What are Your Goats?

I recently had the opportunity to attend one of the Small Business Breakfast Club's meetings, sponsored by the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce. The club's meetings are meant for networking and learning. I did both; I networked with several small businesses in the El Paso area and learned from our speaker, Fran Tarkenton.

Tarkenton began by talking about a retail store called "Goats on the Roof." He said the reason he first stopped at the store was that there were actual goats on the business' roof. The goats aren't the only unique element of the store; the store emphasizes singular gifts and all things homemade, from fudge and ice cream to old-fashioned candy. Goats on the Roof's business owner, Tracy Allard, has enjoyed success despite the economic climate. She has brought in so much revenue that she has been able to open an additional store. 

Tarkenton used Allard's very unique store in order to ask the question, "What are your goats?" In asking the question, he raised others: What makes you and your services unique? What are you selling to clients? What are you doing to differentiate yourself from the competition? Also, do you know your products? Do you know your clients? What are your clients saying? Are they referring you to other people? These are all important questions and ones that must be answered if you and I want to be successful business owners. When we answer these questions, we are better able to market ourselves and to approach potential clients and collaborators more confidently. In addition, we discover our vision for our companies and begin to think about our future goals.

Tarkenton's discussion also raised other questions: What are you doing to gain the next customer? What are your strategies for reaching that customer? Are your current strategies working? What do you need to change or improve? Questions related to these include: What are you doing to retain your current customers? How do you stay in contact with them? The ways we stay in contact differ, depending on our customers and businesses. For example, I use e-mail with some clients and telephone calls with others. I also use my blog to keep my clients and potential customers up-to-date and interested. As Tarkenton says, "Nobody can make it happen but yourself." It's true; if we aren't out there pro-actively seeking and keeping clients, we will lose them.

A final point was that being an independent business owner is fun. If you're not having fun, you may want to reconsider the self-employed life. If, however, you find satisfaction in the fact that you're in control of your business and not under the government's or a corporation's mandates, you are probably meant for the independent lifestyle. Indeed, most of us independent business owners rarely complain about our so-called work/life balance because we're passionate about our business and our customers. 

Being independent is fun, but it's also hard. We have to put in a lot of work to make our businesses successful. Most of us know, though, that the harder we work, the better the results. When I put in the 110%, I find that I'm happier with the results, and, most of the time, so are my clients. The reality is, to be entrepreneurs, we have to be completely immersed in our businesses and our customers' experience. This is why I spend a lot of time researching the company for which I'm working as well as finding affiliated resource materials. Only by enveloping myself in my customer's needs and wants can I ever hope to write content that makes them happy and results in them gaining more exposure with their target audience.

Finally, Tarkenton talked about the difference between busyness and productiveness. Most of us can confidently say that we're busy, but how many of us can say that we're productive? Too often, we spend our time on things that don't matter. We worry about things that are never going to happen and waste our time trying to prevent those imagined scenarios. If we were to take that same amount of time and put it toward the things that would garner results - such as attending networking events or updating our websites and blogs on a regular basis - we would well be on our way toward productiveness. Eddie Peters, a Chamber member, coined a new phrase in response to Tarkenton's discussion: "Be busductive."

So, what are your goats? Are you having fun? Are you ready to be "busductive?"