Key Ideas.
Key Idea #1 . Establish close relationships with your vendors and
professionals who can help you build your business.
Jane recommends a good attorney, a CPA and a banker to
serve as a team of advisors. Also, she is convinced that she would not be in
business today had she not built good relationships with her vendors. For
example, when cash flow is low, you may need vendors to ship you goods without
payment, or, you may need your attorney and CPA to come up with creative ideas
for staying afloat. You may not be able to depend on these people when you are
in trouble if you haven't been a good business partner when things are going
well. Jane's secret is to keep communication open, honest and
consistent.
What do you think
? How do you find the right attorney, the right CPA, the right
banker?
Answer:
Ask people whom you believe are
successful for recommendations. Call these professionals and ask for a brief
"interview" meeting. You should not be charged for this. Ask about their
billing procedures, ask what other businesses similar to yours they handle, and
ask them to tell you about a time when their services influenced the bottomline
of another business
Chris Fortune takes this
idea one step further. He does business with very few vendors in order to
solidify their loyalty to him. If we spead our spending among too many
providers, it may be difficult to get a quick response or lenience when we need
it.
Key Idea #2 . Figure out how to give your customers what they
want.
The day of
mass-merchandising is over; the age of custom solutions is here. And customers
are looking for products "customized" to solve their particular problem. Jane's
company, Custom Stitchers, competes by customizing each product request.
When Jane gets a request she doesn't say, "let me think about it," she says,
"Of course we can do that. Let me get you a price."
What do you
think? Why is saying "yes" to a customer so important?
Answer: The
obvious reason is that this customer is keeping you in business. Other, more
subtle reasons include: you build confidence in the customer's mind when you
say "yes;" you move yourself into a unique position with the customer; and, you
create a situation that requires you to become more creative.
Mike Neary was in the habit of saying "yes" to every
customer request so when the Disney Corporation asked him to do something no
one had ever done before, Mike said "yes." He was able to accomplish the goal.
His business will never be the same.
Gary
Walls expects his customers to invent new products for him to produce
and
Peter Metcalf uses templates from which to
design every customer's request efficiently. Glen
Walser only builds to order while Howard Kent has a
division that only builds to fit detail specifications of customers.
Key Idea #3 . Today, there's no such thing as a "man's" job or a
"woman's" job.
Jane bought her
father's equipment. Initially, Jane's husband and brother were working with
her. They both decided to leave the business which forced Jane to make it on
her own. In a traditionally male dominated industry, Jane has succeeded. People
keep proving that gender should have nothing to do with the type of business
you choose to own. If a man wants to start a day-care business, he should do
it. If a woman wants to own her own trucking business, she should do it.
What do you think? What our parents did to make a living
may not be what we are drawn to and that's OK. Jane's father and grandfather
made shoes, so, she was familiar with the shoe industry. What are possible
obstacles for a woman working in a "man's business" and vice versa?
Answer: Networking may be difficult at
first because it may take place in situations which are uncomfortable. For
example, all the owners of shoe companies may meet Friday night for drinks at a
strip joint. Or, the owners of day-care centers may meet for tea at the
Waldorf.
Other than being left out of the "good old boy network" women
have to overcome most their own lack of confidence that success is possible in
a traditionally male-dominated field. There are no impossible obstacles for any
person who wants badly enough to own and operate any type of
business.
Business Basic: Legal Formation |