Perseverance Despite the Odds with Linda Chipman

Banking On Business

In this episode, Grace interviews Linda Chipman who started Chippy's Popcorn Creations with her husband Scott 20 years ago. They founded the business because they were ready for something different from their 70-hour work weeks in the restaurant industry. They borrowed money from Linda's dad to buy equipment and booked shows, but quickly realized they were losing money at every show. Despite this, they persisted and eventually found success in Wisconsin, where people loved their kettle corn.

They discuss the emotional roller coaster of starting a business and how they learned to be persistent from past failures. They also touch on the goal of their business being something more than just making money. Scott is in charge of production, while Linda focuses on creative aspects and customer relations, and the couple has created many successful flavors through trial and error.

Linda shares her advice to be self-aware of boundaries and take time to reflect on why you feel frustrated or angry when in a difficult situation. Listen to know more about the process of creating new popcorn flavors and learn the importance of taking breaks and setting limitations to avoid decision fatigue and burnout.

Episode Highlights

9:42 - I guess we just had this overarching thought that how could we not succeed. It might not work as we want to in the beginning, but if we continue to go forward, and if we persist, and I think that's the overall message for 20 years in business, is persistence.

20:52 - I think it's important for consumers to understand as well that we're not playing the same operation because it truly is not something that I can do and hire somebody out to help me with payroll, because that really would take care of my margins in a quick minute, and those are important. But I think it's also important for the consumers to know that, because maybe it takes us a little bit. We have ebbs and flows in that, because we're doing so many functions. It's easy for us to have decision fatigue. It's easy for us to become burnt out, because you're wearing maybe eight hats in a day.

25:30 - There's such a demand in today's world for businesses to be responsive to every whim that you as a consumer might want, and that's really detrimental to small businesses and micro businesses, because it really is an unrealistic expectation that a business could respond to every person that talks to them on social media, but we sometimes are putting that upon ourselves that we need to.

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