Soft sell

Entrepreneur, Sept, 1998 by Mark Henricks

Hartrich's strategy is a common one, says Joyce Gioia, president of The Herman Group, a management and marketing consulting firm in Greensboro, North Carolina. "They limit growth because that's what they're comfortable with," Gioia says.

Hartrich agrees. "If I had employees, I would double my administrative time without doubling my income," she says. "I'm very happy with my income, and I don't want more money [if it means] less freedom."

RELATED ARTICLE: By The Numbers

Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) surveyed 500 small-business owners and senior executives for its second-quarter 1998 Small Business Hot Topics Research Report on marketing practices. The businesses were selected randomly from D&B's global database of companies.

More than half the firms surveyed had one to five employees; the balance of the firms split into three groups-those with six to 25 employees, 26 to 100 employees and 101 to 500 employees - each representing about 16 percent of the total.

Surveyed firms were located throughout the country. About 45 percent were female-owned, and 25 percent were minority-owned, with "other" being the largest non-Caucasian ethnic group named as owner.