My Small Business Doesn’t Deserve Your Business

As anticipated, I’ve taken a fair amount of heat for my posts about small businesses (HERE and HERE). Perhaps they missed the preface where I clarified that I, myself, am a small business owner. My family’s survival rests solely on the fate of my small businesses. So when someone calls me a “big box retail shill”, it’s a bit confusing. Oh well, it comes with the territory.

The narrative that keeps getting pushed is this idea that small businesses deserve for you, me, and other people to patronize their companies simply because they are a local small business. Every week, another local small business sadly closes its doors. With it comes a myriad of social media posts, lamenting how nobody supports small businesses. I couldn’t disagree more, as I interact with successful small businesses every day. Businesses that have served the community well for years or even decades. If people don’t support small businesses, why have these businesses found so much success and longevity?

Small businesses, you don’t deserve anyone’s business. My small business doesn’t deserve anyone’s business. Each day, we small businesses must earn the right to serve people well, then re-earn the right to do it again. The formula is fairly simple. We need to offer a good product, at a good value, and do it with a good attitude.

If you don’t sell a good product, there’s no point for people to patronize your business. The product has to be needed or wanted, and have some level of uniqueness compared to other options. It doesn’t have to be a life-changing product, but it has to be quality. If I open a fax machine store in 2023, I don’t think I’d be in business long. The product matters.

If you have a good product, but it’s priced at a level where it costs more than the value it adds, it’s a hard sell. The pricing structure has to make sense. If you’re selling a cup of coffee for $15, not many people will find value for the price. Us business owners must find a way to offer our good products at a price that provides margin between cost and value. In that margin comes the opportunity to make people’s lives better.

If you have a good product and it offers a good value, but you don’t sell it with a good attitude, people will simply choose to shop elsewhere. On many occasions, I’ve purchased a great product at a great price, but was treated with indifference (or even annoyance). Personally, I’d rather buy a lesser product or get a lesser value than be treated like garbage. I could list off a dozen businesses in my town that don’t treat people well (and thus have lost my business). How we sell our products/services matters.

If we do all three of those things, we’ll likely thrive. If we don’t, we’ll possibly be the next story about how a small business closed its doors. It’s a hard endeavor, but worth it.

The Illusion of Security

It seems like every day I read or hear about a company laying people off. A handful of employees, a whole department, or even an entire division. It started with tech companies, then moved to mortgage companies, and now it seems to be spreading much more broadly. Just this week, a handful of the country’s most prominent journalists were unexpectedly fired from their respective networks. I’m not saying today’s environment feels like 2008/2009, but these headlines give me an eerie sense of deja vu (or maybe it’s just my GFC PTSD).

Whenever I see these headlines, it’s another reminder that our jobs are never as secure as we’d like to believe. I know many people who have been holding on to dreadful jobs, in part, because they “like the security.” This is an unpopular opinion, but I think security is overrated. In concept, I get it. There’s something about knowing your family will have enough money to take care of itself next month that’s appealing. I had that type of security for many years. However, it’s been nearly four years since I last felt that sense of security. A few observations:

• I thought it would be stressful not having security…..it is.

• I thought it would be hard not having security……it is.

• I thought having to figure it out each month would be rewarding…..it is.

• I thought having to trust it would all work out would grow my faith…..it has.

As I reflect on the waves of layoffs and I spend time with people stressed and worried about their employment fate, I can’t help but think about how security is somewhat of an illusion. Even the most seemingly secure job can be ripped away from us any day. On the other hand, people who have careers with little to no security (like freelancers, business owners, and contractors) actually have more security. Not security in the sense that it’s guaranteed (it’s not!), but rather in the sense that it can’t be indiscriminately taken away by someone else. There’s something exciting about having to go out every day, every week, and every month and figuring it out. If I serve my clients well and add value to others, I get paid. If I don’t, I don’t. If our businesses execute, we get rewarded. If they don’t, we lose the right to have said businesses. There’s a purity and intensity to that.

I don’t write all this to be provocative or controversial. These are just thoughts that rattle around in my skull and thought maybe they are worth sharing. I might be right…..or I might be wrong. But it’s worth pondering about to decide for yourself. Have an awesome day!