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The following is an excerpt from my conversation with Carolyn Howell, Vice President of Fun Company Picnics and Dulles Golf Center & Sports Park, that won the 2007 Loudoun Chamber of Commerce Small Business Award. Carolyn had a lot of good small business advice to share and I enjoyed our conversation. Please read on and enjoy part one of a two part blog. I will post part two next Monday.
(Our conversation was edited for clarity)
Ronan:
Hi Carolyn, it's a pleasure to finally meet you.
Carolyn:
It's a pleasure to meet you too.
Ronan:
As I mentioned, I wanted to speak with you about winning the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce 2007 Small Business Award and other topics and share our conversation on my blog.
Carolyn:
I can never understand the interest in blogs. My friend Christina asked me, "Have you been reading my blog?" No, but I will now.
Ronan:
Blogs are very interesting. Blogs are part of Web 2.0, which is part technology and part social networking.
Carolyn:
What is Web 2.0?
Ronan:
The original intention of the Internet was to build a network so that people could communicate with one another. The Internet advanced, but then along came the dot bomb. Well, Web 2.0 is another step in the evolution of the web. Web 2.0 includes social networking, blogs and AJAX, which is a technology aspect of Web 2.0.
UpClick Marketing is running a social networking program over 2008 called W2DotZero (www.W2DotZero.org). It's a new program for Small Businesses in Northern Virginia that's going to illustrate the power and value of social networking and Web 2.0 for small businesses. Blogging, search engine optimization and sites like YouTube, MySpace and LinkedIn will be involved in the program.
Carolyn:
I wish I could see the value in it [social networking] because I'm always invited to be part of someone's...to be LinkedIn with them. And - because I'm thinking that they must feel I have some value to them. Boy, I wish I knew how... this relationship could have some value to me and I just don't understand it.
Ronan:
I think that's a very reasonable question that many people ask. I asked that question myself until I learned more about the value of social networking and Web 2.0.
Carolyn:
Because that's what I'm trying to understand. When someone invites me to LinkedIn I accept because I think that's almost as if someone's extending their hand. And I automatically shake it and extend a hand.
Ronan:
The value of LinkedIn is that everyone is connected. Kind of like six degrees of separation, but in this case you can literally see exactly how everyone is connected. You can also choose the kind of introduction you'd like with another person who is connected to your direct connections. It's powerful and that's some of Web 2.0. It's like being in a large room and you're networking. Many people find it difficult to approach strangers, but if someone introduces you to a stranger, then the connection is more authentic.
Carolyn:
Yes. You just described the Book of Lists reception that I was at the other night. "There must be 2,000 people there. They all know why they're there." As soon as somebody said, "Oh, Carolyn meet so and so." It was so much easier to speak with people. And it really worked. I left with business cards and I've been contacted already.
Ronan:
So that's one element of Web 2.0. You asked about the blog. People write blogs for many different reasons. One reason is that you want to have a two-way conversation with someone online. So you write a blog about a subject and then you invite people to come to read it and share feedback by posting a comment.
Carolyn:
Now am I correct in saying that the phrase blog simply means web log? Somebody was keeping a log and they let other people look at their log and the people wanted to comment on their log.
Ronan:
Yes, you're correct. Staying on blogs for a moment. You're a lady that won an award and is in this position with a small business that you're trying to build. And there are many other Loudoun County businesses I'm sure that would love to know some of what you know. I'm hoping small business owners read this blog and learn from you.
Carolyn:
Loudoun County as 10,000 businesses in it. 8,000 of which are small businesses. Small businesses don't come to mind as I drive down the Dulles Toll Road. I'm looking at SAIC and I'm looking at Sprint. And so in my mind I'm thinking, "I am in the world of giants." And this is not a giant [Carolyn gestures out the window to the Dulles Golf Center and Sports Park].
Ronan:
Wouldn't it be great if those 8,000 businesses could connect with one another and learn from each other? I think Loudoun County needs a forum, and realistically, that forum needs to be online. That way, businesses that do not compete with each other could share information and best practices.
Carolyn:
Okay. That's good. I mean I - suddenly - you have truly opened my eyes because I know I have valuable friends around me. People that I know and if I have a question about something I run it past all of them first. And sometimes I hit the jackpot and they go, "Oh my God, you're not going to believe this. I just finished doing all this research on something." Well, what if I just didn't have to rely on my friends. What if there were other people that were credible that had experiences that none of my friends have had, but could give me some insight into something that I really need to know about.
If we could avoid reinventing the wheel when there are other people that will give us a hand and a leg up?
It's just I hate - because I am very low tech and I say that in all honesty. I just hate it when something gets going and it's like a fire that got started and then somebody literally threw gasoline on it and now it's so blazing and everybody knows where it is and how it got started and I don't. So that's truly - I thought, "I'm going ask him [Ronan] today." Because I go on Google and I go on Ask.com and I ask stupid questions like that.
Ronan:
Would you mind telling me about your company and describe the work you do.
Carolyn:
Sure. I work for Dulles Golf Center and Sports Park. And back in 1998 is when we did our first company picnic. Essentially that was during the dot com days and everybody was popping up and money was just - people were just - oh, just trying to find places to spend it. And the owner of this property said, "What they need is an events center around here." And I thought - he said we could do events here.
At any rate, we did a company picnic first. We learned so much about it. We learned that we will never do one that way again. From that point in time it continued to grow. The revenue and the number of events grew, and then the quality of the events got better. Because if I do something, I really want to do it well.
So I had a dear friend with Celebrations Catering, which was one of our first caterers. And I asked him about it [hosting events] and he started to show me how to put events together and the important things. The devil's in the details. By 2006 we had done 205 events. Everything from children's parties to corporate events with about 800 people in just that one season. Our season really is just March/April through the beginning of November.
So we decided that Dulles Golf Center in and of itself needs to stand on its own. It's open year round. People come out to use our batting cages. We're one of the few in Loudoun County with batting cages.
Plus our golf range keeps winning the top 100 golf ranges in North America. So we need a different device to market the events. And so Fun Company Picnics came alive and I became managing partner of that.
Ronan:
So day-to-day, what do you do?
Carolyn:
Any email that you send to Fun Company Picnic's website or Dulles Golf Center website regardless of what that email address is really coming to Carolyn Howell.
If you're calling to ask about batting cages and can your six year old play, if you're asking about mini golf, if you're asking what time we close, can you bring pets; I'm the one who responds to you. And I try to do that quickly so that you get an answer right away.
In addition to that, although I have excellent help from the General Manager and Assistant, I'm responsible for oversight of all hiring and firing and oversight of the entire facility because the facility needs to operate properly at all times. It needs to run well whether we have an event or not. When it comes to corporate events, I receive all of the inquires and requests. I respond to all of those people. I write all of the contracts for any events given.
So day-to-day I'm constantly involved in the networking, the marketing, new business development.
Ronan:
There's a lot of variety in your day.
Carolyn:
Very much so.
Ronan:
What do you think turns an idea into a functioning and profitable business? What do you think are the three things that truly matter by taking nothing and turning it into something?
Carolyn:
There has to be a need for what you have. There are beautiful picnic venues in Virginia and in Northern Virginia. However, if you're a group of 25 or 50 you're out of luck, many of the established venues cater to groups of 100 or more and they bill you as if you have 100. So in that regard, we're great for small companies that want to do small team building events but make no mistake, we welcome moderate and large companies and can efficiently handle groups up to 1,000 guests.
I also think you need to make the commitment to try and do whatever are doing the very best. Make it your business to find out everything they envision - and if you think, "Well, it's just picnics. I'd be embarrassed to tell somebody I just do picnics." It's not just a picnic for the person that's coming for that event on a particular day, that's their big deal.
So you have to have concern for what that product is and do it well. The other thing is to try and put yourself in their place and see how they want to feel about it. We want to make sure - when someone leaves they're feeling satisfied that they got what they paid for or maybe even got more than they paid for.
Ronan:
So you identified the need. Was it through market research or instinct, or a combination of both?
Carolyn:
It was the owner. I think it was gut feeling. We had all these dot coms around us and no place for an outlet for them. Kings Dominion is too far away [laughs].
Ronan:
So what do you think is at the heart of moving from a startup to a successful small business? So you have the idea, and there's the niche. And you've discovered that there's an opportunity. What does it take to move from startup to a successful small business?
Carolyn:
Literally starting small and trying - developing a reputation that whatever interaction people have with your company, that it's going to be good. In other words, people remember bad experiences in a much more powerful way. That's how reputations are built. They're built literally one customer at a time, one experience at a time.
Truthfully - the one thing that we sell here is service. Because everything else we give you in this park you give back to us. I give you a bucket of golf balls, you go out and hit them, and you leave them on the ground. I give you a miniature golf ball, the 18th hole collects it.
I give you a bat and you got to our batting cages. You hit that ball, it stays here. The thing you walk away with is were you treated well? Was the environment nice? Do you think you got good service? Was it pleasant?
Please visit our blog next to read the concluding part of my conversation with Carolyn Howell.
