Retail/Wholesale

Do What Others Won't Do

The Woodhaven Chevrolet dealership is now buzzing with customers and employees who run to provide service, but it wasn't always that way.

Target to Maximize Marketing

General manager Joe Posby keeps the direct mail flowing to keep customers coming in the door.

Make Service Your Backbone

Host Hattie Bryant distills the truth about Rodgers Chevrolet: great service cements the relationship that begins with the sale.

Make it a Priority to Create Wealth for Employees

Employees at Rodgers Chevrolet share in the success of the business with a great work environment, opportunities for growth and financial reward.  More...

Be Nice

Employees at Rodgers Chevrolet are family where the love and support sustain them in good times and bad.

Keep Growing

Pamela Rodgers could have easily retired but instead she sets even bigger goals to keep herself learning and growing.   More...

Develop Multiple Sales Channels

Donna was patient and used her own market to test and validate her products before she expanded. She also discovered that sales can come from surprising places.

Do What You Know

The Souto Brothers were smart to learn about the coffee business from their father.  The  knowledge and experience they gained even as children helped them achieve success.   Home...

Leave To Learn

The three Souto brothers, the oldest being Enrique pictured here, went off to college in order to  work for big business.  They all came back to make what their father started into the major player within an industry segment.   More...

Acquire The Competition

Demand Quality From Suppliers

The Soutos must buy their coffee beans on global commodity markets.  To avoid mistakes, they have internal controls because they know that  their supply chain is critical to their ability to deliver quality.

Give Employees The Newest Tools

Jose Souto explains that new tools and cutting-edge technology improves morale and productivity. 

Customize For Key Customers

Customization for customers is the best way to fend off competition and it is the secret to earning millions from repeat sales.  Angel Souto is in charge of sales at Cafe Pilon.

Set Your Ego Aside

Host Hattie Bryant says that  the Soutos were smart to buy a competitor and build on its brand. 

Make Your Word As Good As Gold

Your reputation is your greatest asset. It is not surprising that Enrique said the most important lesson he learned from his father is that, "Your word is your bond." This video clip begins with a little lesson for making espresso coffee!

Keep Dreaming

These brothers seem to have it all. They keep dreaming about a better future.  Someday they will sell coffee in a free Cuba.  This is Enrique, Jose and Angel Souto.   More

Educate Yourself

Jimmy Fand is the perfect example of a new American who understands what a person can do with their life in this country.   More...

Find A Need To Fill

Jimmy Fand discovered a business opportunity just by paying attention.  He started importing a large variety of tiles that were not available in the US.

Be Efficient

Every step in the process of creating and servicing a customer takes time and money.  Profits pile up when these processes are smooth.

Focus On Quality Products and Quality Relationships

Jimmy searched the world to find the factories who would ship him tile that he is proud to sell.

Go Global

Jimmy's travel has taught him that America is the oldest democracy but is still a new country compared to so many.

Keep Overhead Low And People Productive

Jimmy did not start off in business as profitable as he is today.  He learned the  hard way that every person on the payroll must be productive.

Leave Profits In The Business

Most small business owners have to bootstrap their startup and that discipline tends to carry forward so the company can grow with its own cash.

Treat Your Customer Database Like Gold

John Wargo says that knowing about our customers in general is not good enough.

Pay Attention To Spot Opportunity

In a move some saw as twisted logic, Anne Beiler launches what will become a pretzel empire. More...

Create A Truly Unique Selling Proposition

Creating a unique product, especially if you are working in an ancient category, takes work and inspiration.

Create A Franchise With Systems

Start with a great product, and follow with well-defined training and procedures in place to develop a franchise organization.

Find An Angel

Anne Beiler believes if you give, you will receive. She found an angel investor when bankers refused to make her a loan for expansion. More...

Be Good To Attract Good

Founders Jonas and Anne Beiler are good people doing good and attracting people like them to their business.  Anne says, "...love in the workplace.  Yeh, it works."

Put People Ahead of Profits

Host Hattie Bryant says that the time she spent with Anne Beiler revealed an authentic, hard-working founder who truly believes that people are more important than money.  

Hire Experts

Auntie Anne's consulted experts to guide them in creating a franchise opportunity that attracts people from all walks of life, like this CPA, to start their own business.

Make Customers Say Wow

Employees and franchisees at Auntie Anne's are smiling because the pretzels
are so yummy that the customers are smiling and keep coming back.

Teach People To Be Nice

Anne Beiler believes that to get nice employees you must be nice, train nice and expect it in the treatment of customers.

Put A Succession Plan In Place

Anne said she wants this company to out live her and has acted on her goals by recruiting Sam Beiler and naming him President of the company. 

Make Your Mission Statement Inspirational

Anne Beiler's mission is to be a guiding LIGHT for her employees and franchisees.   More...

Duplicate Yourself

Anne McGilvray started hiring people because she wanted to share the fun and profits she discovered as a manufacturer's representative.

Let Your Childhood Inform You

Anne has a "feel for the cloth." Many say she started the "little yellow ducky" fad.  A craftsman, George Kartsotis, says that Anne's ideas have been key to his success.

Test, Train Tell The Truth When Recruiting

Recruiting and retaining over 100 productive sales reps is an on-going challenge at AMCI.  Testing, training and telling the truth are the three parts of its the success strategy.

Let Go Sooner Than Later

Anne McGilvray says that keeping people in the company who are not performing is just as bad for the you are keeping as it is for the company.

Go Digital

Anne hired her husband, Michael,  because she was stuck. She was smart enough to know that her company had outgrown her ability to take it to the next level. Michael applied his knowledge of computing way before there was such a thing as the Internet.

Hire Big Business Experience

Host Hattie Bryant says that Anne was able to go from $2 to $60 million in annual sales because she saw the need for big systems.

Study Customer Behavior

Anne McGilvray is so serious about understanding her customers that she decided to become a customer herself.

Commit to Commit

Michael McGilvray has fun solving the problems of growth.

Give Customers Good Deals

Darby McQuade is a merchant and he says that you make people happy by giving them a good deal on something they need now. More...

Offer Others Opportunity

Ruben Romero is a recording artist who has a boutique at Jackalope. More...

Hire Big Business Experience

Before Darby hired some leaders from big business he was stuck in one location.

Use Metaphor to Teach

Darby searches the world for products and for ideas to help grow his business. Go to the Jackalope homepage linked within the Episode tab. More...

Act on Your Dreams

Darby has an MBA and worked on Wall Street but he's much happier shopping the world and bringing it back to his store in Santa Fe. More...

Use Multi-Stage Marketing

John Wargo tells host Hattie Bryant that prospects need to be reached in multiple ways.

Jump on a Trend

Today more than 50% of the profits come from a service the founder never would have dreamed of when she opened for business.  Here employees tend to indoor landscaping at a large hospital.

Open the Books

Lorraine has monthly finance meetings where employees learn about how the business is doing.

Find Suppliers Who Help

Founder Tom Gegax tell us that TiresPlus financed its growth by plowing the earnings of the business back into expansion and by borrowing from suppliers.

Understand Investors and Risks

The founders of Tires Plus decided that going public would be too distracting.

Offer Selection, Speed and Price

Taking care of customers and employees is as important as the product you choose to sell.

Avoid 50-50 Partnerships

Don Gullet, Tom's partner at Tires Plus, says great partnerships are a constant balancing act of one person's skills complementing the other's.

Choose Words Carefully

Everything about Tom Gegax is about expectations: from white shirts and sneakers to language that communicates and inspires.

Install Systems - the Path to Growth

Host Hattie Bryant says that at Tires Plus the rubber meets the road  with a new paradigm of service and systems to match.

Hire COPS

Tom Gegax's people philosophy is: hire attitude, invest heavily in training and coach, coach, coach.

Use Four Steps To Coach Employees

Employees at Tire Plus know what is expected of them and if they are meeting those expectations.

Deploy the Four Steps of Execution

Tom Gegax's success is based on a well thought out and faithfully executed people strategy.

Learn How to Achieve Results

Tires Plus follows "ATE" steps to achieve desired results from employees: Delegate, Motivate, Educate,  and Terminate  is one of many continuous improvement methodologies. For more...

Coach Yourself First

Tom Gegax learned the hard way that you have to coach yourself before you can be an effective coach to others.

Change To Meet Demand

Consumer spending habits change constantly. One of the biggest challenges a retailer faces is determining what products to offer. This is as much of an art as a science. Through it all, Gloria Navarro keeps the stores staffed and the staff happy.

Increase Profit Margins With Private Labels

Navarro Pharmacy stocks approximately 3,000 items with their own brand. In many cases, the private label brand is the #1 seller in the product line.

Fix It Before It Breaks

Hubert and Rose Opici say that preventative maintenance saves time and money.  More...

Trust Your Experience

Decades of experience give the founders the confidence to turn down products they don't like.

Use Technology to Beat Competitors

Opici Wine Group moves 2 million cases of wine through its modern warehouse every year.

Recruit Top Talent

Leadership matters and the cost of hiring experience usually pays off.  Burton May came from outside the organization while some managers worked their way up.

Eat Dinner with Your Customers

Dina is part of the third generation and she often finds herself delivering products from the truck of her car when a customer calls in a panic.  She learned from her grandparents that service doesn't stop at 5 pm.

Treat Suppliers Like Family

Parties and gatherings plus speaking Italian to the growers from Italy keep everyone happy.

Search the World for Value

Global sourcing delivers value pricing and keeps customers coming back.

Be Tough on the Next Generation

In the US, 80% to 90% of businesses are considered to be family owned. Only 30% will survive to the 2nd generation, 12% to the 3rd and just 3% to the 4th generation.   More... 

Test the Waters

Somehow David fell in love with watches.   Lucky for him that he found the right product from a vendor that was looking for the right American distribution system.   More...

Do Small Things Well

David Arnold has never tried to hit a home run. He simply wants to advance himself slowly and carefully around the bases and is happy if it takes time to score.   More...

Give Customers Exactly What They Want

Happy customers keep coming back.   More...

Keep Your Technology Current

Distribution of thousands of small products everyday depends upon perfect systems.   More...

Track Sales by the Minute

Champions in every field will tell you that they measure their efforts often.  The more you measure the better chance you have to improve.   More...

Have Fun with Employees

The owner and other leaders enjoy basketball and weight lifting right in the warehouse.   Employees laugh as the owner tries but fails to out lift them.   More...

Be Patient

Host Hattie Bryant say that David's secret to success was to take his time to do things right.   More...

Find the Right Vendor

Language is no longer a barrier to trade or to building the right relationships.   More...

Enjoy the Hard Parts

David Arnold expects things to go wrong and believes it is his job to deal with the difficult problems.    More...

Listen to Customers

Founder Judi Jacobsen said her paintings sold so quickly she couldn't keep up with production which led her to the idea of printing her art on cards.     More...

Automate Your Art

Increase profits with automation.  At Madison Park, hand painted art finds its way inside a computer and some artists create this hand made look using computer design tools.

Hire Your Children

The founder hired her son Mark and he worked his way to the top.

Plan Your Exit

Bonnie Brown Hartley, PhD, is a family business counselor who points out that Judi was taking the right steps to move up and out of her company.    More ...

Help Other Businesses Grow

Madison Park owns a building that rents space to other small business owners who are involved in the production of their greeting cards.

Decide to Grow

Brian Jacobsen has grown the business by bringing in more designers.

Put People Ahead of Profits

Judi Jacobsen says you can provide good work for people, help them succeed and at the same time make plenty of money.  More...

Spot A Niche

Maragret Quenemoen started a company to make affordable clothing for extreme mountain, rock and ice climbers.  Her  first product line included sizes for petite women.

Recruit Family

If you can't afford to pay big salaries at the startup, hire family members who can be paid in IOUs.  Paula is the founder's twin sister who is also an extreme athlete who speaks and writes Mandarin.

Recruit Customers

Grow your business by hiring the people who love and buy your products.

Sell the Mission

Paula and Margaret Quenemoen sell their gear to people who want to enjoy the process of mountain climbing while their competitors stress getting to the top.

Bankers Want Plans on Paper

Bankers like Tricia Maxon can make loans when they see things in black and white.

Clear Your Name First

The founder of Jagged Edge Mountain Gear suffered for not doing due diligence  before she settled on a name for the company.

Go global

The founder's sister reads and writes Mandarin as a result of trekking for years in Asia.  This experience makes doing business in China much easier for Jagged Edge.

Go Green With Caution

Using re-cycled materials raises the cost of goods needed to make the popular fleece products.

Keep Climbing. And, No Matter What, Keep Falling in Love.

The founder warns that you must love your company and what it does for its customers.

Lavish Special Treatment On Your Customers

Professionals are All Brand's core customer base.  Parts are parts but the service here is extraordinary and this is why customers come back nearly everyday. More...

Keep Open to Opportunity

Rick Presant says his Dad started All Brand because he had to drive too far for parts.

Recruit Your Competition

Owner Jeff Presant said his dad got a fast start by bringing in his competitor.

Mentor Your Successor

The founder of All Brand took time to teach the next generation.       More...

Listen to the Marketplace

The second generation of leadership brought in technology and lowered prices.

Create A Place People Want To Come To Every Day

All Brand keeps customers coming back because it has knowledgeable employees.

Require the Second Generation to Work For Others

Jeff Presant worked for others before he was allowed to work for his Dad.

Talk Through Problems

Jeff and Rick Presant talk and talk and talk until a solution becomes clear. More...

Treat All People With Great Respect

Employees at All Brand feel valued and appreciated.

Work Toward Digital Workflow

When Rick Presant bought the business his Dad started, he dumped the old handwritten inventory system and installed computers. The software tracks sales, inventory and customer buying habits.

Change

For years All Brand had been serving primarily the professional appliance repairman and also has a small counter space for the do-it-yourselfers.  It expanding by turning apartment building managers into customers.

See Problems As Challenges

Small business owners are tough because we face big problems everyday and we can't let one of them bring us down.  Rick Presant turned a major snow storm into a positive experience.

Keep Your Name in Front of Customers

Rick Presant used supplier catalogs until customers pushed him to do his own.

Convince Your Family to Invest

Starting can be shocking. In the beginning you will need both financial and psychological support from your family.  The founder and his wife invented a safe way to put wine glasses through the dishwasher.

Sell a Lifestyle, Not a Product

Wine lovers enjoy everything about wine.  They tell us to see it, swirl it, smell it, sip it, savor it and then summarize our thoughts about it. 

Stay Close to Your Best Customers

Bob Orenstein says that you can't mail to your customers too often.

Use Numbers to Make Decisions

Bob Orenstein loves wine and the products he sells but as a CPA he knows that he also has to love the numbers and make decisions based upon his financials and key ratios.   More...

Find New Products to Increase Sales

Bob Orenstein brings his customers all of the newest gizmos and gadgets for the wine-loving lifestyle.

Keep Lowering Your Costs

The white box on the cover of his catalog gives Bob Orenstein the opportunity to overprint for pennies rather than spend big bucks on a brand new cover.

Execute Near Perfection

Customers doing business online expect ordering to be quick and easy.

Make Your Work Your Life

Jim is proud of his business and of his life and there is nearly no place else he would rather be than with his employees taking care of his customers.
More videos about starting a business...

Sell A Cause

Jim Morris Environmental T-Shirts works to educate the world about nature.

Let Your Mission Attract Employees

Employees at  Jim Morris Environmental T-Shirts are proud to be part of the environmental movement.

Ask Vendors and Customers to Finance You

When Jim Morris had no cash and orders to fill, he asked his t-shirt supplier
to send the shirts on his promise to pay.

Be Patient

Jim has slowly cultivated his customers.  He writes a personal message for every catalog.

Do It Your Way

Hattie says that Jim Morris is the perfect example of a business owner who marches to the beat of his own drummer. 

Spend on Quality

Quality equipment makes it possible for Jim Morris to deliver exactly what his customers demand.

Act Like Your Customers Act

Jim Morris is one of those owners who is literally his own customer.  He loves nature and his customers depend on him and his web site to inform them about the environmental movement.

Integrity selling is not an oxymoron.

Ron Willingham is the author of a dozen books and hundreds of courses.  Among his books  are: Integrity Selling for the 21st Century, The Inner Game of Selling, Integrity Service, The People Principle, Hey, I'm The Customer, and The Ten Laws of Wealth & Abundance (new window).