May 7th, 2008 Posted in Business, Uncategorized | No Comments »
I just wanted to outline a few basic business practices that I believe will help produce a successful and growing business. So let’s get started!
1) Be Accountable
One thing you can do to help your business grow is create an outline for the direction of where you want your business to go, how you make decisions and how you handle customers who are unhappy. Basically summed up in being accountable. Accountable for how you take your business to where you want it to go, accountable for the decisions you make and accountable for your products that your customers receive.
One way to do so is make sure your spouse is involved with the decision making. Even if they have nothing to do with your business, you can’t have a successful business while at the same time leaving your spouse out. They may tell you they have no clue what you are talking about at first or they may give you some great ideas you never would have thought of.
You can also setup an accountability group. Find others (probably in different areas then your own) who have the same type of business and can help you to be accountable for your actions and the direction your business is going.
2) Provide a Quality Product at a Fair Price
This is the most important aspect of the business that the community can see. It shows the character of the company and the people running the company. I know there is a lot of talk on some forums about people who make thousands of dollars per sale and if they don’t get that, they are upset. Also many times people will tell you to raise your prices and so forth because you are bringing the industry down. If you are providing a high quality product at a fair price, when hard times come, you will be the one left standing. Not them. You are not responsible for the industry, just your business and if you are happy with what you make and how do it, that is good enough.
On the same lines, know when to say enough is enough. You don’t have to make $500,000 a year just to get by. You need to figure out what you need to make and price accordingly. Just because other people sell an 8×10 for $75 - $150 doesn’t mean you have to. To grow your studio and make it strong, provide the best quality product at the best possible price.
Here at LEE3, we really tried to take this into consideration when pricing all our products. I have had many people tell me we need to raise our prices and/or charge for support and upload fees. However, that is not what this company is all about. It’s about people and providing the best product at the best price.
3) Honor Your Creditors
Pay your lab fees and loans on time every time. When times are slow, many people consider it normal to delay paying their suppliers. “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” This one is pretty much self explanatory.
4) Treat Your Employees Fairly
For those of you who have employees, fairness is usually related to pay and benefits, but that is not the total picture. It also has to do with your attitude and relationship with them. All people working within your business are important. You hired them for a reason. Just because they work for you doesn’t mean they are your slave.
On the note of pay, if you are living in a nice house, drive nice cars and have all the food you can eat yet your employee is struggling from week to week and month to month, something is wrong within your business (provided they are not just throwing their money away senselessly, in which case it may be time to find a new employee). A strong, healthy, growing business will be able to provide for their employees above and beyond what the industry standard is. Even if that means you take home a little less.
5) Treat Your Customers Fairly
Again, this largely has to do with how much you sell your products for but it also has to do with quality, the customers happiness and how you treat them. Don’t sell them a large print if they don’t have the space for it just because you can. Offer options for layouts. Go the extra mile. Treat them how you would want to be treated if you were spending hundreds, even thousands of dollars on pictures. Reward your best customers when they least expect it. Do it because you can, not because you have to.
If people are unhappy with something and want their money back, just do it. I mean really, if the $2 it costs you for printing the 8×10 they didn’t like and want their money back for hurts your business, something else is seriously wrong. Sometimes you just have to eat the cost of an order to make people happy. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”
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Conclusion: I know a lot of what I said in this post goes against many things you may have heard in the past, but many things from the past no longer work. Customer service is all but gone from most businesses these days and people just expect to get treated like crap. You stand in lines for hours just to return a $5 product (done this way by design). You wait on hold for 30 minutes for support for something or wait for a week before an email gets answered. Well I for one am tired of that attitude and way of doing business and hope LEE3 shows it in our service, price and products.
Shoot me an email with an address to ship it to. Though since we are in the same town you could stop by and pick it up as well or I could drop it off. Just let me know in the email.