Many businesses that I have owned didn’t depend on customers who walked into our store so much as they did on mail, phone, fax and email orders. I guess that would classify us as a mail-order company rather than what is referred to as a brick-and-mortar company.
I also guess that more and more businesses are falling into that category now that the Internet is here.
When I owned BrandNew Industries, most of the business came from phone calls and emails, and it was always nice to hear the phone ringing all day. Or to hear that little “ding” when another email arrived.
But some days, the phone just didn’t ring or the computer didn’t “ding.” And I would sit there wondering where all the customers went.
Sometimes it was so quiet that I would find myself picking up the phone to see if I still had a dial tone so I knew it was still working. Or I would send myself an email to see if that was still working.
I hated those days.
— Paul Burri is an entrepreneur, inventor, columnist, engineer and iconoclast. He has been a counselor with the Santa Barbara chapter of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) for the past eight years. SCORE offers free business counseling to local businesses. He is also the membership director of the Channel City Camera Club. The opinions and comments in this column are his alone and do not reflect the opinions or policies of any outside organization. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Click here for previous Paul Burri columns. Follow Paul Burri on Twitter: @BronxPaul.
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