What can you do to make your small business one of the
thrivers? To find out, we asked entrepreneurs who have succeeded.
1. Love what you do.
The road to success is a hard one. But, according to Lisa
King, owner of Brownie Points Inc., which sells gourmet brownies and holiday
gift baskets, it's a lot easier if you're passionate about your business's
purpose. "If you don't [love what you do], it's hard to be
successful," she says. She adds that this helps you stay positive:
"You need to maintain your optimism. Once it's gone, you're done."
2. Build a team immersed in your vision.
"For me, it's more than just hiring experienced people.
It's important to demonstrate the type of organization we want to be,"
says Mike Mondello, president of SeaBear, which supplies fresh and smoked wild
salmon directly to consumers. To bring to life the vision of building a seafood
brand based on world-class, sustainable wild salmon, Mondello used a team
meeting to showcase a fisherman whose way of catching fish resulted in a better
end product.
3. Come up with innovative ways to solve problems.
Necessity really is the mother of invention. Just ask Robin
Brocklesby of Creative Coverings, which rents specialty linens for formal
events. When customers were having difficulty returning the linens they had
rented, Brocklesby turned to UPS for a creative solution. The result was
out-of-the box innovation: Return the linens in specially designed bags (with
an estimated life span of 300 uses) rather than larger boxes.
