Quality Reigns Supreme

by Miguel Castanza
(Grand Cayman, Bahamas)

I have to admit, working in the Bahamas is fun, warm and relaxing. Unfortunately, the tourist trade provides for pretty slim margins for local workers and the cost of living is quite high.

For a family man - like me, bills are an everyday struggle and I am constantly on the lookout to find ways of increasing our overall income.

I am very grateful to have found your free ebook on Leadership Coaching. It certainly puts you in the right frame of mind for going out and doing what you need to do in order to become more successful. I love the following quote in Chapter 13:

“To be sure, the history of many lost opportunities could be written in three words, ‘lack of detail’.”

I realize now that if you want to establish a new business, you have to distinguish yourself from your competition. Tourists here all want something to take home as a souvenir, so the first thing that came to mind was personal accessories. I observed that the many street vendors were mostly offering merchandise that is mass reproduced and I could see clearly that the items lacked quality.

That observation led me to start my own business concentrating on quality first. My ever-supportive wife shopped for the materials and soon thereafter we finished our first 60 pieces of necklaces and bracelets. We made sure they were not only attractive to the tourists, with creative style and neat presentation, but that the items also surpassed customer expectations in terms of quality.

It was rewarding to hear some of our first customers say "the quality is remarkable" and to see their impressed eyes while peering on my items made us quite proud. Almost immediately we realized we needed to raise the prices because our items were “that good”. It was crazy; the success of the business was unexpected, yet so very rewarding.

When I’m asked what my secret to my sales success is, I tell people that ‘quality’ is my secret weapon.