Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

April 17, 2011

“The entrepreneurial journey is not for everyone. Yes, the highs are high and the rewards can be thrilling. But the lows can break your heart. Entrepreneurs must love what they do to such a degree that doing it is worth sacrifice and, at times, pain. But doing anything else, we think, would be unimaginable.”

I am currently reading Onward, by Howard Schultz, the Starbucks founder and CEO.

It. Is. Amazing.

Seriously. This book should be required reading for anyone who currently owns a business or who has ever thought about starting one.

Even if you simply like Starbucks coffee it’s a pretty fascinating read.

Obviously the book is an autobiography. So Howard is not going to portray Starbucks in a negative light. But still. After reading Onward, I have a newfound respect for the company.

I’ve always liked Starbucks. Though my real attachment came when I moved to Chile. At a time when I felt so alone and so homesick and so far away, going to a place that looked the same as a place I knew back in the U.S. was comforting. Then, when I began to work from home in Santiago, I was bored at my house during the day with nobody to talk to. I would go to the Starbucks on Pedro de Valdivia regularly for some human interaction — even just to be able to hear other people’s voices after listening to nothing but myself all day long. And then when I started interacting withrandom gringas who moved to Chile and who had found my blog, I used Starbucks as a meeting place. I couldn’t think of anywhere else so non-threatening for two strangers to come together.

Starbucks seemed to get a bum rap in the days when it was rapidly expanding. People were angry that they were forcing smaller coffee stores out of business. I always thought it was weird that folks were so angry with a company that seemed to treat their employees and customers really well and not only that, but were ethical in their treatment of the bean farmers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they’re not perfect and I’m sure there’s more to the story than what I knew back then and then what I’ve read in the book. But I had (have) the sense that they were a good company run by good people. That’s really all I ever want for myself and my business so their brand has always resonated with me.

I got so much out of the book. There were lots of things that I’ve maybe briefly considered before but never in depth meditated on and Onward really got me thinking. I’m not even halfway through yet, but some of the struggles that Starbucks has had as a large company are even relevant to things I’ve dealt with at my teeny tiny scale.

How can Starbucks add new products without alienating it’s core base of clients?

How can I blog about different topics without alienating my core base of readers?

I an annual survey to try and get a feel for what people want from me and the blog but this year was the first year that when I asked, “What kinds of posts do you want more of,” people responded pretty equally between — photography posts, travel posts and life in Chile posts. I know there are so many people who started out reading back in the day when all I wrote about was life as an expat living in Santiago, but now, my readership is also split between a large group of photographers/brides and travelers. Those who were here in the beginning are my core base.

29% of the people who took my survey have been reading this blog for more than two years. MORE THAN TWO YEARS. That’s huge. They are the first ones who encouraged me to keep taking pictures and they are the first ones who hired me to shoot their weddings (Hi Amanda. <3 You 4EVER). They are the ones who spread the word and made it possible for many new readers to find me in such a short amount of time. And they are the referrals upon which my wedding photography business is based. They are important. That’s an understatement. They (you) are SUPER DUPER EXTRA MEGA-IMPORTANT. To me and my business. Which are really one and the same. I have approximately zero separation between the two (which is a great thing and also a really hard thing, but that’s a whole different topic for a whole different post).

I don’t want to alienate the people who have been with me since the beginning, but at the same time, I enjoy my interactions with the new communities I’ve been involved in and want to continue to reach out to them. And I want to turn new readers into people that are just as passionate and evangelical about my writing and my pictures so that they’ll tell everyone they know about kylehepp.com too, the way my original readers did. Where’s the balance? How do I please both the core base as well as those who are new (that I’m hoping to convert to become a part of the core base)?

And yes, “Where’s the balance?” is a rhetorical question that I ask myself all the time, but if you have any answers, I would LOVE to hear them.

PS. If you want to buy Onward, please feel free to get it through this link and I’ll get a small commission from my Amazon store. Thanks!