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8 Ideas To Strengthen Your Family-Owned Business
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Article 6: Change With The Times—A Success Story
If you want your family firm to grow and thrive, you’ll have to embrace market changes and make them work in your favor.
Nothing exemplifies change like the evolution of the Internet during the past decade. It has doomed some small family businesses and lifted others to new heights. Here’s how one family firm, Cazeault Ace Hardware, harnessed change to its advantage.
Cazeault Ace Hardware has been doing business at the same N. Weymouth, Mass., location since 1949. Starting out as family-owned and operated, the store carried a little bit of everything.
The area was home to a large commercial fishing fleet and boasted a dozen repair garages. Over time, the owner of Cazeault Ace Hardware developed an interest in nuts and bolts to serve the garages and the fishing boats. The hardware store became well-known for its fastener stock.
The company discovered that most customers didn’t know the names of different fasteners. Even the most mechanically inclined folks often declined purchasing help, preferring to browse until they finally spotted the bolts or screws they wanted.
Through trial and error, the hardware store devised a method of questioning customers that helped speed the sales process. It also eased the confusion and mild embarrassment of customers who literally didn’t know what to ask for. This method, used in the original store, became the model for the navigation on the company’s direct sales Web site, www.boltdepot.com.
Using the Web site’s simple visual selection process, visitors can quickly find the fasteners they need. They can purchase by the piece, box or any combination. There’s no minimum order required. Visitors can easily access relevant technical information, such as correct pilot hole size or help determining screw diameter. Any customer needing more information can call a toll-free phone number and speak to a fastener specialist.
Bolt Depot’s Web site reflects the atmosphere of the family-owned business it grew out of. The idea, says owner Jordan Cazeault, is to preserve the best parts of the hardware store while using the latest Internet technology to do business in the computer age.
Although many family firms host a Web site, few use the sales channel as effectively as Bolt Depot for building the business. Those that do gain a competitive edge.
“The Internet represents another venue to help grow a family business,” says David Jones, a partner with the Atlanta-based Family Business Institute. “The opportunities are not just for developing business from afar, but for building your business at the local level as well.”
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