8 Reasons My Small Business is Successful
If you do everything on this list your small business will be successful, too.
Have you ever wondered why some small businesses are successful and others aren’t?
I have thought about this a lot. I have read blogs, magazines, and books about this subject. It all has to do with hard work and common sense.
Observe the businesses around your neighborhood that have gone out of business in the past year. Can you come up with the reasons why?
I can and it has nothing to do with business plans or consultants. You can analyze the hell out it from now till the end of the world and you’ll throw up your hands and say, “what happened here?”.
Here are the 8 biggest reasons we have succeeded. Simple but powerful principles we have always followed.
1. Branding
My wife bought and paid for a logo that cost $200 in 2008. I thought she was crazy. But it was the smartest thing she could have done.
We got a unique one of a kind logo that stuck with our customers. They identified it with quality food like Mom used to make in the ’50s and ’60s.
She decorated everything with a ’50s retro theme in mind. Our food is mid-century type recipes so it went hand in hand.
Everything we do keeps our theme and brand in mind. We even do momism’s at the bottom of each email we send.
To us its all about moms including our own who recipes Joanne had saved over the years. They both grew up on farms. Her’s in the mid-west and mine in the deep south. They were both influential in her methods of cooking.
Three out of four of our children had worked in restaurants or bakeries over the years because Joanne taught them all to cook.
People stop her to talk about food everywhere she goes. She has a magnetic sign on her van with that $200 logo that everyone recognizes and a fistful of menu’s in her purse.
You need a brand people will recognize. Believe me.
2. Quality Ingredients
We always buy top of the line ingredients.
In the food business reputation is everything. No one wants inferior ingredients.
We try to make things as healthy as possible.
We have changed a lot of recipes over the years to substitute a healthier ingredient and not change the texture or the taste.
People come to purchase our food because our soul has been embedded in this business.
3. Budget
We have always stuck to a budget. We make sure our cost of goods sold is no more than a set percentage according to our budget.
Our Gross Margin (sales less cost of goods sold) stays the same no matter how much we sell.
Our overhead is kept razor sharp and we question everything to get the lowest cost and to make every dollar count. An example of this is our website.
Our website under outside management was not producing income or driving traffic to our business.
I took some classes and built a new one that drives traffic and produces income. That cut our budget on this item back about 50% and we get about 15% of our revenue from it as well.
4. Marketing
We both are marketing our business every chance we get. We try not to use the outsourcing of tasks. We physically knock on doors or ask questions of our customers where we can without inconveniencing them.
We do our own social media marketing and our email marketing. I am constantly reading blogs, articles and books to improve upon our system.
Honestly, marketing your small business is a big deal. You need to spend time learning all about how to do it. Execute your marketing plan today and do anything that will bring in customers even small numbers of them.
Make this your #1 priority as you open the doors because without customers you are doomed to failure.
5. Time
We both work full-time in our business 50–55 hours a week. We are the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave.
If our business is open, we are there and working 5 ½ days a week.
There is no substitute for hands-on ownership. It is the only way you will succeed.
6. Assets
We buy all used assets. Our whole kitchen was purchased at thrift stores, auctions or wholesale houses.
In our retail shop, my wife decorated with 50’s Retro items like those in our grandparents’ home when we grew up. It was all purchased at garage sales, thrift stores, and Craigslist.
We operate a 1000 sq. ft. commercial kitchen and a 900 sq. ft. retail store. The total assets invested were right at $6,400.
7. Locations
This was a big cost so we made sure we were in an area that would pay off in terms of revenue.
Our kitchen is located in a strip center in an area of town not known for traffic. It was built around 1960.
It was purchased by a new owner and partially renovated right after we started.
We located our kitchen there because our retail store is in the historic part of town on the way home for a lot of our customers.
We are located at a busy corner that has grown up around us with apartments, schools, churches and daycare centers over the last 12 years.
We have been here at this location ever since because it is truly a prime location and it fits our motif of mid-century retro decoration.
This area also has a lot of active seniors that love our food and come over to shop around lunchtime. We deliver to the senior’s in the area that can’t get out easily.
This property is on a street that is really busy with a light that stops cars at this intersection.
The streets are also 35 miles an hour speed zones so we tend to get a lot of customers with our sign that changes daily out by the road where cars are stopped.
We are on the way home for all the employees at City Hall. Some have been customers since we opened 12 years ago.
To tell the truth if I call City Hall I usually wind up talking to a customer. Even the Mayor comes in the shop a couple times a month.
8. Serve products your customers love
Don’t try to lead them to something else. Don’t take away popular dishes and for God’s sake make sure you treat them like gold.
Customer acquisition cost is high so do whatever it takes to retain them.
We also do catering for the schools, churches, corporations, and governments here in our area.
Catering has really helped our business over the years with a lot of customers coming back again the next year.
Our biggest day of the year is Thanksgiving because we do the whole or any part of the feast our customers want done. Hell, we cook it in the customer's casserole dish if they want us, too.
This holiday meal idea has spread to St Patrick’s Day, Easter, July 4th, Labor Day and of course finger foods for holiday parties.
I think next to marketing creative thinking has become our 2nd strongest area. It pays big dividends with our customers over the years.
When we cater a meal Joanne makes sure we have a pleasing presentation because most of the other cater’s around don’t do those little things she does every time.
The closing shot
If you’re starting a small business, make sure you understand what it will take to make it successful. Every one of these above items is extremely important.
Marketing is the most pressing one as you get started because you need to get customers in the front door. If you don’t you will fail, I promise you.
Creative thinking has enabled us to bond with our customers to grow that loyalty factor everyone is in search of these days.
There is no shortcut for success you just have to do the hard work others refuse to do.
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