7 Reasons Why Bigger Isn't Always Better for Your Startup Keeping a tight rein on expansion may actually be good for your company.

Dean Cycon had been selling his fair-trade coffee to Whole Foods Market outlets in New England for five years when he got "the call." The natural-foods giant wanted to expand distribution of Dean's Beans Organic Coffee from the 17 stores that already carried the product line to the entire U.S. Whole Foods roster.

Sounds like an entrepreneur's dream come true, right? But Cycon hesitated when he realized the change would triple the size of his Orange, Mass.-based business overnight. "I looked at what that would do to our company," says Cycon, CEO. "First, it would require us to add evening production shifts, which we're not interested in, because family and quality of life are a big part of our company culture. It also would require a $500,000 investment in machinery to make roughly the same profits. I realized we'd have to work three times as hard to be in the same place financially in terms of profit, and what's the point in that?"

Cycon respectfully declined the Whole Foods offer. Instead, in the 10 years since, he has expanded organically at a slower, more comfortable pace that has allowed him to stick to his business principles. "Growth is the outcome of business done well; it should not be the goal," he says.