$11.75 trillion.
That's how much revenue flows through businesses like ours every year in the United States.¹ If that number was a country, it would be the third-largest economy on earth. Behind only the US and China. Larger than Japan. Larger than Germany. Larger than the United Kingdom.²
We call this "small."
The Label Nobody Questions
There are 34.7 million businesses in the US that get classified as "small."³ Together, they employ 59 million Americans, nearly half the private sector workforce.⁴ They've created 20.2 million net new jobs since 1995, representing 61% of all job creation in the country.⁵ They generate 43.5% of GDP.⁶
Read those numbers again. Then ask yourself what exactly is "small" about that.
The term "small business" has been repeated so often that we've stopped questioning it. We say it about ourselves without thinking. We accept it as identity. And that acceptance shapes everything that comes after.
Labels Don't Just Describe. They Prescribe.
Sociologists have studied this phenomenon for decades. It's called labeling theory.⁷ The core finding is simple but profound. The terms used to describe people influence their behavior and self-identity.
Charles Cooley called it the "looking-glass self." We form our identities like reflections in a mirror, based on how we think others see us.⁸ When the world calls us "small," we start seeing ourselves that way.
Labels create self-fulfilling prophecies.⁹ Accept the label, and we behave in ways that confirm it. "Small" becomes our ceiling, not our starting point.
Here's where it gets real. You walk into a bank or lender looking for financing. They tell you no. "Your revenue isn't high enough." "Your market is too small." "You don't have enough locations." You hear "you're too small" enough times, and something shifts. You start believing it. You carry that rejection into your next conversation, your next negotiation, your next decision. The label gets internalized. It becomes part of how you see yourself and your business.
Research on entrepreneurial failure shows this pattern clearly. The psychological impacts of rejection and setback include depression, self-doubt, and what researchers call "stigma."¹⁰ Entrepreneurs who internalize these experiences often approach future opportunities with diminished confidence and lowered expectations.¹¹ The label sticks.
But here's what's worth remembering. Every big business started exactly where you are.
Mailchimp began as a side project while the founders ran a web design business. No venture capital. They reinvested profits and grew for 20 years until Intuit acquired them for $12 billion.¹² Spanx started with $5,000 in personal savings. Sara Blakely handled everything herself, from product design to patent writing to pitching department stores directly. She never took outside investment and built a billion-dollar company.¹³ Oliver Cookson dropped out of school at 16, couldn't get a bank loan, extended his overdraft by £500, bought protein powder in bulk, and built a basic website. He sold MyProtein for £58 million.¹⁴
What separated them from the millions of other businesses that stayed "small"? It wasn't resources. It wasn't connections. It was refusing to accept the limitations that label implied.
What "Thinking Small" Actually Looks Like
This isn't abstract theory. I see this pattern in our industry constantly.
Accepting payment processing fees without pushback. Owner/operators paying 4% because they walked into the conversation thinking they were "just one store." They don't negotiate. They don't shop around aggressively. They accept terms that larger businesses would never tolerate.
Not raising prices when costs go up. Utility costs rise. Labor costs rise. Supply costs rise. But prices stay flat because "my clients won't pay more," without actually testing it. That's scarcity thinking. That's the "small" label doing its work.
Discounting yourself with landlords. Even on your first lease negotiation, you bring something to the table. You have a business to operate there. You have the economic means to pay rent. The landlord wants to fill that space. You're offering to fill it. That's value. You have a position. You have power. But owner/operators walk in already defeated, thinking they have nothing to offer because they're "just a small business." So they accept whatever terms are given instead of negotiating from a place of worth.
Not investing in your brand presence. This doesn't mean spending thousands a month like a Fortune 500 company. It means thinking bigger about how you present yourself. Curb appeal. Window signage. Your outdoor signage. Your website. Marketing materials in the store. The lettering and signage inside. Even the stickers on your machines. The monitors displaying messaging. Make them all cohesive. Make them represent something. Think big with your brand, even when your budget is modest.
Not investing in training your team. Maybe you can't afford expensive programs. But you can take time to work with your people. You can send them free courses on Coursera or LinkedIn Learning. You can share customer service videos from YouTube. You can reach out to your distributor or manufacturer for their training resources. You can run 40-minute Zoom sessions to build skills. Businesses that think "big" invest in their people, regardless of size.
In each case, the limitation isn't external. It's internal. It's the label, accepted and internalized, quietly shrinking what feels possible.
The Mindset Shift
For most of my life, I operated with a common industry mindset. Your store should be within 15 to 30 minutes of where you live. Easy to get to if something goes wrong. I understand the logic, especially for someone new to business ownership. Growing up with my dad, all of our businesses were within 15 minutes of where I lived.
But think about what that mentality trains you to believe. "If something breaks, I need to be there." Not "if something breaks, I have a person who can handle it." Not "I have documentation so clear that anyone on my team can solve it." Not "I've built systems that don't require me."
One of our current projects is an hour away from me. Another is eight hours away. That's a different mindset entirely.
How do franchise owners have locations across multiple states? They don't have superpowers. They have systems. And they started with the belief that it could be done.
The shift isn't about geography. It's about refusing to let "small" define the boundaries of what's possible.
The Reframe
Here's what I want you to consider. Drop the qualifier.
You're not a small business. You're a business. Period.
The word "small" is the problem, not the absence of a better label. You don't need a new term. You need to stop accepting one that limits you.
The leverage exists. The economic power is real. $11.75 trillion worth of it. The question is whether we'll ever stop thinking of ourselves as "small" long enough to use it.
Thinking about the thinking of laundry:
When you realize the word "small" has been doing more to limit your business than any competitor ever could.
Notice how often you use the phrase "small business" about yourself, out loud or in your head. Pay attention to the moments when that label shapes a decision. What you accept. What you don't push back on. What you assume is "for bigger companies."
The label only has power if you keep giving it power.
That's all I got for you today.
Waleed
P.S. I've been thinking about what happens when owner/operators stop operating in isolation. If that idea interests you, reach out.
Echoing the thoughts of David Ogilvy.
The way we define ourselves is the way we will be treated.
Footnotes:
¹ Small Business Revenue Data - Census Bureau, 2022
² GDP by Country - World Bank, 2024
³ Small Business Statistics - SBA Office of Advocacy, 2024
⁴ Private Sector Employment - SBA, 2024
⁵ Job Creation Statistics - SBA, 2024
⁶ Small Business GDP Contribution - SBA, 2024
⁷ Labeling Theory - Simply Psychology
⁸ Looking-Glass Self - Charles Cooley
⁹ Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Research - Psychology Spot
¹⁰ Psychological Impact of Entrepreneurial Failure - Frontiers in Psychology
¹¹ Learning from Entrepreneurial Failure - ResearchGate
¹² Mailchimp Bootstrapped Success - TechCrunch
¹³ Spanx Bootstrapped Story - Entrepreneur
¹⁴ MyProtein Bootstrapped Story - Secret Leaders
