Money Matters and More

How to be like Starbucks, without the coffee?  For the entrepreneur striving to stand out amidst so many other competitors, it really all comes down to one thing:  value.  Exactly how much value do customers or clients attach to your product or service?

That’s it.  Simply get into the mind of the people you want to reach and identify what they value, and the path to successful business is yours. Take your own ego out of the equation and cater to the ego of your audience.  It’s what the barista at during a recent Starbucks visit demonstrated so clearly yesterday.

The moment anyone entered the small Starbucks, the barista-nurse midwife-phlebotomist-recent grad greeted each customer with all the charm and warmth of an old friend.  She cheerfully offered to fill orders–in my case for (free) hot water for my tea (which incidentally I purchased from one of their coffee shop competitors, Barnes & Noble)–and went out of her way to be pleasant.  She shared her delight with finding a job with Starbucks, even though finding a more long-term goal was to find a position as a nurse midwife or something else she’d been trained to do in school.  Clearly she was making the most of her time at Starbucks, and the result was a more appealing experience for the store’s patrons.

And as most of us can attest, the value of simply making the effort to be pleasant these days in the midst of high job unemployment and overall unease, being pleasant is very underrated.

So where’s the success model?

Just this:  I don’t drink coffee, bring my own stash of tea, and yet I ended up buying a bottle of Ethos water (at a cost three times as much as the grocery store brand.)  Why?  I was thirsty, and Starbucks offered me value:  in the form of cheerfulness, a clean, comfortable workspace, and bottled water (that was associated with a humanitarian mission).

That’s why I keep going back.

So ask yourself: As a new or established entrepreneur, what will make your customers or clients keep coming back to your business?  Or if you’re in the planning stages of starting a new business, what do businesses you patronize need to know about  what you value to be successful?

Please leave a comment below, or email me at moneymattersandmore@yahoo.com.  We can share your comments with other readers.

Next blog topic:  How to inhabit the mind of your clients (without surgery)

Have a great week!