Business Opportunities and Standards

  I am visiting my Aunt this week on the east coast and had the opportunity today to get my hair done by a local salon that was owned by a man I will call Danny.  I always enjoy going to different places of business so that I can experience how they conduct business and possibly learn a pearl or two from them to share with others.

Today was a pretty good find as far as treasures are concerned as the business owner “Danny” was the one who did my hair.  I had the opportunity to ask a few questions of him during my visit and was pretty pleased with what he had to tell me.

First of all “Danny” was an immigrant to the United States and had only been here 5 years.  When I asked him how long he had his hair salon he said 2 years.  I was pretty shocked that he had established this business in such a short time because he also had to go to cosmetology school before he opened his doors.

Danny explained to me how blessed he felt that he actually had the opportunity to come to America and that once here when he opened his salon he had the support of his family and  community behind him.  He said that building a business was slow, but he knew that over time things would improve.

When I asked him how he knew that this would happen he told me that it would happen because he treated his employees fairly and was willing to work with them and also because he treated his clients with respect, dignity and fairness.

He felt that the most important thing that he did to make his business  successful was that he built his business on ethics and integrity and without this  he felt that any business would fail.

I was so impressed at his willingness to work hard to establish his business and that his main concern was ethics and integrity as many established businesses I go to will never mention these two primary building blocks that make businesses successful.

As I left Danny, my main thought was one of  pride, his pride that he had because of the wonderful opportunity of having his own business and he was making the best of it.  Also my pride that my country allowed people like Danny to come here to fulfill their dreams of becoming an independent business owner.

Danny felt so lucky to live in America where he had this opportunity and it was so refreshing to hear his foundational building blocks and his corporate beliefs.  Hearing this made me wonder how many business expect that they will be successful without having this important, essential vision as Danny had.

Small business owners face so many big walls to climb, but with an attitude and thankfulness like Danny they will be successful at getting over them.  Be thankful for what you have and make sure that you keep your standards up to serve your clients and employees to the best of your abilities.  You have a choice make it the right one.

Thank you Danny for this glimpse at what you have experienced, it has made me much more thankful at what we have the opportunity to accomplish.

08/13/14