If Your Butt’s Not Dirty Then Something is Wrong
I mean that. If your butt’s not dirty then there is something wrong.
Taken in the wrong context that could be considered bathroom humor, but it sure made sense to me yesterday, when I took my horse to a team penning and sorting event. For those of you who don’t do horse and cowboy stuff, that means we paid good money to chase cows around for 90 seconds.
These pictures are a couple of my good friends who with me at the penning and also a shot of all the people, horses, and rigs at this event. What’s the point of all this?
There may be a recession but you wouldn’t know it at this team penning.
It wasn’t possible to capture all the horse-and-trailer rigs at this event in a single shot–there were that many people there. People were plunking down $200-$350 for a day’s worth of fun, not counting the cost of hauling their horses to the event, lunch, beer, and the daily overhead of owning horses.
In other words, people may be tightening their belts by not getting regular dental cleanings or skipping on groceries, but they are perfectly willing to pay out cold hard cash, and lots of it, to have some fun.
There are some things that people WILL NOT give up, even in recession.
Their point of view is exactly this: if your butt isn’t dirty (meaning you haven’t been sitting in the saddle and playing with cows) then something is really wrong! Sure, you have to make concessions in a recession, but these people are not giving up their horses or cows. To them, chasing cows around is cheaper and more fun than visiting a shrink.
As a small business how can this situation equal profits for you?
Look at your customers (or consider a new customer base) and ask yourself these questions:
- What is it that these people will NOT give up even in recession?
- What will people give up right away?
- What do your customers use as “therapy”?
- What do you offer that would be the equivalent of “comfort food”?
- Are you a discount version of something people want? Discount stores are thriving!
- Can anything you offer serve as a distraction from all the economic doom and gloom?
- Can you be a sideline service for something that people won’t give up? (The food vendor at the team penning is a great example.)
What are the indispensable products and services even during an economic downturn? How can you hitch your business to that bandwagon? Remember that we’re not necessarily talking about physically indispensable products and services. Think about how your business can be emotionally indispensable, like a security blanket or comfort food.
In a recent post I talked about the dentist who moved his business to a truck stop, where his trucker patients “required” his services because they were so much pain. Whereas regular patients are skipping dental cleanings, truckers in pain can’t skip a tooth extraction. The dentist brought his business to where his services were a necessity.
How can you do the same for your business? How can you serve the equivalent of the team penners in your industry? Have some ideas? Drop me a line!
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