SO many of you I run into have really good ideas that you’re never able to translate into success.  It’s a real struggle for you to turn your dreams into action (read another article I wrote on this topic).

About a year ago I met my now best friends Dave and Suzette.  They own a small company they called Saddleback Leather (www.saddlebackleather.com).  While living in Mexico as a missionary, Dave fell in love with leather and had a dream about designing and selling a really cool leather bag.  He had some early success, selling enough bags to buy food (well, at least some times, right Dave?). They have continued to build momentum and now sell more in a day than he did in a month, almost half to international customers.  What began as a gleam in Dave’s eye, he and Suzette proudly watch grow into a youth.  I’m honored to come alongside them to turn their dreams into results!

Here are a few things you can learn (and apply!) from their experience: 

1. Think before you grow. Early on, Saddleback experienced significant growing pains while they patched together quick fixes to their problems.  In fact, it almost killed the goose. This is very common when experiencing some initial success in your business.  Remember, a successful business is built first on paper. Once I helped them step back and take a bigger picture viewpoint, we then could make some key choices that were crucial to making everyone’s job easier and dramatically increase capacity.
2. Become unforgettable. From the beginning, Dave wanted to create a shared experience with his customers.  What sells Saddleback products is not only the incredible design and quality, but also the stories – both Dave’s and their family of Saddleback customers.  Their slogan “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead” is becoming legendary.  Remember, people don’t buy what they need, they buy what they want. Once you see their products you’ll either become part of their family or wish you were. 
3. They won’t buy if they don’t know about you. What began with Dave selling bags on a street corner (I’m not kidding) now looks quite different with their website, eBay and Amazon storefronts.  Once you establish that folks are interested in what you have to offer, increase the ante and invest in your promotion.  While you can’t drag prospects into your store (bricks and mortar, home-based, internet, etc), you can surely be there when they go looking.  Check out hundreds of low-cost or no-cost suggestions from the Jay Levinson’s Guerilla Marketing article library at www.gmarketing.com/articles.  
4. Make promises and keep them. Your prospects want to know that you’ll inspire them to buy your product or service, and then do everything above and beyond to meet their expectations.  Unfortunately today, many of you think you need to under-promise and over-deliver.  You may think that people expect you to exceed their expectations just to get to ground zero.  Folks simply want to clearly understand what you promise and that you’ll … do that!  Have fun with delivering on it. Dave and Suzette’s promise is “Saddleback Leather goods are made to last longer and age better than their owners. Our bags are made to last a lifetime, but are not bear or bulletproof (yet).  All of our products are fully guaranteed against defects in materials and workmanship. If you should have a problem, send it back and we’ll repair it or replace it for free.”  Do be sure to act on a variety of promotional ideas. Don’t simply hide behind a print campaign only.  

Do act on that tiny inspiration you have and continue nurturing it to bigger successes.  I think it won’t happen overnight, so give it a little time. Just ask Dave and Suzette …