Good Morning, The Offices of David Robinson.
Check the Oil Ma'am?
Volume 13, Number 18
Issue 618
My small, certified public accounting firm is like any other small business, we have our strengths, our weaknesses, our successes and our failures. I am glad, like any business, to see my business increase, while at the same time, struggling every day to stay small to love and serve the existing customers that have built my practice to what it is now. I have found that when you deliver a good product in a caring way, new customers flock to you and you must work to love existing customers and add new ones only in systematic and reasonable ways.
I've found over the years that the most successful (and "success" is often temporary unless you are slow and steady to obtain and retain market share) businesses demonstrate a commitment to their community and love the product they deliver. Successful businesspeople are, generally, happy people. Successful businesses deliver their product to their customers in passionate ways that are fun.
Operating a small certified public accounting firm is, in my opinion, like operating the small, family-owned 1960s Texaco Station that Mr. Locke used to own on Forest Avenue in Henrico County, Virginia near Tuckahoe Elementary school. Mr. Locke was always happy to see my Mom and me come by each week. He knew our names. He served us personally. He always treated us with respect and a genuine love for serving the public. When the car was broke, he was just as upset as Mom. When we stopped for gas, he ran out to fill the tank and smiled and smiled and smiled. He gave me--a little seven or eight year old--free gifts. He had suckers, little toys and printed brochures I could play with. He loved washing our car windows. One time, the car broke and Mr. Locke came and picked us up himself--immediately. He gave Mom his car that afternoon. Mom loved going there. She drove out of her way, passing many other service stations, to get to him. She referred to Mr. Locke's business as "her service station." Mr. Locke, though he had hundreds--probably thousands--of customers, made us feel like we were his only customers.
Whatever your business or profession--substitute your particulars into the above paragraph. Deliver your product with great love and respect and to your clients. Be happy when they are happy and sad when they are sad, but most of all, treat them like family and remember them, want them and desire them. Customers will fall all over themselves to come to you.
And, by the way, they will pass dozens of other companies--large and small--to drive to yours.
David B. Robinson, CPA
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