I had just spent all the cash I had on a key business lesson à la Lavende Farms . It was a farmer’s market after all, so credit cards weren’t welcome. How could any more businesses have benefited from my patronage? For that, we have Richard Kaplan’s versatility to adapt by using neat, smart technologies to help him face cashless customers:
Case Study 2: Brown Paper Chocolates. Lesson: Use new technologies to adapt
Brown Paper Chocolates: Using smart technologies (featured here: Square) to increase revenues
As I continued in the ~100 F heat, I chanced into one of God’s little gifts. These came wrapped in Brown Paper at Brown Paper Chocolates.
My choices? Mouth watering smooth ganache style 99% dark chocolate laced with the choicest of ingredients: pistachios, Cointreau, cherries, and orange peel or silky white chocolate creamed with lavender, Pimms No 1, fresh Chervil, toasted teppercorns, and lavender fleur de sel? Turns out even with $0 cash left, I, thankfully, could have both, and Richard Kaplan could have a sale! The savvy entrepreneur behind Brown Paper Chocolates featured Square, one of my favorite iphone apps that lets you charge credit cards using your smart phone. So for cash-hating card-flashing urbanites like me, the Farmers Market no longer feels like a playground for my favorite optimization algorithm. Richard used a new technology to adapt to changing times. Be eager to be an early adopter, especially with low-risk gadgets!
Now lets not forget our first lesson: Share your story! Here is Brown Paper Chocolates’:
Turns out, the sweaty, savvy entrepreneur dishing out heavenly chocolates is this big-time fancy chef who moved from the Big Apple. Richard Kaplan was the featured chef at New York’s trendy One Fifth and West Side before launching his own restaurant in trendy Montrose, Houston! Richard then doubled down on his entrepreneurial skills with Acute (a very successful catering company) and Brown Paper Chocolates, which is sold everywhere from California to New York in specialty retail stores, including Whole Foods. In fact, you can later go to a Whole Foods and grab one of his creations before they disappear. But there is only one place where you can get the man himself to cut you a piece: in the blistering hot cement parking lot right next to my cozy apartment in Upper Kirby, Houston. The key entrepreneurial lesson he inspired that you can learn right now: Use new technologies to adapt to changing times!