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Reflections on Starting a Business
By Mark L. Casey | May 1, 2008
This article is cross-posted in the Baselodge Blog.
May 1, 2008 marks the two year anniversary of Baselodge Group as a company. It seems like a good time to reflect back on the challenges we have faced, the triumphs, the disappointments, and the future outlook.
Not Our First Rodeo
Baselodge Group is not the first company my wife and I have started together. In 1988 we created a frozen yogurt shop and cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We named it Margot’s Frozen Yogurt and located it one block from the historical plaza in Santa Fe. We sold the business in 1991, but I am happy to report that the current owners are still in the same space and doing similar things. They made the smart move of capitalizing on America’s thirst for coffee and have expanded into the space next door, something we had in our original business plan. If you visit Santa Fe, please check out the offerings at the Piccolo Cafe on the corner of Lincoln and Marcy.
Starting, operating, and selling Margot’s Frozen Yogurt was a great experience for us as entrepreneurs. We learned a lot about quality, customer service, and employees. We would not trade the knowledge gained by that experience. We had some great employees, too, that we still think of fondly.
Our Second Rodeo
So, Baselodge Group is our second rodeo. While Margot’s Frozen Yogurt and Baselodge Group could not be more different in mission, there are lessons we learned with the frozen yogurt shop that really helped us in launching Baselodge Group.
- It Takes Patience. The first lesson we brought with us from Margot’s Frozen Yogurt is it takes patience. When entrepreneurs write business plans, they are often wildly optimistic. Any really useful business plan should realistically consider a future that is more challenging than the most optimistic forecast conceivable. We learned that it will probably take longer to reach profitability than we hope. It will take staying power and patience to get the business out of the euphoric mode of the start-up and into the long-term viability of a going concern. We went into Baselodge Group for the long run, believing that we can begin experiencing success in the short-term, but probably profitability only in a longer horizon of time.
- Always Be Selling (ABS). The second lesson we learned from the yogurt shop is Always Be Selling (ABS). Just because we brought Baselodge Group into this world doesn’t mean that anyone knows anything about us or what we do. We have to not only create our corporate identity through marketing collateral (brochures, website, promotional items, etc.), we have to be constantly telling and retelling our story. In our case we are mainly talking to prospects and customers about the companies we represent, but they have to come to view Baselodge Group as a valuable source for one or more concerns they have. Our job is to help people think of “manufacturing outsourcing” when they think of Baselodge Group. This point is always driven home when I speak for the second time with someone about what we do. A first meeting covered all of the firms that we represent and what their capabilities are. The second meeting often leaves me wondering if I communicated anything at all in the first meeting. We have to hear something multiple times before we really get it. Your customers have to hear what you do enough times that they permanently associate your name with your game. That is why we have to Always Be Selling.
- Keep Your Promises. This sounds easy and fundamental, but it is harder than it sounds. Trust is still at the core of why customers continue to come back and transact with us. When we recurrently fulfill our promises, we engender trust and confidence. In our company we strive to recognize each time we have made a promise, even if “small,” and to do what we said we would do.
- Be Open to New Opportunities. Our business plan for Baselodge Group designs in an openness to new business opportunities. This does not take away from our central focus as a manufacturers’ representative, but it allows us to think creatively about how to diversify and move with the market. This allowed us to seize the opportunity to grow our business by adding pharmaceutical manufacturing to our offering of outsourced manufacturing. We call this pharmasourcing, and it is part of our mission now because we were open to thinking openly when the opportunity presented itself.
- The Customer is Usually Right. One day in the yogurt shop a customer came in with the belief that she could treat the counter help (me) anyway she chose. She was rude, condescending, and totally undesirable as a customer. The old maxim is that the customer is always right. I believe that we should run our business on the basis that the customer is usually right. I always try to give the customer the benefit of the doubt and try to see his or her viewpoint. I usually side with the customer in keeping with a longer term outlook. However, there are those customers that you do not want now or long-term. Some people are not worth the few dollars they will bring you in exchange for the heartache that will come as strings attached to the money. I declined to accept her order for the yogurt and lost a customer. You have to take your stand at times. Plus, there is always the philosophical perspective that in any transaction between two parties, there are actually two “customers.” If we remove money as a medium of exchange and envision a bartering situation, it is easier to see that there are actually two customers, not one. Both parties have to be satisfied with the transaction. In summary, I usually side with my customer and give them the benefit of the doubt. I do have conditions of satisfaction, though, on how I should be treated by my customers. A long-term business relationship depends on both parties finding satisfaction in the transactions.
- Find & Use Mentors. In our frozen yogurt business we did not really have any mentors. We were in our later 20s and thought we knew it all. There was one serious mistake we made that could have been prevented by having an experienced mentor. I am very fortunate that before we even started Baselodge Group, I had a couple of experienced individuals who were willing to mentor me. It is helpful to have mentors in your specific industry and mentors for business in general.
- Continually Learn. How do we grow and adapt in a changing business world? We have to be committed to continual learning. As with mentors, our learning has to be both general business learning and domain-specific learning. Never before has so much information been so accessible to so many people. If I am unsure of a specific acronym or specialized term, a quick search of Google or some other search engine yields an amazing amount of information. The Artful Sourcing blog is dedicated to sharing information on how to source products and services. As our backlog of articles grows and as we add more writers, this blog grows as a source of useful information. There are plenty of sources available to us, but it takes discipline and commitment to really take advantage of it.
Conclusion
As we celebrate the second anniversary of Baselodge Group, we are excited about our excellent start and optimistic about the future. We continue to practice the lessons above and have confidence that we will continue to grow as a valuable resource for our customers and suppliers. I honestly believe that if you will implement these practices as you start your new venture, you will also be pleased with the results. Owning and growing a business is not easy, but the potential rewards will continue to draw people who are ready for the challenge.
Topics: Entrepreneurs | 1 Comment »
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May 1st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
[...] This article is cross-posted in Artful Sourcing. [...]