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Seeds For Thought
Finding Your Own Business
Your chances for success will be infinitely greater if you copy or clone an existing successful business than if you try to invent your own new and unproven business concept. In other words, you have a much higher chance at success by being the tenth person in your town to own a landscaping business than by being the first person in the world to try and convince homeowners to beautify their homes by having their trees and shrubs painted different colors.In choosing a business, make life as easy as possible. Remember, you will spend a lot of time and money and will exert a lot of energy in whatever business you choose. Do you like: cars, stamps, music, art, dance, cooking, teaching, reading, woodworking, building, repairing, sewing, gardening, computers, writing, planes, travel, or sports? Then, why not explore business opportunities in these areas? Are you good working with older people, children, or teen-agers? Are you good working with your hands? Do you have any collections? Do you feel that you would be able to sell things to other businesses?  Also, as previously stated, it is possible to take job/career aptitude tests at schools and employment centers which can guide you to work and businesses to which you are suited.  Here is how a Catholic Action Principles Champion would start and operate a roofing business ... You offer a better quality roofing product at the same or better price than your competitors. Your crew of workers is friendly and professional. You clean up and stack your materials neatly at the end of each day. You make sure that the yard, driveway and street are not littered with pieces of old shingles or nails. As you work, you put out a yard sign advertising your business so that neighbors and passers-by can see that your crew is friendly, neat and professional. You do the job as promised and when promised. Or, you honestly explain to the homeowner any problems that you encounter. Keep the customer informed. You make absolutely sure that the customer is satisfied. You explain to the customer that you are building your new business and that her words of encouragement are very important to you. You ask for a testimonial to use in your advertising. You explain any other type of work that your company offers such as siding or building decks or installing gutters or new windows. You offer the customer an incentive to use your company again, maybe two new windows, at no cost, on an order of twenty or more. You offer the customer an incentive to refer your company to other homeowners, maybe a color TV or sports tickets or a restaurant gift certificate. You show your customers in every way possible that you appreciate their business and that you want more business. Each time you leave a satisfied customer, you exponentially increase your chances for success. Your objective is to make sure that everyone of your customers is satisfied and that everyone becomes an ambassador singing your praises to others. This is no time to be shy. When you get a compliment, let the homeowner know that you are always looking for more business and you would appreciate any and all referrals. Every four to six months, you make contact with your customers. You send a new brochure or announce a new offer. You send a card, without advertising, at the holidays. If there are favorable articles written about your company, you send those to your customer base. If you are mentioned in the parish bulletin or receive an award from the Knights of Columbus, let your customer base know. Don't be afraid to let your customers know that you are Catholic. Being Catholic is a business asset.  You leave a 4-color brochure with the prospect, directing them to all the wonderful testimonials for your work on your company's website. On your website, you can mention in your bio section, that you are a member of a local Catholic parish and membership in any Catholic organizations. If you walk with the CYO on the annual twenty-mile "Walk For Hunger," you can mention that. This is your PR [public relations] opportunity to shine. On the website, you talk about the quality of the materials you use. You have a FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions column. You explain about insurance and guarantees. You list all your testimonials and all the articles written about your company in local newspapers. You show a company photo of you and your neatly uniformed crew. If you have a nice truck or nice offices, you display those pictures. You create a favorable impression for your customer. You want an established look even if your next customer is your first customer. You have studied the home contracting industry. What do consumers complain about? You address those concerns on your website. Of course, if your customer base is computer literate as more and more of the world is, you can send e-mail as well as snail mail announcements. You make anyone and everyone feel that your company is friendly, neat and professional. Romano's Homestyle Pizza, ContinuedFirst, he makes his announcement to his co-workers, who respond, "Kevin, you can't be serious. You have a great job here. How is our company softball team going to compete without you at second base? Where are you going to find another job with nice people like us? Anyway, you're right in line to take over for Ed Shempas, our hardware manager." Yes, Kevin probably could be hardware manager when Ed retires at 65 but he's only 42 now! Gee, Kevin will be only 50 when that opening occurs. He tells his mother, "Kevin, you're not going to give up your job, are you? Everyone likes you at the store. Is it the money? I bet if you asked them, they'd give you a little raise. You should be thinking about getting married. You have a nice job. You have a nice girlfriend. Remember that you promised your cousin Robbie that you would buy him a new refrigerator with your employee discount. I have to ask my friends to put you on their prayer lists. Kevin, why do you want to upset your mother? " He tells his buddies, "Kevin, have you gone completely insane? There are already at least two million pizza places in this city. What you need to do is to drink a lot more beer. Who do you think you are? Emeril? We've never even seen you make a sandwich and you want to open a restaurant?" He tells his girlfriend, "Kevin, if you open a pizza shop, you'll be working like a madman. When can we go out if you're working every night? Pizza, really, that's a sweaty job and you'll get sauce all over yourself. My little brother, Tim, was working in a pizza shop when he was fifteen. I mean, really, what kind of a life is that, selling pizzas? What about the new car you were going to buy? Please, Kevin, why do you always want to try and upset me? I know your mother and your friends are going to tell you the same thing. Kevin, are you listening?"  Why should he discourage himself by talking to well-meaning people who are only going to give advice based on their own negative agenda? Eventually, Kevin will meet mentors and advisers to whom the idea of entrepreneurship is not an alien concept. Kevin's present mindset is, "Why can't I do it?" You don't have to be a genius or loaded with money to start a pizza shop. There are a lot of pizza shops already in the town and that's good because it proves that people like pizza. Kevin's Market ResearchTo do this research, Kevin goes online to each town's website and finds the population. He then checks the Yellow Pages listings for the number of pizza shops. This is pretty basic research and it takes Kevin only a few hours to complete his survey. But, already, Kevin has valuable information on pizza shop demographics for Newton and vicinity which helps him decide where to open his first shop and also starts him thinking about the site of his second shop. Early in his research, Kevin realizes that with hard work he could make a comfortable living owning one pizza shop but that owning one pizza shop isn't going to make him rich. In effect, Kevin realizes that from an income standpoint, he would be trading his job at the department store for the pizza shop pretty much dollar for dollar. The income would be about the same. By making the move to pizza, would he be gaining independence and security? At the department store, he worked to the whim of others. At the pizza shop, win or lose, at least he would work for himself. He would be controlling his own future. To arrive at his income figures and to learn the fundamentals of getting a pizza shop up and running, Kevin researches eight sources: 1. He conducts on-site interviews. 2. He conducts phone interviews. 3. He uses the Internet. 4. He buys books. 5. He follows up "For-Sale" ads in the business opportunity section of the classifieds. 6. He meets with restaurant business brokers. 7. He talks with his mentors. 8. He surveys his Newton competition. Source One - On-site Interviews Kevin will conduct his on-site interviews in the town of Wayland, which is one city away from his town of Newton. Why Wayland? Because Wayland is a similar town to Newton and, really because very few, if any, people from Wayland buy their pizza in Newton - Kevin's opening a pizza shop in Newton would not be a threat to existing pizza shop owners in Wayland. Therefore, Kevin reasons, the owners of the pizza shops in Wayland should be willing to talk to him. By calling the Wayland town hall, Kevin is able to get the names of the six pizza shop owners in Wayland. This is public information, since to be in business each owner must have filed a DBA (Doing Business As) certificate and various restaurant licenses, for milk storage, etc. 
On one of his days off from the department store, Kevin calls the six Wayland pizza shops and asks each owner for an interview. He calls at times that will be convenient for the owners, either well before lunch or between lunch and dinner. Since so many people in town knew and respected Father Bitsoli, Kevin asked him if he knew any pizza shop owners. Father mentioned one person on Kevin's list, Mr. Angeles of Wayland Pizza Palace. "Kevin, Teddy Angeles can be a little grouchy but when you get to know him, he's a great guy. Give him my best.." "Mr. Angeles, my name is Kevin Romano." Mr. Angeles doesn't recognize the name, "Who?" So, Kevin introduces himself, "Kevin Romano. I'm considering opening a pizza shop in Newton and I'd like your advice." Mr. Angeles doesn't know if this is a crank call or what, "My advice is that there are already too many pizza places in Newton. Save your money. Forget it." Mr. Angeles' voice is impatient. But, Kevin doesn't give up on an important information lead, "Well, sir, I was given your name by Father Bitsoli. He said to say, hello and that you were a great guy." "Me, no, but Father Mike is the great guy. Now, what can I do for Father?" "Father Bitsoli has been helping me think about starting my own business. Right now,, I'm still in the planning stage. Listen, you're a man who has been in this business awhile and I'd just like to ask you a few questions about suppliers and so on. I'd really appreciate it if you'd just give me a few minutes. Let me come to your shop. I'll buy a cup of coffee and you can be a big help to me - just fifteen minutes, sir." "Okay, for Father Mike, Okay." Four of the six owners agree to talk to Kevin. He schedules two of the appointments for his day off next week and two for late weekday nights when he is off and the pizza business is slower. The fifth Wayland pizza shop owner absolutely refuses to speak with Kevin. The sixth owner speaks so little English that he can't be understood. From every step of his research, Kevin learns a little more. What does Kevin want to know from these owners? Everything. Where do they buy their dough, sauce, cold cuts, bread, soda, boxes, and bags? Where did they buy their equipment? Who was their salesman? Were they satisfied? Who do they use for pest control and garbage removal? What times of day are the busiest? What is the busiest day? What is the busiest time of the year? How much help is needed to run the shop? What percentage of their business is pizza? Subs? Salads? Spaghetti? Drinks? Are they planning to add anything else to the menu? Have they tried anything on their menus that flopped? Kevin would like to know income figures. What is the weekly gross? How many pizzas are sold? How many subs? However, Kevin is smart enough to realize that his walking in off the street as an unknown to interview a restaurant owner, a cash business owner, is not likely to elicit candid responses. Kevin sticks to asking mostly operational questions. What are your biggest problems? How do you find and keep help? What kinds of promotions do you run? Would you ever consider selling this shop? If appropriate, Kevin will ask for a behind-the-counter tour of the shop. From his on-site interviews, Kevin learns that running a pizza shop is an honest living, requiring hard work and offering middle class rewards. None of these four shop owners is getting rich, but they all seem to be doing all right. The real benefit that Kevin gets from the on-site interviews is information about products and operations that you could only glean from a seasoned veteran with many years of hands-on experience. These are the pearls of wisdom. This is the kind of specialized information that would be very difficult to find in a book or from a generic business course. Kevin learns that there is unanimous agreement on the type of pizza ovens that are best and also the type of grill ventilation to use. He learns about negotiating the best deal from the soda company and how to have a soft drink/milk chest installed. He learns about cash registers and the number of phone lines he'll need. He learns the types of pizzas and subs that sell best. He learns the best source for his baking supplies. He also hears bad experiences that certain shops have had with certain vendors. As his knowledge base widens, Kevin begins to get a real sense for what it will take to start and operate a pizza shop. Kevin doesn't build his business plan until he is happy with his educational plan. He doesn't presume to know more about the pizza business than people who have been in the neighborhood pizza business for decades. He asks and he listens and he learns. Within 48 hours, Kevin returns to each on-site interview shop with a fruit basket and a Thank You note for the owner. Cost: $30.00 each. Public relations never hurt and Kevin will be remembered when he calls again.  Source Two - Phone InterviewsFor the phone interviews, Kevin selects two other towns, which, like Wayland, are near to Newton but where the pizza restaurants aren't in competition with Newton. In the two "phone interview towns," there are thirteen pizza shops. Again, to personalize the calls, Kevin gets the names of the pizza shop proprietors from the clerk at the town halls. In conducting his phone interviews, Kevin expects his cooperation response rate to be lower. On the phone, the proprietors really don't know to whom they're talking. It isn't likely they will divulge "trade secrets." Here's the difference in technique. Whereas Kevin's in person interviews could be longer and more general, his phone interviews must be more specific. Making his calls, Kevin explains who he is and why he is calling. He asks if he has called at a good time or when he may call back. He quickly gets to his specific questions which are based on the information he has already gathered. The questions might be: "Would you recommend Braun pizza ovens?" "A Westinghouse grill?" "Do you buy your dough and sauces from Danby Industries?" "Are you satisfied with them?" "Have you ever used anyone else?" "Who is your salesperson at Danby?" "Are you satisfied with the service you are receiving from him or her?" "Who is your soft drink supplier?" "Who does your printing?" "Is most of your business delivery or walk-in?" Kevin listens and doesn't interrupt, argue or contradict. If the majority of respondents say that Blodgett pizza ovens are the best on the market and someone disagrees, Kevin lets them disagree. He listens. From his thirteen phone interview calls, Kevin achieves five extended phone interviews, with two of the five interviews leading to invitations for on-site visits. Kevin gratefully accepts. The other eight calls result in little or no new or supportive information. Kevin writes a Thank You note to all phone interviewees. Cost: $2.00 each including postage. Kevin also installs a contact management program on his computer and starts entering all the names and phone numbers he is collecting. Kevin is beginning to build a network. He calls Father Bitsoli to thank him and update him on his conversation with Mr. Angeles. Think about the point of this lesson over and over. Meditate during your quiet time. Say a prayer to Saint Joseph. How many people would take the extra time to do all of this "extra" research? Be the exception and you'll be exceptional! Go to Lesson Five1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6Index
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