The suppliers make the business...
This week I had yet another *awful* experience dealing with Rogers, our cell phone provider. They drive me nuts. Not because the product itself isn't dependable - it's fine. I want to make a call, my phone works. At the end of the day, I suppose that is what matters. But what would be *great* is if they also provided some level of customer service, in addition to phone service. And if they provided their employees with the leeway to actually help me when I have a problem. If I could walk away from an encounter with them, and feel not only satisfied, but as though I was happy to spend my hard earned money with their company. But I never do. This isn't a rant however. Hating them makes me realize how much I love some of our other suppliers - the ones who genuinely care about me, my business, and by default, my customers. The ones who help me succeed and provide a better service than my competitors. So this blog is about them.
We have a lot of suppliers, for a small business. We depend on them for the most basic of things - like phone and internet service, accounting and legal services, office products, and the less basic stuff, like our web site, food suppliers and cooking equipment. At the end of the day, without our suppliers, we can't do a damn thing, and without our best suppliers, our business would never be what it is today. So I would like to introduce you to my best suppliers. I would also like to encourage you to contact them and find out what they can do to help you - because I am sure your business would be the better for it as well.
Ubriety | www.ubriety.com| Alex and Jon, at Ubriety, are the brains behind gavs.ca and glsommelier.ca. They designed, built and run our web sites, and they are awesome. We approached them back in 2011 with a vision, and they turned it into a functioning, transactional reality. Not only do we love our sites - which are the heart and brains of this business - but we love dealing with them, because when we have a problem, they fix it. And they are nice. Really nice.
Apple (and the Fairview Apple Team) |www.apple.ca| We make food, but without our obscene array of Apple tools (desktop, laptop, ipad, iphones...), we are living in a bubble. Our Apple tools make it possible to communicate with our clients at any moment, of any day. And we love our Apple tools. They make boring admin work that much more tolerable (vs, working on a PC, for example), and the team at Fairview are great: they have revived our dead laptop, reset our buggy phones, and never charged us a dime or made us feel like incompetent losers.
Aubut |ww.aubut.ca| Without Aubut we would have next to no profit margin. It's no secret that food service is not the world's best get-rich-quick strategy - people in this industry are in it for the pure love of food - no other reason. But Aubut makes it possible for us to buy supplies at much lower prices, which leaves a little more in the bank at the end of each delivery. They are open to the public, and worth the trip - although beware of the inevitable side trip to Atwater market, next door, where you will easily blow through the savings you earned at Aubut, in well under 15 minutes.
Valerie Lonergan | Ok, so there is some amount of nepotism involved in this plug - Valerie is my younger sister - but that aside, she also a master of the arts of social media and communications, and has played a huge role in my business' transition into the Modern World. If you run a business, contact her (vallonergan@email.com) because she can help you too.
Costco |www.costco.ca| Seriously, Costco makes the cut. I buy equipment, cleaning supplies, office stuff, and sometimes even food from them. They earn their spot in this blog because they are consistent, dependable, efficient, and have the world's best return policy. If something sucks / doesn't work / breaks - they just take it back. That's it. They take it back. No third degree or evil stares. They stand behind what they sell, and if it doesn't please you, they Take. It. Back.
Sticky Media |www.stickymedia.ca| This local company is not a huge supplier of ours, but they have helped us over the years, providing signage for events and shows, and most recently customizing our truck. They provide a high quality product, and more importantly, great service. We are not a good client for them - we are tiny, and call them once every five years - BUT they treat us as though we are sending them cheques on a regular basis, and that makes us feel good about spending our money with them.
Freshbooks |www.freshbook.com| We don't use Freshbooks much anymore, because in between our web site and Paypal, much of our accounting is automated. I admit however that while our current setup is far easier, I miss working on Freshbooks. It's a great product for small businesses and it was at the core of our administrative tasks for the better part of our first five years in business. I recommend it highly if you are starting out.
Frandon Seafood |www.frandonseafoods.ca| The team at Frandon (thanks, Rob and Chantal) are great. They provide an excellent product, and they appreciate my business even though I am a relatively small client for them. They have made a habit of accomodating my last minute orders on a regular basis, and they never complain even though I usually call them when I am around the corner, in desperate need of 5 lbs of shrimp and smoked salmon.
So Rogers - take notes. And to my clients - I hope that you as feel good spending your money with us as we do with this handful of suppliers- because we get how important that is.
