WE LIVE BY THESE.

As we grow as a company, and especially as we grow on the web, it has become more and more important to define the core values that make us who we are, and which make us such a cool and fun place to buy your musical gear. These core values are the foundation from which we’ve developed our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. Below are the values we live by:

1. Build Open and Honest Relationships Through Communication
2. Build A Positive Team and Family Spirit
3. Deliver Great Service with a Touch of Southern Charm
4. Embrace and Drive Change
5. Create Lots of Fun and a Little Bit Of Weirdness
6. Do More With Less
7. Be Adventurous, Open-Minded, and Creative
8. Be Humble

Dirt Cheep Core Value #1: Build Open and Honest Relationships Through Communication 

We believe that communication is the key to building open and honest relationships. Here at Dirt Cheep, we do this a little differently than most other companies: we just tell the truth.

We value strong relationships in all areas: with managers, Crew Members, customers, vendors, business partners, and co-workers. Strong, positive relationships that are open and honest are a big part of what makes Dirt Cheep a different kind of music store. Strong relationships enable us to accomplish much more than we could have otherwise.

A key component of strong relationships is an emotional connection. It’s important to be attentive, to listen well, to be compassionate, to act with integrity, and to make sure that you’re always doing the right thing. The hardest thing to do is to build trust, but when trust exists in a relationship you can accomplish so much more.

Honesty is raw form of communication that has lost favor in recent times, succumbing to the glossy façade of “the customer is always right.” We always want our customers to be delighted with their Dirt Cheep Experience, and we go out of our way to be polite, thoughtful, responsive, and diligent. We hold ourselves to a high standard of conduct, both professionally and personally, and there are times when we make mistakes. And in turn, there are indeed times when our customers make mistakes, or are only thinking of themselves. Our staff is here to help you make a good decision, but we don’t make decisions for you. We are happy to help you with problems, but we expect you to take some initiative and try to help yourself too.

Now, open and honest communication is the foundation of any trust-based relationship, but we also remember at the end of the day that it’s not what you say, but instead what people hear and how we make them feel that matters the most. In order for our customers to feel good about their relationship with us, they must know that we truly care about them, both personally and professionally. We try very hard to LISTEN to you, connect with you, and let you feel our culture and the excitement that drives us to be the best.

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Dirt Cheep Core Value #2: Build A Positive Team and Family Spirit 

At Dirt Cheep, we place a lot of emphasis on our culture because we operate like a band that never really breaks up… sometimes the members just go play somewhere else.

In that regard we’re like a family, where everyone can feel respected and valued simply because they’re there. We believe that, in general, the best ideas and decisions are made from the bottom up, meaning by those who are on the “front lines” and closest to the customers and the issues. The role of our managers is to help our Crew Members succeed. This means that the best leaders we have are servant-leaders. They serve those they lead, and they lead by example.

The best members of a team take initiative when they notice issues, because they care about the success of the team and the company. The best team members take ownership of issues and collaborate with other members of the Crew when they face a new challenge. The best team members have a positive influence on one another and everyone they encounter, because they strive to eliminate cynicism and negativity at every turn, and instead create a positive, harmonious (if chaotic) environment where you can shop and feel cozy, like somehow you’re home.

We watch out for each other, help each other outside the shop, and go above and beyond for each other because we believe in the success of what we’re doing, and are committed to preserving the intangible energy of Dirt Cheep that you don’t find anywhere else.

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Dirt Cheep Core Value #3: Deliver Great Service with a Touch of Southern Charm 

In order to deliver great service, you have to differentiate yourself, which means doing things unconventional and innovative. You must do something that is beyond what is expected. And whatever you do or however you do it, you must have an emotional impact on the receiver. Dirt Cheep is not an average company, our service is not average, and we don’t want our people to be average. We expect every Crew Member to deliver GREATNESS in their own way.

Whether it’s through interactions with our customers, vendors or co-workers, delivering GREATNESS results in positive word of mouth. Our philosophy at Dirt Cheep is to deliver GREATNESS with service and experience, not with anything that relates directly to monetary compensation (for example, we don’t offer blanket sales at every holiday, or pay commissions).

We’re also fond of saying things like “Yes Sir,” and “Yes Ma’am,” and we’re not shy about saying “howdy” on occasion. We are a Southern company which prides itself on showing a touch of Southern charm. We’ll take your purchase out to your car, hold the doors, offer you some home-grown peppers, and we like to shake your hand to say thanks. Walk in the door and we might say, “Thanks for coming in, please make yourself at home.”

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Dirt Cheep Core Value #4: Embrace and Drive Change 

Part of being in a relatively small, growing company is that change is constant.

For some people, especially those with experience with bigger companies, constant change can be a bit unsettling at first. Music stores are a little different because, as musicians, we are used to artistry that constantly evolves, instruments that constantly change in order to meet the demands of the artists, and the general nature of the music business where you can’t really count on much except what you have RIGHT THEN. We understand change, and embrace it.

At Dirt Cheep we challenge ourselves not only to be comfortable with change, but also to embrace it and drive it. We realize that most of our change will be driven from the bottom up -- from the people who are closest to the customers and issues.

We never accept the status quo. Historically, companies that get into trouble are the companies that are unable or unwilling to respond quickly and adapt to change. We are ever evolving. We stay ahead of our competition because we continually change and keep them guessing. They copy our format, our strategies, our commercials, and the overall look and feel of our website, but they cannot copy our people, our culture, or our service. They cannot catch up to our IDEAS.  As long as we not only embrace but DRIVE change, they will never be able to evolve as quickly as we can.

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Dirt Cheep Core Value #5: Create Lots of Fun and a Little Bit Of Weirdness 

One of the things that make Dirt Cheep different from other companies is that we value creating fun and being a little weird. We don’t want to feel corporate or boring, and we want to be able to laugh at ourselves. We look for and find humor in our work.

This means that some of the things we do are a little unconventional -- or else it wouldn’t be a little weird. We’re fond of stickers, and we put them all over the place, even if they’re a bit risqué. We have a wall of memorabilia and paraphernalia behind our workbench that reads like a history of the building and the Crew Members that have worked here: from Lumpy and the Case Vault of Horrors to GlenO and "borrowing tools is for the weak," from The Dauminator to PeePee Wood and the Evil Lord Brian, and on over to Murky Waters and Steavey, "The Best Name In Rock."

We wear t-shirts to work as a uniform, and we have a young chicken as a logo mark. The chicken is playing bass. We want just a touch of weirdness to make life more fun and interesting for everyone. We want the company to have a unique and memorable personality. It’s our culture.

Our company culture is what makes us successful, and in our culture, we celebrate and embrace our diversity and each Crew Member’s individuality by continually pointing it out with laughter. To outsiders that might come across as inconsistent, but the consistency lies in our belief that we function best when we can be ourselves. Our first Core Value is about being honest with yourself first.

A residual effect of encouraging a little weirdness is that it also encourages us to think outside of the box. When you combine a little weirdness with making sure everyone is having fun at work, it ends up being a win for everyone and innovation starts to crop up. Employees are more engaged in the work they do, and the company as a whole surges forward with positive energy and a connection to what we’re all about.

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We don’t have offices. Our managers eat their lunch on the work bench. We don’t have a loading dock for inbound freight, we bring it in the front door. We unpack it on the sales floor and check the packing list in front of God and everybody. We ask the bank for all the paperclips they collect. We keep rubber bands from shipments and haven’t bought rubber bands in years. The Knob Box on the bench contains robbed-knobs from every dead mixer and amp we've seen for years, and you're welcome to sort through it. We do more with less.

This attitude is very Dirt Cheep. It’s part of our culture of being responsible, reasonable, and open. It keeps us focused on the important things in our business like relationships and innovation, instead of getting caught up in the trap of public perception. We are who we are. We care what our customers think, but we want them to see us doing our own thing.

A byproduct of this philosophy is reflected in our stock offerings. We don’t carry name brand instruments and equipment for the sake of selling something you’ve heard of. That’s like a restaurant serving food from TV-personality chefs even if it doesn’t taste very good. Why would a business sell you something that costs more than it’s worth?

The items we stock are reasonable, reliable, and pieces that we trust. We have strong relationships with the vendors that ship us our products in case you have a problem. We don’t sell new Fender guitars because they cost more than they’re worth simply because they say Fender on them. Same thing for Roland, Yamaha, Pearl , Zildjian, Ibanez, and host of other great companies who charge more for their products because they advertise them a lot. You pay for that advertising, not them.

At Dirt Cheep we do more with less. We find niche and boutique brands that are worth more than the price. We believe that a player should focus on the music they make instead of what they look like in the mirror with their guitar strapped on, so we focus on good used gear that is a better value. We believe that while Yamaha makes a great trumpet, we can show you three other brands that do the same job for less. You can do more with less if you just think cheep.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we are complacent, confident in our mindset. There is always room for improvement in everything we do. And this means that our work is never done. In order to stay ahead of the competition we must continually innovate, and continue to make improvements to our operations, striving to make ourselves more efficient. By doing more with less we position ourselves to keep a sense of urgency in making improvements, and never settle for “good enough” because good is the enemy of great.

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Dirt Cheep Core Value #7: Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded 

It’s important that our Crew feels empowered to be bold and daring (but not reckless).

We don’t want people to be afraid to take risks and make mistakes. Over time we want everyone to develop good instincts about business decisions, and improve their decision-making skills overall. We encourage mistakes as long as we learn from them. If you’re the recipient of a mistake we apologize in advance; we’re just doing our Dirt Cheep Thing.

We never want to become complacent or accept the status quo just because that’s the way things have always been done. We should always be seeking adventure and having fun exploring new possibilities. By having the freedom to be creative in our solutions we create our own luck. This luck comes because we approach challenges with an open mind.

We believe that every employee has more potential than they themselves realize, and our goal is to help employees unlock that potential. We encourage this to be a joint effort, where Crew Members want to challenge each other, as well as themselves, and stretch outside of what comes easy.

Any company that is growing is continually taking on new challenges. Sometimes new problems crop up as fast as we solve the old ones, but that just means we’re moving -- we’re getting better and stronger. Anyone who wants to compete with us has to learn and achieve the same things, so problems are just mile markers. Each marker we pass means we’ve gotten better.

It may seem sometimes that we don’t know what we’re doing. And it’s true: we don’t. That may seem a bit unconventional for a company to admit, but take comfort in knowing that nobody else knows how to do what we’re doing either. We’ve learned over the years that retail is detail, and it's our collective open-minded creativity that makes those dastardly details come together for a great Dirt Cheep Experience.

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Dirt Cheep Core Value #8: Be Humble 

We believe that no matter what happens we should be respectful of everyone's dreams. We are here to help you take the sounds in your head and make them real. Everybody starts somewhere, and it’s usually at the beginning.

While we celebrate our successes and experience, we are not arrogant and we do not treat others differently than how we would want to be treated. Instead, we carry ourselves with quirky confidence because we believe that, in the long run, our character will speak for itself.

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