A Home Business Success Story – Down the Garden Path

I was reading about an interesting home business today, and it struck me how typical their path to success has been. It might seem like luck, or maybe it’s just good hard work.  I’ll show you what I mean:

The business is Engraved Garden Path Markers, Inc., in Haubstadt, Indiana, owned by Chris Ingler.  Her story was in the local newspaper and online. The story shows how a typical small business grows and becomes successful.  The typical business success story goes like this:

• Chapter One: The Idea to Help Yourself.  Chris Ingler had a large daylily garden and she started making markers to identify her garden.

• Chapter Two: Selling Locally by Word of Mouth (WOM).  Soon friends and neighbors were asking, “Where did you get those?” and were ordering from her.

• Chapter Three: The Website.  It didn’t take long before Chris realized she could sell many more of the garden markers, so she created a website.  She used an inexpensive webpage (http://daylily.net/gardens/engravedgardenmarkers/)  which is really a sub-site of another site (daylily.net).

• Chapter Four:  A Lot of Business Coming In.  Chris credits her fast service and WOM for the increase in her business.

• Chapter Five: Underpricing.  Like most small business people, Chris’s product is probably under-priced. At $3.50 apiece, her markers are a steal.  I would bet she could double her price and still sell as many.

• Chapter Six: Putting the Family to Work.  Chris’s husband works in the business and her daughter and son-in-law help when business gets busy.

• Chapter Seven:  Commercial Business.  Like other small businesses, Chris started with individuals and she now gets a lot of business from commercial customers – in this case universities and parks.  WOM has also led to some “famous” clients, like the Emily Dickinson Reading Garden in New York.

I applaud Chris for her ingenuity and her hard work.  To get back to my original thought, there was certainly a small element of luck, but the secret is to find something people value, to sell it for a reasonable price, and to do it with fast service.  If it sounds too simple, maybe it is.

• Chapter Eight:  Where Now?  It sounds like Chris may be outgrowing her home business and her family may be getting tired of spending a lot of time helping, even if the income is good…. to be continued.