Don't fiddle with the characteristics of a best-selling existing product. Remember that a few years a go the owner of the "most valuble" trade name in the World changed the taste of their "battleship" cola. They did it after much testing and trials by consumer groups. But when they put it on the market, their customers didn't give one hoot about all of their thinking and testing. They took one sip and said, "What in all hell is this?" The company had to rename their classic cola to get their customers back. The new cola never took hold. After a company has been in business for many years, the idea to change an existing brand often comes from new employees. They use their testing results to overcome the objections of the old hands that know better. Watch out! Read on from my experience.

As bad as things were during the depression, some businesses struggled along and stayed in business. Of those that survived, not a few made a bundle during WWII. One company in my home town made stoves for army barracks. The owner became a millionaire in just a couple of years.

In my neighborhood, on the wrong side of the tracks, near the state fairgrounds, there was a small popcorn company. The main product was called something like Krispat. I don't remember how the name of the product was spelled, even though I must have eaten a zillion of the things.

This small company blossomed when the army decided to turn the fairgrounds into an army training camp. We kids loved the obstacle course and we could zip over it about twice as fast as the recruits being trained. After and during all this training, the family that owned the popcorn factory made sure the product was near the noses of the G.I.s and they sold thousands of "Krispats."

At the end of the war, the company was well-positioned and had a large clientele of retail outlets for their products. However, the owners moved to Hawaii and decided to sell the business. A gentleman bought the business and things went well. My mother, my sisters, and half the women in our neighborhood worked there at one time or another. I worked there too. I was dressed as a clown and dumped at the junction of three roads up a canyon east of the city. On weekends it was very busy. I would wave my popcorn at the cars and many of them stopped. At the end of the day when I was picked up, I would be out of product.

Well, the "Krispat" was a yummy thing. I used to watch them make them in the factory. The popcorn was mixed with a wonderful caramel syrup, then pressed into hockey-puck-sized discs which came down a conveyor belt. The girls and women on both sides of the belt grabbed about four of those disk and pressed them together into a role. Each roll was placed in an easily recognizable paper wrapper that said, "YUMMY!" These were placed in cartons ready for shipment.

Then the business went Kaput over night!

The new owner had bought some crummy-tasting syrup at a low cost. As soon as I tasted the product, I knew he was in trouble.

And I was an "expert" on what happened and I knew what to do about it.

After the war, a company which an older friend of mine invested in (and worked in too) went Kaput! It was a soft drink company with an excellent product. One of the major stockholders got a bargain on some syrup. It ruined the flavor. He wouldn't get rid of the junk. The company went bankrupt.

That is exactly what happened to the popcorn company. I was only a teenager, but I warned the owner. I begged him to get rid of the crummy-tasting caramel syrup he had bought at a bargain. But the poor man ran out of money before he decided that he would have to change the syrup to survive. It made me so sad to see a company go under that I thought was a model for my future in business. The owner couldn't keep from going under: BLUB! BLUB! BLUB!

Home Business Tips: Don't let others tell you how to run your business.

A Tippy from Flippy: What may seem to be a bargain may be a one-way ticket to oblivion.

Keeping Up with the Jones': The need for speed is fed by greed. Common since does not equal, It looks pretty good to me!

Fiddle Dee & Fiddle Dum: When you see little fingers poking their noses into your operations, cut them off!

Can't Ya' Get Goin'?: Maybe if you had someone look at what you are doing, it would help. But don't just let anybody look. Find somebody with some brains and experience.

All Things Come: Quality spells success. They will come!

Life Success Quotation: Life can be a dream. Life can be a nightmare. Well, wake up and saddle that critter!

Business Success Quotation: Get out of bed before the competition goes to bed.

From the Eye of the Potato