Solopreneurs.

Yeah, that's a hard word to say, isn't it?

Solopreneurs, prepare for battle.

In this episode, I'd like to talk about the most important cake I ever ordered.

The most significant cake I ever ordered.

Both for myself and for my opinion of the bakery that I ordered the cake from. This goes back to providing superior service for your clientele.

It was 5pm on a Sunday.

My newborn daughter had just come home from the hospital for the first time.

So we bought a cake to celebrate. It was a busy day, rushing around getting balloons and everything ready for the baby reveal to the grandparents.

I forgot that perhaps the bakery would have been closed by the time I went to it.

I received a phone call oh about 5-10 minutes after the bakery had closed and they asked, “We have your cake here. Are you coming to pick it up?

I said, yeah, I'm on my way. What time do you guys close?

And she said 10 minutes ago.

Oh crap, was my immediate reaction.

I asked, “can you do me a favor and is it possible to stay open? I'm about 15 minutes away.”

She said “hold on,” then came back on the phone and said, “Yep, no worries.”

“We'll be here for you.”

What a relief. In the grander scheme of things, not having a cake might be a small thing. But because it was to celebrate the birth of my daughter, my first, it wasn’t a small thing for me.

Can you imagine, a celebration of your firstborn, you order a cake, then don’t make it to the bakery before they close?

Coming home empty handed would have been embarrassing. Let alone having to face my wife with no cake. It’s actually pretty funny thinking about how it would have played out.

The bakery could have easily closed. Called it a night. Without checking in on me.

But they stayed open and waited for me.

They didn't even ask what the cake was for. Surely, they weren’t aware of the importance that cake was to me.

They might have understood it was a special occasion, based on what the cake said.

They could probably figure that out.

But they gave me no attitude.

And I am forever grateful to that bakery for that small gesture that meant so much to me.

Those are the little things that as a business owner, it doesn't take you much to do, but means a lot to your customer or client.

From now on when I order a cake, I'm going to that bakery first.

I'm not going to the company down the street from my place that closes sometimes early without notice.

And, you know we ordered a cake from them before, the place down the street from my house. They didn't really put any care and effort into the cake we ordered.

Meanwhile, this superior customer service bakery has a comparable product.

But the service wins out. This is how you take price out of the competitive equation.

I will never price shop this bakery ever again.

There's a jeweler I work with locally that I don't ever price shop either.

She does custom stuff, even the non-custom stuff I don’t price shop.

It's fantastic quality. She’s very transparent.