Attitude

Jan 16, 2012 Peter Rabbit Opinion Comments Off on Attitude

Business choice should be supported and encouraged

There is still an attitude from some quarters that market traders are somehow not serious business people because if they were serious they would commit to leasing premises and risking it all. And that, they are just trying to get by, they are business people without any longterm vision.

I was looking through a forum the other day and came across this in response to a question about becoming a market trader

These comments come from a Business Services professional and sum this up very well, he said. . .

“The traders tend to moan about ‘use it or lose it’ – well if your products were good enough we would use it”

and he went on to say

“They moan that £40 for a day is a lot of money for their space – seriously!”

and

“Why should they get special treatment over those businesses that have decided to take a serious rent and rate investment to get a high street presence.”

What a shockingly condescending attitude towards markets and even worse it came from somebody who is offering so called professional advise to business!

I should not have to point out that some people choose to run a market stall over bricks and mortar, it does not make them inept or somehow inferior it is a business choice and should be supported and encouraged.

Honestly if his comments had anything to do with reality we would not have brands such as Tesco, and while thats an obvious example, what about Radley & Co, Pepe Jeans, Box Fresh, Duffer of St George, or, Platinum Holdings, Dinosaur Designs, Cult Clothing, Sambag, Sass & Bide, New Look and I believe even Sir Richard Branson started selling vinyl at a market stall.

Because all of these extremely successful businesses started at markets, if they had gone into serious rents they may not have been able to survive. But more importantly they chose to run a market stall because it gave them freedom, it gave them direct contact with their clients, it gave them a way to engage, the freedom to explore and the skills to attend to becoming successful.

Further with their success came expansion, leasing premises, investing, employment and even export opportunities, and the combined worth of all of these companies is vast.

The point is there is more than one way to do business and market stalls and the business people who run them should never be looked upon as somehow less serious or important than the business that decided to start in a shop, its simply choice and we should all have freedom of choice.