Old Habits Die Hard

By: Courtney Sizemore

A couple days ago, I was sitting on Facebook when my chat box popped up. This wouldn’t be strange for most college kids but IMing me was my 50 year old uncle.He’s new to the Facebook thing, he’s new to blog thing, and he’s just starting off on his new role in our family business. So needless to say, he’s lost.

My family owns a wicker furniture business in Philadelphia called Charles Schober and Co. Alfred Schober is my great great grandfather, who started the small business in 1892. Since then, my great grand father, Charles took over, and passes it down to my grandfather Alfred, and then finally to my three uncles, Richard, William, and Thomas. Everything runs in the family, everything remains constant, and change is unspoken of.

On their website it says, “We believe that a good business does not spring up overnight, but grows slowly, because it is rooted in the solid ground of customer satisfaction. That's why all orders are important to us. It is our hope that we can grow together in business and friendship.”

As much as I want to commend my uncles for their hard work and dedication to customer satisfaction, I could almost hear my uncle Bill shouting at me through Facebook IM asking for dire help in need of PR help.

With today’s economy, my uncle is realizing more than ever the need to keep up with competitors. Even if it means changing your old ways and adapting to things you aren’t comfortable with.Good PR is an art of sorts and requires some research, thought and planning at any level, not just grand scale businesses that we keep directing our attention to for jobs after school.

It’s incredibly beneficial to stick to the basics when applying the sources such has Facebook as my uncle has. Even large corporations often fail to realize who their audiences actually are. We all forget to do the small work and changes to see the greatest change and benefits to our careers.

I’ve found while researching over the last few months for our business that small business owners actually have opportunities and forums beyond the usual advertising and networking options. The only limitation is often money. But still then, even they can learn to be their own best promoters. Small businesses give the homey feel and the materials feel like you are buying quality products for a reasonable price. It’s a matter of finding of how to get that message out to the public that each company must wrestle with.It’s the M-A-C triad people! How good is the promotion without the message, the audience, and the channel all distributed properly through research. .