Learn About Business Opportunities In Rural Areas

Learn About Business Opportunities in Rural Areas Susan Solovic: More entrepreneurs are finding they can successfully launch a small business off the beaten path. The weather is making the most even remote community accessible and fueling a renaissance for rural entrepreneurship. Andrew Fields founded the first and leading online commercial printer in the US in Rural Montana. PrintingForLess.com has been recognized with numerous business awards including the Stevie Award for best customer service organization along with best of the web and winning work places to name just a few. Welcome to the show. Andrew Fields: Thank you Susan. Susan Solovic: Now I grew up in this town of about 3000 people. Is it really possible for a small firm to really grow and become a successful enterprise n the rural community? Andrew Fields: Ten or 15 years ago I think it wasn’t you didn’t have the talent, you didn’t have the communication, you didn’t have the access to markets and customers and suppliers but today, people from all over the country are looking for more balance in their life. And they’re looking for a better place to live away from the traffic and the crime and the smog and the high cost of your bigger centers and with the internet FedEx and good telecommunications, I think it can be done almost anywhere. Susan Solovic: Well you’ve certainly been successful and you’re in the beautiful state of Montana which is very popular now but what was one of your biggest challenges when you’re growing your firm being in a rule area like that. Andrew Fields: I think it was finding access to some of the professionals we needed like web developers and programmers and IT professional and that sort of thing and one of the ways we’ve done that is we concluded nationwide for many of our positions. Susan Solovic: Well your company PrintingForLess.com is one of the fastest growing companies in the country actually. What do you attribute your success to and what tips could you share with our audience who is watching us today. Andrew Fields: One of the things we’ve done is we’ve leverage technology very heavily and used it in places to take some cost out and to improve the customer experience. The other, which is even more important, is people. I believe that you are not going to deliver a customer experience and it is better than your employee experience so hire the best people we possibly can, we’ve tried to palm well, we’ve tried to give them a lot of autonomy and authority and in fact our front line, customer facing people don’t have a single limit on what they can do. They never have to say let me check with the supervisor or I’ll get back to you. Susan Solovic: One of the things that small business owners often find that really helps them grow their business is networking., What kind of challenges did you find in a rural area to network and how did you overcome that? Andrew Fields: Networking is tough, one of the ways I do is that I do take calls from weather its venture cut less or professional organizations from other states and Montana does have a chapter of young presence organization and I would encourage any small business person who gives up to the size by $8 Million a year in revenues or 15 employees to join YPO and to have that opportunity to share ideas with other head of the companies. Susan Solovic: That’s a great suggestion because YPO is a good organization; can you elaborate just a little bit on that period advisory aspect of YPO? Andrew Fields: Well if you think about it at the head of the company, it can be a little bit lonely. There are things that maybe shouldn’t share with your employees or can’t really talk about your doubts or your concerns but with YPO you’re talking to other people who’ve been working and you’re trying to go and who have shared many of those some experiences so there’s very confidential experience sharing and ideas sharing and advice sharing and a sort of gives you a private board of advisers that you can talk to. Susan Solovic: Can help you from making some of those same mistakes someone else and has already made. Well Andrew Fields thank you so much for joining us. Andrew Fields: Thank you and of course Andrew Fields is the president and CEO PrintingForLess.com and we appreciate him being here and you cold learn more about Andrew and his company by going to www.printingforless.com and this is sbtv.com where small business is our only business..