Part of the journey of small business ownership sometimes involves letting go, branching out into new areas and trying out new things.

This could be letting go of areas of responsibility as your business grows, letting go of expectations as you respond to customer demands, or letting go of previously held beliefs that are holding you back.

While changing and rethinking how you work can be exciting and fulfilling it can also be a source of stress and uncertainty. So how do you navigate these changes when your heart is telling you one thing, and your head another?

In this episode we’re bringing you stories about letting go, taking that leap and moving forward.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

By standing still and not speaking out on the issues that matter to you and your customers, you run the risk of alienating your audience. But when doing anything public as a business owner it’s important to make sure that you’re approaching it in the right way for you and your business.

So with so many worthy causes and important movements that need support, how do you choose to focus your energy? Should you be responding to these issues or baking in ways to proactively avoid your business being part of the problem? Or should you do both? And how do you best communicate the work you do? How much is enough?

In this episode we’re going to bring you stories about taking a stand. When to do it, how to do it and when to not do it at all, and just listen.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

Starting and running your own business can be incredibly stressful. This is why having a good support network is invaluable for entrepreneurs. Having a space to share the ups and downs of small business ownership and having people around you who get it can help make you more resilient and able to weather the storm that is small business ownership.

In this episode we’re going to show you great examples of how having a network of support can help keep you in a good, healthy place as a business owner, and we show you the importance of asking for help when you need it.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

How do you go about increasing the weight and reach of your impact as a business? How do you measure impact and know if you’re on the right track?

In this episode we’re showing you examples of incredible businesses who have impact built into their business model, and we’ll offer practical advice on how you can turn your business into a force for good.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

How do you know when to say ‘yes’ to opportunities for growth and ‘no’ to the things that will lead you from your path?

In this episode we bring you success stories of businesses that got better alongside getting bigger, entrepreneurs who scaled without compromise and we offer practical advice to those thinking about how to retain their identity while building their future.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

Does success always have to equal growth? As businesses get bigger they will inevitably change what they do and how they do it. So what if the whole reason you want to start your business in the first place is inherently tied to being a small business? How do you get better at staying small? And how do you keep sustainably small?

In this episode we’re telling you stories of when businesses decide they’re big enough and that they can more effectively achieve their goals by staying small.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

Would you turn down a nine figure offer to buy your business? We hear from Buffer CEO, Joel Gascoigne, who did just that, along with stories from incredible small business owners and entrepreneurs who have turned down big money for their business.

In this episode we’re bringing you stories about saying yes to the right opportunities and saying no for the right reasons.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

Community is at the center of many impactful small businesses. Whether we’re talking about the people who work with you to build your company or the people on the other side of the counter, having a community around your business can play a number of important roles.

But how do you cultivate a flourishing community that grows with and supports your business? How do you build that community? We speak to small business owners who have built meaningful communities, they share their insights and the big lessons they’ve learned from creating communities.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

Small Business, Big Lessons is a podcast from Buffer that goes behind-the-scenes with inspirational small businesses to explore how they are questioning the best ways to build a business and uncover the big lessons we can learn from their journeys (so far).

The eight-episode series tells business stories from extraordinary small businesses and the people behind them, examining how they’re doing things differently and what we can learn from their journeys.

These stories prove it’s possible to build a business and do good along the way.

Can small businesses have an outsized impact? Is there a way to stay small and push against the cultural conditioning of ‘scale at all costs’? What makes a business truly great? Shawn Askinosie left a successful career as a criminal defense lawyer to start a bean-to-bar chocolate factory. Askinosie Chocolate has provided over a million school lunches to malnourished children in Tanzania and the Philippines, and recently named by Forbes as “One of the 25 Best Small Companies in America” - living proof that small companies can do good and still be profitable.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.

What does it look like to stay true to your "why", and how can it lead to better business decisions? Finding your why and building a business around that is something we hear a lot but how does it work in reality? Features Stephen Tracy, a data strategist who left Google to build a B-Corp-certified and sustainable scented candle business Keap.

This podcast is produced by Buffer, an affordable and intuitive social media marketing software used by over 160,000 small businesses to build their brand on social media.