Empathy and a passion for service are important when running a business!

My name is Stephanie Vanderbilt and I own Coastal Windows and Exteriors. You need to have empathy and a passion for service. As a small business, you're going to give it all, so make sure that it comes from your heart. And we all, like my mother said, we all have spiritual gifts. My gift is giving. But you really need to have that empathy and a passion for service to understand what it's on the other side. So then it's not really selling. You're just really serving the community and taking care of one another. What motivates me when I'm working my business is really the homeowners. I have homeowners that have roof leaks that we're not preparing for it, or, you know, windows that are super drafty and they can't afford their energy bills. So when I think about what motivates me every day, because I get a lot of texts and a lot of calls and a lot of emails, is making sure that I'm taking care of them. Because in the end, if I don't have them, I don't have a business. So I really need to think about them. And like I said earlier, is having empathy and a passion for them. One word to describe being a small business owner, you gotta have grit. You gotta have it, because you gotta get up every day and you wear many hats. In fact, I've done every hat in the company. And you have to be able to know that. But it's. Then you gotta. When you're leading, you gotta lead from the front, the side, the back, and, you know, everywhere to continue on with your company and really just, I guess, think about that. But that is definitely grit. You gotta have grit.