It's time for some tough love. If you are not on the path to substantial growth and the kind of success that you dreamed of when you first started your own company, then you are doing it wrong. Simply put, this is YOUR time. You are NOT a big corporation and you should be celebrating just how fortunate you are to be a small business.

Listen up. I'm going to show you why being a smart and savvy (small) business is just about the best thing you can be today and how to take advantage of all the things you're currently overlooking. 2016 is your year and despite what you may have struggled with in the past, now is your time to shine.

Power of Disruption
There is an extremely simple formula for disruption that you simply aren't using to your benefit and it goes like this: Disruption = Giving for Free what Others Charge for. That's it. Now I'm going to give you several examples so that you can clearly see what you need to do.

Get your website for free
Lesson
You don't need to charge for an upfront service when you can capture the lifetime value of your customer.
Free shipping both ways
Lesson
You must be willing to go further than anyone else in your industry. Only when it terrifies you will you know you're on the right path.
You'll love our work, or you don't pay.
Lesson:
Remove the risk from working with you and you make it incredibly hard to say "no". Just be really choosy about who you choose to engage with.
Free consultation
Lesson:
Give your prospect a great feeling of what it's like to work with you before you ask for a financial commitment.
YouTube videos of mechanics working on cars.
how
want
Lesson:
Go bigger with instructional videos. When you answer a question clearly demonstrating your expertise, you will be remembered and called upon for your services.
Restaurants randomly give free meals away.
A secret
Lesson:
Nothing goes more viral than a "secret". Find a way to make what you give away special by positioning it as something discrete and not to be shared. If it's really great, you have a viral monster on your hands.
Give away what terrifies you and your competitors.
Lesson:
To be truly disruptive, you need to give away things that terrify you and your competitors. If you're not attracting naysayers, then you simply haven't gone far enough.

Got it? If you're still stuck, then ask your team, "What would terrify our biggest competitors if we found away to give it away for free?" Google asked this question and came up with the Android Operating System (OS)--the largest mobile OS on the planet is totally free. Why? Because they make their money on search ads and knew that more and more searches would be on mobile devices. How better to capture that market than to give away for free what had previously been one of the biggest drivers of cost for a mobile device?

Once you've got it, don't hesitate. Be bold. This is YOUR time! It's time for you to stand up and take what's rightfully yours. If you play by other people's rules, you will struggle. Make your own rules and dominate!