When life gives you lemons....

“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister.

Believe it or not, this is a great time to be in business for yourself. I know that banks aren’t lending and that foot traffic is down, but I still believe that this is still a good time to be in business on your own. You probably think I am nuts, but let me at least tell you why I think so.

Big corporations have had their own way for the past 50 years or so, but everywhere we look those big companies are in trouble. Ford, GM, AIG, Bennigan’s, and many others are facing financial woes that put them at a distinct disadvantage. They are all in a defensive, self protecting mode of operations. They are all doing everything they can to protect their share price and to keep their investors happy right now. Rarely are they making decisions and positioning themselves for success in the future. This economic situation has created the greatest opportunity for small business in the past 100 years. You have the opportunity to topple, or at least outsell and outserve, the giant of your choice. While they’re busy cutting everything, guarding “shareholder value,” and their employees are guarding their desk and their job, NO ONE is guarding their customers (AKA: the lifeblood of their (and your) business). Is that cool, or what?

Now is the time to seize the opportunity and strike. Now is the time to take a time out and really assess your business. What can you be doing different today? How can you change your operational paradigm and focus on meeting and exceeding your customer’s needs and desires. All of the big companies and many of the small ones are figuring out how to do things with less staff, cheaper ingredients and poorer service. As an independent operator you have control over all of those things. Choose not to compromise your recipes by maintaining the quality and consistency of your ingredients. Spend time with your staff reinforcing the idea of customer service and going above and beyond. We would all like to cut costs, but the focus needs to be on driving people into your facility rather than on trying to get them in and out of your facility as cheaply as you can. If you focus on doing the things that keep people coming back and the things that bring new people in (think word of mouth from your existing customers), you have the recipe for success right in front of you.

Customers and foot traffic is the lifeblood of our industry. If we don’t have the people coming in the door, regardless of how cheaply we can do things, we won’t be in business for long. Instead of price, focus on value….not necessarily the value to you but the value to your customers. The difference in perspectives is subtle, but significant. Not putting your customers first is in essence putting them last and that attitude will trickle down to every employee and out to your customers. You don’t want to end up being the place everyone used to go to do you?

There is a sandwich place in the town I live in that had grown to be a local institution. They were known for great food and huge portions. They had a great 20 year run where there was a line out the door for lunch and dinner. It was a well oiled profit machine. I went to lunch there on Saturday at 12:15. There was no wait. AT ALL. WHOA things had slipped significantly. I looked around for reasons why. Here is what jumped out at me 1) lesser quality ingredients (downgraded his meats and cheeses) 2) reduced portion sizes – I used to ask for less meat and now I wonder where it went 3) they lost the personal touch…used to be that they all knew everyone’s name but this time I only heard 1 personal greeting.

What does that have to do with you? Everything. I am sure that he didn’t make his decisions thinking that someday I would take my vibrant business and turn it into a source of worry and sleepless nights. My guess is that in his pursuit to make his goose lie bigger golden eggs he wound up killing or seriously injuring his golden goose. Know your vision for your business. Stay true to that vision and serve your customers the way you want to be served and you will have a goose that keeps on laying those golden eggs for you.