Small Business, Big Lessons® – Celebrating 3 Years!

Time flies when you are having fun. It is hard to believe the Small Business, Big Lessons column is celebrating 3 years. This week will be a walk down memory lane and how it started. Our business had been advertising for years with WCHL and Chapelboro.com. I’ve had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ron Stutts live on the air for several years. Kenny Dike and I would talk about some of the challenges in either running our own business or coaching others in running their business. We spoke at many Chapel Hill Chamber of Commerce Business after Hours and other community events. I had similar conversations with Art Chansky. Then came the idea and question: why don’t you start writing for us?

Finally, the time was right, and a column was born. It is a way of sharing experiences and thought-provoking insights to improve small business and provide lessons and experiences that can also be applied in entrepreneurial corporate environments.

1) Which one do we publish first – We were struggling on what should be the first blog posting. I had several ready to go (did much better three years ago at that). It came down to Small Business, Big Lessons™ – Fun and/or Profit or Small Business, Big Lessons™ – What Happened to My Favorite Dickey’s Barbecue Pit location? The original plan was to launch with “Fun and/or Profit”. In the last minute we pivoted to “What Happened to My Favorite Dickey’s Barbecue Pit locations?”. It was a great move. I had people reaching out to me that I hadn’t heard from in years and they helped spread the word.

2) Painful experiences – All content published has personal experiences built into it. When we sold our three restaurants, as mentioned in the “What Happened to My Favorite Dickey’s Barbecue Pit Location?” above, we never dreamt of what would happen after that. The new owner defaulted on an over $250k note to us and two of the landlords were attempting to sue us for between $800k-$1M. In fact, one of them began legal proceeding for over $600k. The interesting part was they were trying to hold us liable for the new owner signing a 5 year lease renewal. They named GMW Carolina, my wife Maureen, and I as the targets. We sold the locations in solid financial condition. We knew there was some risk if the new owner defaulted but the leases had under 2 years left and we thought that minimized our risk. We ended up prevailing with an excellent attorney but costly non the less. Those experience resulted in these two postings Small Business, Big Lessons™ – Before You Sign and Small Business, Big Lessons™ – Personal Guarantees – finally ending the ordeal in September 2018.

3) Fun concepts – I like using analogies. Many times in my career, I’ve had people say “remember when you said xyz,” or “that was an incredible way to describe that.” I never paid much attention to that until a few years ago. I decided to try and capture those into this blog. My only regret is I didn’t start sooner. For anyone that can remind me of something you appreciated, I would be grateful for a reminder of what it was I said! It is hard for me to pick my favorites but I really enjoyed writing these two – Small Business, Big Lessons™ – Time to Break Out The Big Crayons! and Small Business, Big Lessons™ – Don’t be a Tool!

Think through

What is it you really enjoy doing – even if you don’t get paid for it? My answer is writing this blog. I appreciate the feedback I constantly receive and am looking forward to continuing writing for years to come. Maybe at some point will turn the content into a book. Earlier this year we were able to register our trademark, Small Business, Big Lessons ®. Shortly after that – the sincerest form of flattery occurred – others have been attempting to use our trademark or remarkably similar wording (Small Business, Big you name it!) and we have been defending our registered trademark vigorously.

Feel free to post comments or email them to me. Small Business, Big Lessons ® – What keeps you going and celebrating?

 

About the Author:

Gregory Woloszczuk is an entrepreneur and experienced tech executive that helps small business owners grow their top and bottom line. Gregory believes in straight talk and helping others see things they need to see but may not want to with a focus on taking responsibly for one’s own business. He and his wife, Maureen, started GMW Carolina in 2006.

 

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