HOW DO YOU MEASURE YOUR COMPANY'S SUCCESS?

Your business is running, you sleep a couple of hours a night, you work 60 hours a week, you carry photos of your family to remember their faces. Is your company a success? How can you tell? Here’s a few simple ways to gauge whether or not you are on the right path.

1. Profit - If there is money left after you pay your monthly operating expenses and debt, then things are looking good.

2. Get More Customers - Your customer list should be constantly growing, and it will if you are effectively reaching your target market.

3. Please your Customers - The strength of your business is directly tied to your ability to understand and satisfy the needs of your customers.

4. Happy Employees - Quality employees are rewarded for their hard work, and if they know they are appreciated, they will go the extra distance. Their face greets customers, you should do everything you can to keep that face smiling.

5. Are you Happy?? - Every now and then, take a reality check. Are you satisfied with your business ownership?

6. Most importantly, in my opinion, is ethical behavior and social responsibility. These qualities can bring your business some significant benefits relating to the other 5 items in this list. Lack of ethical actions and social conscience can damage your reputation, and profits could fall as a result.

In your business, how people judge your character is critical to sustainable success because it is the basis of trust and credibility. Abe Lincoln was known to describe character as the tree and reputation as the shadow. Your character is what you really are; your reputation is how people see you. So, your reputation depends on whether people think your intentions and actions are honorable and ethical, and your character is defined by your actual honorable actions.

WHY BUY OR USE LOCALLY OWNED?

There are many well-documented benefits to our communities and to each of us to choosing local, independently owned businesses. We realize it is not always possible to buy or use what you need locally and so merely ask you to Think Local FIRST!
 

Top Ten reasons to Think Local - Buy Local - Use Local

1. Buy & Use Local -- Support yourself: Several studies have shown that when you buy or use services from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms -- continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community. These include case studies showing that locally-owned businesses generate a premium in enhanced economic impact to the community and our tax base.
2. Support community groups: Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.
3. Keep our community unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun -- all of it makes our community home. Our one-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of the distinctive character of this place.
4. Reduce environmental impact: Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
5. Create more good jobs: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in our community, provide the most jobs to residents.
6. Get better service: Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products and services they are selling and take more time to get to know customers.
7. Invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.
8. Put your taxes to good use: Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
9. Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy: A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.  A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
10. Encourage local prosperity: A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.