At one of my companies, ATS Acoustics, we often receive sample books from manufacturers hoping to sell fabric to us. Most of these samples are unsolicited. They get thrown in a big box and forgotten. (They don’t get thrown away because I’m a pack rat. You never know when we might need artificial alligator skin fabric. Come on guys, it could happen.)

So all these samples that the fabric manufacturers worked so hard to assemble into glossy sample books are just sitting there collecting dust.

One day I received a package from a manufacturer that already had their fair share of ignored, dust-collecting sample books in box. I didn’t even bother to open it figuring it’s just more samples. So there the box sat on the floor in my office. (I’m serious about the pack rat thing.)

Fortunately for the sales rep who sent it, he emailed my assistant and said “I sent you a blanket made out of samples of our new color line.” So she opened the box, and next thing I know the entire office staff is standing around admiring and commenting on this quilt-like blanket, made out of samples. An employee liked it so much she took it home.

If you ask anyone in the office about fabric samples we’ve received, I bet that’s the only manufacturer they remember anything about.

How can you be more like the blanket and less like the books?

I like generalizations because they help us efficiently comprehend the vast number of specifics out there. But sometimes I stay general to reduce work or avoid facing reality, and that’s not helpful.

Specifics help me face reality because specifics are real in a way that generalizations are not. Specifics actually exist. Generalizations are logical abstractions in our brains, and might be imaginary. Also, specific cases are complex while generalizations are oversimplified by definition.

Getting specific takes more time, research, and mental effort, but it often spotlights the surprising and uncomfortable parts we would otherwise miss.

In the spirit of this post, the following examples are drawn from specific experiences I’ve had recently at work, church, and home.

In anything from business plans to performance evaluation, do your homework and get specific. It’s a reality check.

I did a little interview yesterday about my acoustics business with Tyler, a student from a local business school. Some of these questions tend to come up a lot in other conversations, so I asked his permission to share part of the Q & A here.

What motivated you, as the owner, to go into this business?

I had a computer software development business that was very specialized and I was interested in expanding into something more diverse in case the specialized niche changed or went away. I built some acoustic panels for my own recording studio, and I thought I saw an opportunity. I started offering them for sale on eBay and we grew.

Has the present economic state impacted your business?

Yes, it certainly has. One of the biggest impacts of the current economy is customers are choosing to do more do-it-yourself projects, so buying materials from us rather than finished product.

What are the very best 2 or 3 rewards of owning a small business?

For me, the best part is having a chance to try my ideas without having to get anyone’s approval. Of course there is a lot of financial benefit to being an owner of a successful business, but there is financial risk as well. The freedom and the platform to learn new things is another benefit I love.

What are the very worst 2 or 3 drawbacks of running a small business?

There’s a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. When things go wrong and all the other employees are home enjoying their evening I am left with the ultimate responsibility for resolving the problem and paying the bill. Being the owner of a small business requires a wide range of skills, and that is stretching, but it’s really not a drawback. I love what I do.

What was your biggest unexpected surprise once you got into business?

My biggest surprise was how well the customers responded and how steadily we grew. I thought it would take more rocket science, or I would find a fatal flaw in the business model that I hadn’t thought of. Really it only took hard work, sensible strategy, and initiative to actually do it.

What advice would you offer people thinking of going into small business?

Make sure your product or service is 1) something your customers find helpful, 2) better than the competition, and 3) suited to spreading the word about it. Keep your focus on helping the customer from day one. It’s not about having fun, making a bunch of money, or doing what you love. Those things will happen, but only if you are passionate about helping your customers.

What are the 2 or 3 factors that you have learned can make or break you in small business?

Legal issues can throw you some curveballs, make sure you have good advisors on that. It’s going to take hard work and diligence no matter what you do. (If not, your competition will beat you by working harder.) So be prepared to lean into the work. A realistic marketing plan is crucial. Just building a product that you like doesn’t mean you can afford to advertise it. Start small, don’t go out on a limb with a big experiment. Do a small experiment.

If you had it to do over again, would you still open this business? Would you change anything if you could start over?

Yes, I would definitely do it again. I would expand somewhat more aggressively and I would hire sooner and delegate sooner so I could focus my time on the new products and new ideas that I do best. I would require a higher level of performance from my employees, and I would fire people sooner who were not performing well enough.

What do you feel is the single most important key to being a successful small business owner?

Making your customers so happy that they tell their friends how great your business is. If you can do that, you’re golden.

I finished reading this book 30 seconds ago. I am moved by its stories. Donald Miller is a kind of writer that I will never be. That bothers me, like a kid who wants to throw away his air guitar after seeing a real rock star. But at the same time I am grateful that he wrote and that I get to read it. He writes things out loud that I try not to think in silence, and I admire him for it.

This is a book that looks at life and story, and the choices we have about what kind of story we live, and what kind of character we are in the story. This book makes me want to live differently, to step outside my world of ideas more often, and engage with the real story that’s going on with all the people around me.

You can buy A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller, on Amazon and lots of other places. (That’s not an affiliate link. I’m not even close to going there.)

I don’t think everyone will like this book, but I did, and I think it’s a book worth reading.

Photo by Jenn Aardsma.

No analogy or profundity here, just a shy creature,  photographed by my wife in our backyard this afternoon.