Positive Power of Principled Profit
Volume 1, Number 6 - February, 2003

Positive Power Spotlight: The Inn at Little Washington

Virginia innkeeper and restaurateurs Patrick O'Connell and Reinhardt Lynch converted an old gas station in Washington, Virginia into a small cafe, where dinners started at $4.95—and almost immediately secured a rave review in a Washington, DC newspaper. The nation's capital is only an hour away, and the place was mobbed—despite its view of an outhouse and a junkyard.

That was over twenty years ago.

Jumpstarting from this early success, the two built the business into a very high-end restaurant and inn, where a meal runs about $120 for a midweek meal and $150 on weekends, and where if a guest wants to bathe in white chocolate mousse, the innkeepers will arrange it.

Needless to say, the pair are obsessed with providing a flawless hospitality experience. O'Connell is a hands-on manager who inspires his crew, and who makes sure every dish and every glass absolutely gleams.

The obsession with quality keeps the inn full—but commitment to broader good has created a bit of a renaissance in a once-tired community. O'Connell and Lynch make a point of creating markets for local organic farmers, who supply the very high-end produce the restaurant requires, for instance.

If the Inn has a website, I couldn't locate it. But I did find Parick O'Connell's "The Inn at Little Washington Cookbook: A Consuming Passion," published by Random House in 1996, which has a very strong Amazon rank and nothing but 5-star reviews. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679447369/ref=nosim/globalartstravel

My thanks to Pat East, for bringing my attention to cbs.com's profile of this establishment (which you can find at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/20/sunday/main584822.shtml) and suggesting it would make a good Positive Power spotlight.

Another Recommended Book: "Marketing From the Heart: A Guide to Cause Related Marketing For the Small Business," by Peggy Linial

Those of you who've read any of my marketing books know that I'm a great advocate of piggy-backing your marketing onto a worthwhile cause. The synergy this creates raises significant money for your chosen charity (often more than the group could raise through comparable efforts elsewhere) and at the same time generates both income and visibility for you. How cool is that?

Large corporations understand the wisdom of this approach, and many of them give quite generously to their affiliated causes—because they know it's good for business. But the manuals about corporate giving don't address the small entrepreneur who doesn't have tens of thousands to give.

Enter Peggy Linial.

Her book is an easy read, and it walks you through the whole process step by step: identifying appropriate charities that meet both your personal and business goals, learning how to say no to requests that don't meet your criteria, managing your interactions with the charity for maximum benefit on both sides, and turning your efforts into an ongoing fountain of marketing, publicity, and good will.

A brief excerpt, where Peggy Dolan, who runs a charity that funds uninsured costs arising from a child's illness, is searching for a location for her foundation's 25th anniversary gala, and meets with the owner of Ballroom at the Ben, at the old Ben Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia.:

[begin excerpt] Since the hall was out of her budget, Peggy planned on leaving. Before she could, the owner made her an offer; if she would be willing to hold the event on Sunday rather than Friday or Saturday, he would give it to her at a huge discount...

Peggy couldn't stop gushing to everyone about how wonderful the owner was. His business was in the newspaper, and all of the people there—many of them executives from major corporations that frequently host events—would remember him the next time they needed a banquet hall.

In the above example, was this a kind gesture from the owner of the ballroom? Absolutely. Was it also a wise business move? You bet. Had he not offered the discount, the function might have been held elsewhere, and no one would have been aware of his business. The fact that he offered the discount rather than being asked for one made his gift all the more valuable and caused Peggy to talk about it more frequently...

The previous story was told to me by Peggy Dolan who was very touched by this businessman's generosity. Almost a year later I am telling everyone who reads this book. [end excerpt]

And I've passed the story on again.

If you'd like to buy this book, please follow this link to buy from a BookSense independent bookseller: http://www.booksense.com/index.jsp?affiliateId=FrugalFun

or this link to buy from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971248613/ref=nosim/globalartstravel