Business takes time - you can fake the patience

It has been almost seven months since my husband and I packed up our five children, said good-bye to some of our dearest friends, and moved to south Texas to run our own business. It is also when I was able to add my favorite new tag to my blog: "holy crap I own an rv park."

In the early days, I had read several a million resources on owning a small business, particularly one that was a turn-around where you are basically starting from scratch. There was one constant, and that was how the first month would be a painful combination of your enthusiasm to get things off the ground and the ear piercing chirp of crickets as you saw not. one. single. customer.

We were not above average.

Due to many factors beyond anyone's control, this park had quietly retreated into its little nook, without many knowing it was here. No website. No catalog listings. It just existed for quite some time, with only a hint of a pulse. The phone did not ring. Not even automated sales calls! The silence kinda' made you want to jump off a cliff ... but all we had were hills.

The first thing we did was create our own website. I'm a do-it-yourself-er, when at all possible. I downloaded some free site building software, looked around the web for some ideas and starting points, and got to work. There is plenty of information available to help you with key words and such, so that people are finding you with web searches. I found a place to host it, published it, and immediately we began to get hits. Maybe only four a day, but that was so much better than the silent phone which kept mocking us.

I started to look at all the major search engines, to make sure we were showing up on their maps. If we weren't I found the appropriate links and updated that information. In some instances, that took about a month, because they weren't in a huge hurry to help us with those issues ... at no cost. Yet, that is when the hits kept growing, and we started to hear a strange noise - the phone was ringing! Weird!

If there was a free listing, I was all over it. Our advertising budget was sucked up quickly with two of the biggest campground publications. Those were no brainers, but writing that check, knowing the catalogs and listings were not coming out for another five months, was gut-wrenching. FYI: I have already checked in two paying customers this month now that those things are out there. Ahhhh patience. How I hate thee.

We have also chosen to participate in a multitude of low-cost camping clubs, where customers pay an annual fee and receive a substantial discount. These programs have helped us in two significant ways: even if it is half price, it is still money we would not have made on that site on that particular day; and it gets more people into our little nook out here. They leave with some brochures, warm conversation, perhaps a hot cup of coffee, and a fabulous impression they will want to share with friends.

RVers talk. They are your best advertising.

The phone rings daily, now. Sometimes those calls actually turn into paying customers. It has been less than seven months and we are seeing the fruits of our labor. Seven months ... that's not all that long in the scheme of things. However, you couldn't tell me that around month two. So, if you're not so good with the patience when it comes to your small or turn-around-business, just fake it. Then one day you can tout your self control and endurance to all your Chamber of Commerce buddies. They'll never know the difference.