Demographics Part II: The Battle Between the Customer and the Entrepreneur

I promised in the last blog post to guide you through the demographic research component of your business plan. Before we get into it, just understand that knowing demographics is really nothing more than thinking about your customers and every business must have customers.

The Story of Sylvan’s Foremost Bookstore
I would like to tell you a story about Sylvan, Ontario’s Foremost Bookstore. Sylvan is a clustering (I do not think it can even be called a hamlet) of about 20-30 people and this bookstore proudly lays claim to being the “foremost” bookstore in Sylvan–in fact it is the only thing in Sylvan.
(Sylvan’s Foremost bookstore) Yes there really is one…

Now the reason I bring up the Sylvan bookstore is that its owner Bob Lewis, according to his bio on his webpage, is a most unusual sort of character. Having spent a significant part of his youth working in rural areas, Bob loves country living, and he loves books. The road where his business is located is quite busy in the Summer as it is enroute to some of Southwestern Ontario’s best beaches. However, the short construction period, means that this road is frequently closed during its “peak” season, leaving Bob alone with his books.

If you ever entered this shop you would realize that Bob is a bit of a hoarder. There is no where to walk with all the books in the place. Yet, there is a charm to this place and Bob, who charmingly refers to himself as the “book gnome” on his bookmarks, is not far off the mark.

Bob, on his bio-says that he “will never be a dot come millionaire” and he probably won’t. He is happy living amongst his books, reading and selling one or another when a stray customer happens to walk in. Usually, customers come in because of his claim to have 40,000 books in the place.

Bob is happy. Others may be less happy with the lack of material possessions, but to those of us who dream of running our own businesses, it is important to do so under your own terms. You just have to fully comprehend how these terms relate to the rest of the world. Bob is quite happy to be away from the rest of the world and take the consequences that come with it.

We may seem quite far off the mark from where we started. What does Bob and the Sylvan bookstore have to do with demographics? Quite simply, you have to understand the customer, you have to be prepared that customers may not want what you want and that you have to define what it is you want very early on in your dream. Do you want to be a dot come millionaire, or do you want to be Bob and his books? Do you want the inner peace that comes with doing what you love, or do you want to just make a lot of money? These are two very different objectives and it is rare that you are able to combine the two.

When an entrepreneur goes into business, many times it is because they are passionate about something. We want to share this passion with others: our customers. Yet, very often along the way, the vision changes. What we want is not always what the customer wants and needs. We have to be prepared to understand that we may either have to sacrifice our vision or sacrifice sales and the material.

Bob has chosen to not fight. He simply has removed himself.
Tomorrow, I will tell you about another entrepreneur who set out nearly 30 years ago to “change” customers and he still slugs on today and who believed his calling came in providing the world with a better loaf of bread.

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