Herman School of Business
Try it before you Buy it.
People ask me if they should open a shop to sell things to others. They want to know if they should buy a bar. Some want a wine store since wine is so hot right now for the people who still seem to have money to spend. My first question is to find out what they actually know about running that kind of business? Have they ever worked in that environment before?
Yesterday we spoke of gathering information. Today I want to go a step further and tell you that if you are going to plunk down your hard earned savings, then borrow against the equity in your house, and eventually still go deeper in debt to make the venture work, why not Try it before you Buy it. If you want to own a retail store for your product idea, go work in a store for one week. Just one week. Volunteer with an owner of a small shop where perhaps you have been a customer, and let that small business owner know you want to experience as much as you can there, before you go out on your own.
People want to open bars and restaurants because every day all of us need to eat. Repeat customers everyday! How can such a concept miss? People have to have food everyday, there is no choice in that matter, and if you have the greatest food idea, with the neatest location, and the most fun formula for success, won’t you have it made in the shade. Work in a restaurant for one week. Do every job you can. Don’t just greet customers with that sweet smile, or pour them a drink and listen to their stories. Be the server and take their orders, carry the food out on those back-breaking trays, clean the tables off when the mess is left behind, then wash the dishes.
But wait, that’s not all…after the place closes scrub the floors every night, clean the kitchen including the stove, the exhaust hoods, check the grease trap, go back out front and hit the guest bathrooms, mop up the bar floor, check the place for supplies that you need for tomorrow, and write out an order for your supplier, because that’s what you will be doing if you open such a place. And we haven’t even discussed cooking.
You might have the best idea to make money. Perhaps it is a product you want to manufacture, or a book you want to write (ask me about that please), or a service company you know will make a fortune. And maybe you do. But you would have nothing to lose by Trying the idea for a week before Buying it, or starting it without ever having experienced what you are in store for.
- Posted: 20 January 2008
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business success
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