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Pat Curry planned on devoting a whole day to baking muffins for Buona Caffe, the small Augusta coffee business she and her husband, John, started almost 10 years ago.
But she also had to help a barista with improving her latte foam art. And help recalibrate one of the grinders that was pouring shots too fast. And schedule workers to clean their grease traps.
“Things that big chains don’t think too much about because corporate is taking care of that,” she said. “Well, we are corporate.”
Buona Caffe is a survivor. About 20% of all small businesses fail within their first year of operation, and almost 50% go under within the first five years.
How many U.S. businesses are considered small businesses? Just about all of them – the federal Small Business Administration estimates there are 33.2 million small businesses in America, accounting for 99.9% of all its businesses. The SBA defines a small business as having fewer than 500 employees.
How do the most successful small-business owners beat the odds and stay open, even while in the shadow of bigger corporate competition? The Augusta Chronicle asked local experts how they do it.
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Pivoting quickly
When a large company wants to innovate with a new product or procedure, it can take months or years to weave through a corporate hierarchy to receive help and approval from multiple levels of management.
Small businesses often are much nimbler in reacting to changes in the market or increased demand among customers, and can innovate faster. When a Buona Caffe employee floated an idea for sugar-free peppermint syrup to flavor coffee drinks, it grew into the production of several flavors of homemade syrup.
“Because the decision process can be pretty darn short, we can move really quickly to do some things,” Pat Curry said.
Stacy Roberts, a lecturer in management in Augusta University’s Hull College of Business, cited local baker BabyCakes as an example of quickly putting ideas into motion. Owner Tiara Fluellen started her business by making just cupcakes, but has since expanded from a simple bakery to a full-blown café with full-sized cakes, puddings and other freshly made sweets in a variety of unique flavors.
“I just love seeing her grow,” Roberts said. “Anything she thinks of, she can just implement it, and it works. I just love that about being a small business. You have more freedom, and you can use that to your advantage.”
Personalizing customer service
Bigger chain stores tend to aim for a broad customer appeal, and individual needs can’t always be met.
Small businesses can better devote resources to the needs of individual customers, which cultivates customer satisfaction. At Buona Caffe, one customer with a chocolate allergy requested a white chocolate muffin that wasn’t on the menu but Pat Curry made a batch separately. The item gained popularity with other customers.
“There’s a real connection,” she said. “Our customers get really invested in the lives of our baristas and our business, and vice-versa. I don’t really know if that happens in a chain.”
With chain drug stores seemingly on every street corner, locally-owned Barney’s Pharmacy operates seven thriving locations that offer unique services such as organizing support groups, education classes on medical matters and even bingo games.
“They’ve figured out who wants to patronize them,” Roberts said. “People love local. They’ve carved out their market and what works.”
Prioritizing the local community
Small businesses can connect with their communities in ways that bigger companies can’t or don’t. In Buona Caffe’s case, they’ve forged partnerships with several institutions and events, such as the Augusta Symphony and the Morris Museum of Art. The business was named the official coffee of the annual Augusta Pride Festival.
“We try to do our part to be part of the community and help out local organizations as best we can,” John Curry said.
Connecting directly
Dissatisfied customers can grow more dissatisfied if they feel their complaints to a business aren’t being addressed or even heard. Public input can get lost in a large company’s command chain, but small businesses can address concerns right away.
Roberts cited a personal case: When she had a query at a locally-owned print shop, instead of being directed to a toll-free number to pose questions, the shop’s owner emerged with the answers she was looking for.
At a larger business, she said, it’s likely “I wouldn’t be able to do that. Getting your issues solved quicker without having to go up this big chain, that’s a small business’ benefit.”
Staying focused
Successful business owners often don’t lose sight of why they started their businesses.
Gordon Lawson, CEO of Augusta-based cybersecurity firm Conceal, was recently named to the Leadership Council of the National Small Business Association, which advocate on government policy matters affecting small businesses.
“There is always a larger competitor in almost any industry and that’s certainly the case in cybersecurity,” he said. “However, I think the danger as you get too big can be complacency. At Conceal, we’re growing quickly but we have stayed true to our core values of leadership, action and results.”
Pat Curry said she initially was worried when, just a few months after opening Buona Caffe’s first location on Central Avenue, another coffee shop opened nearby. But one of her customers, a veteran of the restaurant business, helped her put it into perspective: New restaurants open every day.
“Stay focused on what you’re doing as opposed to what everybody else is doing,” she said. The business has branched out into selling coffee-themed merchandise, such as locally made earrings containing tiny portions of Buona Caffe coffee, or paper made from roasted coffee chaff by a local artist.
“Being innovators and risk-takers, we recognize some things aren’t going to work, and were OK with that,” she said.
“We do a lot of other things, but it’s still all about the coffee,” John Curry said.
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