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If your cigar business is like so many others in the industry, it probably revolves around a close-knit group of friends, family, or long-time staff. Characterized by a strong, idiosyncratic internal culture, businesses with such a tight inner circle are appreciated by clients, customers, and associated vendors alike. Growing your business means bringing in new people and widening that circle, but it doesn’t mean you have to let go of the culture that makes your organization special.
Tip #1: Identify Key Values and Traits of Your Cigar Business
The best way to preserve company culture is to identify components of that culture and take proactive steps to support them. For instance, you might want everyone working on your tobacco farm to feel like family. One strategy: Make sure everyone’s able to sit down to breakfast and lunch together as often as possible, providing coffee and baked goods and the occasional round of pizzas to share. When you add a second farm or expand the first, carry on the tradition at the new location.
Tip #2: Carefully Choose New Hires
In addition to making sure a new employee is qualified, you also want them to share your commitment to the cigar industry as well as the values driving your business. Find out what draws them to the industry and to your company, whether they can appreciate your company’s customs and practices, and how they view the importance of maintaining those customs and practices in the context of an ever-changing regulatory environment.
Tip #3: Align Communication Styles
Businesses are just one way of organizing relationships, and every relationship needs effective communication practices to thrive. But what works for one organization might not work for another. When it comes to expanding your cigar business, the most important question is whether your existing approach to communicating within your company meets the needs of your new employees or the business you just teamed up with.
If your cigar distribution business enjoys a loose structure of informal gatherings over morning coffee, for example, a merger with another distributor or chain of cigar retail establishments far away means you’re going to have to find another approach. This doesn’t mean you can’t preserve the friendly, laid-back vibe that currently works so well — it just means you’re going to have to get creative and prioritize this aspect of the culture.
To learn more about how to grow your business while also maintaining the intimate culture that your current workers and staff have come to expect, call Venerable Law at 813-680-4530.
