TNG Blog

Should you have to excuse yourself for owning a small business in a ’9-5 world’?

It’s 11AM on Tuesday and I am with my client reviewing how far we have progressed with our project. Her phone rings once. She glances at the phone, excuses herself, and answers. Approximately 10 minutes later, she returns and explains that her aunt had to ask her about some recipe and share some gossip about the family. Okay, I think to myself, aunts can be weird, egocentric, and call at strange times to talk about random issues like family and recipes. It’s 12:15PM now and I am getting ready to leave her office… and she gets up to answer yet another call. This time it’s her friend, who had to take her dog in for an operation and now needs a shoulder to cry on, leaving me to find my own way out.

Let’s be honest – we all have one of those days when the world around us needs our presence and we need to make ourselves available. However, it is more often the case that small business owners do not send a clear message to their friends and relatives about their bread-winning job – that is - their environment never learns to respect their time and business. Why?

“Because if I say something, it can come across as rude, insensitive, and interpreted in an unpleasant manner, since everyone around me thinks that I am flexible, that I do not have anyone to report to, and that I can’t be fired” said one of my clients.

When I brought up ‘respect for their business or time’, I noticed that most of my clients shared similar issues with their respective environments. Whenever I tried to provide constructive advice regarding this issue, it felt like I was coaching my clients on how to ask for an excuse because they own a business, because they are semi-lonely warriors in a ‘9 to 5 world’. I guess there are some things that people just don’t feel comfortable talking about, because “you are supposed to have time for your relatives and friends, and respect their needs”. But what about our needs! What about the needs of small business owners? It feels like a Viagra commercial, where an embarrassed man (akin to a small business owner) hears a deep voice from beyond urging him to “talk to your doctor and get some help”. Just as many men never gather enough courage to request Viagra from their doctors, I see that some small business owners never address their ‘lack of respect’ issues and continue to live with them. Don’t you think that WE (small business owners) should have ‘our doctors’ to consult as well?

Let’s look at a two big moments in the life of a small business owner.

Moment #1

The first big moment is when you start your own business, because you either a) had this vision of what you could do, b) you lost your job, or c) you couldn’t get that dream job…or you had whatever other reason for starting a business. You are cutting costs using your home as an office, fighting to get your first clients, and trying to get all the pieces together (e.g., accounting, legal) while people keep asking you “so, did you find a job yet or are you still looking for one?” (I personally get a lot of ‘have babies’ advice as a smart alternative to not working but being (re)productive). You begin to explain your vision to family and friends, but only receive blank stares, a discouraging story about somebody’s neighbor who started a business and lost everything (even a house that he put up for collateral), and even a warning that “if you lose everything, don’t expect me to pay for your kids’ education”, followed by the famous line “why don’t you look for a decent 9-5 job, you don’t need all of this”.

No matter how hard you say that you have already decided to start your business, if you do not have a boss that you can bitch about, coworkers who gossip about you, weekends that are all yours, time-wasting chats with Facebook friends when the supervisor is not watching, Mondays that you hate because your job is starting again – then you are just not part of the majority, so be quiet!

Some good advice for this first big moment is – don’t talk about a business that you are starting right away. Your idea is your ‘baby’; it is very vulnerable and not ready to face discouraging opinions or comments. Be very careful with whom you share your idea or whom you ask for help. Not everybody is a visionary, entrepreneur, or self-starter. Try to talk to people who have walked in your shoes, who have been in similar situations, and who have been successful in overcoming such challenges. Seek people that will not cut your wings, rather help you fly higher.

Moment #2

The second moment happens when you have already warmed up your business and want it to grow. My client inspired me to write this article and raise the ‘Viagra’ issue for small businesses. We are social beings who believe in being there for family and friends. I don’t want to sound like a rebel who propagates a “don’t answer the phone” uprising. I’m simply conveying a ‘talk to your doctor’ policy, that is, talk to someone about unpleasant issues that you might face. If you think that your closest environment is intruding and not respecting the time that you spend on your business – stand up and say that out loud. You are not doing anything wrong by defending the lifestyle that you have chosen, as well as the one that is dictated by being a small business owner.

So, how can you gain (or regain) that lost respect for your time and business? It’s time to teach your environment to “hang up the phone if it rings twice and I don’t answer, because I’m with my client or vendor; if it’s an emergency let it ring”. Tell them about activities that you miss, ones that they do every weekend; tell them about the sacrifices that you have made for your business or let them visit your business and see how many things you have to manage. Let them see you tired! I know too many people that put on smiley faces when they don’t feel like it, because they don’t want to talk about the problems that they are facing with their businesses. The world of small business ownership is not all milk and honey – so don’t transmit the wrong picture, because you will be the one paying the price. This is the time to be open about your business. Your environment will respect you and your business for it.

Recently, I was touched by a potential business partner who flew an extra 400 miles, incurred an additional $1,000 in expenses, and went through the hassle, which is priceless…all this, for a business deal that was was neither 100% guaranteed nor necessarily profitable. A bad move, some of you would say. I was enlightened by his simple explanation – “I don’t want to be just a number, among hundreds of other accounts. I wanted to meet the people who would represent and sell my product in this market. I wanted to see if they would have the same passion and attitude to promote my products here the same way that I would.” Wow! Such a simple statement and so unconventional nowadays in a business world where more and more communication is through email, where websites do entire audio/video presentations, where blogs serve to provide evidence that the company has a live person who communicates and cares for website visitors.

Did we forget the ‘human’ touch in doing business? Because business is business and it is not supposed to be a personal thing. We all wanted to separate those two things for such a long time and now it has finally happened. But! Interestingly, it seems that trends are repeating. When a market becomes oversaturated with one business model, it craves for a new one. In the past, business was often very personal, relying on honor, trust, and references. At one point, doing business shifted towards a new model of standardization and hiding behind a corporate wall that seemed so cold and afraid of the word ‘personal’. Now this impersonal business model is succumbing to a new/old trend and once again business is getting personal. Is the human touch becoming a powerful weapon in the hands of small businesses that are fighting back against ‘the big guys’? Could we simply revert back to our ‘mom & pop’ roots? Here are three easy ways to start making your business more personal:

1. Believe in what you are selling by carefully choosing your product offering
2. Educate yourself about what you are selling so that you can educate others
3. Show yourself, both to your manufacturers and your customers

Believe. Let’s get something straight – you DO NOT have to offer a huge selection of products. You DO, however, need to execute initial research and discover the needs and buying preferences of your potential customers, while simultaneously researching products that are being offered to the market. Such research should help you limit your exposure to products that you believe in and those that will best represent your business and philosophy.

Barilla (Italian pasta manufacturer) is a perfect example of this philosophy. Barilla is a family owned business that primarily targets families, especially working families with small children. Barilla knows that the best promise it could make to this target segment is that their products are good for children. Because Barilla knows that every parent wants only the best for their children, it promotes products as being nutritious for children. The number one tenet of Barilla’s strategy is that Barilla believes in what it sells. Barilla communicates this philosophy through a compelling television commercial and conveys a promise… that they only sell products that they would serve to their own children.

Let that be your guide as well. Do not offer something to your customers that you do not believe in and that you might not ‘serve to your children’. You are the master of what you order and carry and you have to believe in every single product that stands on your shelves. Don’t just fill them.

Educate. After you decide on certain products, I would recommend that you educate yourself about them. How do you plan to sell any of your products if you do not know what you are selling?

Godiva is the gold standard for good Belgian chocolate. In many if not all Macy’s department stores, you can buy prepackaged Godiva chocolates, while in some stores you can also pick and choose individual chocolates at a counter. This season, Godiva is offering a new winter collection filled with fancy names that end up confusing consumers to the point that they can’t tell what’s in each chocolate truffle. On a recent occasion, I was curious and asked the ‘chocolate expert’ at the counter about what was inside one of those fancy named truffles. The ‘expert’ and his colleague, both of which couldn’t have been more than 20, were not educated about their selection. They grabbed a brochure and started searching both for the name and the filling. Too late! I was already headed out.

Next on my path for good Belgian chocolates was a small neighborhood store that exclusively carries chocolates by Leonidas, a Belgian chocolate manufacturer similar to Godiva. The ‘chocolate expert’, perhaps the owner, was already educated about every chocolate that he was selling. In contrast to the Macy’s ‘expert’, he was able to describe not only every product, but also the process of making those tiny Leonidas truffles, as well as all the spices and fillings they had inside. Bingo! I’m sure that every person who walks into that small chocolate store will buy even the chocolates that they were not planning on buying – just because they learned so much about Belgian chocolates and heard so much about the great taste and phenomenal ingredients.

Wouldn’t you rather be more like the Leonidas expert?

Show. Your name is MI09576. Really?

We want to simplify business, so reality nowadays is that we all have, and we all are, account numbers. But nobody said that you have to stop there. Are you afraid of getting personal with your manufacturers? Do you fear that your customers would think that you were weird if you asked them about their preferences? Is that getting too personal?

There are many ways to become more acquainted with manufacturers and to encourage them to partner with you, helping both your business (and at the same time theirs) in generating success. Show yourself to some of your most important manufacturers by participating in tours of their facilities, learning more about their production processes, and learning more about their key ingredients or raw materials. On the flipside, you could invite a key manufacturer into your business for a presentation on their products or for interaction with customers and offering of samples.

Show yourself to your customers and show that you care about them, product / service quality, and the fact that they are receiving the best possible value for their money. Building this bridge on both sides (manufacturers and customers) will give you more transparency and visibility, as well as place you one step in front of your competition, bringing more trust and loyalty to your business.

So, do you finally understand why a manufacturer would fly an extra 400 miles and spend an additional $1,000 to meet a potential partner? In his eyes, this extra effort went a long way in helping me believe in his business and become more educated about his products. In my eyes, our meeting helped me ensure him of my dedication and passion – that I do believe – and that I wish to become educated about his products. Along the way, a bridge is build between him (manufacturer) and me (small business). It is now easier for me to extend the bridge to my customers and help them believe in my business.

It’s time to say your name out loud. It’s time to get personal again.