Interview Essay Example: Eastern Shore Saver Magazine

I chose to do my interview with the owner of the Eastern Shore Saver magazine, Allison Avery. She just so happens to be my girlfriends mother, so it was not hard to find an entrepreneur for this assignment. She grew up in Linden, Alabama as a young child and moved to Daphne, Alabama in her early twenties. Having very little college experience she has been very successful in her lifetime. She has done a multitude of business and investments. She started out working at a bank in Pace, Florida, then moved to Spanish fort, Alabama which is where she started the Eastern Shore Saver. The location of the business is now in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The magazine is an advertising publication that reaches over 40,000+ homes along the Eastern Shore in Baldwin county, Alabama. 

The Eastern Shore Saver was founded and started taking business in 2011. It was started because she saw as the county was rapidly growing, there was a need for other businesses to advertise their services, restaurants, abilities, etc. Once she realized the niche she had found, it basically took off from there. She also started this business because she wanted the freedom of time and money solely up to her. Which is a major factor in owning your own business, you can put in however much you want. The more work you put in the more you will benefit. The good thing is once you do get the company up and rolling, you can basically take off whenever you want too.. Thats the joy she wanted and had in mind when she started the business. 

The source that was used as start up funds for her business was simply her stock market profits. No other funds were used to start this business, she was excited to make profits from her stock market investments and turn them into a healthy, profitable business. Prior to her starting the business she had worked in the marketing and advertisement industry for two years. She said that working in that part of business helped her form the idea of breaking away and starting her own company. The most challenging part of owning your own business to her is scaling. Meaning when to push for growth and and not to push for growth in the market. Another factor that is tough for her is time management. She deals with these challenges by making educated decisions based on market conditions and setting aside time to study the conditions. As well as meeting up with other like minded business owners to collaborate ideas on current market conditions. 

The most rewarding aspects of owning your own business to her is the fact she can control her income and the her time she works. The very lenient schedule allows for her to do what she wants when she wants to as well as work when she wants to. This makes it easy for vacations, personal issues, family time and events, etc. Her family is very supportive and proud of the work she does. She said that they are always conscious about bothering her when she is working since a lot of the work she does is from home. She would like to see the business grow because that means more income, but at the same time she is content with where she is. If the business were to grow anymore then it would cause a lot more stress and headache on her part. Those are the pros and cons of business growth and being the owner of the company. Some of the factors that contribute to the  business being successful is one, her family being supportive. Another is she loves the work she does and is passionate so it makes it easier to enjoy going to work every day and providing for her family. The final factor she said during the interview that she believes makes the company successful is that her company is based on helping people and other companies grow. She loves helping people at heart and watching all of her clients become more successful., so that is a big factor in what drives this company. 

As of right now she is satisfied with the outcome of the company because each year it continues to grow more and more. With more growth becomes a higher demand for other to be in her magazine which creates prices to rise or a waitlist to be in each monthly issue. When she recognized the opportunity for this company there was a gap in the market which allowed for her entry with the company. With Baldwin County being a rapid growing county and base income being pretty high it allowed for her business to flourish. The advice she said she would give to an aspiring entrepreneur is to go find a job doing what you enjoy and learn all the ins and outs of the whole job and company. Once you have learned all aspects research the market and see if there is enough room for another company alike it to enter. If so, start your own business in the same market or go find a market that you can compete in and make it happen. For future plans of growth there isn’t much plans set in stone for the Eastern Shore Saver.

Basically going month to month and year to year just cruising right now is the main plan. With all new technology being introduced to the world daily it may end up being harder for a physical magazine to still be in use. Years from now they most likely will be a past time and everything will be digital. So, as of right now the plan is just to keep working forward and taking the right steps to help others and enjoying it all along the way. 

The lessons learned by Allison have been a lot about economy, marketing, and relationship skills with others. Watching the market and how everything else around you is flowing makes it a lot easier to take the actions needed each month. The relationship skills she has built with her clients is unmatched. She has had loyal customers who have been in every issue of every month for multiple years. I believe from the outside looking in that without having good relationships and people skills that this business would not be what it is today without them. That is a huge factor in success for this company. Treat all your clients with the respect they deserve and especially your loyal ones. Also take care of them and help them in any way possible if needed. 

I learned through this interview that there are a lot of things that go into owning your own business. Everyone wants the luxury of working on your own schedule and making good money but not everyone knows how much work is needed to reach that level. A lot of sweat goes into this company as well as all companies. People skills are a must if you own your own business I believe. I also learned that the numbers for her company is really awesome. For instance a Dental office buys an ad in her magazine and they have an average number of customers using this office monthly before the ad. After the magazine issue is released those monthly numbers of customers is almost tripled! It’s really awesome to see the proof of the work she is doing is really working. I would eventually like to own my own business one day and this interview has helped me a lot in noticing the little things that it takes to do so. This was a great experience for an aspiring entrepreneur like myself.