Why persistence matters in the pursuit of business success

Graham McGregor is a marketing adviser. You can get his free marketing guide ‘The Plan B Sales Solution’ at www.simplemarketinganswers.com.

OPINION: One of my favourite success quotes is this one on persistence:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge

And that’s the message in this issue of Real Life Business Lessons: persistence produces business success.

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Let me show you a great business example of how persistence works in real life…

I interviewed Sue Jones the owner of a remarkable adults only retail gift shop called EnticeMe.

Here’s some background:

Sue has been involved in the adult product industry for close to 15 years.

She has managed adult product retail businesses. For over 9 years she has owned a successful adult product wholesale business that supplies a large number of retail clients around New Zealand.

Sue has looked at many adult product retail businesses around New Zealand and has seen a lot of terrific stores. She has also seen some stores that weren’t particularly inviting to women.

Sue wanted to create an adult product retail gift shop where women felt comfortable coming in and shopping for intimate items.

She also wanted to provide a range of adult gift products available for purchase. Such as motivational and sensual art, hen’s night products, novelty mugs and wine glasses, one-off handbags, wallets, handmade jewellery and more.

Here’s how persistence helped Sue to create business success…

When Sue was planning her first EnticeMe adults-only retail store she chose Henderson in Auckland as the location.

She wanted to have main road frontage in a good location. This proved to be very challenging.

She was turned down on five different occasions for retail shops that she looked at, as many landlords assumed adult product retail would attract the wrong sort of clientele.

Sue continued to share her vision of her ‘women friendly’ retail environment with potential landlords, assuring them the store would be attractive and would add value to the Henderson retail community.

Her persistence paid off and she finally found one landlord who was willing to let her set up shop with her desired main road frontage in a good location.

The persistence lesson here is important…

Don’t let a few people saying “no” stop you from setting up your new business. Or doing something in your business that is different from the way things are normally done.

This led to her next big challenge…

When she took over the retail outlet, it had been empty for some time and was in need of major renovation work. The interior was a mix of dark brown walls, a ceiling full of holes and five layers of old carpet and other flooring. In short it looked “hideous”.

However, Sue could see the potential for what she could create with this space.

So, she rolled up her sleeves and renovated the whole place herself from top to bottom. (With friends and family assisting from time to time.)

The flooring by itself was a massive challenge. With the layers of carpet and underlay, carpet tiles and vinyl tiles.

Finally, there were about nine square metres of concrete tiles. All this old flooring had to be removed to get the floor completely level to put down brand-new flooring.

Sue spent many days removing all the old flooring and then hired a jackhammer and spent four hours removing the concrete tiles. She did hours of online research to be able to undertake this herself. She then put down the levelling compound and laid the new floor.

Sue commented that she has always had a “give it a go” attitude and this helped her with learning how to use power tools, do painting and so on (in her spare time Sue also restores outdoor furniture for a hobby).

She then painted the entire store inside and out.

It took close to six weeks of backbreaking work but finally the new shop had the look that Sue wanted. Persistence and “rolling up her sleeves” got the job done. The end result was like the story of the “ugly duckling that turned into a beautiful swan”. Sue now had the nicest looking store in the area.

The EnticeMe store has an eye-catching pink and white colour theme and is light and bright inside and very inviting to visit.

Sue was able to use her wholesale business to stock her new shop and she was now ready to open to the public.

Which led to her biggest business challenge of all…

Sue opened her EnticeMe retail shop on the 26th of July 2021. The timing was terrible: Three weeks after she opened her shop; Auckland was put into a level 4 Covid lockdown for close to four months.

She had spent a huge amount of time, money and effort renovating her shop. The doors were open for three weeks, she had hired staff, and invested in stock and then the shop doors were closed for four months.

That was a huge challenge both financially and emotionally. Once again persistence was the key to handling this challenge.

Sue used the income from her wholesale business plus the government wage subsidies to get her through these very challenging times. She also had some great support from her landlord who offered her a very generous arrangement on her shop rent.

It helped that throughout this time Sue had an excellent Business/Life Coach and worked out regularly at her local women’s only Gym Results Fitness. It was enormously beneficial that she was able to continue with these done virtually throughout the lockdown (helping to keep her mind focussed and positive during this very challenging time).

Sue also listened to a lot of positive motivational books on the recommendation of her coach. One of her favourite books was called Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet.

The book is by entrepreneur Jesse Itzler and is about his experiences hiring one of the toughest men on the planet to be his personal trainer for a month. The book really shows you the value and benefits of persistently stepping outside your comfort zone (it’s well worth reading or listening to).

Sue used her free time during the lockdown to look for ways to promote her new business when it was able to be reopened. She wrote a detailed how to guide called Pleasure for Life which she gives away free on her EnticeMe website.

This guide explains how ladies can spice up their love life with adult products and contains dozens of useful tips and ideas that ladies can use. Sue also had the Pleasure for Life guide printed and gives a copy free to everyone who comes into her retail business (when it finally reopened).

Dozens of ladies have commented on how useful they have found her free Pleasure for Life guide.

During the lockdown she spent dozens of hours rearranging her shop and putting in new product lines that she thought would appeal to a lot of her customers. She now stocks a huge range of very popular motivational art which she creates herself.

Motivational art is positive quotes and sayings that are nicely framed, and they come in a wide range of sizes. Sue finds that motivational art is a great way to feed your mind with positive thoughts. (And a nice side benefit of lots of positive thoughts in that it often improves your love life at the same time.)

The persistence lesson here is to keep taking positive action in the face of any challenges that you are facing.

I asked Sue what other persistence advice she would give to new business owners starting out today.

One of the things she told me is to “expect the unexpected”. Here’s a good example.

After the Covid lockdown the door on Sue’s EnticeMe shop was not working properly and did not open inwards. A new door was needed and that was going to take a few months.

It’s a big solid heavy glass door, so they were having to open it outwards for a while. It’s a frosted door so anybody walking towards it can see it (you can’t miss it being open). It was well secured, highly visible.

Then one day Sue was working in her shop and a little old gentleman drove straight into the front door with his mobility scooter. The door bounced back, and the little old man bounced back. He was unharmed but the door was not. The base of the door was removed from its hinges. Sue and her staff had to continue using this broken door for another three months until the new door arrived. And business is often like this.

Unexpected things will happen.And the trick is to expect the unexpected and realise that things often happen that are outside your control. However, you can always control the actions that you take in response to any challenges.

And by persistently taking positive action it’s remarkable how often this produces a great result.

Another piece of persistence advice Sue gave me is to look at continually improving the experience you create for your customers.

In other words, how can you make customers feel good about themselves and your business when they meet you? And how can you continually make that experience even better?

Now some people are uncertain (or even nervous) about visiting an adult retail store.

To help customers overcome their fears EnticeMe has created an environment that is warm and friendly and inviting. In other words, it’s a store that is enjoyable to visit plus make people feel relaxed and at ease when they enter.

Sue commented that her key focus is to help people enjoy the ‘experience’ of coming into her store. She wants them to feel good even if they don’t buy anything. In other words, she wants to develop a great long-term relationship with people.

When people feel good, they will come back later and become loyal customers. And they tell their friends about EnticeMe as well.

She finds that people coming into the EnticeMe shop not only buy adult products but often purchase a range of other things as well.

A good example is a gentleman who came in recently for some adult products for his girlfriend. He purchased these and bought two large pieces of art at the same time. One piece of art was for his own home. The other piece of motivational art was all about having a positive mindset. Which he had purchased for his dad who had major health challenges going on in his life.

Sue has a great phrase that sums up her attitude to life.

It goes like this: “What you think about you bring about.”

Sue thought persistently about the type of adult retail gift shop she wanted to open and that’s exactly what happened.

Sue told me that if you think about negative things, you’ll bring about negative experiences. And when you think positive you bring more positive into your life.

I asked Sue for more persistence advice.

She said to keep in mind the old expression: “Good things take time.”

In a brand-new business, you are not always super successful in your first 3 months or 6 months or even your first year or more. It takes time to get well-known. So, keep persisting and doing things to promote your business and make it memorable.

Summary:

I enjoyed my interview with Sue, and I was reminded how using persistence can make any business more successful.

Remember to expect the unexpected in business.

It’s not just about what you sell. It’s also about the experience that customers have when they interact with your business.

Keep taking positive action every week when facing business challenges.

Continually look for new ways to promote your business.

And do new things every week to improve the positive experience your customer gets when interacting with your business.

Persistence can help you to solve a wide range of business challenges.

And bring about the success you are looking for.

Take Action:

How can you use persistence to make your own business more successful?