Sometimes the Best Business Advice is No Advice at All

The first thing that happens when you open the door to a new business is that someone will tell you how to do it. Every customer will have a specific idea what he wants from you. His own parking space would be nice. A fair price for your goods or services would be wonderful. A perception of your business as being '˜theirs' is the goal.

Your success depends on achieving the correct common denominator.

We operated a record store for twenty-eight years. In that time, we took a lot of advice from a lot of well-meaning business consultants. We had a fellow from SCORE come in and suggest that we augment our income by selling stuffed animals.

However, we wanted to sell music and music related items. Stuffed animals were not on our radar.

He asked how often we ordered new product. It was a tradition in the music industry that Tuesday was the day new releases hit the shelf. We ordered weekly to accommodate these new releases. He was of the mindset that we should order on a monthly basis. We could buy more of the hottest sellers and get a better discount. Good advice, but the record buyers were there on Tuesday morning and they wanted the new releases that were being advertised in the media.

We had to guess on what new seller was going to be the hot item. Frequently we caged our bets. This was in the era when a generous return allowance was not an option.

The advice of attempting to purchase in quantity was a sound one.

Our customers always had issues with how our items were filed. They didn't want, for example, to search through new titles when they were looking for oldies. What were we to do when an established act put out an album of new material? It seemed that that only solution was establishing a bin with each customer's name on it. I was told that some Japanese stores filed their records according to what they determined to be the best.

I subscribed to the theory that putting the milk in the back of the supermarket might occasion the sale of the items that the customer views on the long walk through the store.

The best advice anyone can offer is to make your business your canvas and your part of the world. If accounting bores you then leave that to the accountants. If you aren't a lawyer then put one on retainer. You do the part that you have the passion for. Listen to everyone's advice. Take what you need and leave the rest.