Editor’s note: This issue, Bill Fenimore takes the reigns of the Customer Service 911 column. He owns and operates a high-performing Wild Bird Center in Layton, Utah.

BECAUSE THIS IS MY FIRST BIRDING BUSINESS COLUMN some background is appropriate. My professional background is in packaged consumer goods,primarily food products. If you have ever eaten a prepared dinner, pizza, side dish or desert in the last 30 years, chances are it was manufactured in a plant that I built and operated for one of the Fortune 100 companies.
Hence, you will recognize my food metaphors when emphasizing a point.

Upon retirement, I decided to build a business around my lifetime passion of birding. Over the years, I had the opportunity to visit “nature stores” in various parts of the country. Those that focused on birds were particularly attractive. I began my due diligence by investigating the economics of the industry.

Completing and being satisfied by an industry review and its viability, my next decision was whether to buy a franchise or start as an independent. This was the easiest decision.

Without any hands-on retail experience, beyond purchasing and carrying my wife’s selections to the car on our shopping excursions, I could not be an independent. My operation would require handholding. So a franchise it would be.

My corporation was established in May of 2001. The store opened six months later in October 2001. My wife pointed out that my timing was impeccable. The economy was in a recession and everyone was suffering shock over 9/11. Climbing over those immediate challenges would be our tenacity test.