Business growth often comes with an inevitable trade-off: the larger an organization becomes, the more difficult it becomes to maintain meaningful relationships with clients. Michelle Nohotima, who runs a disability services company, discovered this challenge firsthand and made an unconventional choice that goes against traditional business wisdom. Her approach offers valuable lessons for any business owner struggling to balance expansion with personalized service.
Choosing Purpose Over Size
Michelle had been watching her company expand when she noticed something troubling. The personal connections she valued were slipping away. “I made a strategic decision because I felt I was losing that personal touch with our participants,” she says. “So, I stopped the growth in our business and kept it to a medium sized company.” Most business owners would call this decision financial suicide. Michelle calls it smart business. Her reasoning comes from a place that has nothing to do with profit margins. “My aim in all of my businesses is not money,” she explains. “It’s community, personal connections, and my obligation to people and my community. So making money is not my main goal.” This philosophy shapes everything she does. While other companies chase revenue targets, Michelle chases something harder to measure but infinitely more valuable.
Learning from Bad Examples
Her approach comes from watching other organizations make mistakes she swore she’d never repeat. She’s worked inside large companies and seen exactly what happens when growth becomes the only priority. “I’ve seen it in big organizations. I’ve worked in big organizations, and I know that that’s what happens,” she notes.
The problem starts small but grows fast. “The more people you have involved and the more people you have to service, you have to stretch your staff, stretch your services, and stretch all of your resources,” Michelle explains. What begins as manageable growth becomes an avalanche of complications. Clients who once worked with a small team suddenly find themselves passed between dozens of different staff members. “You sort of lose that connection with the participants and what their goals are, because there’s too many people involved and not everybody knows that person intimately enough to help them achieve their goals,” she says. Michelle watched this happen repeatedly and decided her company would be different.
Three Ways to Stay Connected While Growing
Michelle has found ways to expand her services without losing what makes them special:
· Stay Local: “We’ve tried to focus in particular areas, not expand over a lot of areas. We’ve tried to keep it local,” she says. This keeps travel time down and helps staff understand the community they’re serving.
· Maximize Existing Resources: When you’re not spread across multiple regions, you can use equipment and facilities more efficiently. “If we keep it local, we can utilize the resources without having to buy more and add to it,” Michelle explains.
· Hire Selectively: “If you get too big, you pretty much just employ whoever wants a job,” she points out. “Whereas staying smaller, you can select the right staff and have the right staff for the clients that you have.” This selective approach means every team member shares Michelle’s values about personalized care.
Replicating Without Overstretching
Michelle hasn’t completely given up on expansion. She’s just approaching it differently. “I could replicate that in another area, but I would still stay small in that area so I can replicate what I’m doing in other areas,” she explains. Think of it as cloning her successful model rather than stretching the original. This would mean finding the right team for each new location. “Finding the right team again would be the first thing I’d have to do,” Michelle says. It’s not about rapid expansion but careful replication of what already works.
She sees artificial intelligence changing everything, but she’s not worried. She’s adapting her investment strategy to focus on businesses that can’t be automated. “Now I’m looking for businesses that AI and high technology can’t take over,” she explains. Her next target is transportation. “AI is not going to take over trucks,” she notes with a smile. This forward-thinking approach helps her maintain income streams that support her community-focused businesses. For the disability services sector, technology has actually been helpful. Better communication tools and mobility equipment have improved care quality without replacing human connection. Michelle embraces these improvements while protecting what makes her services special. Michelle’s approach proves that sometimes the best way forward is to stay exactly where you are, just do it better.
Connect with Michelle Nohotima on LinkedIn to learn how values-driven leadership shapes real impact.
