Repair Your Credit Profile

Nobody who has been running a small business enjoys having competition in the form of an imitator pop up unexpectedly in a nearby location. It may be annoying or even infuriating, but there’s nothing they can do about it, since nothing illegal has been done. All the business owner can do is try to find a way to deal with the new competition.

Let’s take an hypothetical example. Joe the cabinetmaker had been working from home for a number of years. While he wasn’t making a fortune, he was happy, thanks to a steady stream of work from a couple of interior design firms and architects in his area. He also had turned his living room into a small showroom and occasionally got some work that way.

For over five years, Joe didn’t have to worry about work. He wasn’t getting rich, but he always got by. Then things changed. First came the economic slowdown. It hit his two main clients first and then, as their work dried up, so did his.

Joe’s bad luck didn’t end there. A short time later, a new shopping mall opened up just across the street. There was a furniture showroom in the mall that sold contemporary bar stools and other contemporary furniture.

Modern bar stools had been Joe’s showroom’s best sellers. He could easily produce dozens of these on his lathe and sell them at a decent price. People loved them for the breakfast bars in their homes and occasionally he even got an order for them from bar owners.

Between the two blows to his business, Joe was staring bankruptcy in the face for the first time in his life. He was scarcely prepared for it and didn’t know what to do.

Joe belonged to a local woodworkers club. Every month, the club got together and shared ideas. At the next meeting, Joe got up in front of the group and opened a discussion about his plight. As it turned out, everyone in the club was experiencing the same problem.

Although the answer had eluded him before, it was Joe who found the solution to their common problem. Trying to compete with the larger companies who could buy kitchen bar stools and other products in bulk from overseas suppliers was just not feasible. They needed to provide unique products and Joe’s home showroom was the perfect place to display them.

Joe and his friends got together and remodelled his showroom. They advertised it as a fine furniture gallery and displayed their best work in it. It caught the eye of passersby and before long, Joe’s new gallery was getting more traffic than the larger showroom in the shopping center. Now Joe and his friends are all more successful than they were before the recession, thanks to one good idea and a cooperative effort.

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