Eel-trepreneurs, Entrepreneur Elitism, and Customer Service

Eel-y Entrepreneurs: A Woman in Maine Feeds American Unagi Demand

If you are a sushi lover, you may recognize this word: unagi.  

These are full-grown eels that Asian buyers often purchase when the eels are simply babies, netted by local fishers from Maine’s sparkling clean rivers.

Eels are actually fish, and when these fish are quite small, Asian buyers pay a pretty penny for the eel-y delicacy—often thousands of dollars per pound. These buyers take these baby eels home so they can continue to grow. The final matured eel—unagi—goes for as much as 10 times the original purchase cost.

Sara Rademaker, a woman in Maine, saw an opportunity. “Why not keep that value at home?” And with that, she started American Unagi, which is the first commercial attempt in the United States to grow baby eels, indoors, until they are full grown.

Rademaker’s tanks at the University of Maine research center, not too far from Acadia National Park, are wriggling with eels. Some eels are as thin as pencils. Some as fat as cigars. Even as eel populations are under stress around the world, Rademaker believes she’s helping to save the eels while also turning a profit. She won a federal permission for Maine’s elver fishers to exceed their annual eel quota by 200 pounds.

Instead of selling to Asian buyers, American Unagi’s aim is to market to American buyers. In Rademaker’s case, local restauranteurs in Maine who are eager to serve up this delicacy in new and delicious ways. Owner and chef of Sammy’s Deluxe restaurant in downtown Rockland, Maine, Sam Richman, doesn’t use the eel in sushi. Instead, he smokes the full-grown eels and serves it European-style, saying it tastes a bit like kielbasa or bacon.

By this time next year, Rademaker hopes to have a full-scale commercial facility and an online platform. As the appetite for American seafood continues to grows, Rademaker’s eels will satisfy demands. She offers samples of her unagi on her website. Check it out if you’re curious here.

Are You “Too Good” to Be an Entrepreneur?

Social status is playing a larger and larger role into who steps up the entrepreneurial plate. Derek Lidow, who teaches entrepreneurship at Princeton and wrote a contributing piece to Forbes, serves as a mentor for students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Often, he’s eager to encourage students as they seek to create profitable businesses. Possibilities, Lidlow believes, are lurking around every corner.

More and more often, students won’t pursue the ideas they’ve dreamed up. Why? Because “the ideas aren’t cool enough—they’re too mundane.” Lidlow understands this translation to mean: too low status. Lidlow understands students are thinking this: This is an idea that requires work that’s beneath me.

Lucrative opportunities abound, but young entrepreneurs lulled by the internet glamor and media coverage of larger-than-life entrepreneurship may be rejecting ordinary opportunities. “Consciously and subconsciously, these entrepreneurs ascribe a social status to the entrepreneurial opportunities they decide to pursue or reject.”

Lidlow shares this example. A student may have a brilliant recipe for ribs, but opening up a BBQ joint may seem to be below their social status.

High-stakes and high-glamour may be at the end of the long road of being an entrepreneur (or not!), but first you’ll need to pick up the telephone. You will need to do the work. You’ll need to step outside your comfort zone. You’ll need to come face to face with fear. Step over it. Or around it. You need to acknowledge that failure is there to teach you. Failure isn’t the end of the line. Failure isn’t beneath any of us.

There’s a danger in thinking you’re too good. When you don’t try, you miss opportunities. You eliminate the potential of power. You ignore the promise of enterprise. Plus, if you don’t try, the next person will—and once they succeed, you may be wishing that would have been you.

An Excelling Customer Experience Starts With Your Own Employees

Customer service is paramount in the world of providing service.

Always give the customer what they want.

But with strategies like these implemented in almost every company, why are we constantly disappointed by poor customer experiences?

Tracy Maylett, CEO of DecisionWise, a company dedicated to helping build engaged organizations, knows the answer.

“Customer service doesn’t start with the customer. It begins with taking care of your employees.”

By 2022, the market for customer experience management services and technology is expected to grow to nearly $17 billion. Yet, one powerfully way to invest in your customer’s experience is to invest funds into taking care of your employees.

Your employees are the ones who will be interacting with your customers on a daily basis. They are the face of your work. Your employees are the one carrying (and delivering!) your brand message. These people on your payroll are your greatest asset.

Long story short: if your employees are having a positive experience, your customers will have one too.