The Key to Success

This week I had the opportunity to tour First Choice Computer Recycling. Greg, Bobbie, and Shane, the owners, took time from their busy schedules to show their facility and explain what contributes to their success. Last year they moved from their cramped location to a building which seemed almost too big. Ten months later, they have outgrown the building and have planned a 23,000 square foot addition with a basement.

The three began the business eight years ago when recycling computers in the United States was virtually nonexistent. Greg related that they were told, “You can’t recycle computers in this country.”

That attitude did not deter them. They saw a future in computer recycling and discovered storage units and garages full of pent-up computers to recycle. They invested long hours in starting the business, runnning it, and, as the sole employees, dismantling all the computers, too.

Although their initial “sweat equity” helped launch the business, it is not responsible for their success. With thirteen employees, the three rarely tear down computers today. Now each focuses on his or her area: Shane oversees the plant; Greg deals with the buying and selling; and Bobbie manages the office. The key to their success is their expertise in each of these areas.

Greg stays on top of the commodities markets and decides when to sell the metals which are stripped from the items. His knowledge of scrap metal, commodities, and the buy-sell process makes the difference between profit and loss. Shane works to keep the plant running effectively. His knowledge of how to tear items apart efficiently with maximum preservation of the parts determines their value and their labor expense. Bobbie runs the office and oversees the marketing and accounting. Her knowledge keeps the firm compliant with required paperwork and balances revenues and expenses.

Their knowledge as well as their entrepreneurial spirit are the basis of their success. What sets them apart is their drive to continue learning so that they may grow their business. This fits right in with researchers’ findings that what matters most in the economy of a country is not the availability of land, labor, and capital. No, it’s the other two factors of production that determine a vibrant economy. They are entrepreneurship and knowledge.

I think these also determine the success or failure of a business.

Successful entrepreneurs risk, but they manage their risk. Successful entrepreneurs also seek knowledge. They don’t just seek it before they open a business; they continually want information that will help them run their businesses more profitably. They acquire knowledge wherever they can find it: from others, the Internet, workshops, reading, and classes.

I know that in the daily routine of doing business, taking time to increase your knowledge may seem to be a low priority. That’s not so. Successful business people such as Bobbie, Greg, and Shane will tell you that knowledge makes the difference between success and failure, profit and loss.

What have you done lately to expand your knowledge?

One Bold Move

I heard an interesting story of entrepreneurship a couple of days ago. Angie and her husband, two teachers, wanted to start a business to earn extra money for their children’s college education. The idea of making kettle corn caught their attention, and Angie's husband searched for three days before finding just the right equipment at just the right price. They bought the equipment and began experimenting with their recipe.

Once they had the recipe to their liking, they attended local events and sold their freshly-made kettle corn. After doing this for a couple of years, they had a wild and crazy idea: Take samples of their kettle corn to the Viking's training camp. They stuffed 120 bags of freshly-stirred kettle corn and dropped them off for the Vikings. As the players and staff consumed the kettle corn, many exclaimed, "What is this stuff? This is really good."

The next day, Angie and her husband received a call from the Viking's front office, inviting them to serve Angie's Kettle Corn at all Vikings home games, which they have been doing ever since. That opportunity grew their business substantially. In addition, the presence of Angie's Kettle Corn at Vikings games prompted interest from area grocers, Cosco, and Target.

Angie and her husband's one bold move of taking samples of their kettle corn to the Vikings launched their business from a small operation to a large one. How often do bold ideas run through your mind, but because you are busy tending to your day-to-day business, you do not act on them?

I have done that.

The challenge with bold ideas is first to pay attention. Stop, think the idea through, and mull it over. Ask a couple of people whose opinion you trust for their input. Be careful to ask those who are unbiased. If you know in advance what answer you will receive, why ask? Then act on the idea. Bold ideas love speed. If you receive a bold idea, don't shelve it in your "idea" file. Do something with it quickly.

If you don't, someone else will.

Randyland

This morning I found inspiration in a news story about a fifty-one-year-old waiter from Pittsburgh named Randy. Waiting tables at breakfast for twenty-three years, he has a love of Pittsburgh and of people. This attitude elicits comments. “He’s cheery. He’s welcoming. You feel like you are coming down to your kitchen to eat,” offered a customer.

“I’ve worked with him for twenty-three years. He never has a bad day,” said a waitress.

“He is eclectic, eccentric, and wonderful,” added a cook.

The restaurant‘s manager went further. “Ever-giving is his motto, and not just about breakfast, but about his love for other people.”

Randy has applied his positive attitude toward helping his community and laying the groundwork for opening his own restaurant. In the middle of northside Pittsburgh, he has created Randyland, a thirty-block area of renovated buildings and gardens. In the middle of broken-down buildings and boarded-up homes, Randy’s efforts have changed the look and the feel of the neighborhood.

He describes it as “an oasis of joy.”

Starting with $10,000 on a credit card, Randy bought the first building that he says was “trash, garbage, a ghetto.”

Over the past twenty-five years, Randy has used recycled materials and other people’s trash to create 800 streetscapes, gardens, flower pots, and murals. He’s even planted banana trees. In the process, he has beautified the area and changed attitudes. “Color is therapy,” he maintains.

A professional woman who knows Randy agrees. “The color helps us accept diversity and that we’re all different. We live in America. Randy sets the tone and gives you the opportunity to be your own self.”

Pointing to a bullet hole through his “Thank you” painted on a garbage can flap, Randy notes that he “thought of getting rid of the hole, but it’s interesting because it shows that we’re still in the city, still a-changing, but thank you for understanding us.”

Randy’s investors are his customers. Over the past twenty-five years, he has funded the entire project on the tips that he receives in his job. Randy hopes to turn the first building that he bought, now his home, into his restaurant someday, which will be a gathering place for the community.

The reporter asked, “What’s your goal?”

Randy answered, “Take Randyland worldwide. Teach people the joy to just live life and be happy in who you are. Don’t worry about the economy, your age, your sex, your wealth, your intelligence. You are so very, very, very, absolutely no doubt about it, valuable.”

This enthusiastic individual has many reminders for us as business people One is his attitude. People bubbling with enthusiasm are hard to resist. They make us smile. They are memorable. They make us want to be around them. Contrast this with someone who is negative. That person makes you want to get out of his or her presence quickly, right? Like bees to honey, enthusiasm attracts people.

This new year check your attitude and the attitude of your employees. Do your attitude and their attitudes attract people?

Set a goal in 2010 to exude enthusiasm.

(This is an excerpt from volume two of Profitable Marketing Monthly CD. Click here to find out more about the CD.)