is not to out spend or out scale competitors. Aim is to out focus them.

Growing up in rural Laikipia, when Kelvin Mwangi joined St Paul’s University in September 2021 studying computer science, he became mesmerised by the green rolling hills of Tigoni.

Question was how could one create a viable small business, leveraging his ICT skills and the joy and freedom of riding a bicycle? Result was Tigoni e-bike tours, started in September 2024, combining a stunning two hour ride through the ‘50 shades of green’ tea fields with a refreshing break at the upmarket Fig & Olive restaurant.

Just listen

We all have our limiting beliefs – about what is possible in business. Researchers tell us our brains ancient default mode is survival, always looking out for predators on the African savannah. We tend to focus on the negative.

Often our normal way of thinking is limiting beliefs, spotting problems, leading to confusion, questions and a sense of fear.

Read: Nurturing success: Factors that sustain profitable ventures

Somehow one has to spot those limiting beliefs, and think of them like a line of error prone software, that needs to be replaced. Or, like an algorithm, that just isn’t giving the right results, that needs to be deleted and upgraded.

“What you think, you become” is what sages have said for millennia. It’s not about what you think, it’s all about how you think. Reach out, question fundamental assumptions, learn. Resources are all there for bordering on free, YouTube is a virtual worldclass business school.

In our contemplation, we always think it’s the other person that has to change, shift their position. But perhaps the starting point is within, as Rumi mentions.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

Get a mentor, get a coach who has faced the problems you are going through. Reach out.

Listen to an entrepreneur speak when they are in talkative frame of mind, like someone talks after drinking two or three glasses of wine. They will open up and tell you how they see the business world, giving one a sense of what is possible and what is not.

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