Small businesses fail when they refuse to adapt. Wake early, network outside your industry, and serve a specific customer segment exceptionally well. Andy Miller of Print Source shares his routine of breakfast meetings to stay informed and avoid the isolation that kills early-stage companies.
It's a beautiful morning this morning. It's about 6:30 and I'm here in downtown Newnan, Georgia. A lot of my heart and mind this morning about business and about small business and how important it is to, to build a business to ensure your freedom. We're going to take a walk around town here and share a couple ideas with you. I woke up about 3:45 this morning. I just couldn't sleep. I had so much going on in my brain about things that I just wanted to do and things I want to talk about and things I want to share with you and with others. And just, just the excitement I have for the day. It just really was interesting. I seem to be waking up earlier and earlier every day. It just seems like I've got so much to do and time is just ticking by so fast. But, uh, what I wanted to talk about, a couple of things I want to talk about today. As I said, I'm in downtown Noonan, Georgia. This town is, uh, has got a court square, probably a lot like your town if you live in a small town. Even in a big town, they all started out this way, or seem to anyway. And Alan Jackson is from here, a country music singer and star, and he wrote a song called The Little Man and talked about how, in this, back in the '90s, how all the businesses were killed by big money. And yet, if you look around, and I'll turn around here in just a second, there's plenty of small businesses that are here and thriving. They're not all big money businesses. As a matter of fact, if you look on the square here, none of them are big money businesses. Now maybe they don't own the buildings anymore, maybe, I don't know, but this whole town is small business. And I don't think the big money killed small, the little man, if you will, as much as his refusal or her refusal to adapt to what was going on at the time. There was a lot of change going on back at that time. I think it was back in the late '80s, early '90s, maybe even as far back as the late '70s. But that whole period there where big box retailing started to take off and things started to change and people didn't adapt. There's even a line in the song that he says about the guy at the corner gas station who, and I've forgotten exactly what it says, but he says he wouldn't sell beer. I think you could argue pretty convincingly today that if you have a gas station, you're not selling beer, lotto tickets, and cigarettes, you know, you're probably not in business because the money isn't in the gas anymore. That's a story for another day. But anyway, just walking around here and seeing all the small businesses that are thriving here still, and I'm just turning the corner here and I see Morgan's Jewelers. That's one of the songs, one of the businesses he mentions in the song. So you gotta adapt if you're gonna be in business. You gotta be willing to adapt and you gotta be willing to change. And one of the ways that you do that, one of the most important ways you do that, is to stay up on what's going on. So this morning it's about 6:30, like I said, probably 6:40 now as I've walked around the square here and talked a little bit. But this morning I'm having breakfast with a friend of mine, a business friend of mine. His name's Andy Miller. He owns a company called Print Source. Does a great job for us in our marketing and so much more than just printing. He's really a marketing expert, and I share some time with Andy often because I get great ideas and I figure out ways to do my business better. And so I'm going to spend some time today with Andy. And when you first start out your business, you're going to find that you have an abundance of some resources and you're very short on others. And I guess it wouldn't be a surprise that the one you're short on is money, but you have an abundance of time. That's your advantage. As you build your business, though, you're gonna find you're gonna fill that time. And as you fill it, you need to make sure that you keep in that time management part of your life opportunities to interact with other people in business, because you're gonna find really quickly that you're gonna become isolated. You're only gonna be thinking about your business and the way that your business works, and you're not gonna have any new ideas other than the ideas that you're gonna discover from people that are in the same business you are. You'll start hanging out at, at association meetings, and you'll start to watch videos and listen to speakers and read things about your industry. And you'll find that you're kinda getting isolated. It's really important to figure out a way to keep in contact with people who are not in your industry so that you'll be able to grow your business in ways that your competition won't, because that's really your edge. Your edge is, is to be different than the people that are in the same industry as you are and to attract the people that are interested in that kinda difference. So today I'm gonna have breakfast with Andy, and I'm gonna get some great ideas, I'm sure, and I hope to share some with him. And we'll both be better because we'll be talking about our business with someone who isn't in our industry, who might have some ideas for us to try or might be able to share some ideas simply by telling us about their business. A great way. And if you aren't a member of a Chamber of Commerce, it's a great way to get started. It's an important thing to do as long as you get involved with the people that are there and start to learn from them. So that kind of is my thought for the day. Don't find yourself isolated. You've got to adapt. You've got to figure out a way to learn what's going on in other industries and adapt that to your industry, to your business, so that you can attract more people and you can be more valuable. Because really, at the end of the day, the way you stay in business is serve people and serve people well. And it's— you don't have to serve everyone well, but you have to serve a certain segment of people who are interested in what you're doing. You got to serve them very, very well. And the only way to do that is to adapt. To their needs. Boy, that was great, uh, just to have a good breakfast and share a lot of time together with somebody that I respect and learn a lot from and, and able to share some ideas with. Just a, just a great, great morning, great start to the morning. I'd like to know your thoughts in comments below. How do you stay connected with people outside your industry? How do you get new ideas? How do you grow your business through cross-appropriating ideas from other industries? Love to hear your comments down in the section below. And, um, make it a great day by connecting with somebody that you haven't connected with in a while. You'll, uh, really be glad you did.
