Sharing NEEDS (Real Complaints From a Local Business)

[Trace]

I am new here and decided after writing my intro post, I would try to provide some value to the community. The story I have to share reveals some NEEDS, (and some advice) though it would require some serious creativity or a miracle worker to solve one of them. But I thought I would share anyway since it was a real life example of how easy it is to just ask the right questions.

Hopefully this story is popcorn worthy

Background:
The leader my section of coworkers was moving on to bigger and better things. (Our Officer In Charge got orders to Hawaii) He was a great mentor and even earned the nickname "Dad" even though he was only a few years older than us. This called for a "going away" gift. The most popular choice for this type of gift is an engraved plaque of some sort. So the search begins.


The search:
The obvious first step was searching Google for the nearest custom engraving shop. We live in a fairly small/medium sized town so there were only two quality shops to choose from. Only one had a website [see Need 1] but it was lacking content and clarity [see Need 2]. After physically scoping them out, we settled with the one that had a website because they had more choices in plaques and designs, plus their promised completion time was sooner.


The Face-to-face:
I was the lucky one chosen to leave during work and go place the order. While hashing out the details of the design and cost, I got the feeling that the lady helping me had something to do with the ownership of the business. So I acted on my hunch and straight up asked her if I was right. (Politely of course) She said she was in fact married to the owner. I now had a direct line for knowledge about what this small business was lacking or in need of. I was short on time so instead of dancing around the subject, I went straight for the blunt questions.


The Answers:
My first question was asking about what kind of day-to-day or bigger problems they have. Her answer was that they simply don't have enough time in the day [see Need 3] to complete orders as fast as some people want them. She also mentioned that since they stay so busy, nobody has time to get with their web developer and update the website. [see Need 4]

My second question was asking about what kind of hurdles or road blocks the business has run into. This is where the advice came in. She told me about how her husband originally went in with a partner but got screwed because the partner tried to sweep the business out from under this current owner, so she advised against going in with a partner. She also made a good point that it's probably better for your wife or SO to have their own job when you're starting out, as it can be very stressful and the decisions you have to make can cause some tension between spouses trying to start a business.


Conclusion:
I was able to recognize 2 needs and learn about 2 more just by asking the right questions and showing interest in conversation. This was not difficult because i was sincerely interested in what she had to say and appreciated the wisdom she shared. So hopefully this write-up did one of two things for you:
1. Show you how easy it is to look for, recognize, and learn needs
2. Get the juices flowing by thinking of solutions for these Needs -

Need 1. The other shop needs a website. At least something more than a Google listing. There are too many mom-and-pop shops and boutiques that can't afford web development so they don't even bother.

Need 2. Businesses have the right to know if their website is hard to navigate or looks like crap. Why not have an "Anonymous Box" plugin at the bottom of the site that lets users give feedback on the site, where it can only be viewed by the developer/owner?

Need 3. She needs more than 24 hours per rotation of the earth. I know, not possible. But there might be a creative solution out there that would solve her problem.

Need 4. It seems like a lot of local small business owners are stuck in the past and don't keep up with modern technology like the wonders of WordPress. If they had someone come and sit down to teach them how they could set up their own site and manage it without the middleman, they might be more inclined to have their site regularly updated. If someone were to offer this one-on-one teaching service to them, they could eliminate that step of relying on a third party and be less likely to delay any updates.


Hopefully you have at least gotten something out of this story and can use it as motivation to go out there and focus on filling a NEED. I know not all of these needs are practical or large scale, but it is a starting point for ideas and thought processes.

I'm sure that there are more needs hidden somewhere in this experience, so if you think of one please share.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)