Sunday, June 2, 2013

Stand

Oftentimes, we're asked for advice from various friends, acquaintances, even customers of ours, on starting or growing a business.  Most of the questions we get center around operating a business in a down economy, like "how do you hang in there when it's so tough?".  Others couch the question differently, like asking what motivates us to keep showing up on a daily basis. Multiple paragraphs could be written about this subject, but we ran across a recent blog post from uber-entrepreneur Seth Godin that pretty much sums up our advice to anyone starting out:

What does your brand stand for?

If you tell me about service and quality and customer focus, you haven't answered my question, because a hundred other brands stand for that. If you are what others are, then there's nothing here to own or protect or build upon.

Compared to what? Compared to all those that you compete with for attention, for commerce, for donations and for employees, what do you stand for? Are you one of a kind or even one in a million?
Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton... they don't actually stand for anything, do they? They can't, because they stand for precisely the same thing. Puma vs. Adidas vs. Nike... They all want to stand for winning. How substantial are the differences?

Make a list of the differences and the extremes and start with that. A brand that stands for what all brands stand for stands for nothing much.

---Seth Godin, May 30, 2013

It was never much of a stretch for us to differentiate our store, because we had to.  Due to the circumstances of our purchase into this long-standing family business, we were actually a new store, born from the carcass of the old.  From day one, we vowed to stand for our community's artists, writers, for hand-made, for local, and stand we have.  It's allowed us to help bring our area's artists to the attention of potentially hundreds of people.  It's also allowed us contribute to several of our town's non-profits, schools, and causes - maybe not with thousands of dollars, but as one retail friend told us, "even if it's only $100.00, it's $100.00 more than they had before".  With that philosophy, we joyfully give whatever and whenever we can.

Another great piece to read is Jonathan Morrow's post about fear, entitled The Cowardly Entrepreneur.  When, in the body of his post, he writes "The lesson is that courage isn’t about acting in the absence of fear; it’s about acting despite it", he had our attention.  This, along with Seth's post, really nails it in terms of advice for those just starting out (or those who need a jump start) in their businesses.  To quote Seth, "Go -  make something happen"!

Along those lines, we're hosting a book signing event on Thursday, with author Carol Woodliff.  Carol is a healer/shaman, and this event will be very exciting, with readings and demonstrations.  You'll find the event notice on our Facebook page and we hope we'll see you there!


We'll talk again next week, friends - enjoy!

Lori and Scott

2 comments:

Susan Campisi said...

I've been pondering how to break free from my comfortable corporate salary and wondering if I'll ever have the discipline and guts to break out on my own. This post seem as if it were written for me. Much food for thought. Thank you.

Unknown said...

Always a pleasure to see you, Susan - good fortune to you whatever you decide to do!