Sure; I own a small business.
That would be great! :D We could post here, try email, or use Yahoo Messenger if you have it. What would work best for you?
Since we are here; lets try this.
great! Thanks for doing this. First, do you oversee employees?
What type of business do you own?
A service business; I install home entertainment and other electrics into peoples homes.
I’m sorry… I need to step away from the computer. I’ll be back in about 5 minutes.
ok, I’m back. Sorry about that. So… how do you get business? Do you have a partnership with businesses that sell electronics?
I adversities in local circulars; on the web; and through word of mouth. I also place signs and business cards in local establishments like pizzerias and such
No partnership with businesses that sell electronics; they are my competition as I also buy electrics wholesale for my clients.
oh, I see. So, when people need electronics (tvs, stereos, etc) they contact you, you sell them the items they need and install them?
Yes thats what I advertise
Some times people already have the electronics and so I just do instals for them
how is most of your time spent, on a day-to-day basis? Do you actually do installations, or do you do more administrative work?
(By the way, I really do appreciate this. It’s been very difficult to find someone willing to do an interview)
I spend about 20 hours a week doing physical work on my business, installations, quotes, purchasing. And I spend about 10 hours a week administratively.
no porblem
What do you do to stay up-to-date in your business? For example, do you read electronics magazines, check out websites to learn about new products, anything like that?
Are you able to negotiate wholesale rates for products that you sell, or do you order straight from other vendors?
There are some trade journals on the subject that come to my home on a regular bases. I also frequent some message boards with people in the same line of work where we give each other tips and such. I also spend time purchasing and while doing so looking at new products in the market.
It depends on the product; I don’t by large electronics in quantity so I can’t buy wholesale; but since I am a middle man, I can get discounts that consumers can’t. Smaller Items I can buy in quantity and so get discounts on .
I know that you have a fairly small business, so this might not apply to you… but do you have any methods for motivating your employees. Do you have a lot of contact with them, or rely mostly on customer feedback? In other words, how do you make sure that they stay motivated and do a good job?
Motivation of employees is key for any business no matter that size.
There are a few things I do; I give incentive bonuses to my two employees. I give them a set of goals and when they reach them they get their bonuses.
I also keep sprits up by playing games with them to tell you the truth. A running game of some sort can do good for a business or a department in a large business. It builds friendships and competition makes people energetic.
That’s great! I wish some of my supervisors had that sort of view. :) What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about managing a business?
And I’m just curious… what sort of games do you play?
Games: right now where on a trivia kick; each of us looks up some obscure factoids when where not around each other and than just ask them randomly to each other. I keep a quick tab of who is answers the best and the winner gets to pick the first round of drinks on friday
What I learned:
That it’s not all the glamour they make it out to be in the movies to own your own business. There is a lot of hard work that they never show you; or people never talk about. Things that make you pull your hair out but you still need to do or the business fails.
I’d like to ask a little about competition. What do you think is the most important factor that allows your business to stay competitive? Do you try to charge less than your competitors, offer better customer service, or advertise better? Are demographics important, at all, in your business?
I think in my line of business advertising is the best way to differentiate your self. The more I get my name our their as compared to my competitors the more business I get.
After that price and quality are key.
A lot of my business comes from word of mouth and repeat business. So if they like my product and they like my price they come back to me.
So advertising to get out initially and price and quality to keep them coming back.
What methods of advertising do you use?
I have this book 100 tools for gorilla marketing.
In side the book it gives you 100 ways to advertize or market your self. What I try to is employ at least ten of them in each of my adverts.
They are simple things like “Use BIG font and less words” or “Blue sells better than Red”
Thanks! Where do you place most of your advertising? Do the demographics of your customers influence your ads or where they’re placed?
demographics: Yes I only spend money for adds in areas where the home owners are well off. Middle class and lower class people don’t want my services. They don’t buy the more sophisticated electronics so it is easier to install themselves; and they are more interested in function than form. Well to do people can’t be bothered installing things themselves, they want it to work out of the box, and since it doesn’t they call me.
Paid for advertising goes in local papers and circulars.
I also make up business cards that I leave around well to-do towns.
Ok, I’m not sure of a more natural way to phrase this… what sort of uncertainty affects your business, such as external changes that cause you to make decisions about how you conduct business? In other words, are there certain factors that you have to remain aware of, and be flexible about? Maybe price changes, trends in what electronics are popular, changes in shipping prices when ordering products, supplier changes, things like that?
Oh, and how has the recent downturn in the economy affected your business? Have you had to make changes to adapt?
Economic stability is an important uncertainty in my line of business; my business is a complete luxury item and when the economy sours my services are what people cut first.
The current crises is hurting me some; but I am lucky to be living in an area of the country least effected.
Other uncertainty are technical trends. A good example would be the recent next gen war between Blue-ray and HD-DVD. Until Blue-ray won people where uncertain as to which product to buy and I had to give them my opinion. Had I told every one to buy HD-DVD and than a few months later HD-DVD lost the war people would be angry with me; and than there goes my word of mouth and repeat business.
prices changes don’t affect me much; as I buy on as needed basses. And people always want the newest items which stay in a relative price range that doesn’t change much.
Also any price changes I just pass on to the customer; they don’t know the prices until I tell them and so no risk to me.
I’m almost finished. Are there any regulatory agencies that affect your business? Do you ever need to keep an eye on legislation or government groups? Or are things pretty straight-forward in that respect?
For example, I know that disposing of electronics can be pretty complicated. Do you have to deal with that?
disposing of electronics is not that complicated; you just need to take them to the proper place and pay the priper price.
I would have to say no there are not many regulatory issues for me to deal with.
Aside from the normal things business have to deal with. Taxation; employment rules; that sort of thing.
Oh gas prices are an uncertainty from the other question. We do a lot of driving and drive turks so it can stack up. If I dont keep a good tab on prices and factor them in it can realy hurt the bottom line.
I have just two more questions.
1) What inspired you to start this business? How did you discover the opportunity?
2) Are there any questions you think I should have asked, but didn’t? Anything that stands out in your mind as very important advice for managing a business?
Finally, if you gave me your name and the name of your business, I could include it in my assignment. If you’d rather remain annonymous, I’m sure that I could make something up. I know it’s a little sketchy, giving out personal info on the internet.
Also, I’m just so appreciative of your time. It’s been very difficult, finding someone who is willing to do an interview, and your answers have been so helpful and thorough. If you want, I’d be happy to reimburse you for your time. Maybe using Paypal or something. Not trying to be strange, but I believe that when someone does something nice for you, you should do something nice in return.
1) I was/am an electrical engineer. I worked for a company that offered to pay for an MBA program if I took it; they wanted to invest in future management. While in the MBA program I found I really like the issues and information I learned about owning your own business and being. A little while after that I kept thinking I would like to start a business to see how it was; since I was keen on electronics and setting up my own house, and people said I was good at it, I said why not try. Start up costs where small; when I started I just put out some flyers and when I got calls I would go there with my old tools and set things up. And than it just grow from there.
2) You did ask what I learned the most; but maybe you could have asked what is the one peace of advice you would give an up and comer. To that I would have said this.
Turn-key business are what you need to make. Think of your new business as if you where making a franchise. Pretend the goal is to sell a listen to open your exact business some where else.
Than everything your customer is going to expect of you; you do for your self.
What this means is make everything as easy that a monkey could do it. Make procedures for everything from taking our the trash to doing the taxes. If it’s a function that has to be done; write down how to do it in a book that you in tend to publish for all to read.
By doing this you insure two things; consistency which translates into quality. And you give your self the chance to step back once in a while and let others take over. If everything you want is written down they can follow it easily.
Oh and when you start your business imagine what you want it to look like in 10 years; than run it from day one as if it was that 10 year old business.
My name is Dante DeBlasio
and the compnay is IRISelectronics
and dont worry about paying me; I had fun talking to you thats enough.
Thank you so much! It was fun talking to you, too. I think I’ve learned a lot. Thanks for your time!
any time have a good night; or day depending on where you are
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I don’t think any advertisers want that sort of information. If they did, I’m sure they could use a phone book. I really am just working on homework. :)
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Da⌐11