We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Claire Howell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Claire below.
Claire, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What can you share with us about the story behind how you found your key vendors?
I think the biggest thing for us in building business partnerships – whether they be distributors of our products or entities we source our materials from – has been finding common values. Part of the reason we started our company was to show that business can be done while empowering people and protecting the environment, and that means we have to really do our research in every stage of our business model to make sure we are lining up with those values as much as possible. That’s really hard to do in today’s economy, quite frankly, so it’s important to have people on your team to fight with you to do the right thing. Having partnerships with other businesses that are fighting for similar values keeps us honest and grounded. It has been so important!
Claire, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We are a team of 5, and Balcony Box is our way of teaching DFW people how to grow their own food wherever they live. If you have a big backyard, we can help with garden design and education. If you just have a small apartment like I do, we offer planter boxes and container gardening education through our Balcony Box membership. Our hope is that our members catch the gardening bug and that their time with Balcony Box is a launching pad for a lifetime of growing their own food and broader self-sufficiency. We try to do everything we can at Balcony Box to set people up well for growing at a larger scale and for a lifetime.
Like I said before, because Balcony Box was born out of a passion to adjust the food system and ‘right some wrongs’ that we see there and in the business world at large, we are very committed to ethical sourcing of our products. We source sustainably and from local and minority-owned businesses whenever possible – even if that means paying a little more. We are a diverse team ourselves, and we want to support others in this space, too. It has been really fun and fulfilling to get to create a company that builds up the community – both the people and the environment.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
We try to be real with people – being authentic with people builds loyalty. Since we are a small and local business, we have the privilege of having a smaller client base so we can do that more easily. I reach out to our customers regularly through email or text to check in and see how they are doing with their gardens. I try to remember details about their situation so that my communication with them can be more personal. They are people I care about – they aren’t just a source of income for our business. Reframing them from numbers to actual people is really important, and that subtle shift will guide a lot of different business decisions.
Any advice for managing a team?
I think it’s really important to have each other’s back in a team. It’s way too easy to get frustrated with one another and let bitterness build up in any business setting, let alone when you own a business with others! When you are business partners with someone, you are in it for the long haul and need to treat it that way. Confront conflict quickly, and easily forgive. Celebrate the little wins, and help each other brainstorm in the challenges. The bottom line is be there for one another. Act like a team, and the rest usually falls into place.
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