Video: The Wine Cellars Founder on the Importance of Your Local Community

by / ⠀Entrepreneurship / November 7, 2013

 

American Express Open Forum recently launched a video series interviewing successful business owners called “Inside Successful Small Business”. As part of this series they talked with Renee Rowe, founder of The Wine Cellars. Specifically they talked with Renee about the importance of your local community when it comes to the success of your business.

Key: Small business is all about your neighborhood. It’s very important to be a part of the community and it’s a major reason The Wine Cellar is successful and still in business today.

The Wines Cellars is a neighborhood wine shop and stays very involved in the local community by doing charity events and participating with local events.

During the economic downturn they were struggling to get by and knew changes needed to be made. They realized customer’s wanted to taste the wine before they bought it. However, the building that they were in was not zoned to sell wine by the glass.

To overcome this they had to go to the town and try to change the laws. The local community rallied behind The Wine Cellars by sitting in on council meetings to help get the laws changed. It was a big challenge and a long process but by working together they managed to work around and tweak the local laws to help keep The Wine Cellars in business.

Renee knows how important the community is to her business and loves getting to know her customers. She says “Small business is your neighborhood. If your neighbors don’t shop with you, you don’t have any business.”

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Join the discussion on social media:

How has your local community informed your business decisions? Tell us using #sharingadvice.

You can find more video interviews like this here.

This interview was sponsored by and originally published on American Express Open Forum.

About The Author

Matt Wilson

Matt Wilson is Co-Founder of Under30Experiences, a travel company for young people ages 21-35. He is the original Co-founder of Under30CEO (Acquired 2016). Matt is the Host of the Live Different Podcast and has 50+ Five Star iTunes Ratings on Health, Fitness, Business and Travel. He brings a unique, uncensored approach to his interviews and writing. His work is published on Under30CEO.com, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Huffington Post, Reuters, and many others. Matt hosts yoga and fitness retreats in his free time and buys all his food from an organic farm in the jungle of Costa Rica where he lives. He is a shareholder of the Green Bay Packers.

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