What can ancient civilisations teach us about running a modern small business?

History is a great teacher and even as far back as Pompeii, the resourceful practices of civilisations of the past have a lot to teach us about modern business and how to get more with less, writes Samantha Rush, CEO and founder of Marvellous Women Cards.

Most small business owners are experts at doing more with less. The art of resourcefulness is required to build something from nothing and it often means, as the business owner, you have to rough it for a while as you build your business baby.

Yet, if you scroll through the many Facebook business groups and other business portals, the message being sent is that there’s a widget, gadget and app for everything.

Today’s modern world encourages less resourcefulness because there is a solution for every problem. The challenge is when your bottom line doesn’t support all these handy tools.

Every time a business acquires something new, it is eating into the budget.

Ancient tips for modern small businesses

Pompeii lay at the foot of Mount Vesuvius and was immortalised by the volcanic eruption that destroyed it in AD79. With such a beautiful and clear picture of how these people lived, we have the ability to observe and learn from the many important ways this civilisation enjoyed comfort, the sophistication of their daily lives, and how they remained highly resourceful without the mod cons we have today.

The wealthier citizens of Pompeii had water systems in their homes, with many homes sporting an atrium that was open-roofed. Rainwater was harvested and run through the house using piping systems. The water would eventually lead to a single catchment, a cistern, where it would be stored for the household, giving every room its own fresh water supply. Homes were cooled naturally with the evaporation from the water and didn’t have to rely solely on regular rainfall.

Store fronts were built on the verges outside of the wealthy class’s homes, effectively making use of the space and making it easy for commuters to purchase goods while out and about. Vendors would sell what would have been considered ‘fast food’ – cooked fish, bread, olives and the like. They would also sell household wares like pots and pans. Vendors would pay rent to the owner of the house, subsidising the cost of these elaborate homes.

You can get an idea of the sense of community that must have existed in these types of structures and business agreements – there must have been a great deal of familiarity.

As a business, what are the resources you have in abundance? Is it time, finances, people or creativity? How can you use what you already have in multiple ways to make your day-to-day easier?

Food for thought

Looking at how efficient ancient civilisations made use of their resources and their space, it can give entrepreneurs some food for thought too.

How can we use the resources we already have at our disposal to grow the business, improve productivity and nurture a greater sense of company culture and community?

If you can get more out of your current resources, how would you go about it? It starts with introspection.

Ask yourself:

• What resources do you have? Make a list of everything your business is paying for or using in order to deliver your service/products.
• Examining each item on your list, ask yourself how well are you using each of your resources?
• Do you have any unused space or other under-utilised resources (including people) that could be used for an alternative or an additional purpose?
• How well do you collect, store, access and use important resources, such as data?
• Are you getting the best value out of all your resources?

The biggest lessons we can take from Pompeii and other ancient civilisations are to persevere, stay curious and be prepared for some trial and error phases. It’s normal to run into challenges.

Stay focused, continuing to find solutions to new problems as they pop up, just like the good citizens of Pompeii did.

Want more? Get our newsletter delivered straight to your inbox! Follow Kochie’s Business Builders on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.