Herman School of Business
Change...Change...Change...
No, I don’t mean change for a dollar. I have a front row seat to a person chasing a change while resisting giving up the past. See if you can identify with this person.
Now before I tell this tale let me offer up that this person is without a doubt the hardest working person I have ever met. And this person is one of the most intelligent people when it comes to understanding the nuances of business. And the person is also one of the funniest people, as if being so beautiful wasn’t enough. This person is my wife, Maggie.
Maggie spent twenty years before I met her raising two children by herself working in the banking industry so she rubbed shoulders with customers who may have been struggling with small business woes, but she also watched successful business people stuff their accounts with profits. Maggie learned about real estate investing and she realized that success took more than luck, it also took hard work and time. She educated her children (now considered my two children as well) in the field they chose and both are wonderful people who make her proud. Maggie also believed in the stock market and put a few dollars aside when she could in her retirement account. She bought a small house and still owns it outright today even though we have been together for over 14 years. That house was her “escape hatch” in case things didn’t work out with me!
Maggie and I bought a 240 year old building 13 years ago and she runs a gift shop/antiques store there. She loves being a merchant more than anything. The interaction with her customers dates back to when she was a child in her grandfather’s penny candy store. She loves making a sale…but not just for the money…she loves seeing a person buy something that makes them smile. It is her passion. But like thousands of merchants she now sees more “sad” lookers than buyers. She chats up with the customers how things are going…and older people are all downers right now. It doesn’t pay to ask how things are going…because people think things are “all gone.” More customers are coming to the store to be social and to cry on a shoulder rather than make a purchase. Maggie is extremely positive as a person…she learned to look forward to making progress and always being positive no matter her circumstance. She knows she doesn’t want to sit in her store all day listening to whining…and she is considering a radical change in her life…should she give up the store and go do something else. She wants to be doing something where people are happier. Where she can make a sale and see a smile. Maybe she could be a rep at a sales convention where at least some people buy the products in her booth. She loves food and has considered being a sales rep for a great food product and do demonstrations at grocery stores or in the Mall.
BUT…she has ideas rattling around in her head about her loyal customers who still come in the shop, even if not to buy something. Remember, she wants to see the smile, making the sale is secondary. She is looking for equipment to show movies on the back wall of the store…and she wants to set up a “ladies night out” where for five bucks those sad folks can come in and watch a movie…eat a little popcorn…socialize a bit…and maybe she can see some smiles!
Maggie is constantly thinking about what she can do in her store to bring back smiles…she knows it is tough out there for all of us…but she wholly believes we will get past all this mess. Her retirement account has suffered just like yours, her house has gone down in value but she wasn’t planning on selling it right now anyway. Her customers are lucky…Maggie will cling to that store and figure out a way to bring back her customers smiles…and I believe she is the reason people keep filling up the store each weekend, and they appreciate her being there for them, even when they don’t intend to buy anything. I hope for right now Maggie finds a way to change within her store and not look so much outside of her store. Her customers do to.
- Posted: 14 November 2008
- Comments: 1
- Category: Business success
I refuse to be a part of this recession. You know its a choice and I choose not to participate. I sure would like to meet Maggie. She sounds like my kind of friend.
Written by Linda Sloan on 15 November 2008