July 2008

Your No-Fail, Winning Combination

There’s a lot of talk about business and passion these days. As it concerns Indie Business, it’s mostly about how passion gives you an edge and how, without it, you will either fail in business or be miserable even if your business is successful. Passion is undoubtedly important. When I first started making soap and beauty products, I was driven obsessively and solely by my passion for all things natural and fragrant.

No matter how long or hard I had worked at my job, I came home and made something that I could rub on my body. My passion consumed me, but eventually, more than passion began to drive my efforts. I began to entertain the possibility that I could use my passion to help people discover handmade beauty products by selling them in my own retail store. This came to pass when I opened Maria Grace Bath & Aromatherapy Shop. But I quickly discovered that my passion-filled, pie-in-the sky thinking, however endearing and sincere, was not enough.

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Save Time, Money and Take Control

The longer I coach Indie Business owners, the more I am persuaded that our success requires that we become our own best media outlets. We must become the news we want to be. While traditional media outlets and publicists can complement our efforts, ultimately, the responsibility rests with us to literally become the media on our behalf. After all, we have access to all of the tools needed to create interesting and informative content that can be delivered directly to our target audience.

Over the years, I have hired PR firms, done my own media outreach and created outlets of my own, including Indie Business Radio, my Twitter home and this blog. My experiences and the work I have done with thousands of Indies confirm my belief that, as great as it is to be quoted in mainstream media, at the end of the day, each Indie is his or her own best mouthpiece.

This truth is pointedly illustrated by the recent experience of my friend, colleague and Indie Beauty Network member, Jo Ann Hines, the Packaging Diva. (Throughout this article, "writer," "reporter" and "blogger" are used interchangeably, a testament to the ever changing and ever expanding media landscape.)

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A few months ago, author and customer service guru Michael D. Brown appeared as my guest on Indie Business Radio. As the author of Fresh Customer Service, Michael had a lot to say about the decline in customer service over the years and what Indie Business owners can and should do to make sure that poor customer service habits do not kill their businesses.

If you missed that show, listen to it now so you can incorporate Michael’s tips to help you love your customers. I know Michael would have some choice advice to offer the company my business partner husband and I had to deal with earlier today. Let me tell you what happened.

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