As a business owner it’s hard for me to walk into a store, restaurant, church or any establishment and not think of what I would do differently. It’s hard for me to be on a website and not think about how clean it runs or what kind of branding they have in place. (For those of you who don’t know my wife and I operate two businesses. One is walk in love. – a clothing brand that has one retail store in Lancaster, PA. We have 12 team members and sell a lot of shirts! The other business is a photography business – Brooke Courtney Photography. It’s a five member team photographers that specialize in natural light portrait and wedding photography. Currently there are two main shooters – Brooke and Jeff, a full time assistant - Maddie, an intern -Sam and myself – the manager.) For this blog post I am going to focus on our photography business.
My job, as the manager of the business and team members, is to make sure things run smoothly. That’s the bottom line. I make sure we have all the information we need for shoots and that clients are paying us on time. I do all I can to make sure that brides are happy with the final product. I assist Brooke at almost all of her weddings, and I could very easily transition into being a full time shooter (I do shoot weddings by myself from time to time) but I don’t for one simple reason : We Can Be Better. I think our work is fantastic! Brooke, Jeff, Maddie and Sam are extremely talented and super fun to work with… but I still think we can be better.
A lot of people take offense to a statement like that, (“we can be better” or “you could do better”), when talking about their business. Because when you own a business it is personal and any criticism of the business becomes a criticism of you. But when I tell our team that we can be better, I only mean it in a positive way. I think all small business owners out there need to start looking at themselves the same way. There are times when you need to step back and figure out the weak links in the chain and find solutions to make them stronger. It’s not bad to admit that you don’t do something well — as long as you are willing to do something to change it.
For example: currently our photography team isn’t good at connecting with clients after they get their final product. We see some of them here and there, but now that we have so many clients, it’s hard for us to remember to send out anniversary cards, or go out to lunch from time to time. This is an area where I think our team can be better. It is not something that we can fix instantly. It will, without a doubt, take time and energy. We know this, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t try to get better.
Your business is always a work in progress and you need to start looking at it that way, and if you can’t then you need to find someone who can. Which is exactly what I do for our team. Sometimes I have to tell Jeff or Brooke that they could have done better because I have made myself an impartial viewer. I often say to Brooke, “If I were a bride, what would I think of that?” You don’t have to be a wedding photographer to have that view either, just insert your client into that sentence. For walk in love. it’s “If I walked into this store what would I think? What direction would I go? What grabs my eye right away? Is it easy to understand what things are? etc.” Sometimes just asking these hypothetical questions out loud to yourself, or with your team, will give you the answer quite clearly!
Fix things. Sometimes things that need to be fixed only take minutes or seconds. But, sometimes things are a bit harder and might take money, but that doesn’t mean you don’t start to save to make them happen. Right now walk in love. desperately needs a new website/web store that better integrates with our retail store’s inventory. But, as you can imagine, that is going to take some serious money and we aren’t ready for it now — so we have to work with what we have. And that’s okay. I am not saying that you have to fix every problem today, but you have to at least be aware of the problems and have an action plan on how and when to fix them. Even though we can’t afford the new site now, we have been e-mailing designers to figure out pricing and how much of a budget the project will need and how we will save for it.
Try to stay away from quick, cheap fixes. If you need a new website make sure you find the right designer for the job and not just whoever is cheapest. Because more often than not, you get what you pay for. So even though your new, cheap website might seem awesome right now, you’ll probably want something better sooner than you think. Quick, cheap fixes almost always end up costing more money.
Stay impartial. Critique yourself or your team often, but make sure they understand it’s for the greater good and it’s not mean spirited. If your whole team has the attitude that they can be better, your business will start to take off because everyone will constantly be putting out their best work. Clients will notice.
Don’t be afraid. It’s scary to start pointing out things that need work! Because as soon as you do it means you have to start fixing them. It’s kind of like when you finally admit (out loud, to someone) you have to break-up with your boyfriend/girlfriend. You can act like everything is fine… but, as soon as those words come out they require action. Don’t be afraid of it! And don’t get overwhelmed by it! Some of the things will take time and that’s okay. Acknowledging them is so important though!
Never Give Up. This is one of the most common phrases used in our house. Brooke and I use it for the simplest things — like when we are looking for our keys or planning our budgets! And as a small business owner you have to have this attitude. There will always be something else ahead of you to tackle.
Keep Moving. Whether you are in your first year of self employment or your 20th, it’s so important to never stop moving, adapting and critiquing. I think that when businesses stop moving that’s when they start to go out of business. It doesn’t mean that you have to be changing things wildly all the time, that is definitely not what I am saying. It just means that you have to understand your customer, what you are offering, and the best way to connect the two.
I think that your business is only as good as you let it be. So many business books talk about how you are most likely the problem with your business, but you are also the solution. We Can Be Better is a great battle cry that all business’ should have — and it starts with you.
First a disclaimer : This post is a complete 100% rip-off of something Brooke’s cousin Kate wrote on her blog a couple of weeks ago and it took off. Here it is : Ten Things I Want to Tell Teenage Girls - It’s brilliant and you should read it and then follow all of Kate’s writings because she is awesome at it.
Her post has blown up and I’ve been seeing people post it on twitter and facebook that I know don’t even know Kate. I love that it’s happening and it inspired me to come up with a list of my own directed toward boys. So thank you Kate for inspiring me.
1. Pull your pants up. No one wants to see your crack hanging out or your underwear. It makes you look like an idiot. No one with any sort of authority will ever take you seriously, it’s hard to run, jump or move. It’s not slimming and it’s not 1990 anymore. Do I need more reasons?
2. Look people in the eye/Have a good handshake. These two things will tell me a lot about a young man. It will tell me if they are confident, driven and respectful. If I was hiring more team members and someone came in didn’t have a good handshake and didn’t look me in the eye while I was talking to them I wouldn’t hire them. They could be super qualified for the position but without those two things I’m not interested.
3. Open the car door for your girlfriend/fiance/wife. When Brooke and I started dating about four years ago I decided that I was going to open the door for her every time we got in the car and I still do to this day. As men we need to make sure that our lady knows she matters to us and that she is important and there is no better way to continue to tell her this then opening a door for her. There are times when I will get in the car and Brooke will look at me and say, “You know you’ve been opening the door for me for 4 years…That means so much to me.” It’s easy and it shows respect and kindness. Do it! (Ladies- If a guy doesn’t open the door for you, tell him he should start.)
4. Not trying isn’t cool. Try hard in school, in sports, at work and at whatever else you do. It is worth it and will pay off.
5. You are not entitled to anything. Life is hard and takes work. No one is going to hand anything to you for free. You haven’t “earned” anything. You need to work and work hard to earn things. Stop acting like the world owes you something, like your teachers, parents and bosses owe you something. They don’t, you have to work for everything.
6. Develop good eating habits. I know this might seem like silly advice and sound very motherly, but you will thank me in 20 years when you can still see and touch your toes. If you are skinny right now and eat whatever you want just know that it won’t last forever. Your metabolism will slow down and weight will just start to hang around your gut. You don’t want a gut. You want to stay thin and fit because you’ll live longer, your wife will be more attracted to you and you’ll be able to actually play with your kids longer. If you can develop those habits now, it will pay off big in the future.
7. Stop swearing. It’s not tough, it’s not cool, it makes you sound unintelligent.
8. Stop looking at Porn : This will ruin your marriage, your life and your ability to enjoy sex. I used to work as an intern for XXXchurch and we would meet young man after young man whose life was ruined by being addicted to porn. It’s not worth it.
9. Have integrity. Stand for truth and always do the right thing. Sometimes it’s a lot harder but it’s always worth it. Leave a legacy that is good.
10. Be a real man. Real men are not the men you see on TV or movies. Real men are kind, compassionate, respectful and honest. They fight for truth and justice. They love their wives whole heartedly and deeply. They care for those who need help. They work hard.
I was not a real young man. I was kind a punk kid coming out of high school and through most of college. I didn’t do half those things on that list. I made bad choices that I regretted. I don’t look at them as learning experience, I look at them as mistakes and if I could go back and change them I would. Don’t live with the idea that “you only live once” or “you have to do something to learn from it.” That type of living is idiotic and full of shame and regret. Instead, live honestly now.
There is a scene in the movie The Hunger Games where Effie Trinket reaches in to a bowl of tribute names and picks out the name Primrose Everdeen. It is at that moment that Catnice Everdeen, her older sister, jumps up and screams, “I volunteer, I volunteer as tribute.” You can see it here in the trailer.
Every time I see that scene in the trailer my eyes fill with tears because it is the essence of sacrificial love. Something that we rarely see in our selfish world today. It is with this type of love that Jesus went to the cross with, but instead of sacrificing himself for one he did it for all. He saw that all our names were going to be drawn and they were all tainted and covered with sin. He knew that the only way to remove that sin and give us a chance for eternal life was sacrifice. So he stepped out of the crowd and yelled, “I volunteer, I volunteer as tribute.” He did it for you and he did it for me.
I woke up and checked my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and all were saying the same thing : Kony 2012. I didn’t watch the movie initially, because I could already guess what it was going to tell me, since I’ve been aware of the situation through my Dad and also my involvement in Invisible Children (through the global night commute so many years ago).
Brooke watched it and told me I should take the time to watch it, but I just didn’t feel like it.
Then, I started to read some articles about backlash toward Invisible Children and how they use their money as a non-profit. That really intrigued me because of my general interest in leadership and business/organizations.
Only days later, one of the founders of Invisible Children had a total mental breakdown… and that’s when I became really interested. I usually don’t like writing blog posts about things that are happening right now because I don’t have all the facts, but this post is a reaction to what I’ve seen and read and how I feel as someone who leads a business.
*Also, I have now watched Kony 2012.
To the initial support of Kony 2012 : I think it’s great that Invisible Children can create such an amazing buzz about something so horrific happening in our world. I think that is a skill of the founders of the organization and it’s great that they are using that gift for good. I think it’s contagious and I am so glad that people take 30 minutes to see what else is going on in the world and then use their voice through Facebook and Instagram, or whatever platform they have to share.
To the backlash and people saying Invisible Children is making too much money : The three top dogs of Invisible Children paid themselves $84, $88 and $89,000. Now at first those seem like large numbers, but they really aren’t. It’s not 1950 anymore and the dollar doesn’t go as far as it use to. First of all, Invisible Children is based in California, where all three of these people live, and California is the third most expensive state to live in. $80,ooo isn’t that much and I am sure that if these three people who started a movement across the world wanted to use their talents and skills in a private sector job they would make a lot more than $80,000. So, that’s a pay cut when you have the talent and skill they do. The money isn’t the point though. It’s easy to criticize what someone is doing from the outside. It’s easy to say how they should spend their money or not spend it. It’s easy to be a critic, but it’s hard to actually do something in this world… and so for all the people out their criticizing this group for trying to make a change – stop. If you think it could be done better, then do it better. Get off your high horse and use your talents to make a change in our world, like they are doing with theirs.
To Jason Russel : You are a leader and you should never, ever act like you did. We have too many bad examples in this world and we don’t need good people acting like that. There is no excuse for that. Your foundation, as a person, should be rooted in the truth of the word of God and should never be destroyed by criticism of men.
To Jason Russel’s family and friends : Why did you let him go crazy? If you knew he was under a lot of stress why weren’t you there to help him?? Calm him down and stop him from going outside butt naked? There is no excuse for that.
To the people who want to abandon Kony 2012 because of Jason’s actions : Don’t. For all have sinned and we all fall short of the glory of God. I am not perfect and neither are you. And, at some point we all need grace and forgiveness. Jason made a mistake that could have been avoided, but it happened and now this is where grace starts.
I think that Kony 2012 has taught me one thing : Nothing in our world perfect. Everything has cracks and flaws. If that weren’t the case, then someone like Joseph Kony wouldn’t exist and people wouldn’t end up butt naked in the street. I am also so thankful that through those flaws and cracks forgiveness exists and grace can cover any sin.