Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Love on Your Customers Better with Melinda Emerson

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How to Love on Your Customers Better with Melinda Emerson · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small bizchett podcast?
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  Well, it's time every Wednesday we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start
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  and grow a successful small business.
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  And just 20 minutes or so a week you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
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  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the small beachhead podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  Welcome to another episode of the small business chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady, your host, I'm America's number one small
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  business expert.
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  Today, I'm gonna give you another so low episode, and we're gonna talk about how to love
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  on your customers better.
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  I have a harrowing tale to tell you guys about something I tried to purchase this past winter
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  that was a complete debacle from start to finish.
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  I was always scoured Facebook looking for great small businesses to invest in.
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  And in 1st week of November, I was online, and I saw this beautiful holiday wreath.
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  And it had a black Santa Claus in the middle of it, and it was good, and it was beautiful.
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  And all I could think of was that I needed this wreath to be on my front door.
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  So I sent a note to the lady who posted it And I said, Hey, do you ship?
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  I'm interested in purchasing this wreath.
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  And she responded back, oh, we're already sold out for the entire holiday season.
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  Now you guys, this was, like, November 1st.
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  She was telling me that she was already sold out for the season.
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  That doesn't make any sense.
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  People don't even put up their holiday wreath until Thanksgiving.
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  You know?
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  So it's like, you already sold out?
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  No contingency plan.
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  Like, I it it was so ridiculous because Here I was, like, waving money in this lady's face,
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  like, hey.
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  I'm willing to buy it.
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  I didn't even ask what price it was.
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  I was willing to buy it.
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  And she was like, oh, sorry.
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  Sold out.
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  And so my whole thing was this, a, why were you promoting a product that was already sold out?
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  The 1st week of November on Facebook, knowing that people were gonna be like, oh my god.
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  This is beautiful.
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  I want 1.
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  B, if you were already swamped with orders, why wouldn't this woman have reached out to 2 or 3
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  other people that make Reese and get some backup, get some other people that she could
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  share some work with so that she wouldn't have to sully her reputation telling people, nope.
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  Sorry.
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  Don't have none.
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  And third, Who just I I just couldn't believe this one was out promoting it and like, yeah.
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  Sorry.
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  And she didn't really have another option She just basically put a sold out sign up and was
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  that was it.
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  And I just I just thought her, you know, just just really, really poor customer service, It
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  was just really, really poor communication, and I just felt really, really let down.
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  But I said to myself, Let me download the picture of this wreath and put it on my
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  Facebook page and see if I could find somebody that makes wreath that could make this wreath.
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  So I put it on my Facebook page, and I had 3 or 5 ladies approach me immediately.
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  So one of them, I deemed her and said, Hey.
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  And she said, I can make this for you.
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  I'm a beautiful Reese, and she even sent me five pictures of other Reese that she made.
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  So I was like, bet.
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  Okay.
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  Cool.
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  And I said, how much is the rate?
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  And she said it's a 110 plus $30 for shipping.
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  And I said, okay.
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  Fine.
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  And she said, I need you to send me a deposit to get started.
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  That was fair.
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  Okay.
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  So I I zell the lady $75 to get started.
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  So she said, alright.
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  When I have it ready, I'm gonna DM you, a picture so you can see it.
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  So I was like, great.
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  So maybe like a week and a half, 2 weeks went by, And she said, I'm ready to send you over
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  the wreath that, I I'm almost done with for you.
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  I was like, okay.
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  Great.
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  So she sends me the wreath.
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  And I don't know if any of you watched that show nailed it on Netflix.
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  But, guys, she did not nail it.
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  She did not nail it.
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  I was frightened to put that thing.
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  On my front door.
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  First of all, the picture that I described to you was this beautiful santa clogs, and he had
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  sort of like a white and gold outfit, and the rest of the wreath was gold.
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  This lady had, broke down busted looking Santa.
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  He was black, but he was broke down and busted looking.
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  His his jacket was way oversized, so it just looked ill fitting on this Santa.
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  And then she decided to put gold and silver and white.
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  In the reef.
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  It looked crazy.
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  And I and I was like, she asked me, did I like it?
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  And I said, no.
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  And so then she was like, okay.
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  Well, that's okay.
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  Let me see if I can fix it.
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  So she went back and she took the silver stuff off.
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  But you guys, the problem was the Santa.
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  And I said to her, I don't like the Santa.
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  Let alone the wreath having weird colors in it that I didn't want, but I didn't like the
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  Santa.
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  And she didn't like, listen to me or go get another Santa or whatever.
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  So then she says she comes back a week later.
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  So what do you think?
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  And I'm like, I don't think anything.
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  I still don't like this wreath.
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  So anyhow, long story short, I said to her, ma'am, I I I don't like this wreath.
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  And, you know, I'm not gonna be able to to do this for you.
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  And she said, no problem.
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  I'll send you your money She said minus a $25 fee for my services.
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  And I thought, what services anyway, but anyhow, so she sent me my $50 back.
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  And I was just like, I was so, so, so, so disgusted by this whole thing I was so excited.
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  These were 2 black woman business owners, and I was like, okay.
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  Yeah.
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  Let me support these other small businesses this holiday.
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  So then I tried one more time, you guys, one more time to find a lady to to get me a Santa.
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  And I was mentioning this to one of my coaching clients, and she was like, oh, I have a lady
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  that does Reese.
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  And so she introduced me to this lady And this lady immediately sent me to her Instagram page
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  to look at her Reese, and her Reese were beautiful.
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  So then she DMs me through Instagram and says, So what are you looking for?
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  And I sent her a picture of my wreath.
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  Oh, that's beautiful.
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  I think I can make that.
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  So then she, maybe a couple of days later, she sent me a picture of a santa.
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  Do you like the in it.
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  Yes.
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  I do.
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  So then she says, well, how much were you looking to pay for a wreath?
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  You guys, that wasn't the right question.
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  Cause I said to her $75 because don't know how much wreath cost.
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  I know how much I bought for him at Michaels, but I know that they're mass producing them and
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  they're much this is custom.
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  Right?
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  So she says, oh, no.
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  That's not, you know, my my price is way higher than that.
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  You know, I could see if I can refer you to somebody else.
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  I said, wait a minute.
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  Wait a minute.
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  What is your price?
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  Like like, don't just brush me off.
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  You know, don't don't don't be like, oh, sorry.
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  You're not you're not my customer.
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  If I'm asking you for something custom, the first thing you should have said was your
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  price.
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  Am I right or am I right?
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  Okay.
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  So I was really, really, really annoyed at this point.
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  So then she says, okay.
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  My price is a $170 for a wreath.
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  Okay.
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  I mean, look, I didn't care how much it costs.
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  I just wanted it.
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  And I wanted it by Thanksgiving to put on my door.
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  So she directs me then to her Etsy website, I go on her FC website, and every wreath I saw on
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  this website, I thought was tacky and ugly, and I thought I'm not doing this again.
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  I'm not I'm not going through the nail that that the lady can't match the re the wreath I
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  want.
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  So I just because I had such a bad taste in my mouth from this stupid interaction through
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  these DMs, I was like, go in my garage and get the oil wreath.
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  And put it on the door, which is what I ended up doing.
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  And you guys, I love Black Sanas, and I collect Black Sanas and Black Angels, So this whole
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  experience really, really hurt me to my heart because I was trying to get a new baby for my
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  collection I wanted a beautiful African American wreath for my front door, and I ended
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  up dealing with 3 knuckleheads.
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  And I just like and I said to myself, I have to do a blog post about this so that people will
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  understand, not a blog post, excuse me, a podcast, about this so that people will
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  understand what is professional and what isn't.
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  If I'm asking you to make something for me and I send you a picture, all you have to do is
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  send me your price.
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  Don't ask me how much was I looking to pay and they get offended and try to throw me away as a
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  client.
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  No.
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  Tell me for custom Reese, it costs this.
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  I would've paid $200 for the Reese, honestly, but the woman never even said that.
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  And then when she, like, kinda decided, okay.
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  Yeah.
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  You can go look at my Etsy site.
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  And then I saw she was really expensive, and I didn't think her Reese looked that good.
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  And so I was like and and the lady was in Philly.
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  I could, like, drive over there and get it, but I was like, this whole experience just left
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  such a bad taste in my mouth.
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  Then I said, that's what I get for going on, you know, I I, you know, I that's what I get
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  for going out on the Internet thinking I could just get anything from people, but I I don't
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  wanna lose faith in my in my small crafters.
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  Right?
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  I just need y'all.
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  I need y'all to get more professional.
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  Please.
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  I mean, including a lady that had no way to take my money other than Zelle, that's, like,
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  kinda unprofessional too.
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  But what I want you guys to do is that if you know holidays are coming and people want these
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  rives, then you should start making them in August.
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  You should start ordering this stuff in August knowing that you're gonna have a rush in
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  November, December.
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  First of all, or get a group of other ladies that do these reefs and get a coalition of
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  y'all together Emerson you guys sell all of each other stuff.
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  All y'all started being a Emerson, August.
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  Right?
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  And then for my my my lady that that couldn't match my picture, tell people you could do
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  something you can't do because that is terrible.
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  And that was such a bad, bad feeling.
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  And then my sister with the, what do you wanna pay?
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  Ask people what they wanna pay.
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  Add hello your price.
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  It's as simple as that, especially for a custom order.
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  So what I want you guys to do is operate like real businesses and not like hobbies.
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  You guys all coulda had a lot more money this holiday because what I was going to do when I
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  got my wreath was to promote where I got it.
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  And I was gonna help you get a lot more business, if not for this holiday, most
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  certainly for the next holiday.
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  So You ought to miss an opportunity.
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  And I just wanted to make sure the rest of my listeners, if you are a crafter, if you're
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  making homemade goods for people, please, please, please, be professional.
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  I love you, and I want you to be great.
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  I want you to run a business that allows you to live your dream life, but it is not gonna work
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  if you out here just doing stuff this janky and unprofessional and crazy.
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  Don't be promoting stuff when it's already out of stock.
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  Don't do that.
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  So, anyway, I just wanna encourage all of you guys.
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  You should be planning for the holidays.
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  You should be planning at least 4 months in advance.
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  You should be ordering all your materials.
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  You should be lining up your suppliers.
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  You should be lining up backup suppliers and your workers 4 months in advance of the holiday
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  so that you can maximize profits and not have to put sold out on your online store.
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  It's really important that you plan ahead.
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  If you plan ahead, you plan for success.
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  And so I just want to invite you all to do that next year, next holiday, Get yourself together
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  so that you can get more business and be more professional.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday for more
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  fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.