A Small Business Strategy Guide
The ultimate guide for small business owners who want to leverage their natural advantages to beat bigger competitors.
Discover Your Underdog Advantage
When big businesses dominate with scale and resources, small business owners often feel like they're fighting an uphill battle. But "Unconvention" reveals a counterintuitive truth: the very things that make your business small are actually your greatest strategic weapons.
Based on real-world experience supporting tens of thousands of small businesses through existential challenges, this book shows how underdog enterprises can outmaneuver even the most established corporations. The secret isn't trying to beat big businesses at their own game—it's leveraging the unique advantages that only owner-operated businesses possess.
For entrepreneurs ready to stop playing by someone else's rules, "Unconvention" provides a liberating approach to building sustainable, meaningful enterprises by embracing what makes you different. It's time to rewrite the playbook and unlock the inherent advantages of your owner-operated business.
What You'll Do as the Underdog:
- Identify and leverage your business's authentic strengths in strategic decision-making
- Seek ways to turn your personal values and vision into competitive advantages
- Infuse your uniqueness into pricing, customer acquisition, and operational choices
- Build deeper customer relationships that larger competitors cannot replicate
- Make business decisions that reflect what matters most to you and your customers
Awards & Recognition
2026 Independent Press Award
Winner - Sales & Marketing
2025 Royal Dragonfly Book Award
Honorable Mention - Business & Finance
Where to Buy
Unconvention is available from several retailers. Choose the one that works best for you.
Official Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Professional Review Service
September 10, 2025“An optimistic, highly personal game plan for helping small businesses thrive. Running through all of Kaza's advice and examples is a refreshingly sincere empathy, a genuine interest in the stories and needs of small businesses.”
Fog & Fiction
Book Review Blog
September 23, 2025“Unconvention provides a readable, practical roadmap for small business owners to turn what makes them unique into a competitive advantage against bigger players. A strategy guide for business owners ready to stop chasing big-company playbooks and start building on their own terms.”
The Underdog Principles
Positioning
The ability to focus on a set of customers who value what makes you unique
Big companies must appeal to everyone, you have the freedom to focus on your customers. Its ok to put your personal favorite products on the shelves, if customers love your taste. You don't have to offer every type of french pastry when you have fantastic coffee. Success comes from leaning into what makes you special.
Proximity
The deep understanding that comes from direct customer interactions
Big companies spend millions trying to understand their customers through data and research. You gain that understanding from serving your customers every day. This direct connection gives you insights that big businesses can't match and informs your decisions to grow and adapt changing needs.
Purpose
The freedom to build something meaningful beyond just making money
Unlike large corporations driven by financial metrics, you can build your business around your values and vision. Whether it's serving your community, pursuing your passion, or feeding your family, a purpose beyond profit gives you more ways to grow and the freedom to be creative in solving problems.
Want to learn more about how these principles can transform your business?
What People Are Saying About Unconvention
“Sri has a gift for entertaining storytelling combined with real-life experience in the business of going up against the big guys. A great read for any aspiring entrepreneur or small business leader seeking practical advice for success.”
Jeffrey Pierson
Former Head of the Small Business Investment Company, US SBA
“As an entrepreneur, what I loved most about Unconvention is how clearly it affirms what so many small business owners feel but rarely hear: that being small can actually be your greatest strength. Through stories that are real, relatable, and rich with insight, Sri Kaza brings strategy to life and shows how connection, clarity, and purpose are what truly drive success.”
Leslie Rae
Co-Founder, The SmartBusiness Academy
“Sri Kaza's 'Unconvention' wonderfully reframes what many see as small business limitations as their greatest competitive advantages. By embracing the Underdog Principles, business owners can create not just more profitable enterprises, but more fulfilling and sustainable ones where both owners and employees thrive.”
Ashish Kothari
CEO, Happiness Squad and Author of Hardwired for Happiness
“In a world obsessed with scale and certainty, Unconvention is a refreshingly honest look at how underdogs win by staying small, staying human, and staying true. Sri reminds us that what looks naïve—like care, proximity, and purpose—might actually be strategic brilliance.”
Joshua Berry
Award winning author of Dare to Be Naive
About the Author
Sri Kaza is a business leader and small business advocate with a career spanning corporate strategy, entrepreneurial ventures, and dedicated support for small businesses.
After earning degrees from the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, he began his career at McKinsey & Co., advising Fortune 500 companies. This was followed by executive roles focused on supporting small businesses, including serving as CEO of ForwardLine Financial, where he helped tens of thousands of small businesses achieve their goals.
Through his extensive experience working with both large corporations and small businesses, Sri developed the Underdog Principles — a framework that helps small businesses leverage their inherent advantages to compete and thrive in any market.
Copyright 2026
Sri Kaza