Winning On Main Street - Small Business Podcast: Recent Episodes
Gordon Henry
Gain actionable insights each week on how to successfully run a small business in today’s competitive landscape. In each episode, Gordon Henry chats with small business owners, entrepreneurs, and industry experts about the challenges of starting a business and how to provide incredible client experiences. We focus on technology, especially cloud software, that small businesses can use to modernize and automate their businesses to become easier to do business with. We are passionate about helping small businesses grow, modernize, and thrive in today’s evolving environment. To learn more visit: https://www.winningonmainstreet.com
Today, we’re sharing some big news and some bitter-sweet news. After hosting this podcast for over four years and 200+ episodes, we’re moving on and passing the baton to a new host who will be launching a new show. Thanks to all our loyal listeners and those who contributed to the show. Wishing you all success, and we invite you to check out Jay’s new show, Small Business Quick Wins.
Resources Shared:
- Small Business Quick Wins
Thryv
Malcolm Peace is the founder and president of Tsetserra Growth Partners. He’s a native of Austin, TX. He is passionate about assisting family-owned small businesses in building enduring legacies. He specifically works with acquiring and running blue-collar industrial businesses in Texas and working with small business owners to drive long-term growth and profitability. He takes pride in helping family-owned small businesses sustain a lasting legacy. Succession planning is an integral part of his efforts. As a result, he focuses on building businesses up instead of tearing out people and processes.
Resources Shared:
- Tsetserra Growth Partners
- Thryv
Matt Murray is the Founder and CEO of Evolution Mechanical, Inc., which serves the commercial and industrial HVAC/R market. He is also the founder and CEO of Blue Collar King Coaching & Consulting, through which he guides owners and would-be owners of service-based businesses in the blue-collar trades to succeed personally and professionally. As such, Matt’s expertise goes far beyond “just” his technical expertise in the HVAC/R field. Matt is also an expert in leadership, business development, business systems & strategy, operations, strategic planning, sales, and more. Matt runs his life and businesses based on strong core values and is passionate about helping others live happy, successful, and fulfilling lives.
Resources Shared:
- The Blue Collar King
- The Blue Collar King’s Blueprint for Success by Matt Murray
- Thryv
Mark Newsome (a.k.a. Mr. Marketing) is a small business marketing consultant who routinely helps semi-cash-strapped small business owners generate or discover previously hidden profit centers within their business. Mark joins the show to discuss proven and innovative marketing strategies to help cash-strapped businesses generate red-hot prospect lists, stay ahead of the competition, and systematically increase their gross profits with strategic email marketing.
Resources Shared:
- You Can Market Online Now!
- Thryv
Henry McIntosh is the founder and CEO of Twenty-One Twelve Marketing. Based in the UK but working globally, the firm delivers predictable results for high ticket businesses in niche sectors looking to scale up to the next level. Henry works with successful B2B and B2C clients, usually in the $1-10 million revenues range. Twenty-One Twelve Marketing focuses on content marketing and synergistic non-competitive partnerships to increase your exposure and deliver consistent growth. He’s helped sell superyachts, written copy for geospatial data engineers, and even helped sell smoke prevention vents. Henry delivers quality results and continues expand his eclectic client-base with compelling marketing strategies.
- Twenty-One Twelve Marketing
- Henry McIntosh | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Crystalynn Shelton, CPA, is a business advisor and a QuickBooks expert who helps small businesses master their finances. As the founder and CEO of Crystalynn Shelton, CPA, she offers financial accounting software training, coaching, and consulting services to clients across various industries. She has been recognized as a QuickBooks Top 100 Pro Advisor and is the author of the best-selling Mastering QuickBooks 2024 series, set to release later this year. In 2010 Shelton opened her own practice, Small Business Development Consulting dedicated to helping small businesses find easy-to-use, accounting solutions that fit within their budget, and train them on more digestible terminology, so they can independently manage their business. Today, Shelton continues to share her passion and knowledge for finance teaching students at UCLA, aspiring to become Certified Public Accountants. With her extensive knowledge and experience, Crystalynn can help you simplify your bookkeeping tasks and optimize your financial performance.
- Crystalynn Shelton
- Crystalynn Shelton, CPA | LinkedIn
- CrystalynnPens | Twitter
- Thryv
Charles Alexander is the author of the new book, Start Now, Quit Later: How to Start and Grow Your Business Without Quitting Your Full-Time Job. The book is a practical guide for aspiring entrepreneurs to start a successful business. Divided into four parts, the book covers topics such as identifying the right time to launch, creating a marketing strategy, and managing the legal and financial aspects of a business. Alexander is also the founder and CEO of Your Charles Alexander, an online platform delivering creative animated training videos and marketing content for small businesses. His company also provides personalized coaching to help entrepreneurs initiate and expand their businesses without quitting their full-time commitments. Charles is passionate about helping entrepreneurs reach their goals. He is a Director at the Tennessee Small Business Development Center and has coached thousands of small business owners and aspiring owners and also is the host of the podcast “Do More By Doing Less”.
- yourcharlesalexander.com
- Charles Alexander | LinkedIn
- Charles Alexander - YouTube
- Thryv
Tim Calise knows how to scale a business – and he’s done it in many different businesses with six business exits under his belt. Tim started young, and by the age of 25, he had successfully raised over $325 million through his first investment company. Tim later served as the “silent #2” at GymLaunch, a leading fitness firm that was recently acquired by American Pacific Group (APG). Today Tim is a business coach, investor, and advisor to over 15 privately held businesses with annual revenues from $250,000 to $10,000,000+. Tim says he was destined to be an entrepreneur from an early age – always looking for a different way to do just about everything. Tim is on a mission to drive up the value of small businesses by crafting stronger products and developing operational and financial systems to improve revenue growth. In this episode, Tim generously shares some of the key ingredients to his recipe for success in various industries.
Resources Shared:
- Tim Calise | LinkedIn
- Tim Calise - Business Consultant, 20+ Year Experience
- Thryv
Jeremy Harbour is the founder and CEO of Unity Group and a globally renowned expert in Mergers & Acquisitions. Unity Group has over two decades of experience and a remarkable track record completing over 150 successful transactions in 11 countries. Jeremy has honed a unique method called agglomeration. This approach involves skillfully pooling together well-managed small businesses, offering them the advantages of going public without sacrificing their distinct company brand and rich culture. Considering that small businesses individually are to volatile to be attractive to most outside investors, Jeremy focuses on crafting small to medium-sized business portfolios with a more manageable risk profile, aimed at capturing the attention of wealthy investors. In today’s episode, Jeremy clears up some of the misconceptions about going public, what it takes to go public, and how you can get involved in buying and selling businesses through the Harbour Club.
Resources Shared:
- Jeremy Harbour
- Harbour Club USA
- Unity Group | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Jay Schwedelson is the president and CEO of Worldata Group, a multi-brand marketing services company whose portfolio includes SubjectLine.com. Jay is also the founder of Subjectline.com, a leading free subject-line rating tool ranked in the top 1% of all websites worldwide. Jay is a highly sought-after speaker known for using his straightforward and energetic style to present actionable, data-driven marketing best practices. Having a strong subject line in your email campaign is essential to capture your audience’s attention. Jay’s free tool, SubjectLine.com, scores your email subject line and incorporates AI to provide stronger suggestions. Many small businesses struggle to capture the attention of their audience with emails; resulting in poor click-through rates. In today’s episode, you will learn some ways to strengthen your emails, how important it is to leverage this cost-efficient tool, and why you should collect your client’s emails. Resources Shared:
- www.SubjectLine.com
- Home - Jay Schwedelson
- Jay Schwedelson | LinkedIn
- Thryv
John Morlan is the CEO and founder of Smarter Risk. John Has been in the insurance and risk management industry for over 20 years. He’s worked with numerous companies, saving them millions of dollars in insurance costs through the developments of risk control and safety programs. John believes risk management is a simple formula: reducing your risk of having a claim, lowers your insurance cost. His company, Smarter Risk, has developed an app that automates the process of creating these programs, allowing businesses to qualify for the best insurance rates. By putting controls in place to reduce your risk of incidences, you are effectively decreasing your cost of insurance by becoming a healthier operation. Listen to today’s episode to learn more about the unexpected costs you may face if you do not have the correct systems in place to manage your risk, and the importance of risk management.
Resources Shared:
- John Morlan | LinkedIn
- Smarter Risk: Overview | LinkedIn
- Smarter Risk
- Thryv
Margeaux Thomas is the founder of Thomas Law PLC law office located in Fairfax, Virginia. With more than 15 years of experience, she has skillfully represented individuals and small businesses in resolving a wide range of disputes through civil litigation and mediation. Margeaux boasts a strong educational foundation and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Old Dominion Bar Association. She is also an active member of the Northern Virginia Black Attorney's Association, the Federal Bar Association, and a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference. Working with an attorney can assist you in proactively managing your risk before falling in a situation where you’re searching for support with a legal dispute. Discover why it’s essential to consider working with an attorney before making a significant contractual commitment. Your relationship with your legal representative is important, so make sure to work with someone you trust and can effectively communicate with.
Resources Shared:
- Civil Attorney Fairfax VA | Fairfax Law Firm | Thomas Law PLC
- The Thomas Law Office, PLC: Overview | LinkedIn
- Margeaux Thomas | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Augie Johnston, the Founder and CEO of VidChops, has established a thriving business focused on editing YouTube videos for full-time content creators, thought leaders, and influencers, allowing them to pursue new endeavors. Augie recognized YouTube's potential in late 2010 and found success by specializing in basketball coaching, drawing from his experience as a former professional player. As his channel and platform expanded, he bumped up against an editing bottleneck and set out to solve this challenge for himself and creators alike. Augie, along with his dedicated team, navigate the complexities of YouTube to empower content creators, helping them regain time and boost their viewership through captivating content that grabs the audience's attention.
Resources Shared:
- Augie Johnston | LinkedIn
- Vidchops - Video Editing Service
- Thryv
Ray Drew is a well-recognized Business Development Officer at Fund-Ex Solutions Group and Host of the #1 SBA Podcast: “The Art of SBA Lending.” Ray has established a successful career helping small business owners and investors, secure the capital they need. Profitable businesses can take advantage of an SBA 7(a) loan to enhance their operations, acquire other businesses, or pursue competitive ventures. Fund-Ex Solutions Group is 1 of 14 SBA-licensed direct lenders. Ray explains the advantages of SBA loans, their wide range of applications, and the motives driving entrepreneurs to leverage this financial resource.
Resources Shared:
- SBA Ray | Loans for Small Business Growth
- Ray Drew | LinkedIn
- Fund-Ex Solutions
- Art of SBA Podcast
- Thryv
Ruth King is a renowned business coach and consultant who helps entrepreneurs and small business owners increase their profits and cash flow. She is the author of several books, including "The Profitability Master", which reveals the secrets of creating a profitable business in any industry. Ruth has over 40 years of experience helping small businesses profit and understand the importance of their finances, accounting, and operations. Ruth is extremely passionate about sharing her knowledge and expertise with others. She offers online courses, coaching programs, and live events to help her clients achieve their goals and dreams. Ruth explains why it is crucial to understand the balance sheet as a business owner. Did you know that you can grow yourself out of business?
Resources Shared:
- Ruth King, Author, Consultant and Entrepreneur (ruthkinghvac.com)
- profitorwealth.com | Ruth King's Latest Book Profit or Wealth?
- Ruth King | LinkedIn
Thryv
Paul William Davis hails from County Dublin, Ireland, and he is the Founder and CEO of The Genius Code. As an awarded consultant with three bestsellers under his belt and a diverse background of expertise, Paul is on a mission to help individuals discover their true life's purpose and reach their fullest potential. When you passionately embrace your calling, you become determined to overcome any obstacles or challenges in your path. Businesses are more likely to succeed when their owners are aligned with their core motivations. If you're like many, you may not have yet unearthed your unique source of inspiration in life. Some of us may even reach retirement feeling unfulfilled. Paul shares how unlocking your Genius Role can create a profound transformation in both your personal and professional life.
Resources Shared:
- Find Your Life Purpose | What to Do In Life | Life Purpose (paulwilliamdavis.com)
- Business Development, Staff Engagement, Life Purpose (davisbusinessconsultants.com)
- PaulWilliamDavis.com | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Gordon Borrell serves as the CEO of Borrell Associates Inc., a leading research and consulting firm focused on media and advertising. The company specializes in delivering data-driven insights and strategic counsel to media entities, advertisers, and industry stakeholders. His research and analysis have proven invaluable to media companies seeking to thrive in a dynamic media environment, enabling them to align their marketing strategies with evolving consumer behaviors and technological shifts. Advertising plays a very important role in the success of businesses across all industries. As Gordon aptly puts it, "Are you allocating enough of your revenue to marketing? Are you targeting the right audience? Do you have the optimal mix of marketing channels? Avoid aimless efforts; ensure you have a clear target and the right tools."
Resources Shared:
- Home - Borrell Associates
- Gordon Borrell | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Howard Wolpoff is the Chief Marketing Strategist at Profit Master Business Solution. Howard is a Measurable Marketing Solutionist with over 25 years of experience helping hundreds of businesses create profitable solutions to drive sales, attract and maintain customers, and build a solid corporate brand. It’s important to note that you don’t need to carry the weight of figuring out your marketing strategy alone. Howard generously shares steps you can take to identify your ideal clients and the strategies to make them repeat customers. Tune in to learn the importance of meeting your customers where they are.
Resources Shared:
- Howard Wolpoff
- Profit Master Business Solutions
- Howard Wolpoff, MBA | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Hiring employees is a key piece of running any business and an important responsibility for you as the owner or manager. As the employer, it’s critical to ensure you’re getting who and what you think you’re getting. Travis Reiter is the President and Co-Owner of Perfect Fit Background Checks. Travis’s business provides accurate and reliable background screening services tailored to the small and medium-sized business owner’s unique needs. Perfect Fit makes background checks fast, easy, and affordable even for small businesses – and Travis explains how working with Perfect Fit will help you avoid potentially big problems down the road.
Resources Shared:
- Fast and Affordable Background Checks, Employment Screening (perfectfitbackgroundchecks.com)
- Travis Reiter | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Dean Mercado is the founder and CEO of Online Marketing Muscle (OMM). OMM helps small businesses automate their repetitive sales and online marketing task. Through popular demand, business owners wanted to learn “how to fish for themselves” and evolve their strategies to grow their business to the next level. Dean is very passionate about coaching small businesses. Dean emphasizes identifying what you want and why you want it! Systems are important to help you solve your what and why; is it repeatable, can we make it more efficient? Tune in to learn the importance of having strong fundamentals and the right perspective!
Resources Shared:
- Dean Mercado: Small Business Coach, Bestselling Author, Speaker
- Sales and Marketing Automation Agency | Online Marketing Muscle
- Dean Mercado | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Matthew Halleris theCEO and President of the International Franchise Association. The IFA’s mission is to protect, enhance, and promote franchising. Matthew’s team supports the franchise industry by lobbying for policies to support and promote franchise owners on the federal, state, and local levels. Matthew works to provide education on new policies, professional development opportunities, and to promote franchising to the general public. Are you interested in owning a franchise? Tune in for today’s episode to learn why franchising may just be the path you’re looking for and - what you need to watch out for.
Resources Shared:
- International Franchise Association (IFA) - 1400+ Franchise Opportunities
- Matthew Haller | LinkedIn
- Thryv
Paul Baron is the founder and CEO of The Wall Printer USA, a product that is changing how walls get beautified. Paul is responsible for all executive functions, driving the growth of the corporation and the success of businesses that purchase a Wall Printer. His decades of business experience span B2B, B2C, retail, manufacturing, distribution, international business, and franchising. Paul thrives in rapid growth, high-energy environments and values a diverse culture with good people who like to dream big, work hard, and have fun. He leads with a positive attitude, humor, and humility.
Resources Shared:
- The Wall Printer
- Thryv
Kevin O’Connor has been hosting the Emmy Award-winning series This Old House and Ask This Old House since 2003. He is the host of the podcast Clearstory, published a book The Best Homes of This Old House, and has hosted shows for the DIY and History’s H2 networks. The show has inspired millions to renovate their homes and showcased the work done by home contractors around the country. Kevin shares a bit of his story, how he ended up on the show and some insider information any small business can use to grow.
Resources Shared:
- This Old House
- Clearstory Podcast
- The Best Homes from THIS OLD HOUSE by Kevin O'Connor
- Thryv
Tom Pabin is the founder and owner of Class 101, a company that provides families with expert guidance on the college search, admissions, and financial aid process. Class 101 is a growing national franchisor. In this episode, we explore the opportunities available in becoming a Class 101 franchisee. Class 101 enables students to get into a great college at a price their family can afford. Tom’s career as a business owner and college/financial planner has spanned almost two decades. In that time, he has helped students and families save millions of dollars on higher education. Working with students across 16 states and doing direct consultation with over 20 high schools, he’s helped more than 2,200 students find their way to college and significantly improved their scores on over 6,000 tests. In his spare time, Tom enjoys traveling and being involved with his son’s basketball teams; he is husband to Christie and father of two boys, Matthew and Thomas.
Resources Shared:
- Class 101
- Thryv
Mike Vannelli is the Creative Director at Envy Creative. In his role, Mike leads a production team to film online and TV commercials and explainer videos for brands, products, and businesses. As Mike shares, there is a lot involved in creating the perfect video, and Envy has everything you need for the whole process, including a film studio, actors, filming equipment, and an entire creative team. Hear tips on how small businesses can leverage videos to increase their brand exposure and get their message in front of potential customers.
Resources Shared:
- Envy Creative
- Thryv
Doug Houlahan is Chief Commercial Officer at ClickLease. Clicklease is an equipment financing company focused on small businesses. Clicklease makes it faster and easier for small businesses to get the equipment they need. With over 18 years in small and large equipment finance, Doug has helped thousands of businesses grow by financing their equipment. Hear from Doug how ClickLease has helped address this underserved portion of the market. Doug explains why Clicklease’s service is critical to small business owners. For example, while you don’t pay your employees’ wages upfront, many small businesses do pay for their equipment upfront. If being unable to purchase critical equipment is slowing you down, you want to hear this episode.
Resources Shared:
- ClickLease
- Thryv
Coach Juli Shulem, M.S., PCC, CPC, began as an Efficiency Specialist and Professional Organizer decades ago. As a Productivity Coach & Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, she is an expert in dealing with the many challenges of those struggling with more difficult organizing, relationship, professional and personal management issues. Having been an entrepreneur and solopreneur her entire career, most of her clients tend to be entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and corporate leaders worldwide. Learn how Juli helps her clients balance the overwhelming aspects of entrepreneurship and implements systems to improve productivity.
Resources Shared:
- Coach Juli
- Thryv
Chris Joyce is the CEO and founder of Gusher, a startup platform that focuses on successfully launching a company by using time equity. Chris has also founded 24 other companies across a wide range of industries. Having started many companies, Chris kept running into the same issue over and over…the best ideas and entrepreneurs were not getting funded and promising ideas never saw the light of day. Chris shared about his background and how that led to the passion behind his current company, Gusher.
Resources Shared:
- Gusher
- Thryv
Len Ward, Principal of Ward Consulting, discusses his history on Wall Street, working in an e-commerce start-up, the founding of two of his own businesses, and how he has applied his quantitative background to his marketing consulting. With over 26 years of experience in entrepreneurship, business finance, and digital marketing, Len specializes in helping small businesses understand marketing ROI, customer acquisition costs, and marketing investment allocations. Len shares some of the strategies he employs when working with small businesses to help them achieve their growth goals.
Resources Shared:
- Ward Consulting
- Thryv
Patrick Hardy is the founder and CEO of Hytropy Disaster Management™, the largest full-service small business and family disaster management company in the US. He leverages his decades of experience to empower large companies, small businesses, families, event planners, and more in the face of any emergency. Patrick is a Certified Emergency Manager®, a Certified Risk Manager®, and a FEMA Master of Exercise®. Patrick has been published or featured in dozens of industry journals, periodicals, and popular media outlets such as Today, Parade Magazine, Yahoo!, and Good Morning America. Listen to Patrick to learn more about why he believes disaster planning is key to a strong business foundation.
Resources Shared:
- Hytropy Disaster Management
- Design Any Disaster by Patrick Hardy
- Thryv
David Barnett is a 1998 graduate of the Williams School of Business and Economics at Bishop’s University and a graduate of UNBSJ’s Electronic Commerce Management Program. Since the late ‘90s, Mr. Barnett has built his profile as an expert in small and medium-sized enterprises. David shares how small business owners should think about selling their businesses and growing their businesses through acquisition.
Resources Shared:
- How To Sell My Own Business by David C Barnett
- DavidCBarnett.com
- Thryv
Robert Gauvreau is the founder of Gauvreau & Associates Chartered Public Accounting Firm and the author of The Wealthy Entrepreneur. He helps businesses build a vision and a roadmap to realizing financial results. He has built his Toronto-based firm from start-up in 2008 to nearly 100 employees. Clients are exclusively entrepreneurs and professionals and services include tax planning, bookkeeping, financial reporting, legal services, and business coaching – the foundation of any successful business. Robert is often cited in business journals on topics related to money, finances, and entrepreneurship. If you dream of improving cash flow and delivering the financial results you’ve always expected, tune in to hear Robert's strategy and the framework he uses to help clients achieve their business goals.
Resources Shared:
- The Wealthy Entrepreneur by Robert Gauvreau
- Gauvreau Accounting Tax Law Advisory
- Thryv
John Egan is a content marketing strategist, writer, editor, and blogger in Austin, Texas. Before diving into content marketing, John spent several years as a reporter and editor at several newspapers, including seven years as an editor and managing editor at the Austin Business Journal. Many small businesses are stymied by where to start when it comes to content marketing. John’s nuts-and-bolts approach to content marketing makes it easy for small businesses to attract, entertain, educate, and retain audiences and form lasting relationships with their customers. Listen to this episode to hear more about the strategies John has found that can help any business get started in the right direction with its content strategy.
Resources Shared:
- John Egan Your Content Champion
- The Stripped Down Guide to Content Marketing by John Egan
- Thryv
Mickie Kennedy is the founder and president of eReleases, a leader in affordable press release writing and distribution services. Mickie started the company in 1998 after working in a PR environment that was not meeting the needs of small- and medium-sized businesses and firms. eReleases has grown exponentially since then and even works with big names now, but the spirit of Mickie's original intent has not changed. Mickie shares why it’s important for small businesses to include PR as part of their marketing strategy.
Resources Shared:
- eReleases
- Thryv
Aaron Marks is the President and Founder of Aspire Marketing Group. Aspire is an inbound and digital marketing agency that fuels growth at small-to-medium B2B companies. Aaron was an early digital pioneer, starting his own boutique agency, Three Group, in the early 2000s, when digital marketing was mostly about website design and digital experts were often called "webmasters". Since then, he's worked with dozens of companies and clients of all sizes, emphasizing his strong belief in inbound marketing – earning people's interest in your products or services, rather than pushing them on your customers. Throughout his career, he's demonstrated time and again that inbound marketing results in marketing that your customers love while ultimately improving the bottom line by having a higher ROI. Aaron uses his 15+ years of in-house marketing leadership and strategy experience to help small business leaders accomplish agile and affordable enterprise-caliber marketing. Aaron helped us understand the practical steps business owners should take to utilize technology to grow their businesses.
Resources Shared:
- Aspire Marketing
- Thryv
Travis Rosbach is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Hydro Flask, the world’s most-used water bottle, and the Tumalo Group, his latest venture where he advises would-be entrepreneurs. He discusses the moment in Honolulu where he, along with then-girlfriend Cindy Weber, recognized the need for an environmentally-friendly reusable water bottle – and the Hydro Flask was born. Rosbach founded Hydro Flask in 2009 and sold the company in 2012 to a group of investors who then grew the business and sold it in 2016 to Helen of Troy Limited for $210 million. Rosbach shares his entrepreneurial journey and how Hydro Flask’s explosive popularity resulted from some things he planned, such as the product’s unique logo and design, and others he didn’t – such as becoming the darling product of the VSCO girls.
Resources Shared:
• Hydro Flask
• The Tumalo Group
• Thryv
Craig Jooste is the Co-Founder and CEO of Local Handyman Group, where he developed the model, brand, and franchising systems to take the Local Handyman Group from one location to more than 20 locations across North America. Craig ran operations at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and has extensive experience across the facilities service and consumer services industries. His broad areas of expertise include franchising, franchise viability, brand development, strategic planning, operations management, business development, and business coaching. If you are considering buying a franchise, hear from Craig about how he started and scaled his business.
Resources Shared:
- Handy Man
Thryv
Kristina Schlegel is the founder of Make Bake and the creator of 100% edible Stickies™ – that's right, stickers you can eat! Kristina was a product designer in Silicon Valley who took a detour to pastry school and is now on a mission to bring delight to your kitchen. Kristina is a creative product & marketing strategist with a 20+ year track record of creating category-defining products and customer experiences that deliver strategic, measurable growth for businesses. In today’s episode, Kristina takes us behind the scenes of how she broke into a new category, the challenges she faced with packaging, and how she sourced her manufacturing.
Resources Shared:
- Make Bake
- Thryv
Keith Lee’s Make-You-Happy Management System didn’t just come about overnight. In 1991, his business was growing rapidly and generating profit, but he decided he didn’t want it to grow anymore. It seemed like the only thing that grew as fast as his business was his headaches. He had become a slave to his business. It seemed like he was always responding to things and taking care of problems. Keith shares about the changes he made that allow him to take breaks from work when he wants and keep the business running smoothly.
Resources Shared:
- KeithLee.com
- How to Control Your Business and Your Life by Keith Lee
- The Happy Customer HandBook by Keith Lee
- Thryv
For over two decades, Lindsay Pinchuk has worked in marketing, advertising, media, content, and sales for and with the world’s largest brands. Lindsay got her start in corporate America at the Hearst Corporation, but when she became pregnant, she sought support and community by hosting events to meet other expectant moms. With just a $500 investment, Lindsay left the job she loved to found her first company, Bump Club & Beyond. She eventually sold Bump Club to Brand Connections, an agency holding company, and worked there through the pandemic. She then left to launch Lindsay Pinchuk Marketing & Consulting, where she produces the podcast Dear FoundHer and provides consulting services mainly to female-founded businesses. Hear about Lindsay’s journey and how she was able to find the work-life balance and success she desired through entrepreneurship.
Resources Shared:
- LindsayPinchuk.com
- Dear FoundHer Podcast
- Thryv
PJ Weiland is a certified award-winning coach, speaker, entrepreneur, mentor, and philanthropist. Since 2011, Coach PJ has coached a thousand business owners and executives to accelerate their progress to the next level and achieve their biggest goals. She brings more than two decades of corporate leadership experience in a broad spectrum of industries to guiding her coaching clients with strategic planning, improving their leadership skills, building engaged, high-performing teams, creating effective marketing plans, and managing change. Coach PJ shared her coaching journey and how she pivoted into entrepreneurship.
Resources Shared:
- Business Prophet
- Thryv
Jonathan Maynard is the President of Red Door Unlimited, which is the holding company for several brands such as Red Door Pro Wash, Red Door Lighting Company, Company180, & Sun Hands Media. After spending several years in IT, he ventured into entrepreneurship, creating companies from scratch and leading them to 7-figure revenue in a short time. With over 20 years of leadership experience, Jonathan can quickly identify organizational roadblocks and provide fast, efficient, and effective solutions. He describes himself as a "get stuff done" person. Jonathan is also a professional keynote speaker, educating his audiences on personal efficiency, time management, and business development.
Resources Shared:
- Red Door Pro Wash
- Red Door Lighting Co.
- Company180
- Thryv
Joe Pergolizzi has been an entrepreneur for over 25 years, founded three businesses, and exited each one. Joe has worked with over 1,000 entrepreneurs to start, scale, exit, and buy businesses. Joe shares that one of the keys to selling your business is understanding the business's strengths and weaknesses – this will help you accentuate the value and strengthen the weaknesses. Joe talks about his entrepreneurship journey and the mistakes he made that can help others scale and sell their businesses.
Resources Shared:
- WebsiteClosers.com
- The Deal Closers Podcast
- Thryv
Jeffrey Krentzman started The BBQ Cleaner, a barbeque grill cleaning business, in 2009 and has overseen its growth to over 270 locations nationwide. Jeff shares how he launched his business and why the owner-operator business model was the preferred choice to scale the business. For a decade, he’s been helping future entrepreneurs start their own BBQ grill cleaning business by arming them with a proven, turnkey business model. He shows how you can be your own boss at a fraction of the cost of other franchise startups. Jeff often speaks about his company’s success and entrepreneurial subjects across various media outlets and to college students nationwide.
Resources Shared:
- The BBQ Cleaner
- Thryv
Karalynn Cromeens is the Owner and Managing Partner of The Cromeens Law Firm and the author of Quit Getting Screwed: Understanding and Negotiating the Subcontract. Karalynn holds more than 17 years of experience practicing construction, real estate, and business law. Karalynn is passionate about protecting the businesses her clients have built and being a lifelong partner in their success. An award-winning lawyer, Karalynn is sparking change in the construction industry. Karalynn shares the insights you should know about the subcontracts presented to you.
Resources Shared:
- The Cromeens Law Firm, PLLC
- Quit Getting Screwed by Karalynn Cromeens
- Quit Getting Stiffed by Karalynn Cromeens
- The Quit Getting Screwed Construction Podcast
- The Subcontractor Institute
- Thryv
Rob Kessler is the inventor and co-founder of Million Dollar Collar, a relatively simple solution to an often-overlooked problem that became glaringly obvious when reviewing his wedding photos. Before Million Dollar Collar, Rob built a screen printing and embroidery business from a spare bedroom in his house to over $1,000,000 in revenue before selling the company. Rob shares how he built his business one collar at a time and how he’s expanding into the dress shirt business.
Resources Shared:
- Million Dollar Collar
- goTIELESS
- Thryv
Heather Ripley is CEO of Ripley PR, a global, award-winning public relations agency specializing in franchising, B2B, and building trades. Heather has created results-driven branding, social and promotional campaigns for various B2B companies, including managing marketing and PR for a national franchisor with more than 600 locations. Heather shares strategies any small business can use to help you stand out from the crowd and leverage earned media.
Resources Shared:
- Ripley PR
- Next Level Now by Heather Ripley
- Thryv
Thornton Fence Consulting Group was established in 2022 by founder and visionary Tony Thornton, a 45+ year veteran of the fencing industry with vast experience as a contractor, supplier/distributor, and manufacturer. While working with others and owning his own companies, he gained experience in sales, operations, installation, and project management and began developing efficiency methods that streamlined the processes that highlighted the importance of profitability. Tony shares how he grew his company and pivoted into teaching other small business leaders how to create a pathway to success.
Resources Shared:
- Thornton Fence Consulting Group
- American Fence Association
- Thryv
Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author Steven Mark Kahan has helped grow seven startup companies from early-stage development to going public or being sold, resulting in a total value of more than $5 billion. He is best known for his ability to plan and execute marketing strategies so that companies can accelerate revenue, grow market share, and consistently deliver superior returns for shareholders. Steven currently provides marketing advisory services to startups, including several Insight Partners portfolio companies.
Resources Shared:
- Be a Startup Superstar by Steve Kahan
- High-Velocity Digital Marketing by Steve Kahan
- Insight Partners
- Thryv
Soon after graduating, Brady bought an outdated Nashville home, determined to completely remodel the entire house. Even though this would be his first large-scale building project, Brady imagined the home completely transformed, even down to the tiniest details. As the years went by, his reputation grew, as did his skill set, resources, and geographic reach. Today, even though he is the owner of one of the most in-demand luxury home general contractors. Brady shares his story with us and how he’s been able to scale his business through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
Resources Shared:
• Fry Classic Construction
• Thryv
Deniero Bartolini is a mentor, consultant, and coach to hundreds of small business owners. Born in Rome, he moved to Toronto, Canada and had a successful digital marketing career for a large corporation. When restructuring at the company saw him lose his job, he started freelancing and found he needed to expand with a remote team. Following his success, he founded Remote CEO Academy, where he and his team help business owners leverage the internet to scale their businesses and expand their reach. Deniero has been featured in Forbes, Adweek, Yahoo Finance, and NBC, and he hosts the Remote CEO Podcast.
Resources Shared:
- Denierob.com
- The Remote CEO Academy
- The Remote CEO Podcast
- Thryv
Jessica Fialkovich is an expert on selling your business. The founder of Exit Factor, a firm that educates entrepreneurs how to buy, build, and sell a business, she is also a keynote speaker, small business advocate, and the co-owner of Transworld Business Advisors in Colorado, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Las Vegas. Jessica is an entrepreneur at heart and successfully built and sold two startups, along with her husband and business partner, Al. The premier industry associations have recognized their business brokerage offices as among the teams completing the most business sales annually. She holds active board positions for entrepreneurial groups, including Entrepreneurs’ Organization. Jessica Fialkovich has been teaching entrepreneurs how to prep and sell their “baby” for over a decade. Learn the practical steps to sell your small business for the best price.
Resources Shared:
- Exit Factor
- Getting the Most for Selling Your Businessby Jessica Fialkovich
- Thryv
Evan Kirstel is a B2B thought leader and top technology influencer who helps B2B clients grow their social media audience and leverage LinkedIn and Twitter for sales, networking, engagement, and social selling. He is actively building a network of fellow B2B influencers to help brands with scale and thought leadership. Evan shares the strategies he recommends small businesses use to get their business noticed and their lead funnels growing.
Resources Shared:
- EvanKirstel.com
- eViRa Health
- Thryv
Mohammad Anwar is the President and CEO of Softway and Culture+ and the WSJ Best-Selling Author of Love As A Business Strategy: Resilience, Belonging & Success. Mohammad’s passion for helping companies build better relationships with their employees led him to start Softway in 2003. With over 200 employees worldwide, Softway provides companies with the products, services, live events, and leadership insights they need to endear teams to each other and build business resilience. Learn how to apply Love As A Business Strategy to your business and unlock untapped growth opportunities.
Resources Shared:
- Softway Solutions
- Love as a Business Strategy by Frank E. Danna and Mohammad F. Anwar
- Love as a Business Strategy Podcast
- Thryv
Toby Mathis is a founder of Infinity Investing Workshop and Anderson Business Advisors, one of the most successful investing, law, tax, and estate planning companies in the United States. Toby’s businesses have been featured on the Inc. list of fastest-growing US companies on three different occasions and voted one of the “Best Places to Work.” He has sat on the Boards of hundreds of companies, including public and private enterprises, non-profits, and business leagues. He brings a wealth of experience to Infinity Investing and is ready to transform how you look at your investments.
Resources Shared:
- Infinity Investing
- Anderson Advisors
- Infinity Investing by Toby Mathis
- Thryv
Matt Remuzzi is the founder and CEO of CapForge, a virtual bookkeeping firm headquartered in California. With over 20 years of expertise in general bookkeeping, CapForge started with a single employee—himself—which has now grown to over 40 bookkeepers and advisors for small businesses. Matt shares some common questions they help businesses solve around their bookkeeping and accounting practices.Resources Shared: •CapForge, Inc.•QuickBooks Bookkeeping by Matt Remuzzi•Amazon Seller Bookkeeping by Matt Remuzzi•Thryv
Keegan Edwards is the President and CEO of New Media Retailer, the award-winning digital marketing solutions provider for independent retailers. Over the past 12 years, Keegan has worked with over 1,500 small businesses on their digital marketing and growth strategies. As an entrepreneur, he's built award-winning businesses that provide affordable digital marketing solutions for small to medium-sized businesses across the country. Keegan talks about some of the simple changes any business can make to increase its online presence and get found by consumers.
Resources Shared: • New Media Retailer • A Store Near Me by Keegan Edwards • Udemy Courses • Thryv
Scott Selzer is the CEO and Chief Product Architect of StruXure. Founded in 2011, Scott set out to design a better pergola to improve the outdoor space for one of his clients. A middle-school teacher at the time with a part-time remodeling business, Scott created his product, a pivoting louvered-roof structure that the user could control, when he couldn't locate one on the market. Scott has since led StruXure to nearly $100 million in revenues and the company was named to the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies list for the seventh consecutive year in 2021. In early 2022 StruXure was acquired by the Azek company (NYSE: AZEK). Scott shares his journey into entrepreneurship and how he leverages diversity in his team to accelerate growth.
Resources Shared: • StruXure Outdoor, Inc. • Thryv
Maayan Gordon has 10+ years in digital marketing, founded four successful businesses, 1+ billion video views, and 2+ million followers on social media. Maayan shares how she went from starving and homeless to creating multiple successful businesses. She also talked about her struggles with mental health challenges and how she was able to work through those issues to become a more resilient businesswoman.
Resources Shared: • Maayan Gordon Media • Thryv
Nicole Tanner co-founded Swig, a St. George, Utah-based drive-through "dirty soda" fountain, with her husband, Todd, in 2010. Over the next seven years, they grew the business into a 17-store chain before selling it to Four Foods Group. Swig has expanded into multiple states from that small beginning, becoming thousands of people's go-to destination for personalized sodas, customized energy drinks, boba teas, cookies, and other sweets. Hear about what differentiated Nicole's business in a crowded space and how they leveraged personalized service to accelerate growth.
Resources Shared: • Swig • Thryv
Zachary Green is a warrior turned entrepreneur. He began his career as a U.S. Marine, and after leaving the Marines, he became a firefighter. It was as a firefighter that Zachary became keenly aware of the need to help other firefighters who might be trapped in burning buildings to be able to see an exit path so they could escape. He founded LumAware, a company whose photoluminescent helmet bands and exit path markings could enable a firefighter to see their way out through smoke and fire even without an electrical source. Listen as Zachary explains how his experiences in the military, firefighting, and as an entrepreneur helped him realize that these careers have a lot in common. They all entail risk, struggle, grit, and bravery. Hear about Zachary’s journey into entrepreneurship and what almost caused him to fail from the start.
Resources Shared: • Warrior Entrepreneur by Zachary Green • The Warrior's Voice Podcast • LumAware Safety • Thryv
Benjamin Friedman founded Build Scale Grow, which operates as a fractional and interim COO/CFO building long-term scalable systems and installing accountability metrics with fast learning loops. He looks to reduce cash flow and monitor the runway while also being mindful that companies need to invest in new and near-future opportunities now more than ever. Applying lessons from 20 years of bumpy startup rides leading to multiple successful exits, Benjamin started Build Scale Grow to support passionate founders in activating their dreams.
Resources Shared: • Build Scale Grow, Inc. • Thryv
Jeff Tomaszewski is on a mission to help as many people as possible live a high quality of life into their golden years. Shortly after obtaining his Master’s degree, he formed MaxStrength Fitness in May of 2007 in Westlake, Ohio, which has grown into Cleveland’s premier personal training facility. Jeff now has two locations and has started franchising to further his mission of helping people live a high quality of life now and throughout their golden years.
Resources Shared: • MaxStrength Fitness • MaxStrength Fitness Franchising • Thryv
The idea for XION was born when CEO/Founder Dan Fairbanks owned and operated multiple small specialty running shoe stores in the Seattle area. He discovered that there was no integrated e-commerce/marketplace solution for independent retailers. From there, he teamed up with Co-Founder Robert Ivie, and together with the help of a few other dedicated employees, they developed XION to make it easier for consumers to buy online from local small business retailers.
Resources Shared: · XION Retail · Thryv
Susan Fennema is a chaos-killing, clutter-kicking, disorder-fighting maven. She loves beating the pants off disorganization and taking paper where it belongs…to the shredder! She’s a Fractional COO for clients and serves as CEO, or Chief Eradicating Officer, at Beyond the Chaos. Susan shared her mission to help small business owners regain control by leveraging software and processes. Giving business owners the control to steer their business and life where they want it to go and do what they love.
Resources Shared: • Beyond The Chaos • Thryv
Ivy Walker is a serial entrepreneur, award-winning author, teacher, business coach, and director of documentary films. Ivy is the founder of AskCoda, a risk management and compliance solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Ivy is passionate about leveraging technology as a platform to transform industries and empower individuals to make positive changes in their lives. Ivy talks about her book Twelve-Minute Risk Management and how small businesses can be better prepared.
Resources Shared: • Twelve Minute Risk Management by Ivy Walker • AskCoda • Thryv
At 20 years old, Jeff started Caring Senior Service as the solution for local and long-distance caregiving. Within five years, he had five total locations and then began franchising. Jeff brought a never quit attitude to Caring Senior Service, which has added over 47 locations today and operates in 18 states. Jeff talks about how to build a business that leaves a legacy and aligns with your passions.
Resources Shared: • Caring Senior Service • Thryv
Dr. Kizzy Parks is the President of K. Parks Consulting, Inc. (KPC). Which specializes in helping small businesses win government contracts. She recently launched GovCon Winners to help service-based businesses learn how to find, bid, and win government contracts. Kizzy has secured over $50 Million in federal government contract awards. In this episode of Winning on Main Street, she shares how she got her start in entrepreneurship and how an unexpected opportunity grew into a thriving business.
Resources Shared: • K. Parks Consulting • GovCon Winners • Thryv
Cyndi Bray is the entrepreneur behind Wad-Free® for Bed Sheets that went into the “Shark Tank” to pitch the sharks on investing in her company, which makes a novel device to keep sheets from wadding in the washer or dryer, during the November 5, 2021 episode of the hit ABC show. Cyndi succeeded in landing Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O’Leary, as her investor and she has since scaled her business to new heights. Listen as Cyndi explains how, with no background in engineering, product development, or manufacturing, she taught herself a modeling computer-aided design program to create the first-ever Wad Preventer. Cyndi gives us a bit of her back story and her mission to create a more sustainable future.
Resources Shared: • Wad-Free for Bed Sheets • Thryv
Sean Castrina is a serial entrepreneur who has started more than 20 companies over the last 20 years. He still seeks to launch a new venture annually. He is also the founder of The Weekend MBA, a two-day LIVE event where veteran entrepreneurs share strategies and tactics to help business owners build an action plan to achieve breakthroughs in their business. Sean is also the author of 4 bestselling business books and hosts a popular business podcast, “The 10 Minute Entrepreneur”. In this episode of Winning on Main Street, Sean shares his journey into entrepreneurship and why $250,000 is a magic number when it comes to scaling a business.
Kurt Wilkin: The disruption piece is most recruiters are trying to fill a seat. You got an empty chair, well, yeah, give me a job description and we'll start throwing it against the wall. What we created was a strategic approach and said, "You know what? You say you've got an empty chair. I want to understand what that chair is doing. How does it interact with the rest of the chairs?" Keep the analogy going. We created something we call strategic talent planning. It's our way of taking your business plan, your financial forecast, your hopes and dreams. What do you need to do to accomplish those hopes and dreams? What does your existing team look like? Then, let's start thinking about what you need to add.
Thryv: The following is brought to you by Thryv, the end-to-end client experience platform that helps you get the job, manage the job, and get credit.
Gordon Henry: Hey. Hey. This is Gordon Henry, at Winning on Main Street. This week, we're fortunate to spend time with an expert in the field of hiring and building the people side of your business, Kurt Wilkin. Welcome, Kurt.
Kurt Wilkin: Hey, thanks so much for having me, Gordon.
Gordon Henry: Great to have you. Brief intro on Kurt. Kurt Wilkin is a connector of dots, ideas, and people. He's the co-founder and visionary of HireBetter, a recruiting firm out of Austin, Texas. He authored the book Who's Your Mike?: A No-BS Guide to the People You'll Meet on Your Entrepreneurial Journey, and also the ebook, The Recruiting Industry is Broken. Prior to founding HireBetter, Kurt founded and led the controller group, TCG, professional services firm focused on accounting, technology and recruiting, which he and his partner sold to Tatum in 20... Or 2006.
Kurt began his career as an accountant with Ernst & Young, where he worked with early stage in high growth, middle market clients. Kurt's an active at angel investor, managing partner Bee Cave Capital, and he sits on the boards of several companies, a nonprofits. He lives in the Austin, Texas area. He has a wife and three sons, and he loves coaching youth sports. Me too. That's near and dear to my heart, Kurt. Kurt, tell us in 2011, this is after you've exited The Controller Group. You bought HireBetter, right? Your goal was, I think, to disrupt recruiting. What did that mean to you, and did you? Have you disrupted recruiting?
Kurt Wilkin: Yeah, it's a great question. I set out to change everything I knew about the recruiting industry. I felt like, and still believe, much of it is dastardly broken. You mentioned the ebook, The Recruiting Industry is Broken. I came in and changed everything. The way recruiters are paid, the way they recruit, the types of roles they recruit and everything. In fact, it was so funny. I would talk to my friends. They're like, "Oh, tell me what you're doing." I'd word vomit on them, right? After 10 minutes, they're like, "Dude, I have no idea what you do because you say you're the anti-recruiter." What I learned is that, and got some advice on this, if you're trying to disrupt an industry, choose one thing. You can't change five things because you're going to try to change too much and people don't understand what you're doing anymore. We have disrupted our niche. We work exclusively with what I call high growth companies, entrepreneurial companies, who are going from scrappy startup to scale. We help them really professionalize their team.
Gordon Henry: Okay. Where was the disruption piece in there?
Kurt Wilkin: The disruption piece is most recruiters are trying to fill a seat. You got an empty chair, well, yeah, give me a job description and we'll start throwing it against the wall. What we created was a strategic approach and said, "You know what? You say you've got an empty chair. I want to understand what that chair is doing. How does it interact with the rest of the chairs?" Keep the analogy going. We created something we call strategic talent planning. It's our way of taking your business plan, your financial forecast, your hopes and dreams. What do you need to do to accomplish those hopes and dreams? What does your existing team look like? Most of which, or many of which, you probably outgrown or in the wrong roles. Then, let's start thinking about what you need to add. The book you mentioned earlier, Who's Your Mike?, There's virtually almost no recruiting in the book. It's more about what does your existing team look like, what are some of the people you've outgrown on your way to where you are.
Gordon Henry: Let's talk about Who's Your Mike? It was a book that you obviously wanted to write and you felt tell the unique story. Why don't you tell us what was the message of Who's Your Mike? and what does that title mean?
Kurt Wilkin: Yeah. Great question. First, I'll say it's a... While it is in the business book genre, it's the most anti... Different business book you've ever read. Mike is the title character, but not every chapter is set up like this. But Mike is your fraternity brother in college. You guys were best buds, thick as thieves. You trusted him with your life. When you started your business in your garage, Mike was right there with you, nights and weekends, helping you with all the administrative things, the back office stuff, the stuff you didn't like to do, and didn't know how to do. When you became a real company, Mike joined you as your accountant, still doing those non-biz dev non-product related things. Things like setting up your bank account, maybe setting up your LLC, stuff like that.
As you grew, you rewarded Mike's 100 weeks by promoting him. As he continued to grow with title and responsibilities, he didn't grow professionally. The challenge is Mike's never done this before. He's never built an accounting team for a $20 million company. He's making all this stuff up on his own. You look up and Mike is swirling. He's in over his head. He's now trying to negotiate a big merger with your biggest competitor, maybe a $10 million line of credit with the bank. Whatever it is, he's swirling and he doesn't want to admit it because he's so loyal to you. The question, for all your entrepreneurial audiences, who's your Mike? Everybody who's an entrepreneur's got a Mike. Either has one, used to have one, or will have one. Who's your Mike?
Gordon Henry: Yeah. Fascinating. To just finish the story, so you recommend, I assume, that when you have a Mike who's maybe risen above the level where he's really capable, you've sadly got to find a way to exit out of Mike and bring in somebody who's more appropriate for the company where it is today.
Kurt Wilkin: Maybe, maybe. That's the way the book is written is, look, I don't have your answer. No one's got your answer. But I can tell you stories of what other people have done and you can find the nugget in there that's going to support you. Every fourth or fifth chapter, I have what's called an intermission where we ask questions about Mike. Is Mike coachable? Could he become your CFO tomorrow? Maybe. Can you learn all the bumps and bruises along the way that you're going to have if he's learning on the job? Maybe you need to go too fast. You need to bring someone in from the outside. Maybe he's a strong individual contributor. What we often find is that Mike is a damn good controller, a good accountant. He's just not a future looking financial partner. Maybe we put him back into that role and bring in an outside CFO. Lots of different nuances based on his coachability, his humility, his capabilities.
Gordon Henry: Hmm. Fascinating. Sounds like a really compelling read. I want to switch gears to more local businesses. I know you tend to work with these sort of high growth businesses, but a lot of the businesses that, frankly, are listening to our show, tend to be local business owners. They're a dentist or they're a plumber, or they're a roofer. They own a local business, a business that's successful. Maybe they have a couple of trucks on the road, servicing people's houses. They're not looking to become the next Facebook. They just want to run a successful local business. I say just because that's not an easy thing to do. I hear from them that there's a dearth of workers, that it's tough to find people who have the skills they need. It's tough to bring people in and keep them. What's going wrong in the hiring market today? Are kids busy wanting to be digital marketing majors and social media specialists, but not plumbers or roofers anymore?
Kurt Wilkin: First and foremost, we tell all of our clients and all companies, the employees of today are different from the days of even two or three years ago before COVID. What I mean by that is, for the most part, we are, they are looking for purpose and meaning more than just a paycheck. Whether you're a forklift driver or a restaurant employee or a CMO, you're looking for something more powerful than just a paycheck. That doesn't mean you have to be saving the world. It just means you're doing something bigger than yourself. What most of your listeners can do is find that meaning, that purpose that they can hold themselves out for. Why do we exist? Find out what it is and, usually, more often than not, it's impactful. If it's just making money, that could be a purpose. You're going to attract certain employees, but not all of them.
Gordon Henry: I've always heard that the key to keeping an employee happy is good manager, that they like their manager, that it's not necessarily about pay. Maybe not even about the higher cause of the company. That they have a good manager who does things that managers should do, look after them, mentors and so forth. That's nothing new. That's the way it's been for a long time. Are you saying that's no longer true that those kind of old ideas about what made people like a job and stay are no longer true and it's got to be this higher purpose idea?
Kurt Wilkin: I think the manager is part of the higher purpose, in my opinion. The manager is not necessarily whether you're good at holding people accountable and giving people direction. That's also the relationships that you build and the type of person that your manager is. That's what I think of when I think of staying for managers. That's something we have at HireBetter is, I think, the people aspect is so strong that people are staying, oftentimes, for managers, because they can make more money elsewhere, especially being recruiters right now.
Gordon Henry: What are the fundamental concepts other than this mission that you talked about? Are there other fundamental concepts about hiring better that companies who come to you need to learn in order to succeed?
Kurt Wilkin: There's a whole myth out there for companies that only need to hire A players, or you should only hire A players. We have a chapter in my book called B Player Bob, where we say, "Look, B players have a place too. In fact, a B player can be a really good employee. They're not necessarily your future president, but they're very solid employees." Just understanding that is part of the aspect, but here's the bigger things that more to your question. Especially in today's job market, if you look back two or three years ago, most companies were hiring based on LinkedIn and Indeed and other job boards. If you get somebody to answer an ad, it's not that hard to get them to join your company. They're probably C players.
If you really want to hire an A or B player, sure you need to interview them and screen them and do all the things you want to do, but you've got to sell them some sizzle too. Why should they leave their amazing opportunity to come work for you? If all you're doing is grilling them and you're putting them through a five-week process and having them interview with 30 people, and everyone's just organized and no one knows what they're doing, you're not going to win the A or B players. You're only going to be able to get what's left over. Put on your own A game if you're going to try to attract amazing teammates.
Gordon Henry: We have more to cover with Kurt Wilkin, but first, a message for Winning on Main Street guest, Mark Myers, over at Peak Profit Solutions. It's unfortunate that every year, an estimated 90% of high-income earning employees and businesses overpay at taxes. Yes, overpay at taxes. If only they have the time and resources to navigate the seemingly endless pages of tax code, larger companies have those resources. As a result, they often pay zero or very little in tax. Well, the good news is there's hope and it starts with a brief phone call to Mark Myers, founder of Peak Profit Solutions. Mark is a tax savings architect and has a track record reducing his client's tax burden by 30 to 60%. No need to change your CPA or invest in high risk assets. If you're tired of cutting fat checks to the IRS and want to know how to pay lower rates like the big guys, book a free 20-minute consultation with Mark. Just go to peakprofitsolutions.com, and click on Schedule An Appointment. Knowledge is powerful when properly applied. Peakprofitsolutions.com.
Back to Kurt Wilkin, curious about your thoughts on virtual work and this whole question of what should the work environment be? We've got some people saying it should all be virtual. Some people saying, "Nope, get back to the office." Some people saying, 'I want the hybrid in between." What are your thoughts on that as an expert in this area?
Kurt Wilkin: Yeah. It's really your preference as an employer. I will say that if you're based in Tupelo, Mississippi and you want people in the office every day, it's hard for us, HireBetter, to recruit for you because there's a lot of other options that those A players have that might include a virtual or hybrid environment. However, many of your listeners, small to medium-sized businesses, they're not geared or set up to work with virtual employees. If you can't hold people accountable and you don't have systems and structure to make sure that they're doing their job properly, I don't know if I would do it. I guess most of your folks have the problem also of having some people who have to be on site, like restaurant employees and factory workers, and then you try to have a virtual office environment. That's tough.
Gordon Henry: Well, Kurt, we're just about out of time. I'm curious. HireBetter is your latest adventure. You've been doing this, I guess, since 2011. What's the future of HireBetter and what's next for you?
Kurt Wilkin: Yeah. Great question. We talked a little bit earlier about recruiting as a service. I'm super excited about that. On a related front, we've been working on we call fractional chief people officer, but most early stage companies have a desperate need for people strategy. What they usually pay for or get is an HR department that they hate. What we're working on is just the strategy piece and then we'll have another team do the compliance related generals things that HR people generally lean to, because I think anything more broken than the recruiting industry is probably the HR industry. That's the next on our list. But, for me, we've gotten so much success with Who's Your Mike? The book strikes a chord with entrepreneurs everywhere, because we've all had versions of these employees and it's been fun watching and listening to the responses from folks. I've been doing more podcasts and I know speaking engagements are coming back in Vogue. I know I've already been booked for some of those. I'm excited to spread the message. It's a great message.
Gordon Henry: I just want to conclude. First of all, thanks for coming. How should people learn more about getting involved with you and HireBetter?
Kurt Wilkin: We have a website for the book called at whosyourmike.com. We have a fun quiz for those of you who think, "Maybe I've got a Mike, maybe not. I'm not really sure my situation." It's whosyourmike.com/quiz. That's probably the best way. Hirebetter.com, I'm happy to be a sounding board for any of your listeners as they go through their own people challenges.
Gordon Henry: Right. Well, thanks for stopping by Kurt. Great to have you on the show.
Kurt Wilkin: Hey, Gordon, I love what you guys are doing to help small, medium-sized businesses. Man, keep up the great work.
Gordon Henry: Thank you very much. Well, thanks to our producer, [Tim Alleman 00:15:58], and coordinators, [DF Barnett and Daniel Huddleston 00:16:00]. For those out there, if you enjoyed this podcast, and I hope you did, please tell a friend or colleague to subscribe and please leave us a five-star review. It really helps us in the ratings of the podcast and allows other people to find us. We'd really appreciate it. Until next time. Make it a great week.
Dan Perry is an Engineer turned Entrepreneur. He left his Mechanical Engineering job in 2011 to start a successful handyman business. Dan is also the founder of HandymanStartup.com - an online training resource dedicated to helping handymen, plumbers, electricians, and contractors understand business and marketing so they can get more customers, make more money, and gain financial freedom. Dan shares how he started his business and what he learned about marketing that can help any business grow.
Resources Shared: • HandymanStartup.com • Turn Your Skills into Profit by Dan Perry • Handyman Startup Podcast • Thryv
The Largo Group was founded by Anne Gannon, CPA in 2016. Anne has 15+ years of experience and began her career as a CPA with a big-five accounting firm in Boston, MA where she quickly realized the only winner in the 'busy season' approach was the accounting firm. Anne set out to form The Largo Group based on the fundamental idea that monthly accounting and tax services could be done more efficiently. Anne shared the transformational impact she’s seen when small businesses adopt this revolutionary approach to their accounting practice.
Resources Shared:
- The Largo Group
- Shotmaker: An Owner’s Guide to Creating a Winning Business by Anne Gannon
- Shotmaker Podcast
- The Largo Group Academy
- Thryv
After graduating from college in 2007, I hustled to get my first job in marketing. A year later the all-employee email went out congratulating me on my 1st anniversary. But about 2-hours later the same day, I was informed I was being laid off, which was painful and ironic at the same time. In the long run, more good than bad came from it and it set me on the journey to where I’m at today.
Every job I’ve held didn’t exist at the company before I applied for it. Those include jobs such as a social media strategist, content director, or director of digital strategy. Because my work was in a space that has been evolving so quickly, it just worked out that the roles didn’t exist before. It has been an interesting journey and it caused me to think like an entrepreneur because I had to define how I was going to add value to the business.
My book Build Your Digital Strategy is geared toward small business owners who are looking for help navigating the digital marketing space. I created a free digital strategy road map that gives you an A to F process for developing your strategy. It starts with aligning your strategy with your goals. The next part is to define your brand identity. Then your content strategy. Then distribution channels. Then how are you evaluating success? And the last piece is to find the ideas that help separate your business from competitors.
Small business owners must be extremely focused on where they want to compete online if they hope to gain meaningful traction. Don’t spread yourself so thin that you don’t do anything well or get buried by bigger competitors. Pick two or three platforms you think will deliver the best return for your business and focus your energy and resources there. Don’t launch a podcast just because you think it's cool unless that is a natural fit for you, and you have a strategy of how it will grow your business. Technology plays a key role in helping small businesses manage their leads and customers. CRM platforms are extremely helpful at automating the tasks required to convert a lead into a paying customer.
Resources Shared:
- Digital Zeal
- Build Your Digital Strategy by Ryan Sawrie
- Digital Strategy Sprint Road Map
- Thryv
As a high school football coach and teacher, I wanted to learn how to motivate my students better. So I began to study the topic of motivation and the more I learn the more it fascinated me. Too often motivation seems to be a topic we ignore or we leave it as one of the last areas we address whereas I believe motivation should be the first area we address.
I had a chance to apply my learnings on a larger stage when an old colleague of mine, Tom Donahoe asked me if I would help him with player recruitment for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So we started testing the players we were considering drafting to look for how they responded in various situations. What we were trying to understand is does the player have faith in themselves, are they able to learn from mistakes, do they raise others up, and how do they perform during an interview.
When it comes to running a small business successfully a key variable you need to have is the word “we”. There was a study done that looked at the most common factor successful small businesses had, which was dyslexia. What they found was those business owners that struggled with dyslexia, had to overdevelop their communication skills to be successful. Hard work and better communication skills are both key traits that can help you be successful in many areas of life, including business.
Connecting with others and bringing other people into what we’re doing has been found to be one of the strongest factors to success. The main factors that influence people to stay at a company are when they have friends there and they feel connected to the culture. You will find the same thing when it comes to your customers. When people come into our business we think they are deciding to purchase because we offer the best product, price, or some other logic-based reason. However, they are often making the decision based on how well you connect with them as a person.
Even if being a people person isn’t your natural tendency you can learn to develop that skill. In the book, The War For Kindness, they found that if people said I can’t do something they never did but when others said I’m not good at a skill but I believe I can learn to do better they were able to improve that skill drastically. You have to have a growth mindset versed a fixed mindset.
When it comes to learning how to deal with change you have to remind yourself these aren’t tough times these are changing times. When your environment changes you have to learn how to adapt. In my book, I Believe Mindset, I talk about how if you going around saying I believe these are bad times then you are just enduring trying to get to the end. But if you believe that these are changing times you will find a way to change along with the times and realize opportunities.
Resources Shared:
- Entrepreneurs and Dyslexia Study
- The War For Kindness
- Nerves of Steel
- Ten Steps to an “I Believe” Mindset”
- Thryv
I started Chick Boss Cake as a hobby at first and ran it out of my tiny apartment kitchen. Eventually, word spread and I realized I loved both making and eating desserts. Part of what makes us unique ties into our slogan “it’s not about the cake”. While many of our customers will say we have the best cake in town, for us it’s about the community we have and the opportunity to bring people together. The cake and desserts are just the way we create experiences that bring people together.
I’m not formally trained in baking or business. I dropped out of high school at 16 and have self-educated along the way. It’s been a lot of trial and error. But I have always infused a lot of my personality into the brand which gives us an authenticity that I believe has helped us attract the best customers and staff. That makes it easy for me to show up every day and be myself and attract like-minded people.
Technology plays a huge role in the success of our business. We automate tasks, keep things organized, and make the customer experience as seamless as possible. No matter what business you are in, you should be leveraging technology. You don’t have to be a tech expert either, you just have to start somewhere and grow from there. I’m a hands-on learner so I dove in and built our website myself on Shopify and added a little popup that shows when someone buys something because social proof is so important. Our use of technology is what saved our business during COVID.
We have 3 stores today in the suburbs around Toronto and we’re working on our 4th location. Our overall revenue is $1.3 million which I’m proud of because that is a lot of cake. The approach we use when opening new stores is we want to create fans in that market before we even open a location. We do that through our online store and delivery model so that by the time we open a store, we have long lines – because customers in the area have already been able to order online. That approach I believe has helped us be successful once we do open a new location.
While I never had a formal education, I love learning. I read a lot of books, listen to tons of podcasts, go to business conferences, watch YouTube videos, and do anything I can to put myself in a position to learn from others. I emphasized doing what I love and then I go find the information on how to do it. If I can figure it out, anyone can do it – which is why on my podcast I will call people out when they start making excuses. Excuses aren’t going to get you anywhere. If you find yourself getting stuck it's probably because you’re making excuses.
Resources Shared:
- Chick Boss Cake
- Rebecca Hamilton Co.
- Shopify
- Mailchimp
- The Million Dollar Bakery by Rebecca Hamilton
- Scrap The Sweet Talk Podcast
- Thryv
I always aspired to start my own business but starting out I didn’t have the resources, knowledge, or courage to do so. I started in entrepreneurship by dipping my toe in the water via a partnership with a friend. We took over a pizza delivery franchise while I continued to work my day job and he ran the daily operations. A line I love to repeat from Dan Sullivan is, “we cannot wait for confidence, we don’t have confidence, we have to have the courage to go try something and then confidence comes”.
When you are considering going into business you first need to determine if you prefer to work solo or in partnership with others. If you choose to work in partnership my recommendation is you start with what I call a memo of understanding. The biggest mistake I see people make is they go into a partnership not considering what happens when there is a disagreement.
The biggest obstacle people often have to overcome when starting a business is the fear of failure. The problem is we are typically surrounded by others that haven’t taken the leap into entrepreneurship and often, unknowingly, they project their fear of failure on us. You have to find a way to get over the fear of failure or entrepreneurship isn’t going to work for you.
A key misconception people have when starting a business is that they will be successful because they love or enjoy the problem they are solving. The reality is we have to be prepared to fail but our goal should be how to minimize those failures. Another misconception is the amount of work it takes to make that business successful. When your business is starting out you will work harder than almost any job you’ve ever had.
Small business systems don’t have to be some big elaborate process or complicated tool. However, a lack of systems is often the number one reason a business struggles to grow. Start with the simple things you do every day and turn them into a checklist. Then as you grow you can identify where you could bring in tools that help you automate your checklist items.
As it relates to should I buy or build a business? In the simplest terms, if you build it will they come verse if you buy a business at least you have an idea of what it might look like. It is true you will pay a premium to buy a business but it can minimize the risk of product-market fit. The rule of thumb when it comes to buying a business is to look at the average revenue, expenses, and profit for the past 3 years. Then apply a multiple anywhere from 1 up to 3 or 5 times profit.
When you are looking to sell your business there are a few things to consider. If the business success is dependent solely on you then you have not created a business you can sell. You should have the systems in place that allows someone else to come in and run the business, which will make the business more valuable.
Resources Shared:
- Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
- EMyth
- The How of Business Podcast
- Thryv
I’m a big hockey fan so today I’m wearing my Colorado Avalanche jersey in recognition of our Stanley Cup win. Growing up I played hockey quite a bit with my friends, never seriously but I enjoyed it. Football was the sport I took a bit more seriously. Unfortunately, a string of injuries prevented me from continuing to pursue my dream of playing in the NFL. I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, which was a nice little college town, but I wanted someplace a little bigger when I went to college. I initially considered law school in Los Angeles, hoping to attend either USC or UCLA. However, when I visited the CU campus in Boulder I fell in love with the area and decided to go there instead.
Going into business with friends has its challenges but it is something that works well for Josh and I. Both of us are direct communicators and have thick skin. This helps a lot when we’re trying to work through problems or resolve miscommunications. I was always intrigued with entrepreneurship because it is a different approach to living life. Once you’ve made peace with the risk aspect of being an entrepreneur, I see it as a lot of fun and thus when we opened our firm, we focused on working with clients who were also entrepreneurs. In addition to our law practice, we have a couple of other entrepreneurial ventures on the side.
One of the most common mistakes we see entrepreneurs make is not forming a business entity. A lot of people simply operate under a trade name which essentially means they are a sole proprietor or general partner. However, what most entrepreneurs don’t consider is that it is the riskiest way to operate a business. The idea behind limited liability is that it protects your personal assets from being at risk if someone were to sue the business. If you don’t take that step, you are not only putting your business at risk, but you are also putting at risk everything else you own. Law is intimidating to most people, so we aim to make it digestible and understandable to our clients.
The biggest mistake I see people make when they are hiring an attorney is to simply price shop for the lowest rate. Unfortunately, because law can be a complex topic, people don’t get what they need because they don’t understand what they’re being asked for or don’t know what to look for in the agreement. Your primary goal when you are looking for an attorney should be to find someone you can trust, even if their prices aren’t the lowest in town. If you are only looking for the lowest price you will often find yourself less protected than you thought you were, which only adds to your frustration when you’re in the middle of a situation.
Resources Shared:
- Troxel Fitch Law
- Thryv
Jackie and Lauren worked together at Yahoo and later at Square, where they spent a lot of time talking to small business owners. During the pandemic, they started discussing how during an economic downturn, a lot of people generally start their own businesses, and wouldn’t it be great if they could package together what they had learned working with small businesses. This idea was what led to the authors researching and writing Self-Made Boss.
But both Jackie and Lauren had significant backgrounds in small business long before they conceived of writing this book. Jackie relates in this episode how when she was growing up, her parents and grandparents owned small businesses and she started her own small businesses in high school and then college. After college, Jackie transitioned to Wall Street and spent time creating financial products and working on mergers and acquisitions. She then moved into technology, first at Yahoo and then at Square, and then she left to start her own business once again. While at Square she was involved in the lending and banking aspect. One of the most emotional parts of the journey for a small business owner is when they receive credit or capital to fund their business. Those stories that Jackie and Lauren heard working with small business owners inspired them to write Self-Made Boss.
The ideal reader for the book is anyone who is thinking about or currently running a small business. The book is designed as part starter-kit, part encyclopedia. Each chapter covers a specific area of running a business that the entrepreneur may need to learn or brush up on, such as Creating a Business Plan, Legal Matters, Brand Building and Marketing, Hiring and HR, and Growth and Scale. But each chapter is also sprinkled with real-life stories of fascinating entrepreneurs whose tales will resonate with small business owners and inspire them to continue on their journey.
The authors know from experience that it can feel lonely running your own business and Self-Made Boss aims to show small business owners that they are not alone and that many of the challenges they face are shared by other entrepreneurs. Through the book, they package together insights and lessons on how to overcome these challenges. Listen to Jackie and Lauren in this entertaining and fascinating discussion and you will undoubtedly want to read Self-Made Boss.
Resources Shared:
- Self-Made Boss by Jackie Reses and Lauren Weinberg
- SelfMadeBoss.com
- Thryv
I am a first-generation immigrant, my family moved to the States many years ago from Italy to pursue a better life. I got my first taste of entrepreneurship working in our family restaurant, fast-forward to college graduation and I quickly figured out I hated the corporate environment. After several interviews with various companies, I realized corporate America wasn’t right for me. That’s when I reached out to a franchise coach, and we started exploring the options. In 2007, I bought my first franchise business in the commercial cleaning and maintenance industry. I recently exited those businesses and now I am a franchise coach for others.
When it comes to making the decision if a franchise is right for you, it generally boils down to systems. From the beginning, a franchise business already has established systems in place. I wouldn’t say starting a franchise is any better than starting your own business. It just comes down to do you like the idea of creating your own processes or following the path to success someone else has already established. Also, what I have seen in my 20 years of being in the industry is sometimes the franchise is the motivation that helps people have the confidence to launch their own business later.
We help clients navigate through the process to find the best option given their unique situation. When it comes to purchasing a franchise there are several ways to raise the money needed. You could put down cash, leverage an SBA loan, even home equity loans are a popular choice or even fund it with retirement savings. Those are just a few but there are dozens of options which is why we recommend a funding partner to our clients to help them find the option that best fits their situation.
There are a few key skills that are beneficial if you are looking to become a franchisee. A franchise is a business and as a business owner, you need to be able to lead others. There’s also a sales aspect to any business and as the owner, you are the face of the business. You don’t have to take on the primary role of sales, but you need to be involved in chamber events or other similar organizations to help spread the word about your business. Specifically, as a franchisee, you need to be coachable because you will be working with the franchisor and following their process. The main reasons we see franchisees fail are they bought into a franchise that’s not a good fit for them, they don’t have enough capital set aside in the early days, or they don’t want to follow the processes outlined by the franchisor.
Resources Shared:
- FranChoice
- The Franchise Freedom Podcast
- Franchise Freedom by Giuseppe Grammatico
- Thryv
After graduating from the University of Florida, I started my career managing health clubs. I went to work for a small company at the time called Equinox. I joined Equinox when they had around 12 clubs and now there are over 100 clubs across the US, Canada, and the UK. My role was to help them open locations, which taught me how to be an owner-operator. While I wasn’t technically the owner-operator, each club was treated as its own entity when it came to profit and loss. After a decade of working 365 days a year in this industry, I realized I wanted to make a change. I landed on helping small business owners looking for ways to optimize their profits and that’s where Peak Profit Solutions was born.
We work with clients to help them maximize their tax savings without them having to change their CPA. The key to almost any savings strategy starts with proactive planning. We’ve found over 90% of small businesses overpay on their taxes. While there are great tax preparers and CPAs out there, most do not have the time to spend digging through the tax code to find all the deductions that may be available to a small business owner. That is where we come in and help business owners explore the deductions that might be available to them. We also work with high-earning W2 employees. While the options are a bit more limited for them than for a small business, there are still ways we can help.
There are 176 economic development zones across the United States and some zones have very specific activities. For example, in Illinois, there is an area where most major US airlines purchase their jet fuel because of the benefit that zone provides them. Flash over to Puerto Rico, Act 23 (which morphed into Act 60) states that if you base your business in Puerto Rico and it is approved, then the profit from that business is only subject to a 4% tax rate. Additionally, if you are a Puerto Rico citizen then any profit above 4% can be received as a tax-free dividend. The key is to ensure you have your business entity set up correctly so that you can benefit from these deductions.
Resources Shared:
- Peak Profit Solutions
- Thryv
My story can be summarized as there were a lot of wrongs before there was a right. No one believed in me, I had all these fears inside of me, my junior high principal said it would be a cold day in hell if I ever graduated college, I never thought I would become an entrepreneur. I went to school for journalism but quickly realized I didn’t have the gift. After that, I turned to sales and during that season I took a personal development course. What I walked away with was everyone always talks about one day, one day I’ll open my own business, one day I’ll have a podcast, or one day I might write a book. What I realized is everyone who was saying one day was giving themselves an out to not act today.
What often stops people from pursuing their dreams are the fears that are instilled in us growing up. People don’t reach for their dreams because they don’t believe in themselves. If only people realized there is no such thing as failure, but everything is a learning experience. Failure is only when you don’t learn from your past and keep repeating the same mistakes. Now I’m not saying everyone should be an entrepreneur, there are plenty of people that don’t even want what you get out of being an entrepreneur. But if someone wants to be an entrepreneur then it's time to get out there and go for it.
Don’t get caught up in the blame game because it will kill dreams faster than anything else. When you say why me, you will never get past where you are. Sure, I could blame my parents but I’m nearly 40-years old, I’ve been an adult a long time and made plenty of my own decisions. There is only one person we can blame and that is the person in the mirror. Let’s not blame the 1%, politicians, society, our parents, or anything else. Rather when you take ownership of your life and your decisions that is when you can start making progress towards your dreams.
When I work with clients, I don’t evaluate them by how much money I think I could make. I want to understand where they are first which is why I don’t charge anything for the first session. When something isn’t working in your business the first place to look is your actions. How are you training people, or do you have the wrong culture or are you hiring people out of urgency. When you take responsibility for the part you have played then you can begin fixing the issues. If you aren’t ready to take ownership of your actions, then my coaching won't do you much good.
Resources Shared:
- What If It Did Work by Omar Medrano
- What If It Did Work? Podcast
- Thryv
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, when I was around five years old my parents started a psychometrics company called Selection, which centered around personality profiling, career guidance, interview skills, and selection guidance. Then a few years later my folks started an English as a Second Language school (ESL), teaching English to international students. The ESL business appealed to me as a young person, because I was able to travel around the world. I started as a marketing assistant and worked my way up until I bought the business about 12-years ago.
When it comes to purchasing family businesses, I’m a big fan of having sweat equity and capital at risk. Instead of just parents handing over a business to their children. Successful Succession is all centered around helping family businesses make the transition and not lose the family relationships in the process. Typically, there are four different ways to exit a family business when the current generation is done: 1) the business stops, 2) the business gets sold to external parties, 3) the business survives until a new leader is put in place with no power, 4) the family scales the business, and the next generation has skin in the game and is empowered to make decisions. This is the space we prefer to work in.
When we begin consulting with a family business, we often start with two key questions. What is the goal for the future of the business and who is the right leader for the immediate next stage? The right leader for the next stage doesn’t have to be the CEO for the next 40-years. One person might be great for the next stage and another is better for a later stage. Being an outside consultant allows us to come in and ask those types of questions without being hindered by the family dynamics that can cloud decision-making. The clearer we can define the purpose of the future business the easier it is to determine the right leader to put in place.
Resources Shared:
Successful Succession
Thryv
SCORE runs a mentor network around the country with nearly 10,000 business executives that volunteer their time to help small business owners. The SCORE Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the SCORE organization. We bring corporations, foundations, other non-profits, and individuals together to provide sponsorship dollars to underwrite many of the free programs SCORE offers small businesses. These programs include a variety of topics from disaster preparedness to cyber security. We look to align the goals of corporate sponsors with actionable and educational materials that help small businesses learn and grow. This free information is available to small businesses on the SCORE.org website.
I was attracted to the SCORE Foundation partly due to my background as an entrepreneur and small business owner. For the last 20-years, I ran a small marketing agency that was focused on the technology space. In many cases, I interacted with founders that were experts in software development and computer engineering but lacked the financial background needed to support their growth plans. When you’re trying to raise money to grow your business you need to be able to put together financial projections that are based on a model that makes sense to investors. I would often introduce founders to a SCORE mentor. When my time at the National Women’s Business counsel ended, I wanted to stay involved in the small business community and the SCORE Foundation opportunity arose and it was exactly what I was looking for.
SCORE does a great job collecting data about all the mentoring sessions they give and the impact it has on the small businesses they help. One data point shows that 61% of small businesses with 3 hours or more of mentoring reported an increase in revenue. Also, 77% of those same businesses were still in business a year later. Having access to an expert that can give you the advice you lack, or your friends and family may lack, makes all the difference to a small business owner. Every dollar saved counts and making good decisions around pricing or how to differentiate your business matters in a big way. These and more are the types of questions a SCORE mentor can help a small business owner sort through and make the best decision.
In today’s economy access to capital for small businesses is even more important as costs rise. There are many paths a small business can take to raise more capital, from small business grants, loans, or angel investing. Often there are angel groups that target specific types of businesses, one I know of in the DC area only funds businesses that have a social good component. There are also angel groups that focus on manufacturing businesses say in the life science space. There are angel groups that just fund minorities or one ethnic group. The group I’m in focuses on women-owned businesses. There are so many options available today, so do your research and find the right angel group for the type of business you are in.
Resources Shared:
- SCORE Foundation
- SCORE
- National Women’s Business Council
- Thryv Foundation
- Thryv
Growing up I was fascinated with public speaking and communications so I would learn everything I could about how to be a good communicator. After returning from serving on a mission, I was approached by Brigham Dickinson, the founder of Power Selling Pros, and he asked if I wanted to become a customer service coach. It was seamless for me because I was able to transition my skills from religion to customer service. Seven years later I’ve trained hundreds of CSRs (customer service reps) in the trades.
At Power Selling Pros, our goal is to help your team and especially your customer-facing members feel confident, self-reliant, and service-minded. The framework we teach all our clients is called the pattern for excellence. It is eight principles and I say principles not script intentionally. A script is a good place to start if you’re new. But as you gain experience, you want the dialog to flow naturally and have the eight principles guide you. The eight principles we teach are to be positive, be confident, listen, care, reassure them that you can help, ask for their business, build value before presenting pricing, and express sincere gratitude. When you do those eight well you create a wow customer experience.
Your customer service department should be a profit center for your business. The foundation is to have the right systems in place so that you can track and attribute the growth to the customer service department. I advocate for six basic metrics: number of calls, number of appointments booked, conversion percentage, number of service agreements sold, average talk time, and average time before a call is answered. When you know those numbers, you can evaluate whether your customer service department is helping your business grow. When you serve the customer well it doesn’t come across as pushy sales but rather as solving their problems.
When you get customer service right, it is a catalyst for change across your business. When you advertise to your customers, you are shouting. When you send a technician to your customer's home, the customer is on guard -- they just let a stranger into their house. There’s only one person in your organization the customer wants to talk to, the customer service representative. In every other part of your business, you must shout to be heard. But the CSR can whisper and the customer will hear every word.
Resources Shared:
- Power Selling Pros
- The Storytelling Habit Podcast
- This Call May Be Recorded The Show
- Thryv
The primary clients we serve today are established businesses that are struggling to figure out how to generate a return on their digital marketing. I’ve been in tech for decades and ran an advertising agency with my husband for a decade before becoming a revenue coach. Over the years I’ve helped companies of various sizes find success through digital marketing and position them for growth. We typically work with businesses that have $2m to $10m in annual revenue.
Mindset driven marketing is a concept I coach clients on frequently. You hear a lot of people talk about buyer personas but truthfully an 18-year-old guy is likely to buy a blender for the same reasons an 80-year-old guy would buy it. What I realized through my work is there is a gap between what the seller thinks the buyer wants and what the buyer truly wants. To me, the mindset of the customer is a combination of their desires, concerns, and questions. These are critical to know when thinking about any marketing because you want to address those immediately and show the customer how your product or service is the answer.
Running a successful business today requires that your systems and processes be cloud-based. Every business has to build a digital infrastructure to support its operations or it will fail. The key to a successful system is that you can easily capture the needed information and that each system integrates with the other. Even if you’re a small business with a limited budget, there are dozens of platforms out there that are affordable that can help you start to automate your processes.
The foundation of any good marketing campaign is measurement. We set up dashboards for our clients that they can access anytime to see where their money is being spent and what it is producing for them. Digital advertising is the quickest way for most businesses to generate leads but a good content marketing campaign with great copy will deliver you the most cost-effective leads over time. However, it takes time to build up a lead funnel from content marketing so you need to recognize that you won’t see immediate results like you would with digital marketing.
Resources Shared:
- Zhivago Partners
- Roadmap to Revenue by Kristin Zhivago
- Thryv
After graduating from business school, I started a job at Charles Schwab. I had a great time working alongside some wonderful and smart people. As I progressed into leadership roles, I found that to keep progressing I would have to make several lateral moves. That was a bit of a turn-off for me with my entrepreneurial spirit. What I also noticed was a lot of the financial advisors, financial managers, and wealth managers out there, didn’t run their businesses in a way that I felt was the most advantageous for small business owners. Thus, with a particular focus on helping small business owners with their money management needs, in 2014 I resigned from my job and started Three Oaks Wealth.
Our firm works with a lot of small business owners and our core strength is to assist them during periods of transition. When an owner is considering exiting their business, there are a few paths they can take but the most important question we help them answer is how to maximize their exit and reduce their tax liability. No matter what stage your business is in, good exit planning is simply good business planning in general. The core two areas to start with are to get personal expenses out of the business and then to establish processes that remove the owner from the daily business operations as much as possible.
The reason we exist as a firm is to help clients get to the best place financially for their circumstances. Being an entrepreneurial person myself, I get fired up working with entrepreneurs who came up with an idea and took the risk of launching something new to the market. This is why we are passionate about helping people with their financial planning -- so that they can live their best life. Today we don’t cross over much into general business consulting because that’s not our area of expertise. We get some of those questions during our interactions, but our primary focus is to get clients in the best financial place we can.
Resources Shared:
- Three Oaks Wealth
- Grow Money Business Podcast
- Thryv
I started Chick Boss Cake as a hobby at first and ran it out of my tiny apartment kitchen. Eventually, word spread and I realized I loved both making and eating desserts. Part of what makes us unique ties into our slogan “it’s not about the cake”. While many of our customers will say we have the best cake in town, for us it’s about the community we have and the opportunity to bring people together. The cake and desserts are just the way we create experiences that bring people together.
I’m not formally trained in baking or business. I dropped out of high school at 16 and have self-educated along the way. It’s been a lot of trial and error. But I have always infused a lot of my personality into the brand which gives us an authenticity that I believe has helped us attract the best customers and staff. That makes it easy for me to show up every day and be myself and attract like-minded people.
Technology plays a huge role in the success of our business. We automate tasks, keep things organized, and make the customer experience as seamless as possible. No matter what business you are in, you should be leveraging technology. You don’t have to be a tech expert either, you just have to start somewhere and grow from there. I’m a hands-on learner so I dove in and built our website myself on Shopify and added a little popup that shows when someone buys something because social proof is so important. Our use of technology is what saved our business during COVID.
We have 3 stores today in the suburbs around Toronto and we’re working on our 4th location. Our overall revenue is $1.3 million which I’m proud of because that is a lot of cake. The approach we use when opening new stores is we want to create fans in that market before we even open a location. We do that through our online store and delivery model so that by the time we open a store, we have long lines – because customers in the area have already been able to order online. That approach I believe has helped us be successful once we do open a new location.
While I never had a formal education, I love learning. I read a lot of books, listen to tons of podcasts, go to business conferences, watch YouTube videos, and do anything I can to put myself in a position to learn from others. I emphasized doing what I love and then I go find the information on how to do it. If I can figure it out, anyone can do it – which is why on my podcast I will call people out when they start making excuses. Excuses aren’t going to get you anywhere. If you find yourself getting stuck it's probably because you’re making excuses.
Resources Shared:
- Chick Boss Cake
- Rebecca Hamilton Co.
- Shopify
- Mailchimp
- The Million Dollar Bakery by Rebecca Hamilton
- Scrap The Sweet Talk Podcast
- Thryv
We originally launched in 2009 under the name Texas Investors Network, however as we grew and began receiving interest from people outside of Texas, we decided to change our name to TEN Capital Network. Today we’ve helped startups raise well over $900M in capital to fund their business ideas and grow successful ventures. We’ve learned a lot along our journey but what I would tell anyone looking to invest in startups would be to spend 90% of your time getting to know the leadership team behind the business. Product market fit and industry potential are only a small part of what makes a company successful.
In early-stage funding, there is a concept called the Power Law Curve which says that the majority of returns come from the minority of investments. No matter the industry or location of the team the percentages stay about the same: 5% of deals are home runs, the next 20% are medium winners, and the bottom 75% are either just your money back or no money back. So out of 10 businesses you invest in, maybe 1 will be a true home run, 2 or 3 have a small return, 1 will be a true dud and file bankruptcy, and the rest turn into lifestyle businesses that generate a living for the entrepreneur but provide near-zero return to investors. After several deals, I learned how to quickly spot when a deal was turning sideways and into a lifestyle brand. The leadership team would come to me and say they wanted to take everyone to market-rate salaries.
When it comes to how to select the companies you want to fund, you look for a strong leadership team that has a growth record. Then I look for the growth story. After the initial pitch, I want to see who comes back and provides an update on their growth. In my experience upwards of 90% of businesses that come in seeking funding just disappear after the initial pitch. We don’t mind it, though, because that helps us narrow our focus on the serious business owners and fund the ones that are gaining traction in the market. Forecasting a growth story isn’t good enough. You have to show a growth story in your actual results.
InvestorConnect is a podcast and a 501(c)(3) that I started in 2013 based on a need I heard while talking with other angel investors. One of the common complaints I heard was they wish they had more institutional knowledge before they started investing. The way angel groups typically work is someone new comes in and makes a lot of mistakes the first couple years, then the next few years that make fewer mistakes, and then they get to 5, 6, or 7 years in and they start doing well in their deals. By this time though their interests might have changed or they’re looking to retire and then here comes the next group of investors behind them that repeat the cycle. So we put together resources and interviews to share the wisdom of those that have been there before you so that you can shorten your learning curve.
Resources Shared:
- TEN Capital Network
- InvestorConnect Podcast
- Thryv
We’re coming out of Winter and moving into Spring, what better time than now to position your business for the next stage of growth. Here are five key points that will help your business reach its goals this year.
- Client experience
The biggest topic we’ve heard over and over again is that today’s small businesses need to provide a better client experience. We talked about this topic extensively in our episode with Hank Ebeling of H4 Training (listen here). Why is it when we interact with a small business their quality of work is outstanding but getting them to respond to an email, return a phone call, or send over an estimate is frustrating? Often the answer is the business owner is spending too much of their time working in the business and not on the business. What might seem like busy work to you is what most customers think of as good customer service. The great part though is, just like having the right tools for the job site, the right software can help you automate tasks and provide customer service that matches the quality of your work.
- Starting a business
When it comes to starting a business, a side hustle can be a great way to get started as an entrepreneur. We spoke with Charles Alexander, the Director of the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, and he shared how a side hustle provides a proof of concept (listen here). Growing your business on the side while you continue to work your day job is a solid way to improve your odds of being successful.
- Launch your business in a way that you aren’t just buying yourself a job
This is an all-too-common pitfall when starting a business. In our episode with Corey Harris and Julie Traxler of SB Pace, they shared how most small business owners that are on the edge of burnout is a result of working harder vs. smarter (listen here). The concept of firing yourself is to get out of the day-to-day operations of the business so that you can focus on the bigger picture – how to improve your offering, find new customers, and delight the customers you do have so they come back for more and give you referrals. Part of the way you can fire yourself is to automate as many of the trivial tasks as possible. Don’t overlook this essential step because there is a compounding benefit that is found on the other side.
- Know your numbers
Knowing your numbers all starts with accurate bookkeeping, which not only allows you to borrow money if needed but more importantly allows you to get the data that helps you make better and quicker decisions. Knowing your numbers can help you better understand what products or services are driving profit or if you are even making the profit you thought you were. Many small businesses underprice their services which leaves them with too little profit and can result in failure. That is why smart business owners have adopted the profit-first model we spoke about with Stephen King from GrowthForce (listen here). We also spoke with Danielle Hayden from Kickstart Accounting about how her firm is empowering small business owners with insights so they can grow their businesses faster (listen here).
- Fix your mindset
As your business grows, it becomes more and more critical that you approach it with the right mindset. Mikey Moran of Private Label Extensions shared his philosophy: the quicker we can push past those failures, the quicker we can find success on the other side (listen here). As an entrepreneur, you need to be curious, open-minded, and realistic about your weaknesses so you can hire people to fill in those gaps. Don’t fall into the trap where you ignore your weaknesses and don’t surround yourself with a team that challenges you to grow.
Resources Shared:
Thryv
How to Turn Customer Service into a Competitive Advantage – Hank Ebeling
How to Start and Grow a Side Hustle into a Successful Small Business - Charles Alexander
How to Launch a Business So You’re Not Just Buying Yourself a Job - Julie Traxler & Corey Harris
Fixing Your Pricing Model Can Help You Live The Dream – Stephen King
Helping Entrepreneurs Understand Their Numbers – Danielle Hayden
Why Having the Right Mindset is Critical to Business Success - Mikey Moran
I’ve been in the fitness space since college. I’ve worked for several prominent clubs along my journey, including Equinox. I knew one day I wanted to open a club of my own. Generally, you find most of the quality clubs in the city but I saw a need in the suburbs that was being underserved. In 2013 I took the plunge and opened my first location and then in 2017 we opened our second location. Our typical client is a woman in her 50s but we have clients as young as 15 and as old as 75.
Our gyms are a different concept from the larger chain locations you typically find in the city. We have around 3,000 square feet of space and we offer personalized training to each of our clients. We don’t have large group classes You get personalized service in a clean, friendly, and inviting environment. Since the pandemic, the reason people are coming to us is more about overall health than simply getting lean or building muscle.
During COVID we had to close our doors, like a lot of businesses, and shift our business model to online training. At the end of the day though our clients are paying a premium to get personalized service and attention. As soon as we were able to open back up, we saw most of our clients continue their training in person.
I can attribute my focus and passion for customer service to one of the early managers I had that was obsessed with great service, from body language to how to talk to people. That stuck with me and I found it to be a competitive advantage as I advanced in my career. Even when I might not be as smart or as experienced as another trainer, I knew that if I could provide my clients with great service, it would give me an edge. No matter what business you are in, great customer service is often an underrated advantage you can use to stand out from the competition.
If you are looking to build a strong culture around customer service, it first starts with leadership. You have to walk the walk and talk the talk so that you are displaying the traits you want your team to follow. The next area is to create a service vision. When customers think of your business, what do you want them to think about you. Lastly, great customer service lives or dies based on who you hire and how you onboard new employees. Too often businesses just focus on training people on their technical skills. I believe customer service should be the cornerstone to any new hire training.
Resources Shared:
- H4 Training
- Success Trails Podcast
- Crushing the Competition with Service by Hank Ebeling
- Thryv
I was working as a CFO for mid-size businesses. I realized that the leadership teams I supported were able to make all of these informed decisions because they were using data to make decisions versus relying on emotion. Around the same time, I was volunteering at a local entrepreneurship hub. I kept hearing the same roadblock from several of the small businesses. They couldn’t get a loan or didn’t have confidence in the decisions they needed to make because they didn’t have good financial data. That launched us into our mission to empower entrepreneurs with the same decision-making data that I had seen played out in the boardroom.
While we work with all types of entrepreneurs, we also work with a lot of women-owned businesses. Entrepreneurship is hard enough and when you add finances on top of it that can seem overwhelming. I often find that women entrepreneurs will tell themselves that they aren’t a numbers person and then they use that as an excuse to not deal with the finances of their business. That inspired us to create a safe space where entrepreneurs can ask questions and not feel judged or embarrassed if they don’t know.
When we work with clients, we have a few different levels of service but all of our packages include financial statements. However, we don’t just send over reports, we explain them and pull out the key performance indicators. That way the business owners don’t have to get into the weeds of the reports but still know what the important numbers are and how their business is doing. Then when the business owner is ready, we can dive deeper into the details. Our goal is to meet clients where they are at and expand our relationship as their business needs change.
When it comes to deciding between hiring someone as an employee vs. contractor, we tell clients if they are unsure that you should hire them as an employee. It is not worth the hassle of a potential lawsuit or penalties that could result from classifying someone incorrectly. If they report to work at a specific time, if you control how they get the work done, or if you provide them with equipment to do the job or give them feedback on their performance, then you have a lot of risk if you keep them as a contractor.
Resources Shared:
- Kickstart Accounting
- Profit Planner E-Book
- Entrepreneur Money Stories Podcast
- Thryv
In my first business, I found myself working extremely hard but making absolutely no money. I realized I needed to learn the business of business, so I spent time learning how to run a business. What I learned was that once you understand how a business runs, it doesn’t make much of a difference what type of business it is. I went from construction to a pharmaceutical fulfillment warehouse and then on to running a global franchisor. In any business, it all starts with marketing, which produces sales, that is handed off to production, and then the administration piece of the business. If you keep it simple, you can run any type of business you want, the hard part is to keep it simple.
When I coach with clients, everyone likes to talk about getting to the next level but when you think about it, what does that mean. Generally, it means there is something blocking people from getting to where they want to be. In most cases, that gap is bridged by either some type of technology or having reliable data. While at first, that might sound like the last area you want to tackle, it is a must. Those areas help you identify the strengths in your business as well as your weaknesses. You’ve heard it said “work smarter, not harder,” and that starts with having good information so you can make informed decisions.
Most contractors I’ve had do work for me do a great job at their craft, but they do a poor job managing and caring for their customers. When you call them, they don’t return the call or when you email them, it takes a week to hear back. On the other side of it, if you are the business that returns people’s calls, shows up when you said you would, and makes it easy for the customer to interact with you, there is a real opportunity to see explosive growth. Not only will people be willing to pay you more for this experience, but they will also be much more likely to send you referral business. If you want to grow your business but are choking yourself at the top of the funnel, you will always be stuck.
Resources Shared:
- Profit Tool Belt
- Profit Tool Belt Podcast
- Thryv
After selling my previous business in 2001, I began looking back at the strategies I used to build three successful companies and several less successful companies. What I realized is that while the strategies were fairly consistent, it was the market conditions that made the difference. Furthermore, I knew most small business owners don’t have access to marketing strategies used by ad agencies because they can’t afford to write that big check every month for ad spend. This is what gave us our focus when we started Alchemy. We wanted to offer agency-level support to the $500,000 to $5 million annual revenue businesses.
The main challenge we see across all small businesses is they are often trying to do it all themselves. Often the catalyst for them getting into business was their expertise in one or two areas. Marketing is generally not an area of strength for most small business owners. When we work with small businesses, we start by helping them define their target market. Frequently, we hear there are lots of people that could use their product or services. While that might be true, unless you have PepsiCo’s ad budget, you’re not going to be able to reach all of those customers. The key, especially early on, is to define very specifically who you want to target. Then, as your business grows you can expand your focus.
When it comes to where you should start with your marketing, the foundation is a good website. That doesn’t mean a high-end expensive website but something that looks professional and clearly states your value proposition. Why should that high-end homeowner choose you over the 35 other roofing companies in your market area? The second part of your marketing foundation is a fully optimized Google business profile. After that, most agencies will tell you to focus on SEO, but I won’t. Rather I would tell you to focus on traffic because what you need is those homeowners to find you.
While word of mouth marketing is a strong lead source for many small businesses, the data says you can’t have a thriving business on word of mouth alone. Statistically, between 85 and 90 percent of people that are referred to a business by word of mouth will still go online to research them before contacting the business. Your website is the foundation that proves you are a legitimate business, and that’s where most future customers will land first. Then after a potential customer has been on your website, they look for reviews from past customers. That provides the social proof that others have had a good experience with your business.
Resources Shared:
- The Alchemy Consulting Group
- Thryv
GrowthForce is an outsourced accounting partner that provides dedicated bookkeepers, staff accountants, controllers, and CFOs to non-profits and small businesses that use QuickBooks. Most of the time people come to us because they’re frustrated that they’re working hard but still worried about cash flow because finances aren’t their core competency. That is where we come in and take those back-office accounting tasks off the business owner's hands and not only do it better but for less than the cost of hiring one accountant.
Early on in my career, I spent 7 years at Ernst and Young where I worked on accounting system design. What I learned was the value of how to leverage data to make better decisions. The challenge we see is the majority of businesses use QuickBooks like they would a checkbook. They are writing checks, accepting money from customers, paying payroll, and producing the standard financial statements to figure out how much they owe in taxes. But they aren’t using their accounting system to make key business decisions like what price should I set. We decided to focus our efforts on the customers that use QuickBooks. Because 88% of the market uses it as a checkbook and not as a management reporting system.
Most businesses struggle with cash flow and over my 36-year career I’ve been a CPA through 8 recessions. When I look back at all the companies I’ve helped the difference between the successful ones and those that struggle is pricing. Not having enough cash flow is always a result of improper pricing. Every job you do or widget you produce has to cover its share of overhead and generate a profit. Profit is what creates cash flow and cash flow is what allows you to live the American Dream we all want. If you can solve the pricing problem you will be on your way to living the life you want.
The biggest problem I see most small businesses struggle with when it comes to pricing is between the ears. They ask themselves if they are worth it and that is where most small business owners get stuck, self-doubt creeps in and you have to do the hard mental work to get to the point where you realize you are worth it. I recommend professional organizations like Vistage where you can talk to and meet with other entrepreneurs. What you will quickly realize is every entrepreneur at some point had to overcome the mental block of pricing and their self-worth.
Resources Shared:
- GrowthForce
- Vistage Worldwide
- Thryv
My journey into the world of insurance is not a typical one. When I went to college my major initially was history and as part of the requirements, I took a math class that sparked my interest. It was ironic because up to that point I had never liked math. So I looked for the fastest way to complete my degree which led me to pursue the actuarial track. I found I enjoyed the classes and how to solve problems using data. After graduating I worked in a handful of insurance jobs and fell in love with the industry.
We started Coterie Insurance to bring speed, simplicity, and service to the commercial insurance space. No matter the size of your business insurance can be complicated but that is especially true for small businesses. At the same time insurance is critical to businesses to ensure they survive whatever catastrophe might hit them. We focus on leveraging data to help small businesses and agents secure insurance policies in minutes, not weeks. While you can buy insurance through our website we find most small businesses like to work with a local agent or partner.
When you are considering any type of insurance it is best to talk with someone knowledgeable because there is a lot of options available. Our research shows 30-40% of small businesses don’t carry any insurance which creates a lot of risk for the business owner. Insurance can cover the assets of your business and provide liability coverage if someone tries to sue you. A simple business owner's policy is the foundation to helping protect you and your business should these types of issues come up.
Let’s set aside business insurance for a minute to think about personal insurance. If you didn’t carry auto insurance you would want to have say $100,000 in the bank just encase you hit someone. The beauty of insurance is you can trade that $100,000 in the bank for an insurance policy that only costs you $100 a month. This means instead of the $100,000 sitting in the bank you can now use it to pay for your kid's college or start a new business. The same benefit is derived when you have business insurance, you don’t have to have $500,000 sitting in the bank encase someone slips and falls on your property. Instead, you can invest that money in your business and generate a better return on the capital than a savings account.
Resources Shared:
- Coterie Insurance
- Thryv
My parents owned a small clothing factory in Brooklyn where I grew up spending my afternoons working and learning how to run a business. After I got out of high school my choice was to either go to college or get a job. At the time my father encouraged me to open another clothing factory and so I decided to venture into the clothing business. However, I wanted to have my own brand so I hired a designer, trademarked a name, and made a clothing line. After shopping it around I finally landed a million-dollar retail order. While that sounds great at first as I read the contract I realized not only would I not get paid for the line until 90-days after the order was delivered but most of the risk still fell on me if they weren’t able to sell the items quickly. What I realized, is while I liked having a brand I didn’t like the business model of the clothing industry.
I decided to move to Florida and look for an opportunity to get into the automotive accessory market. After a couple of months, I went to the bank to show them my business plan and ask for a loan. However, I kept getting turned down because no one wanted to take a risk on a new business model. A little while after that I heard one of my cousins had opened a car oil change business in New Jersey. So I called him up and asked him how he was able to get started. What he explained is the business was part of a franchise and they had helped him through the process of building and opening the business. While it wasn’t the automotive accessories business I wanted to open I decided to call up the franchisor and learn more.
After getting pre-approved to open my first store I went back to the bank and as soon as I mentioned it was a franchise they were all about it and helped me secure a loan. That was when I realized franchising was going to be the shortest path to get a business open. In total, I ended up opening 10 stores and about halfway through opening stores, I started buying the underlying real estate to generate another revenue stream. I was doing well but I told my wife I still wanted to do what I had come to Florida for, open an automotive accessory store.
There was a local business called Tint World that I had taken my car into a few times and I thought it might be a good starting point. Fast forward a couple of years and I was able to buy the business and I turned it into a franchise model. We also expanded the product offering which helped create additional revenue streams because there is some seasonality in this type of business. Today we offer a wide selection of automotive and marine styling products and services. We also offer commercial and residential window tinting services.
Resources Shared:
- Tint World Franchise
- Thryv
I started my entrepreneurship journey selling prepackaged food from Thailand, then I got into a food truck business, after that I tried and failed at several other businesses before landing in the beauty space. This is our 9th year in the beauty business and I credit a lot of our growth to one underlying strategy. We actively solicit feedback from our customers and diligently work to create products that solve their problems.
Like any entrepreneur, you grow and learn through the ups and downs of any business. Today, I’m a much different and better operator than I was when I sold prepackaged food. In some ways, I would say I have gotten a lot more focused on perfecting the process behind what we deliver and I’m more resilient when it comes to failure. What I know now is the quicker we can push past those failures we will find success on the other side.
One of the main themes I write about in Fearless Beauty is having the right mindset. As an entrepreneur, you need to be curious, open-minded, and realistic about your weaknesses so you can hire people that fill in those gaps. Timing also plays a role in finding success, both in market demand and in sticking with an idea long enough to give it an opportunity to succeed.
Technology today has made it so much easier for people to start and grow their businesses. If you don’t have a CRM system deployed in your business you are in trouble. Customers are your lifeline and a strong CRM system helps you elevate their experience which is what customers expect today. You don’t have to know how to code anything to use most of the tools out there today. You just have to apply yourself to learning the basics of how to set it up and run your business.
When people are looking to start a business there is always the question of how to fund it. While raising money from friends and family is tempting it is also a dangerous one that can ruin relationships. Let’s face it starting a business is hard enough even if it goes well but when you add in the stress of letting friends and family down it is even harder to succeed. I encourage anyone considering starting a business to self-fund whenever possible.
Resources Shared:
- Private Label Extensions
- Fearless Beauty by Mikey Moran
- Hair Biz Radio
- Beauty Clout
- Thryv
The number one success indicator for any business is how much value it creates for its customers. The first thing I think about when it comes to digital transformation is not in terms of what businesses are doing but what consumers have adopted over the last 10 to 15 years. The way we shop, date, learn, or almost any other area of our life has been dramatically changed by the invention of the smartphone. The bottom line is customer expectations have changed and for businesses to continue to be successful they have to adapt to customer expectations or risk becoming irrelevant.
When it comes to small businesses, your first thought might be it is unfair how big companies are setting consumer expectations. While that is true in many ways you can cry about it or do something to bridge the gap. The good news for small businesses is there are so many platforms nowadays that you can leverage what they already built to narrow the gap. While it does take some effort and expense to get up and running on these platforms, they are within reach for nearly any size of business. And SMBs have a huge advantage when it comes to adapting quickly to customer needs because they operate at a smaller scale.
In my book Winning Digital Customers, I presented a five-step process I recommend every business walkthrough. The first step is to understand your customer, the second is to map the customer journey, the third is to build the systems that support the journey, the fourth is to optimize the current processes, and the last step is to rally your team around implementing the needed changes in your business. When you’ve done these five steps well, you will bridge the digital gap with your customers and unlock tremendous growth.
Resources Shared:
- FROM, The Digital Transformation Agency
- Winning Digital Customers by Howard Tiersky
- Impactful Online Meetings by Heidi Wisbach and Howard Tiersky
- Winning Digital Customers Podcast
- Thryv
Most of my career has been centered around helping companies leverage technology to reach more customers and grow their businesses. The mission of 3x3 is to empower the small liquor stores with the same type of technology the bigger stores they compete with are using. The foundation of any sales and marketing campaign has to be data. The days of waiting for new consumers to find and walk into your store are gone. To stand out from all the noise and draw people into your store you have to make a connection with them and today that first connection is almost always digital.
As we got started we were fortunate to tap into a great network of small liquor stores across the US and Mexico that were interested in gaining insights about their customers. We started by looking at the transaction data to understand buying behaviors and patterns. While this type of data had been collected at the big chain stores, no one was collecting it from the local stores and over half of the retail sales come through the independent liquor stores, restaurants, and bars.
Using data, we were able to build buyer personas that gave us a better understanding of the consumer profile that was shopping at these local stores. From there, we could build marketing campaigns that targeted look-a-like consumers that were most likely to take the desired action. The value to the business didn’t just stop with marketing though. Everything from what to advertise on endcaps, to store layout, and what products to purchase were influenced by the data.
At the end of the day, no matter what type of business you are in, we are all trying to make the next sale. The methods and approach we applied to liquor stores could be used in any industry. It starts by looking at your business through the eyes of the consumer, if your products or services aren’t appealing to them and how they want to buy then you are going to struggle. Think about it in your own life, the businesses that are responsive to your needs, are easy to do business with, or who market to you based on your needs are the places most likely to earn your business.
Resources Shared:
- 3x3 Insights
- Thryv
The small business coaching and consulting space is quite crowded and it can be hard to stand out. However, that isn’t just limited to our industry but a lot of the small businesses we coach find themselves in a similar situation. Something we recommend to clients and recently completed on our business is a competitor analysis. The goal of the competitor analysis is to help you better understand what differentiates your business. Also, it helps you identify your keep competencies and where to bring in a strategic partner. One of our core values is we don’t sell you anything you don’t need. We use this analysis to identify the gaps before we offer solutions.
A concept we teach is how to fire yourself. What we see a lot of in small business is people simply buy themselves a job. They start a business and work in the business for 60, 70, or 80 hours a week. The result is all of their time is taken up working in the business verse on the business. The concept of firing yourself is to get out of the day-to-day operations of the business so that you can focus on the bigger picture. That is easier said than done which is where we help our clients with both strategy and tactics on how to make the transition more smoothly.
Part of my journey into entrepreneurship was a result of getting fired probably more times than most people have had different jobs. I found I was passionate about the work I did but didn’t respond well to situations where I didn’t feel I was adding value. During my corporate career, I worked for some of the big four firms and in between jobs I started coaching small businesses. Finally, the last time I was let go I decided I didn’t want to go back and dove headfirst into full-time entrepreneurship.
The most common type of client we coach is entrepreneurs that are launching their first business or maybe started a side hustle and want to transition into full-time. Most people start a business with the notion it’s going to grow quickly and become an overnight success. While that is fantastic if it does, for the vast majority of businesses it takes a bit of time before you
find your ideal product or service mix. We coach clients to have the right expectations from the start so they don’t give up on something that could be successful but doesn’t grow as quickly as they initially hoped.
When it comes to business processes we recommend clients automate as much of the trivial tasks as possible. People often overlook this essential step because they don’t want to invest the time or resources required to get up and running. However, what they are overlooking is the compounding effect that comes into play once those systems and processes are in place. Because now you can spend more of your time on value-added tasks and less on the lower value tasks. The pitfall to be aware of when shopping for tools is don’t simply go for the cheapest tool go for the one that meets your needs best. A cheap tool that is never used is actually the most expensive.
Resources Shared: · SB Pace · Defeat the Chaos Radio Show · BizQuik · Seriously? Now What?! by Corey Harris & Julie Traxler · Thryv
When you dig into the numbers about two out of three small businesses fail. Considering I have three kids at home that have an entrepreneurial spirit that means two of them might not ever move out of the house. There are a few common areas I coach people around that come into the TSBDC. Most entrepreneurs have some level of fear of failure they have to overcome. The next is how to translate their skills into entrepreneurship. Then the most common area is finances, most businesses I see are undercapitalized. The last area is planning, while they may have an idea they are excited about they fail to create a plan that outlines how the business will run and make money.
The reason I like coaching people that already have a side hustle going is they have a proof of concept. Regardless of the size of the business, they turned an idea into a product or service that people are paying money for. Also, growing your business on the side while you continue to work your day job is a great way to ensure when you do make the transition that you will still be able to pay your bills. Because your time is more limited with a side hustle you also have to learn more quickly how to automate manual redundant tasks. Which unlocks scalability that is essential to making it when you pivot to full-time entrepreneurship.
When it comes to creating a financial plan for your business I tell people to focus on replacing a percentage of their income in year one, in year two double it, and so on until they reach the point they can make the career switch and still live life. Funding a start-up isn’t easy because banks know there is a lot more risk with a new business. The most important number any business needs to be successful though is not funding but cash flow. Most banks won’t even consider lending to a business that’s less than 2-years old because they want to see a history of cash flow.
Resources Shared:
- Tennessee Small Business Development Centers
- Yourcharlesalexander.com
- Explainer Videos
- SBA.gov
- Thryv
Jeffrey Feldberg increased the value of his business by 10x in 2-years before selling. Jeffrey shared, up to 90% of liquidity events fail, and most of the time they fail due to a lack of preparation. However, even for the remaining 10% of events that are “successful” 50% to 100% of the deal value is left on the table. Given that selling your business is generally one of the largest most important transactions it pays to get it right. Listen to the full episode
Mike Jesowshek showed us the sexy side of taxes, while sexy and taxes might not sound like they belong together here is what Mike had to say. The biggest mistake most people make when it comes to taxes is failing to plan. Most people only think about taxes during tax season, which means they are missing out on tax strategies they could leverage throughout the year to minimize tax liabilities. Filing returns should be the last step of your tax strategy, not the only step. Listen to the full episode
Mike Michalowicz had early success building and selling businesses only to lose it all on a handful of businesses that failed to achieve profitability. Mike shared, 83% of businesses globally are in check to check survival which leads to a cash crisis. That doesn’t mean entrepreneurs are incapable of being profitable but rather identifies a problem in the underlying business model we all learned. We’re told profit comes last, sales minus expenses equal profit. So we flipped the formula to be sales minus profit equals expenses so that profit is baked into every transaction from the start. Listen to the full episode
Chris Miles discussed the “popular” topic of cash flow and how the difference between making and not making in your business hinges on understanding this not-so-popular topic. Here is what Chris had to say, a lot of people think cash flow and revenue are the same but they are not. When you boil it down cash flow is your profit, it is what is remaining after you’ve covered expenses. The more cash flow your business has the more options you have to invest in and grow your business. Listen to the full episode
Jim Johnson built and sold a successful contractor business and then started a coaching business to help other contractors achieve their version of success. Jim shared, the two biggest areas he’s seen that cause a business to fail are leadership and financials. If you are leading a business you must be continually honing your leadership skills. The same goes for business acumen, while you don’t have to become a finance expert you need to level up your knowledge on the topic. If you want to achieve financial freedom and your business to thrive you cannot ignore these two areas. Listen to the full episode
Patrick McFadden was an audience favorite at the Thryv Connect conference and an expert in small business marketing. Here is what Patrick had to say, there is a process for how you should conduct marketing and a strategy for how to implement that process in your business. It starts with understanding who your ideal customer is, what problem you are solving for them, the customer journey they take when looking for a solution, and what makes your business different from the competition. Once you have the answers to these questions you will go from marketing being an expense to marketing being the fuel that grows your business. Listen to the full episode
Jeffrey Shaw made a name for himself as a portrait photographer for the rich and famous. Now he coaches other business owners on how to find clients that are willing to pay for the level of service you deliver. Jeffrey shared, dive deep into what your best at and then ask the foundational question, what type of clients see value in that. Any product or service is sellable to someone, your job is to figure out who that person is and then market to them. Listen to the full episode
Melinda Emerson, AKA the SmallBizLady, is one of America's leading small business marketing experts. Here is what Melinda had to say, in any business a successful marketing campaign starts with defining who you want to reach. Then you figure out what platforms and media they use, then you target your marketing efforts in the place your ideal customers are already engaged. Once you get a prospect interested you plug those leads into your CRM and automate as much of the follow-up communications as you can. Listen to the full episode
Ross Kimbarovsky helps small businesses establish their brand identity and believes it is critical to building credibility and trust with your customers. Ross shared, every business has a brand, and building your brand a little each day will not only help you attract new customers but will lead to more referrals and repeat business. Listen to the full episode
Erin Fults guides her clients towards a better brand image by following the Story Brand principles. Here is what Erin had to say, most brand messaging is all centered around the business, they are the hero of the story which is a turn-off for customers. Rather what you should do is talk about the problem your customers have and how you help solve that problem. Listen to the full episode
Bernadette Doyle is a small business expert from Ireland that coaches businesses on how to improve their sales pitch, even if they hate selling. Bernadette shared, her primary business model is centered around helping her clients get more clients and make more money. While you might think if you had more clients you would make more money that isn’t always the case if you have the wrong pricing model. Listen to the full episode
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and best-selling author behind Duct Tape Marketing. Here is what John had to say, a good marketing plan starts with a strategy. You first determine who’s in your target market and then you create messaging that speaks to the problem you will help them solve. For marketing tactics to gain traction you need to become known as the best at solving a particular problem. Listen to the full episode
Brian Moran launched the Small Business Edge to provide advice and insights that help entrepreneurs manage and grow their companies. Brian talked about the value of having a business GPS plan, especially when things go off course. Brian shared, we often play the “what if” game with clients to help them think about in advance what they would do when things go off plan. While it can be frightening to think about, it is much less frightening when you have a plan in place to overcome those challenges. Listen to the full episode
Tim Berry is an advocate for small businesses and a proponent for creating a lean business plan to help businesses run better. Here is what Tim had to say, a lean business plan includes your strategy, tactics, assumptions, and essential business numbers. However, the power of the lean business plan is not that you create one but that you review it regularly. No matter how pretty-sounding or looking your business plan is if it doesn’t change your business for the better then it’s not a very good plan. Listen to the full episode
Mitch Joel has been called a visionary, digital expert, and community leader. Mitch talked about the power of creating great content and how small businesses need to leverage technology even more in a post-COVID era. Mitch shared, COVID pressed upon all businesses to become more localized in their customer offerings. This helps level the playing field for local businesses because they know their local markets best. Listen to the full episode
Bill Flynn has spent years studying why businesses fail and how to turn it around by unlocking growth and increasing the odds of success. Here is what Bill had to say, start a business by falling in love with the problem you want to solve and the customer that experiences that problem. Starting a business can be hard and some days suck, but when you can get energy from solving a customer’s problem you will get out of bed the next day and try again. Listen to the full episode
Roland Frasier made a career out of buying and selling businesses and is convinced most businesses are leaving money on the table by not maximizing existing client value. Roland shared, don’t spend all your time getting ready to get ready, and don’t take money from other people to get started. Having to be scrappy in the early days to find the business model that works will force you to iterate faster than if you’re sitting on a pile of cash. Listen to the full episode
Jay Samit is a dynamic entrepreneur and intrapreneur who is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on disruption and innovation. Jay talks about how one day every business will face disruption and how every business should think about themselves as a high-tech start-up. Here is what Jay had to say, we are living in an era of endless innovation and you can choose to either be terrified by that reality or excited. So why not try to live a life of purpose and fulfillment by pursuing what is meaningful to you. Listen to the full episode
Dave Menz grew up in poverty and overcame tremendous obstacles to become a successful entrepreneur, running the multi-store, multi-million dollar chain of laundromats. Dave’s rags to riches story is inspiring to say the least but also something he believes is possible for anyone. Even as a young kid Dave found inspiration in the stories of other successful entrepreneurs that started with nothing and built a business from the ground up. So if they can do it why not me and why not you. Listen to the full episode
Michael Haynes has worked with companies ranging from micro-businesses to large corporations in Australia and Canada. He talked about the importance of working on your business not just in your business. Michael shared when it comes to product-market fit, the simplest way to think about it is are you offering products or services that customers want to buy. What problems do they have and what types of solutions appeal to them. Listen to the full episode
Rieva Lesonsky has been writing small business content for years that help entrepreneurs
start and grow their businesses. Rieva shares why small businesses need to leverage software to modernize and automate their client experience. Here is what Rieva had to say if you don’t accept digitization you are going to get left behind. What you have to realize is other businesses do what you do and the ones that digitize will be the ones that attract new customers and retain the ones they have. Listen to the full episode
Ramon Ray is a leading expert on small business success and a best-selling author. Ramon gives us his take on what it means to build your personal brand and create a foundation of processes. Ray shared, for a business to grow you need to map the right systems on top of great processes. When leveraged correctly technology helps you create a more seamless customer experience and deliver better service. Listen to the full episode
Steve Strauss is a best-selling author, small business columnist, and thought leader on small business topics. Steve talked about how implementing systems and processes now will not only help you run the business better but maximize the value when you’re ready to sell. Here is what Steve had to say, the most successful small businesses out there have one thing in common, they are leveraging technology to make things faster, better, and more profitable. Listen to the full episode
Tommy Mello scaled his business from $50k in debt to a multimillion-dollar company. Tommy shares the secrets he’s learned buying and scaling businesses and how you can leverage technology to get your life back and be more successful. Tommy shared, software is the key element behind scaling your business and unlocks exponential growth. When I look at buying a company I want to see they’ve adopted technology in some way before I’ll even consider purchasing them. Listen to the full episode
Those were all your favorite episodes from 2021 and we look forward to bringing you more great content and helpful insights in the year ahead. Listen to the full episode
We help small business owners find financing through SBA lenders. The SBA is the U.S. Small Business Administration that was formed to make it easier for small businesses to access capital and business opportunities. The two primary financing options they offer are the 7a and 504 loan programs. The first misconception I want to clear up is you don’t get a loan from the SBA but individual banks that participate in the program. The SBA acts as the insurer on the loan and backs up to 75% of the loan value.
Two general rules of thumb must be true to be eligible for an SBA loan, you must be a for-profit business and incorporated in the United States. The value we add for our clients is to help accelerate the process by guiding them on how to prepare the loan application and pairing them with a suitable bank. When it comes to the size of loans available, the 504 program offers up to $10 million for real estate and the 7a program is up to $5 million to buy a business or obtain working capital.
The money from an SBA loan can be used in several ways. For example, you could use it to purchase a business, purchase real estate, buy out a partner, pay off more expensive debt, pay wages for new employees, or general working capital needs. Now is still a great time to get an SBA loan because interest rates are still near historic lows.
While most business owners are great at what they do, raising capital is a bit of an unknown area. I would challenge anyone who says there is a better place for small businesses to get capital than an SBA loan. A lot of other countries offer small business loan programs but none come close to the value the SBA brings to the table. If you’re interested in learning more about getting an SBA loan head over to our website at www.7accelerator.com and book a consultation call.
Resources Shared:
- 7a Accelerator
- SBA.gov
- Thryv
The foundational principles we teach were derived from what I learned during a decade working in corporate America. The vast majority of entrepreneurship training available is extremely tactical, such as how to get clients, grow your social media followers, or write a headline people will click on. That has led to a lot of confusion around what it means to build a business, stand up systems, develop people, and establish an infrastructure for growth. We like to say our coaching services are for those entrepreneur athletes that want to build a profitable, sustainable company, and do it the right way from the ground up.
The main problem I see that keeps a business from growing is the owner spends the majority of their time working on unproductive tasks that have little impact on the business. That being the case, we start by creating a CEO schedule that helps the business owner understand where a small business CEO should be spending their time. The realization that happens along the way is centered around time management, delegation, and business impact. There is a difference between being busy verse being productive, specifically what are the profit-producing activities that will move the needle forward.
The role technology plays in a business is to accelerate, amplify, and uplevel the impact of what you do. The problem I see is business owners confuse leveraging technology with replacing the core functions they should be doing in the business. In a sense, they are misusing the technology and then blaming it when the business doesn’t grow as they expected. Technology is only as good as what you put into it and you have to spend time, as you would with a new employee, learning how it works and how to get the most out of it.
We primarily work with clients that are service-based businesses in the one to ten million dollar revenue range. On the consulting side of our business, we have three levels that start with the Unstoppable Entrepreneur, which is a 12-month rapid growth training program that focuses on the front end of a business. The next level is Legacy Builders which is all about systems and infrastructure, now that you have money flowing in the front end of the business you need to build out infrastructure. The final level is Legacy Leaders which is all about duplicating, scaling, and building a winning team.
I wrote a post the other day that said, “Successful people don’t fail less, successful people recover more quickly from failure”. This has been the story of my life, everything in my life that looks like a success came from failure after failure but I chose not to give up. The business model I teach today that has helped thousands of businesses be successful was born out of launch after launch failing and nearly costing me my business. Finally, the business model started to work and pieces started to click, the way I frame it is failure is only final if you allow it to be.
Resources Shared:
- Kelly Roach Coaching
- The Live Launch Method by Kelly Roach
- Unstoppable by Kelly Roach
- The Kelly Roach Show Podcast
- Thryv
I am an accidental entrepreneur, as I know so many others are, my major in college was art with a concentration in photography. At the time I didn’t have a clear path on what direction that would take me but my friends started asking me to take family photos. When I started getting client referrals from people outside my friend group, it hit me that there might be a legitimate business opportunity in photography. I ran that business for the better part of 12-years before pivoting into marketing.
As my photography business was winding down I noticed a large portion of my clients were small business owners. At the time my work with them was primarily brand photos, images for their website or social media. A few years before, I had been introduced to the StoryBrand framework and had implemented it in my photography business. As I worked with other small business owners I found myself, indirectly at first, advising them on how they could apply the StoryBrand framework to their business. Like before, one day it hit me there might be an entirely new opportunity for me to consult with small businesses on their marketing and brand positioning.
The StoryBrand framework is simply a way to develop a clear brand message set to a story narrative. As humans, our brains are wired to tune in when we hear a story. For centuries authors and filmmakers have been using the narrative to create compelling content. When Donald Miller realized this framework could be applied equally as well to business marketing the StoryBrand framework was established. While the concept of storytelling isn’t new, the application of the concept in a new way is what Donald Miller created. There are seven parts to the framework but the primary takeaway is the customer is the hero of the story and the business is the guide that helps them solve their problem.
The struggle to find work-life balance is something we all deal with but I’ve seen it be especially challenging for small business owners. When I first started my business I made an intentional decision to prioritize my family and build my business in a way that worked for us. When we had our first kid, my husband and I agreed the role of being a mom first was important and would trump building the business. What that looks like for me is, I work around 30-hours a week when my kids are in school and when the bell rings I’m in line waiting to pick them up. It’s not a perfect balance and I don’t always get it right but that is my North Star.
Resources Shared:
- Acorn Studio Marketing
- StoryBrand Certified Guide
- StoryBrand Marketing
- Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller
- Thryv
I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, and went to Virginia Tech for my undergrad as a journalism major. My first job out of college was working at a local broadcast news station. A year later I received the dream call to the big leagues to work for the NBC station in Philadelphia, PA. I was fortunate enough to be hired as a producer at 23 years old, which made me the youngest producer in a top 5 media market. It sounds like a dream come true but what I quickly realized is I didn’t love the job. I stuck it out for 5 years before leaving to start my own company, with a laptop, fax machine, and a dream. A couple of years into my business, I won a minority business competition which set the business on an aggressive growth path.
Fast-forward to 2008, I wrote the first edition of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months to provide other small business owners with the insights I learned. However, my timing couldn’t have been worse, given the market crash that happened that Fall. The publisher decided to shelve the book for 18 months and not publish it until March of 2010. At the time I had a friend who encouraged me to start promoting the book and see if I could leverage social media, which was still in its infancy. With my last few dollars, I hired a publicist and she recommended we build my author brand on Twitter and I remember saying to her, what is Twitter. Today, with thousands of posts and close to 300k followers, we now know that was one of the best branding moves we could have made.
The first challenge I give anyone who tells me they want to start a business is they need to think about what they want from that business and why they want it. You don’t want to trade one life-sucking job for another and you also need to be honest about what skills you have and those you don’t. No matter what type of business you’re interested in starting, I recommend working for another company in that industry before you venture out on your own. One of the worst mistakes you can make is to launch a new business and realize afterward that you hate that line of work. I also believe in side hustles. Continue to work your full-time job while you launch your new business on the side, because it takes 12 to 18 months just to break even.
To market your business effectively and not waste ad dollars, you first have to determine who your ideal customers are. Then research what type of media platforms they are active on. In most cases, if you are a service-based business targeting consumers, Facebook is the primary platform for you. A great way to lose money is to buy your own marketing ads unless that is your area of expertise. The reason is you will waste a lot more money trying to figure out how to run successful campaigns than the fees you’ll pay to hire someone that already understands how to do it.
Today’s customers expect that your business has a website, plus you should have an email marketing system, and a CRM platform to keep track of it all. The CRM is crucial because an existing customer is 60% to 70% more likely to do business with you again whereas a new lead is only 5% to 20%. I heard a statistic the other day that anyone on your email list is worth at least $1 but a customer in your email list is worth $15. So treat the people that have already chosen to do business with you like gold and let them know about specials or new services you offer. It is foolish to keep spending money on acquiring new leads while you let customers that already purchased from you walk out the door and never hear from you again.
Resources Shared:
- Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months by Melinda Emerson
- The Small BizChat Podcast
- SucceedAsYourOwnBoss.com
- SmallBizLady University
- Thryv
When I started my blog several years ago I was the president of a small business with a handful of people. What quickly became clear to me was, blogging about relevant industry topics would differentiate our business from competitors and help us attract new customers. The power of being a thought leader in your industry cannot be undervalued, to this day I still create all of the content I talk about or post. The reason being is I don’t see content as just another job but “the” job I should be doing.
Creating content and being a thought leader isn’t for everyone and I would advise others not to do it if they don’t have the desire. I enjoy writing and having conversations with people about a topic. If you look at the world of audio, video, images, short-form, or long-form content and none of it gets you excited that’s ok, look for those that do and partner with them. No matter what type of business you are in there are interesting stories that could be told. For example, I recently chipped a tooth filling and I found myself Googling and YouTubing all these dentists to find out what I should do about it. Had a dentist in my local area come up as one of the resources, you can bet the odds would be high I would schedule an appointment with them.
The post-COVID world will look different for all of us in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Some business models I thought would have thrived have failed and others have had breakout growth. Also, we experienced something I call the compression where many aspects of digitization happened in a compressed timeframe. Then you add in the labor market shift and the great resignation. All of this has created lumpiness in the market, which isn’t good, and I believe will last for 3 to 5 years. I’m not trying to be pessimistic, that’s not who I am, but as an owner of a small business you have to be realistic that some aspects of your business will change and you have to adapt.
Selling your business and having a nice exit doesn’t just happen. Early on in your business, or at the very least today, you should ask yourself what purpose are you building your business for. You could want to own a small business and make a little more money every year or you could be looking to scale the business to have global appeal and a large team. When you understand the purpose you are building for you can then begin to position the business to be attractive to that future buyer someday.
Resources Shared:
Six Pixels Group
Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel
Six Pixels of Separation Podcast
CTRL ALT Delete by Mitch Joel
Thryv
The Magical Power of 3 is all about leveraging the number three to create a roadmap to success, wealth, and happiness. While anyone could benefit from reading the book, I had three specific types of people in mind when I wrote it. The first person is anyone responsible for driving sales at a company. The second is anyone in leadership at a company. And the third is an entrepreneur or small business owner. It all starts with gaining a better understanding of yourself using the DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance) personality assessment. DISC helps paint a picture of who you are, who you get along with the best, and who you connect with. Then we narrow our focus to three areas that provide the maximum return on your time.
I like to say I received my Ph.D. in raising children. I learned all about sales tactics, handling objections, negotiating, leadership, and more from raising 6 children and applying those principles in other areas of my life. What I found is those skills applied equally as well in business, building teams, leading people, or helping people find their destiny elsewhere.
When I’m working with salespeople, I stress the importance of self-awareness. When you know who you are and the personalities you connect with the best, you will find tremendous success. The next area is to ensure you have the proper structure in place so you don’t waste time. Wasted time equals lost opportunities, revenue, and commissions. The last area we focus on is understanding your fears. Maybe it’s the fear of failure, giving the wrong answer, or even fear of success but fear paralyzes us and stops us dead in our tracks.
I work with clients one-on-one or in a classroom-style setting for groups. Either way, I start by having people complete the DISC personality test so that together we can get to know them on a deeper level. Then we spend time defining what is important to them both personally and professionally. The balance between personal and professional goals is crucial because there is no such thing as being unhappy at work and being happy at home. We help people identify what success looks like and how they can get there.
Leveraging technology in your business is a game-changer when it comes to creating the structure needed to succeed. Technology allows you to automate tasks so you have the freedom to focus on the real priorities in the business. When you have all your customer information and interactions in one place, productivity increases and you can provide a better customer experience.
Resources Shared:
- The Magical Power of 3 by Cynthia Blackwell
- Cynthia Blackwell Consulting
- Thryv
As we all know, this last year and a half has been hard on us all but especially small businesses. Sadly some businesses closed, others were able to scrape by, and some have done quite well. I spend a good part of my time interviewing entrepreneurs, from well-known names with large companies to those just starting. I took all of that content and consolidated it in my new book Your Small Business Boom to provide everyone with the insights I gained from those interviews.
In my experience, small businesses tend to be late adopters when it comes to changing their processes. Once they find a process that works they keep repeating it over and over again even though there might be an improved way to do it. What I found though, is small businesses that do well and boom are the ones taking advantage of new technologies and processes to help them scale. There are so many tools today that have been built with the purpose to make our lives as small business owners easier and more automated. It might take a little time to learn something new but on the other side, we are better for it.
When we think about using social media for our businesses we tend to gravitate towards the platforms we use or like. However, those might not always be the same platforms your prospective customers are using. Having a successful social media presence is less about getting likes and more about getting your audience to engage with your content. A simple way to determine what platforms your customers use is to send them a poll or a survey. Once you have that answer then you can begin to engage them with relevant content.
The problem that is common across all businesses is growing and scaling the business is difficult when the owner is trying to do everything. A great business has team members that specialize in their areas of strength. In my case, I’m good at creating content and speaking but managing finances is not my specialty so I found someone that is great at that. I’m not a tech person but my business relies on our websites being up and functioning. So I have Abby that makes it all work and keeps our website up and running. If you are serious about scaling your business you have to bring in a team and let them fill in the gaps where you aren’t as good. Growing your team shouldn’t be looked at as an expense but rather a necessity to scale.
At some point along your small business journey, you might decide you are ready to exit the business and move on to other things. The number one thing that must be true is that the business can continue running without you being there. For a lot of small businesses, this is where they struggle. They are their business and without them, there is no business. That is where creating systems and processes is vital so that someone else can come in and run that part of the business. Then you take the time to optimize your business so it runs smoothly and generates a profit. That way when a potential buyer looks at your business they can easily see how they could step in and run the business and you get a good valuation for all your hard work.
Resources Shared:
- MrAllBiz.com
- Small Business with Steve Strauss Podcast
- The Small Business Bible by Steve Strauss
- Your Small Business Boom by Steve Strauss
- TheSelfEmployed.com
- SCORE
- Thryv
I never intended to get into the content publishing business. However, after I left my corporate career I started doing some consulting for friends that were entrepreneurs. After a while I thought, why don’t I launch a website and start an email newsletter. Keep in mind this was 2003 so the state of email marketing was still in its infancy. In my search for a way to publish articles online, a friend suggested I look into blogging. Fast forward a few months and what I realized was my blog posts were getting more readers than the newsletter.
The essential challenges small businesses have around getting customers, getting paid, hiring good people, and operating the business haven’t changed. However, what has changed dramatically is the digital landscape. The web has opened things up and given small businesses a way to compete with bigger businesses. At the same time, to take advantage of the digital tools, a small business is challenged to learn more. You don’t have to build the technology, but you have to learn how to use it and incorporate it into your business.
When it comes to what type of technology your business should be using, you need some type of tool that allows you to communicate to your customers via email. Customers today expect to be able to communicate with a business via email. Then you need a tool that helps you manage your customer data, so you can keep track of their preferences and opportunities. When your customer list is tiny maybe you can keep track of each customer by memory. But as you scale that system won't work anymore.
When it comes to our website, which is SmallBizTrends.com, we leverage the data we collect to help us make decisions and adjustments. However, that didn’t just happen overnight. We first had to track what was happening on the site and then utilize software to generate reports to get to the insights. It’s no good having data if you don’t look at it. It takes effort to look at the reports and understand what they are telling you. It is even better if you can create some type of reporting dashboard. The benefit of all this data is it allows you to make higher-level decisions and unlocks growth in your business.
Resources Shared:
- SmallBizTrends.com
- Visual Marketing by Anita Campbell & David Langton
- Thryv Connect21
- Thryv
The context behind Listen, Innovate, Grow came from my experience working with SMBs and realizing there were a lot of untapped opportunities. Often the primary limiting factor to small business growth is the owner being too ingrained working in the business vs. on the business. A good example of working on the business is market positioning and future planning. The business owner is the one that should be driving the strategy around who their target customers are, how they are perceived by those customers, and what efforts are required to reach those customers. If the business owner spends too much of their time putting out fires and handling individual transactions they become ineffective at leading the business which limits the growth potential.
A misconception in the SMB market is that creating a strategic business plan is a waste of time. You spend all this time and energy on it only to have it sit on a shelf and collect dust. That was the old way of business planning and it failed to achieve the desired result. Done correctly a business plan should be a fairly concise document that is responsive to changes in the market. Business plans should also be collaborative and include input from the leaders and team members in your organization. Anyone can write out a business plan in isolation but when you engage your team is when you find out what is achievable given where your business is at today.
When it comes to product-market fit, the simplest way to think about it is are you offering products or services that customers want to buy. The starting point is to understand who you want to reach, what problems do they have, and what types of solutions will appeal to them. I do a lot of work with service-based businesses and often what we find is they might get hired to do one job but customers have related problems that need solving. That is where creating bundles of services can have a big impact on growth in your business. Taking the time to listen to your prospects and customers to gain insights on how to better serve them is what will help you stand out from your competition.
Resources Shared:
- Listen, Innovate Grow by Garreth Chandler & Michael Haynes
- Thryv
My venture into franchising with College Hunks Hauling Junk began in a bit of an odd way. I was watching a reality TV show and the founders were on the show. When I saw them the show a lightbulb went off related to another conversation I had with a Starbucks barista. The barista was a college graduate but had chosen to work at Starbucks because she liked the lifestyle better than her field of study. I picked up the phone and called College Hunks and one of the founders answered. After some discussion, I joined as a franchise owner because I saw a massive opportunity to provide people with jobs that didn’t require them to sit behind a desk and made an impact in people's lives.
After exiting College Hunks, I got involved in Fownders, which was founded by Gerard Adams because the mission resonated with me. Fownders is a start-up accelerator focused on building an entrepreneurial ecosystem for the disadvantaged in urban markets. When you develop a product, often the most successful products solve a need or pain point. When you work with people from disadvantaged backgrounds they often have vast experience with both tangible needs and pain points. So we launched in New Jersey where Gerard and I lived to make an impact in our local community and beyond. Each quarter we would bring in a cohort of 12 companies to establish a presence and hopefully expand operations after the program.
Social media has been an industry I’ve kept my eye on for years and when I finally saw my mother using social media I knew it had reached the impact level needed for small businesses to leverage. However, being a small business owner myself for years, I realized social media marketing was not the best use of the business owner's time. Rather, they should be focused on their customers and the product or service they offered to solve a problem. We launched 42 Growth Strategies to help small businesses reach their desired audience while they maintain their focus on the customer.
Sports have always been a part of my life and if I could advise the parents out there. Sports is one of the greatest ways to teach the necessary disciplines that lead to success in business and life. When your kids are involved in the right programs they help form the building blocks for many of life’s most important lessons. Sports can teach you how to work with others, the value of hard work, and how to deal with failure. I failed all the time in sports and when you have great coaches they are always pushing you to become the best version of yourself. Even if your child doesn’t excel to the level of earning scholarships, sports still opens the door to other opportunities.
Resources Shared:
- 42 Growth Strategies
- College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving
- Eat The Frog Fitness
- Thryv Connect Conference
Before starting my company, I spent 22 years publishing magazines and newspapers for small business owners. There are few things I enjoy more than helping business owners work on their dream, build their dream, and watch them achieve that dream. About three years ago, I launched Small Business Edge with a focus on building a community for small business owners. We are about to launch the small business marketplace to connect small businesses when they have a need.
Most business owners are great in one or two areas of business, maybe it's creating a great product or marketing their services. However, rarely do you find a business owner where finance is an area of strength. Because of this, small business owners aren’t as confident as they should be when it comes to topics like account receivables. Their net 30 days to their customers turn into a net 60 days or worse a net 90 days. Meanwhile, the accounts payables keep coming in like clockwork each month, the rent, utilities, taxes, and so on. This creates a panic cycle because money keeps going out the door, but they don’t have enough coming in.
The most successful small businesses we’ve worked with have a laser focus on providing a great customer experience. Their customer experience is why people buy from them, not because they always offer the lowest price. If you were going to compete against Wal-Mart, you wouldn’t try to compete based on price. If you are competing against another small business, you might be able to win a few rounds competing on price, but you are still losing valuable margin. Providing a great customer experience is the key to winning in either scenario and it is sustainable in the long run.
A term I’ve coined is a business GPS plan, similar to a business plan but if done correctly it will help you get to a destination you’ve never been to before on time and with gas still in the tank. Often people think of a business plan as something they write down and never look at again. Whereas a GPS is something you refer to frequently and can reroute when needed to get you back on course. If done correctly your business GPS plan requires you to be disciplined, stay committed, and have accountability. Without those three things, your likelihood of success decreases substantially. Life happens and it will knock you off course. But when you have your business GPS plan, you can be confident you will get back on track.
Resources Shared:
- Small Business Edge
- Small Business Edge Podcast
- Thryv
When Justin and I started the company our background was videography and naturally we wanted to shoot, edit, and script the best videos possible. However, what we learned when we followed up with clients 6-months later is that often they had either not used the video or only used it in a small way. The bottom line was even if they were a raving fan of the video they didn’t have a strategy on how to use it to grow their business. The connection we made was creating great videos but ignoring the strategy wasn’t going to generate the repeat business we needed to grow.
So we started asking clients what they wanted the video to do for their business, it was like a deer in headlights. Which made it clear to us we needed to help our clients make the connection between the creative element of a video and the business impact. Over time that evolved into our seven-phase approach to creating an impactful video that drives value to the business. We position ourselves as a video agency vs. a video production company because we take a more consultative approach to help our clients understand the business impact.
No matter your business type or size videos have become almost an expectation from consumers. The reason videos are so powerful is the show and tell aspect that helps people connect with the message. There is nothing wrong with shooting a basic video on your smartphone and getting it out there because you don’t have the budget for a larger production. It will do more to help your business grow than doing nothing. Where we make a big difference for clients is when they realize videos are going to be a key part of their strategy and they need help fitting them all together seamlessly.
I came across some research that said, today prospective buyers are 83% of the way through the buyer's journey before they even contact a business. That is due to the vast amount of information that is available online and buyers are self-educating. Thus, content that reaches buyers during the awareness stage of the buyer's journey is critical to positioning your business as the one to solve their problem when they reach the decision stage. People are interested in learning how the work gets done, sure some may watch the video and try to do it themselves but when they get stuck or they realize they don’t have the desire to do it, you are the person they are most likely to call.
Resources Shared:
- Storyboard Media Co
- The Video Reformation Podcast
- Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
- Thryv
After moving to Wisconsin from Texas I started working as a carpenter’s apprentice who built custom homes. One day I saw an ad in the paper to be a home inspector. I worked for that company for a couple of years before starting my own contractor business in St. Paul, Minnesota. We grew to around $25 million in yearly sales and opened 7 locations across the country.
After exiting my contractor business and taking some time off I decided to start a contractor consulting business. About four years in, we had an epiphany about what the ideal business model for contractors should be. We found most contractors focus on operations, such as marketing, sales, recruiting, and hiring, but often they overlook foundational components like leadership, finance, accountability, and HR. You can’t have a great culture without a good leader and you can’t have good processes without accountability.
The two problems we see most often that cause a contractor to go out of business are poor financial decisions and a lack of leadership. When we start working with a business leader, we help them get control of their business so they can achieve financial freedom. The biggest difference between a contractor that is doing less than a million in revenue and one doing 20 to 50 times that amount is the large business has strong leadership, a solid company culture, and a repeatable process. The smaller business is likely to not have processes and a leader that is shooting from the hip more than leading their team.
Anybody can be a leader, but I see a lot of confusion about what it truly means to be a great leader. We boil it down to two basic areas that focus on understanding your strengths and weaknesses. The confusion with weaknesses is sometimes people spend too much time trying to improve them. That doesn’t mean you ignore your weakness, but the truth is you will accomplish more if you simply hire someone strong in those areas and let them do what they are gifted in. The super skill that any leader can and should develop is the ability to connect with others on a personal level. Especially when it comes to our employees when they feel seen and heard it is much easier to align their interests with yours.
Resources Shared:
- ContractorCoachPRO
- Contractor Radio Podcast
- Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
- Leadership and Self-Deception by Arbinger Institute
- Thryv
Often when people hear the term influencer marketing they think it’s this new social media thing because the term was coined around the advent of social media. However, influencer marketing has been around for centuries. Essentially influencer marketing is working through a third party to have them persuade their audience to take some action or change their mind on a topic. When you think about it, influencer marketing aligns with public relations because often the PR person is working with journalists, a third party, to impact an audience on your behalf.
No matter if your business is big or small you can find value in and get access to influencers that match your brand. The goal is to find the people in your area or industry that have the type of audience you want to reach. I would encourage people to not just think about influencers with social media followings. Social media influencers certainly have their place but there is a much broader network of influencers that could benefit your brand and might not even have a social media account. For instance, if your audience is parents with small children and you are a local dentist, you might look at partnering with school teachers or nurses.
As with any marketing you want to ensure you are generating a return on your investment. This is especially true for small businesses. For example, there is a young lady in Lexington, KY named Gabby Male, who is a fitness and wellness influencer. Gabby has been building her network on Instagram for several years now and she has over 200,000 followers. If you are a local spa or activewear store it would probably cost you thousands of dollars to work with Gabby because of her audience size. However, if you look closely at her audience there might only be 2% of them located in Lexington, KY. So for local Lexington, KY small businesses she might not make sense to partner with.
If you have a product you sell online direct-to-consumer you might consider partnering with a micro or nano influencer. One strategy is product seeding, you send influencers some of your product and ask them to write about it if they like it or if not to provide feedback. Your only cost for a product seeding campaign is your time, some shipping, and the cost of the product. A lot of the time you can get 20% to 30% of the influencers to post about your product. So you don’t have to spend a ton of money to do influencer marketing.
The two main goals of advertising are to increase awareness and generate conversions. Awareness fills the funnel and conversions empty the funnel by putting money in your pocket. Where I see people get it wrong is they spend all their time and energy on awareness and not enough energy on conversions. You cannot pay your bills with awareness, no matter how many website visits you get or social media followers you have. Those won't help you make payroll next month. What does pay the bills is when you convert that awareness traffic into customers. You should start with the conversion piece first and then once you have that down move on to increasing your awareness.
Resources Shared:
- Cornett
- Influence Marketing Podcast
- Winfluence by Jason Falls
- Thryv
I believe at some point in your life you should ask yourself what is missing in the world that you want to become the number one solution to. It took me 32 years to ask that question of myself and what I realized is, I wanted to listen to a daily podcast that interviewed entrepreneurs. That didn’t exist at the time so I said why not be the change I want to see in the world. When we launched, I was the worst daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs but I was also the only daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs which made me the best.
For the first 2,000 podcasts, I asked the same five questions of every guest. While that may sound simple each episode was unique because the five questions centered around the guest's story. For example, the first question I would ask was to tell us the story of your worst moment as an entrepreneur. Starting with the 2,001 episode I shifted to something I call audio masterclasses. Those episodes feature a world-renowned expert in a specific niche and I have them give a value bomb master class on their topic.
In 2016 I asked myself the same question again, what is missing in the world and I also asked my listeners that question. What I heard back was they were struggling with where to start when it came to setting goals. But they had heard all my guest talking about how important goals are to being successful. So I sat down and created a 100-day roadmap to setting and accomplishing your number one goal, which I called The Freedom Journal. After completing it I decided I wanted to test the market before spending more time, energy, and money on it so I launch a Kickstarter campaign around it. Which generated over $400,000 in sales in 33 days for a $39 journal.
In 2021 I published my first traditional book called The Common Path to Uncommon Success. Although we all achieve our own version of success the path to get there is common. No matter if your business is brick and mortar or you are a digital nomad, your path to success has common strategic steps along the way. The cliff notes version of the book is that you have to identify a real problem in the world that you want to become the number one solution to. I don’t know anything about being a roofer but let’s say I wanted to become known as the best roofer at installing Tesla solar panel roof tiles. Now I’m not competing to be the best roofer in say Dallas, Texas but I’m known for being the best roofer anywhere for Tesla solar tiles. When you win the niche you will find more success than trying to be everything to everyone.
The key to my success is something anyone can do in their business but few people do. I’ve built a moat around my business by consistently delivering valuable content to my audience for 3,000 plus episodes. When you create a high barrier around your business you lower the level of competition. However, what most people do is just enough to get by in their business which translates to a low barrier of entry and means there is a massive amount of competition.
Resources Shared:
- Entrepreneurs On Fire Podcast
- The Freedom Journal
- Kickstarter
- The Mastery Journal
- The Podcast Journal
- The Common Path to Uncommon Success by John Lee Dumas
- The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
- The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
- Thryv
After working in the tech industry for over a decade I had this romantic notion to own my own business. I traveled frequently for work while my kids were growing up and I realized I didn’t want to miss out on those years. After 5 years of research and evaluating different concepts we launched our first car wash business. I kept my day job for the first couple of years to ensure we were able to pay the bills while I transitioned into small business ownership. I ended up opening a total of 3 locations and ran those until we sold them in 2019.
As a business model, car washes are operational intensive businesses. The concept I tell most people is a car wash is a mini-factory with the finished product being a clean car. The beauty of the business model is the technology and systems are the main components that do the work. From the moment you drive up to a modern car wash you are interacting with a piece of technology, be that the pay station that captures your order information to the process control system that provides all the specific details about your car to the car wash system. Today with the advent of RFID and license plate readers we can get to know our customers better and understand their habits.
If you were interested in getting into the car wash business, a great place to start would be the different types of car wash operations. The most common operating models are exterior express, full-service, self-service in bay, self-service wand, or in bay automatic. Today, 8 in 10 new car washes are the exterior express operating model, because of its operational efficiencies and profit margin. In general, you can build a car wash for 2 to 3 million dollars after you purchase the land. Depending on where you build, the land could cost you half a million up to 3 million. Coincidentally, on the revenue side, you can expect to generate 500 thousand to 3 million in annual revenues depending on how successfully you grow the unlimited club customer base.
Since I exited my car washes, I’ve launched 2 new businesses related to the industry. Begin Insights is my consulting business where I offer advice and support to people in the industry looking to grow or expand their operations. More recently, I helped launch Carwash OS which creates programs to help people get their car wash businesses up and running. Most people, myself included, when they first get into the industry, don’t realize that if you don’t have good processes and procedures in place the effort required to keep the business running will overwhelm you.
Resources Shared:
- Car Wash The Podcast
- Begin Insights
- Carwash OS
- The How of Business Podcast
- Thryv
I grew up in Flint, Michigan, and while my parents provided a loving home, we were poor. The neighborhood I grew up in was rough and although my parents worked hard, we struggled. The good side of that experience is it ingrains in oneself a determination and grit to work for what you want and not expect you’re entitled to anything. I also know there are other people out there that had it a lot worse than I did and never want to come across as complaining, but my experience shaped who I am today.
While most entrepreneurs and business owners I know were raised by entrepreneurs and business owners, it was a pursuit that was discouraged in my home. My parents were convinced I needed to focus on my schooling, get good grades, go to college, and work as an accountant for 40 years. But I found the drive to be a business owner burning inside of me and never really liked the idea of working for someone else. Some people love the structure working in a company provides but for me it felt more like a cage. However, I also realized that working for yourself meant you were the one responsible for making things happen.
After working in corporate America for a decade and starting a family, I realized if I didn’t focus on my dream of becoming an entrepreneur it might never happen. So over the next few years, we saved as much money as we could and I began looking for businesses I could buy. After a lot of searches, I happened across a laundromat near my house that was for sale on Craigslist. In general, when people think of a laundromat they think “antiquated” and “rundown”. This is true for 70 to 75 percent of the locations across the country. My strategy has always been to buy the worst laundromat in the best location and then give it a complete makeover.
There are seven reasons I believe a laundromat is one of the best small businesses to own in America. They provide a good return on investment, there is a relatively low barrier to entry, it is a vital community resource, a simple cash business, little to no inventory, low staffing requirements, and the business model offers flexibility so it can be done on the side while you work another job and scale.
Listen to Dave’s insights on this episode of Winning on Main Street to hear how you too can find an opportunity in an unsexy business like laundromats and turn it into something great.
Resources Shared:
- Laundromat Millionaire
- Laundromat Millionaire – The Grit to Elevate an Industry by Dave Menz
- Laundromat Millionaire Show
- Thryv
Before I started my own business I worked for AT&T wireless as an international general manager in the Caribbean. After I returned from my assignment I bought a business coaching franchise. I would often speak at various events for small business owners and ended up meeting my now husband at one of those events. Together we started Sunshine Plumbing, Heating & Air because we felt it would be a good recession-proof type of business. We grew lightning-fast from zero to over a three million dollar business it seemed overnight.
I would credit our rapid growth to what I learned through my business coaching practice. The majority of the businesses I coached were in the trades and so I had a good understanding of what was working and what did not work. The key with almost any business is to find a way to differentiate yourself from your competition. In our business, we focused on providing over-the-top great customer service. From thank you cards and dog treats to putting people up in hotels if the repairs were taking longer than expected. It sounds a bit crazy but our focus on customer service differentiated our business and fueled our explosive growth. Doing the job right is the most important factor but people will remember you most for how you treated them.
One of the key elements we leverage in our business is video. Next week we are releasing a video that discusses the labor shortage we are all experiencing. That way we are keeping our customers informed as to why it might take us a little longer than normal to get to them. Right now we’re offering a $10,000 sign-on bonus and still not getting many applications. We also advocate for getting involved in your local community, be engaged at Chamber events, and apply for various awards. The more you grow your exposure in the community the more successful you will become.
A common issue I’ve seen in the trades industry is people not pricing their services correctly. In the current economy, you need to be in communication with your vendors so that you know what the replacement costs for raw materials will be. You might have paid a lower price 6-months ago but when you have to reorder you might be paying 10 to 15 percent or more for those same items. This means you need to increase your prices now so that they cover the replacement cost of the materials you are using today.
Resources Shared:
- SusanRobertsFrew.com
- Pufferfish Effect by Susan Frew
- Secrets to Less Stress and More Success in Your Business by Susan Frew
- Sunshine Plumbing, Heating & Air
- Thryv
When I initially started the Likeable company it was not called Likeable. It was called The K Buzz which eventually became Likeable. The concept behind the company was to leverage word-of-mouth marketing to help organizations generate buzz. I believe likability and social media are great equalizers for small businesses. Generally, the bigger a business is the harder it is for them to be as customer-centric or employee-centric as they should be. This means local small businesses have an opportunity to differentiate themselves by being more likable to their customers and employees. In the long run, your likability and ability to adapt to customers’ needs is a strong competitive advantage.
The biggest difference between a small business owner and an entrepreneur is the mindset and ability to delegate. No matter what vertical or size company you are, the best leaders do three things well: set the strategy and vision for the company, put the people in the right seats, and make sure there’s enough money in the bank to make payroll. If you do those three things well and delegate the rest, you will be able to work on the business vs. in the business -- which unlocks growth. When you can put your strategy down on paper and create a process for others to follow, that is when you will experience tremendous growth in your company.
Today I run a company called Apprentice, which was born out of my own experience working with and hiring students at Likeable. Apprentice is a managed marketplace that connects business owners to the best and brightest college talent. If you want to hire a Harvard business graduate today you would have to pay them a $100k starting salary, but what small business owner wants to do that or can afford to do that. However, if you hire them a year before they graduate, that same type of talent can be hired for a fifth of the cost. In the same way, Likeable Media helped to democratize social media for small businesses. The model is built on the principle we all have something to teach and learn.
The key advantage of digital tools in your business is they allow you to communicate at scale with your audience. For example, we recently implemented a CRM at Apprentice, and with one click I can schedule personalized emails to be sent out to all our clients. We talked about delegating to people but we can also delegate to tools that automate the process defined in our strategy. Combined with the friendly face and local touch you bring to customers, you have further differentiated yourself from the big businesses that are competing for your customer's attention.
Resources Shared:
- Likeable Media
- Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen
- Apprentice
- Thryv
- DaveKerpen.com
The contractor fight is something I refer to as the six inches between your ears. We all have those voices in our heads or limiting beliefs. Having been a home improvement contractor myself for many years, I understand that battle and can relate to the other men and women working in the trades. Our mission is to bring respect and dignity back to the trades, and that starts with the way we think about ourselves.
After selling my contracting business in 2012 I started sharing my advice with a few of the other people I knew working in the trades and before long it grew into speaking at events and consulting. Today I have consulted with tens of thousands of contractors all around the world. Our secret sauce, like any great business, has been to give people a cause that they can rally around and is greater than just us. We named it the contractor fight, maybe because I’m a former Marine, because I believe when you have something important to you it is worth fighting for.
My motto is to live unafraid and I would challenge anyone to follow me in that endeavor. This is a personal motto for me that comes from my background of literally riding the short bus in grade school for two years. I was in a special ed class for two years and that set the tone in my life for years where I believed I was stupid and couldn’t compete with people intellectually. I lived most of my young adult life afraid to speak up and put myself out there, despite being a Marine and successful in business. Until I decided to go toe to toe and address that area of my life I was limiting my capabilities and missing out on opportunities.
If you are a home improvement contractor that is not crushing it and making money right now there is something seriously messed up with your business model. Ask for help, call my team, or simply go listen to our free resources. There has not been an easier time in recent history to sell your services to consumers. The issue is no longer work but production and from my perspective, the number one contributing factor to the problem is the message that you need to have a college degree to be successful. That is simply not true, and I get it because I was one of those that believed the messaging at first.
The best CRM you can buy is the one you will use to run your business. Most home improvement contractors don’t use one because they underestimate the value it brings to their business. If you want to stay small and struggle then don’t worry about adopting a CRM but if you want to grow your business, have more profit, and enjoy your life it is a necessity. Most small business owners already have processes in place, even ones they don’t realize. The purpose of a CRM is to help automate and streamline those processes so you get more jobs done and make more profit.
Resources Shared:
- The Contractor Fight
- The Mile High Profit Summit
- Thryv
- The Contractor Fight Podcast
Marketing has pretty much been my life for 30 plus years now. I worked for a few years out of college for an ad agency before venturing off and starting my own marketing consulting business. After a bit of trial and error, I decided to create a systematic approach to marketing that takes a lot of the guesswork out of marketing and enables the business owner to understand the expected results. That was the genesis of Duct Tape Marketing and today that approach has been used to help thousands of businesses around the globe achieve their desired outcomes.
The marketing success system we use takes the approach of strategy before tactics. What that means for our clients is we help them identify their target market and then create messaging to solve a specific problem. We then build a complete customer journey framework to help us understand the customer experience through their lifecycle. Only after we have done all of that do we evaluate what tactics we should pursue to best reach those specific customers and let them know about our solution to their problem. You stand out from your competition when you are known as the best solution to solve a specific problem for a particular type of customer.
The most common mistake we see business owners make is they hire an ad agency or marketing firm and then direct them on how to market their business. The business owner starts by saying they need a website that does this or a Facebook ad campaign that does that, maybe they do but maybe they don’t. That is why it is foundational to our process to pause and back up a bit to understand who that target customer is and what problem we’re solving. For most of our clients that approach is music to their ears because they understand their strengths and marketing is just one component to running a successful business.
If you are not using a CRM or marketing automation tools in your business you are missing the boat. Because that personalized approach to your customer experience is what helps get people in the door but it also keeps them coming back and sharing with their network about how great you are. The one word of caution I give people though is, technology is not a replacement for actually talking to your customers. It is more of a tool to help make your life easier and your customer’s experience more personalized. Use technology to make the experience better but don’t use it as a wall to isolate you from your customers.
There has been a lot of disruption in the market over the past 16 months which for many businesses has created a lot of opportunities. Right now is a great time to try something new or refresh a marketing campaign that worked well in the past that you might have paused over this past year. What I’m seeing and hearing from my clients is there is a willing market out there and lots of consumers are open to trying something new.
Resources Shared:
- Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch
- Duct Tape Selling by John Jantsch
- The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur by John Jantsch
- Duct Tape Marketing Podcast
I was a first-generation college graduate and, like a lot of graduates, I had dreams and ambitions for what I wanted to do with my life. Unfortunately, also like a lot of graduates, I had a mountain of student debt that threatened to crush me if I didn’t find a way to pay it down. I ended up taking a role in investment banking and during my time there I noticed a reoccurring theme of small business owners desperately needing help but unable to pay the typical fees of an investment banker. After a few years, I decided to make a transition in my career and looked for a way I could leverage media to provide financial advice to small businesses at scale.
My book, The War on Small Business focuses on the tilting of the playing field towards big business and away from small businesses. Over the past several decades we see time and again big businesses being favored over small businesses by regulators and government agencies. All of this came to a head last year during the height of COVID when the government picked winners and losers, not based on science but based on political clout and connections. That left the small businesses underrepresented and frankly out of luck which resulted in many small businesses closing their doors for good.
We often try to talk about small businesses collectively but the industry is so decentralized those broad statements don’t mean much. Over the past year, it's estimated we lost 1 to 2 million small businesses and millions more are struggling to survive and on the edge of closure. On the other hand, if your business services include anything related to facilitating remote work or home services your business is likely to be thriving. Then you have those businesses that may have survived the last 15 months but as they reopen and customers start to come back they cannot find the staffing needed to operate, due to the labor shortage.
When it comes to customer loyalty I believe it is based on relationships, not transactions. A relatable example I see is a small business using a rewards system to try and incentivize customer loyalty. The issue with this model is the relationship is based on what your customer is getting from you and if someone else offers to give them more you will lose them. The businesses I see doing much better with customer loyalty programs have taken the time to gain a deeper understanding of their customers and the true drivers behind their loyalty.
If you want to be successful in business today you must regularly assess how you are leveraging technology to improve employee productivity and your customer’s experience. What are the tasks that are taking you too long to complete or could be done via technology, both to increase the speed of delivery and reduce manual friction. The concept of CRM (customer relationship management) can sound scary but it doesn’t have to be and most systems are designed to be easy to use for all skill levels. Remember the goal of implementing these systems is to help you understand and personalize your customer experience so that you build true loyalty through deeper relationships with your customers.
Resources Shared:
- CarolRoth.com
- The War on Small Business by Carol Roth
Understanding the tax code during normal times is challenging enough but over the past 15 months, we’ve had 5 major tax bills passed. Which was unprecedented but so was COVID-19 and many of the new measures are focused on trying to help small businesses keep their doors open. Now that most small businesses have completed their 2020 taxes they are looking at what tax incentives they might be eligible for in 2021. A key point for small businesses to know is the expenses that were covered by the various government programs like PPP are still deductible on your taxes.
On the payroll side of things, businesses that have 20 or more employees on a group health plan and are subject to COBRA are mandated to pay the insurance premiums from April 1st through September 30th of 2021. You will receive a tax credit for what you pay but it is a bit of an administrative chore to track properly. There is also the employee tax credit that runs through the end of 2021 and has been greatly enhanced compared to what was given in 2020.
If you are a self-employed business owner you need to understand estimated taxes and self-employment taxes. What you need to know is that you have to pay both the employee and employer share of those taxes on your net profits. Also, because your income doesn’t have any withholdings on it like a normal paycheck you have to pay, typically quarterly, any estimated taxes you owe. The challenge, I hear from most self-employed people is they don’t have the money to pay the estimated taxes when the time comes. What I recommend is to create a separate account for taxes and every time you get paid take 10 to 20 percent of those funds and route them to that account. That way the money doesn’t end up getting spent on other business expenses.
When it comes to what you should pay your employees, that is a challenge for small businesses. Most of the Big Box retailers have committed to paying employees $15 an hour which means that is what the labor market expects you to pay as well. The even bigger challenge though is now your employees that are paid above minimum wage will also expect an increase in their compensation. Not to mention all of these changes increase your payroll taxes and benefits costs because your payroll base has increased. Like it or not you have to consider the big picture because the increase in minimum wage will have a trickle-down effect across your business operations.
Resources Shared:
- Big Ideas for Small Business
- J.K. Lasser's Small Business Taxes by Barbara Weltman
- J.K. Lasser's 1001 Deductions & Tax Breaks by Barbara Weltman
We do a lot of research at the SMB Group related to small businesses. In a broad context, we divide up the large universe of small businesses into a few big groups. Very small businesses are generally 1-19 employees, small businesses 20-100 employees, medium-sized businesses 100-1,000, and mid-market businesses 1,000-2,500 employees.
When you hear the term cloud computing it can sound technical but at its most basic it provides small businesses access to business applications that do not require the business to set up or maintain the underlying systems. Usually, you pay for cloud services on a subscription model which means there is no major capital investment required to get started and you can get up and running in a relatively short time. There is a ton of benefits, especially for small businesses, when it comes to using cloud applications to automate various parts of their business. You can use cloud applications for almost anything in your business from accounting and HR to CRM, sales management, and marketing.
The biggest challenge we see small businesses struggle with when it comes to cloud computing is determining which applications best solve their business problems. The good news is the cloud has made it easy for businesses to experiment with various applications and find the ones that fit their business best. We find even the very small businesses use upwards of 6 to 10 applications to run their business. While no one application can do everything the applications you do use must integrate well with each other so you don’t lose sight of the customer.
When it comes to determining what areas of your business you should automate we recommend starting those tasks that take a lot of your time or your team's time to complete. COVID really brought this issue to the forefront, what we have found in our research is companies that take the time to digitize their business see improved performance and profitability. We are reaching the point where you have the digital haves and the have nots, small businesses that had adopted technology before the pandemic not only made it through better than their counterparts but are more poised to thrive as we come out of the pandemic.
Resources Shared:
LaurieMcCabe.com
SMB Group
Thryv
Small Business Trends
I was able to help scale and exit our family contractor business before venturing into my coaching career that has become my passion for the past 19 years. As with any success, there is a bit of a backstory. My father was a serial entrepreneur and by the time I was old enough to walk into a meeting, as a young teenager, my dad had me and my brothers in those meetings. The rule was we couldn’t ask any questions but we had to take notes and then he would debrief with us afterward. Despite this experience, I still made about every mistake you could make along the way. The only credit I would give myself is after falling into every hole I would get back up and tell myself let’s not do that again.
We were raised on the idea of hurry up and do something, it worked to get things done but it was also exhausting. I came to realize that I would end up a young rich dead guy which was not my goal. I realized I had to change my habits, instead of putting out fires every day I needed to focus on fire prevention. The other big turning point was when I made the connection that we had been sabotaging productivity by either not having systems in place or having broken systems. So we switched from a people business to a systems business. This isn’t meant to sound cold but great people are sabotaged from achieving their best results when they are not supported with good systems.
Most business owners are so busy that the last thing they think about is planning. Imagine you live in New York and you want to drive to LA, it would be nice to have a map or a GPS would be even better. Without a plan, you are at the mercy of wherever the road is taking you. Most of us business owners are so focused on solving the problems of today that we don’t stop to consult a plan. I’m not a fan of 10-year plans but I do believe having a 3 to 5-year plan is critical. That is why I created The 7-Power Contractor platform with videos, books, a podcast, and more to give business owners the tools to create better plans for their business.
Resources Shared:
- The 7‑Power Contractor by Al Levi
- The 7-Power Contractor Radio
- Thryv
Becoming an entrepreneur wasn’t part of my plan, out of college I struggled to find a good-paying job. I moved back home and started working at a little computer store. One night after having a few too many drinks I found that liquid courage and decided to start my own business the next day. My first business was a computer networking business that I later sold to private equity and my second business was in computer crime investigation. After successfully launching and exiting these two businesses I decided to venture into angel investing.
I thought I had the Midas touch because I had two successful exits before I was 35. Pretty much I found out I didn’t and lost all of my wealth when the ten businesses I invested in collapsed. I was so ashamed and embarrassed but it was a wake-up call that I didn’t understand the core principles of business. So I started researching the topic and writing books, not because I know it all but because I’m still learning these principles.
I came across a fascinating statistic from a study by US Bank and the SBA. They identified that globally 83% of small businesses exist on a check-to-check survival. However, every entrepreneur I meet says they became an entrepreneur for financial and personal freedom. This means the two primary things we want as entrepreneurs are not happening. That is when I started looking at the problem to find the underlying cause. The problem I found was in the foundational formula of business. We are taught that profit comes last and it's our human nature to assume what comes last is insignificant.
The idea of profit first is built on the foundational principle that when money comes in it is divided out into multiple responsibilities of which profit is one of them. You also have owners' compensation which is different than profit, it is a salary for the work you do in the business. If the business had to replace what you do what would you have to pay that person? We also need to allocate money towards taxes and the operations of the business. No question if you have bills piled up you need to pay them but you don’t have to perpetuate that cycle over and over again.
We believe it’s close to 600,000 businesses that have implemented our profit-first model. The interesting thing we have seen in our case studies is the businesses that implement this model grow faster than their competitors. One of the main objections we hear is I’m trying to grow my business I can’t take the profit out, but what we found is that when you limit what is available to spend you make a better decision. With a profit first mindset, you are looking for what generates the best return verse just spending money on say Facebook ads because everyone else is doing it.
Resources Shared:
MikeMichalowicz.com
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz
Mike Up In Your Business Podcast
Thryv
To those on the outside, the journey into entrepreneurship often seems a bit unusual. I worked as a portrait photographer for affluent families for over 35 years. About 25 years into my business I hired a business coach to help me grow the business. After my business coach retired, I began to think about how I could do for others what had been done for me. That’s when I began my coaching business, which I expected would be a nice job on the side but I never expected it would become my passion.
When I got out of photography school I moved back to my home town and after trying my hardest for 3 years I found myself failing at pretty much the only skill I had. Regardless if you are 23 or 53 years old it is scary to have the business you’ve worked so hard at fail. The problem I uncovered was that my services were completely misaligned with the market. I was charging a premium price in a market that didn’t place the same value on my product. That led me down a path to seeking out those customers that had the same value system I did and were willing to pay a premium for my services.
I believe client acquisition in any business starts with a deep dive into what you are best at and then ask yourself who else would love this. I believe almost anything is sellable to someone, your goal is to find those people that most value what you offer. The foundation of all my work comes down to this one lesson most circumstances in life are uncontrollable, the only thing you can control is the environment you create for the results you want. Who do you want to serve and does your messaging appeal to them? I talk about it in my book as the self-employment ecosystem and it’s broken down into three main elements personal development, business strategy, and daily habits.
The harsh reality of business is you want to be doing your best work when you have the most people looking at you. What I see going on right now is that a lot of businesses are booming and have more work than they can ideally handle. This also means right now is the time to be doing your best work, the referrals alone that come from this season could carry your business for years to come. I encourage everyone to set aside the excuses of why you can’t get things done and instead focus on doing the best you can. The truth is your customers don’t care as much about the why as you but they do care about their experience.
Resources Shared:
- JeffreyShaw.com
- Lingo by Jeffrey Shaw
- The Self Employed Life by Jeffrey Shaw
- The Self Employed Podcast
- Thryv
My journey into entrepreneurship started while I was working for the United Nations. A travel agent was working at one of the offices I managed and offered to pay me to help them get up and running with some new software they had purchased. That is when the lightbulb came on. I realized I enjoyed helping people by working with them directly.
When it comes to running a small business there are four main themes I have found top entrepreneurs do well. The first one is having a leadership mindset. The second would be a good grasp of the marketing side of the business. The third would be a knowledge of the technology side. And the fourth is definitely to know your numbers. You do not have to be classically trained, in the sense of getting a degree or completing a class, to be successful in business. While education can certainly be helpful most of the skills you need can be learned a little each day while working on your business.
The only way a small business can grow and maintain that growth is to have the right business systems in place and to have those systems built on top of great processes. This is where technology can be really useful. It can help you segment customers so you know which ones are driving you the most value. Technology can also help you scale your follow-up communications with potential customers and help you get feedback from your existing customers about their service experience. All of this helps create a personalized experience for your customers without you having to remember all the little details about each one.
Personal branding is something I believe becomes more important as you grow your business. You likely won’t start out having much of a personal brand but as you grow your business the branding aspect becomes more and more important. This will help your business in three areas, you won’t have to discount your prices as much, you won’t have to be afraid of losing your customers to the competition, and you will increase your inbound lead volume. Some of the ways you can build your personal brand are to host some local events, write a book or guide about your area of business, or be active on social media and engage your audience there. The key is to ask for a smile before you ask for a sale.
Resources Shared:
- RamonRay.com
- SCORE.org
- Black Enterprise Magazine
- Inc. Magazine
- The Celebrity CEO by Ramon Ray
- Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
- Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
- Thryv
In short, I spend my days helping clients attract more customers and make money. There is an important distinction I make though between getting more customers and making money. If your pricing structure isn’t correct you can gain customers but not make money. In my 25 years of experience, I believe the most important skill to master in business is customer acquisition.
When I started my business I was focused on teaching cold-calling techniques to corporate clients and little by little I noticed small business owners or consultants showing up in my classes. One day I noticed a small business consultant in my class and I could tell he was struggling to generate enough clients to maintain his business and provide for his family. My heart went out to him and I knew I could help but he needed more than just cold-calling techniques to get there. With him in mind, I created my first complete training course called How to Become a Client Magnet.
The exercise I have clients go through when we first start working together is something we call mining for gold. You start by making a list of everyone that is already in your network that you think might be a buyer of your product or service. Then you reach out to them, not to sell them, rather you are seeking to get their input on what you are planning to offer and ask for their feedback. This gets you comfortable having conversations with people that match your ideal customer. The feedback given during those conversations is where the gold comes from and you use those nuggets to create your initial offer.
I believe everyone is capable of selling but often what holds people back is their misconceptions about it. Getting clients is fairly straightforward. You need an offer, people to sell to, and a method to convert those people into customers. What makes it complicated is all the stories that play out in our heads about rejection, failure, or what others will think of us. However, we need to realize most of those stories are rubbish and if we simply lean into helping people and solving problems we will find a lot more success than failure.
I’m surprised in today’s economy when I interact or consult with a business that doesn’t have some type of software in place to keep track of and communicate with clients. Not to mention all the benefits that come from automating those little tasks in your business to engage with your clients better. Really good selling is about making the right offer at the right time to the right customers and software is the key to making that process seamless.
Resources Shared:
- Bernadettedoyle.com
- Get Clients, Make Money by Bernadette Doyle
- Thryv
The unique part about my story is, growing up I graduated from kindergarten, high school, and college all from the same campus where I attended church. Basically, everything from my worldview to life experiences and perspectives was controlled by how they wanted me to view the world. When I graduated college I realized I didn’t want to be in ministry but I had a degree in the Bible and church ministry, I had recently gotten married and bought a house. So I started doing the only other thing I knew how to do which was door-to-door sales. But I knew I didn’t want to do that long term so I dove into studying personal development through books and podcasts.
Your network is everything, everyone has heard the phrase your network is your net worth or the average of the five people you spend the most time with. We are nothing but a product of our environment, no matter who wants to pretend they can buck the rules of the environment they are in, you can’t. Your environment is what shapes you and the cool thing is you are largely in control of it. Meaning you have control over who you will become, the type of income you will make, and where you will end up in life. Find people that are killing it in the areas of life you value and position yourself near them and adjust your goals accordingly.
The traditional networking model is very transactional and short-term. You go to this networking event and expect to get a certain number of clients from it but if you don’t it was a waste of time. That is the traditional mentality around networking. To network the right way you have to switch your mindset from short term to long term, from taking to giving, talking to listening. Networking is the same as building a friendship but the difference is you are more likely to meet people that you already have something in common with based on the type of event you are attending.
As a small business owner, you want your potential customers to hear from you outside of what you are selling. You want to be seen as an expert in your space, that could mean blogging, podcasting, speaking at a local Chamber of Commerce, or even giving a presentation at an industry conference or event. Getting people to see you as a thought leader, an advocate, a human, and not just someone trying to sell something is the key to increasing your reach. Nobody wants to be sold but everyone likes to buy things.
If I had a service-based business in a local area I would be calling all my best customers and potential referral partners and interviewing them on my podcast. I would be talking to all the top real estate agents, mortgage brokers, solar companies, and alarm companies in the area. Inviting them to be part of my podcast to share their insights and in turn, I might be the one they think of when they need something. However, you never do it with the expectation you will get something in return but as a way to give back to the community and grow your network. I would challenge anyone to do that consistently over several years and not see a dramatic increase in your business.
Resources Shared:
Build Your Network Podcast
Guestio.com
Meet Your Hero by Travis Chappell
Meet Your Hero Training Course
Both of my parents were entrepreneurs so I learned a lot from them growing up. I started working at a young age doing everything from shoveling snow and mowing yards to washing dishes. It was a lot of hard work but I learned how to make money. As I progressed through school I took several business classes and even completed a Master’s degree but they don’t teach you how to run the day-to-day operations of a business in school.
In 2006 I learned about the garage door service and home services business. I also learned about how to sell companies and build value in them quickly. That is what I’m in the process of doing today, I’m trying to build a small garage door company that started in Phoenix into a multibillion-dollar company.
My approach to making all this happen is grounded in a fancy little word called arbitrage. This is basically when you sell something for more than you bought it, in the home services space your sell price is based on a multiple of EBITDA. Typically home service businesses will sell for 4x or 5x multiples of EBITDA and then I add my business systems and processes so it’s now worth 12x, 14x, or sometimes 16x EBITDA.
In my case, I learned how to scale businesses after reading a bunch of books on the topic and I hired a couple of consultants along the way. Pretty much what I learned is I was doing a bunch of things the wrong way. I would get frustrated at team members because they weren’t doing a job as I wanted but I realized I hadn’t provided them with a clear plan or standard operating procedure to follow. We found there were three main reasons why things failed, there was no process, the process wasn’t being followed, or it was the wrong process.
There are a few key business systems we use to help us scale and grow our business. We use an LMS or learning management system to train our employees as much as possible through videos and curriculums that give them real-life scenarios. We also use an amazing CRM (customer relationship management) that keeps track of the key performance indicators that help us be successful. The key to scale and exponential growth is really good software that makes it easy to keep track of all the important things in your business.
I’ve coached or consulted with a lot of companies over the years and I always look at four primary KPIs. What is your conversion rate when you are face to face with a customer, what is your average ticket size, what is your booking rate, and what does it cost you to acquire a customer. When I understand those four KPIs I can dive in and help them make a lot more money. Often people think they just need more leads but what if you increased your conversion rate, doubled your average ticket size, and increased your bookings rate by 20%? Those results alone could quadruple your business with the leads you already have coming in. At the end of the day, the three main ways to make money are to get new customers, charge your current customers more, or keep customers coming back more often.
Resources Shared:
- A1 Garage Door Service
- Home Service Expert Podcast
- Home Service Millionaire by Tommy Mello
- Go for No! by Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton
Today I do a fair bit of writing, speaking, or blogging but I’m also still the chairman of the company I founded. I have a great management team that runs the day-to-day operations of the business which allows me to focus on the parts of the business I enjoy. When I launched Palo Alto Software, many years ago, it was originally a consulting business that provided business planning services for local computer dealers.
In the old days, business plans were more elaborate and rarely changed once they were created. Fast-forward to today and most successful businesses use a lean business plan that is reviewed and revised continuously. The misconception about business plans is that they aren’t useful in guiding your business today, which would be true if you created your business plan based on the decades-old model. However, the lean business plan I mentioned is something you can use daily to help run your business better.
The key attributes to a lean business plan include a list of assumptions, a handful of major milestones, key metrics, and a few bullet points that outline your strategy and tactics. As entrepreneurs, we often get distracted by new ideas or solving a customer's problems. However, what I’ve learned is there is a principle of displacement at work here, solving for one problem rules out your ability to solve for another. That is where the business plan helps to keep you on track to solve the problems that align with your strategy. A great business plan is like exercise, it’s the workouts that get you the results, not the plan itself.
Will your business be doomed to fail if you don’t have a business plan? No, you can find some level of success without a plan. However, every business will benefit and grow even more when they have a lean business plan that they use to help run their business. The business planning software we created is a web app that anyone can use and it's only $19.95 a month or less if you pay annually. So it doesn’t require a large investment to have a lean business plan but it will help you run your business better.
Resources Shared:
- Palo Alto Software
- Lean Business Planning by Tim Berry
- Bplans
For years I’ve been telling people, whether by choice or by circumstance, every career gets disrupted. Post pandemic I don’t have to make that argument anymore. We are living in an era of endless innovation and you can choose to either be terrified by that reality or excited. If you are working at a job that doesn’t satisfy you, where they pay you just enough to show up but not enough to care have you asked yourself why. Instead, why not try to live a life of purpose and fulfillment by pursuing what is meaningful to you.
Whether you choose to believe it or not every business will be disrupted. Most people think of the obvious examples like a truck driver being replaced by a self-driving truck or AI systems replacing accountants and middle management. We hold a device in our pocket more powerful than all the computers NASA used to put a man on the moon. Yet, we can also use that device to connect to 7 billion potential customers around the world.
After writing Disrupt You, I get what I call love letters daily from readers that tell me how much the book changed their lives. But occasionally I get an email from a young person that says something along the lines of, this is great but I can’t do it. So I said okay, my message isn’t getting through to young people so how can I fix that. I found a young man who, on paper, seemed like he had everything going against him. And I told him a simple lie based on the psychological phenomenon called the Pygmalion effect. What I told him was I interviewed over 100 candidates and he was the only one with all the attributes to be a self-made millionaire. For the next year, I simply provided him with coaching and nothing else and a year later he was able to hit that millionaire mark.
When I talk to large audiences and lecture all over the world, inevitably somebody pitches me an idea and what I generally tell them is that their idea sucks. Because ideas come from the outside it's not till you get deep into it where you have the insights that no one sitting on the sidelines would have learned. Try to destroy your idea, try to find everybody that will tell you what's wrong with it and kill it. When you find that idea that can’t be killed, then go raise money and build a business around that it. Because what will happen if you don’t do those steps ahead of time you’ll raise a bunch of money and build a team only to realize your idea doesn’t work.
You should think of every business as a high-tech startup. You need to figure out how to run your business on data, many local business owners focus all their energy working in the business instead of on it. Whether you’re a plumber, an electrician, or any other local business, how are people discovering you and finding out about your services? And how can you better target those people so you can lower your customer acquisition costs and increase the customer lifetime value? They are the same concepts the big companies use but they apply equally as well to local businesses.
Resources Shared:
- Disrupt You! By Jay Samit
- Future Proofing You by Jay Samit
Whether you support him or not President Biden is a pretty savvy politician. He’s been waiting all of his political career to put forward proposals that will put him in the history books as making an impact for the social good of society. It is clear from his first 100 days in office that his plan includes a lot of spending, close to 5 trillion dollars. To pay for all this spending he is looking to increase taxes and deficit spending.
The tax increases that have been proposed will have an impact on small businesses directly and indirectly. The first area that will impact small businesses is the corporate tax rate. While the majority of small businesses are not corporate filers there is about 10% of small businesses are and will be impacted by the change in the corporate tax rate. The other way this tax increase could impact a larger percentage of small businesses is through the trickle-down effect.
The vast majority of small businesses are pass-through tax entities. What that means is, say you have a partnership or S corporation you don’t pay the corporate tax rate but you pay the personal tax rate based on your 1040 return. Where President Biden’s tax plan will impact more small businesses is the limit he has proposed on qualified business income tax deduction. The qualified business income tax deduction was part of the 2017 Tax Reform Act and gave pass-through tax entities the ability to lower their reported taxable income by 20%. The proposed plan is to remove that deduction for filers reporting over a million in profits.
The other area that could impact small business owners is the capital gains tax increase. While most people think the capital gains tax only impacts the wealthy on Wall Street the impact for small business owners comes into play if they decide to sell their business. As the Baby Boomer population nears the retirement stage of their life they are looking to sell their businesses. We are seeing increased interest from the Millennial generation to start or buy businesses. However, the capital gains tax proposed could result in a 50% tax on the proceeds from the sale of your business depending on what state you live in.
The other topic that doesn’t always get brought into the tax conversation but certainly has an impact, is payroll taxes. The PRO Act was recently passed in the House of Representatives and it is part of the President's infrastructure proposals. The PRO Act does two primary things, it makes it much easier for employees to unionize but the big thing for small businesses is that it reclassifies independent contractors. If you are a small business that uses independent contractors the PRO Act would mean those contractors would have to be classified as employees for the time they work for you. This means the business would be responsible to pay payroll taxes on the amount paid to their contractors. Also, depending on the number of hours worked the business would have to offer their contractors benefits as if they were normal employees.
What I’ve learned from the pandemic and running a small business for the last 20 years. No one has a clue about what will happen in the future so the best you can do is to base your decisions today on what you can see. Today we see more taxes and regulations being proposed and the current administration is more pro-worker than pro-business. What I hear from my clients is they are losing their appetite to take risks and hire more people due to what they see today.
Resources Shared:
- The Marks Group
Looking back at it, it is still a little hard to believe we increased the value of our company by 10x in two years without substantially changing the underlying business. When people ask me how we achieved this the answer sounds a bit boring. Our strategy can be summed up in one word, preparation. To give you a couple of statistics consider that nearly 90% of liquidity events fail and for those that are successful 50% to 100% of the deal value is unrealized.
We often talk about the 9 steps of preparation but they can be summarized in two simple examples. First, you want to uncover any skeletons in the closet and clean them up, the second is to go hunting for those hidden Rembrandts and make sure they are on display. The secret to maximizing the value of your liquidity is found in these simple examples. However, don’t confuse simple with easy to accomplish.
The question we see most business owners get tripped up on is, “does your business run without you.” Whether you have a management team or you don’t have a management team we find most business owners are the center of the universe when it comes to keeping their business running. It is a classic and costly mistake that limits or even prevents your business from being sold.
Business automation is one of those skeleton or Rembrandt areas that can hurt or maximize your enterprise value. If you are doing automation well your team members aren’t wasting time on low-value activities but instead are focused on those high-value interactions. It allows you to get more done with less and leads to improved company culture. Whereas if you don’t have your business automation in place a potential buyer will see that as a risk and that lowers the price they are willing to pay.
The value of any business is not created at the deal table, it is created from the years of preparation you do beforehand. The deal table is more like looking in the review mirror of what you’ve done up to that point. The more prepared you are the higher your enterprise value will be. When it comes to selling your business you would be crazy to not work with an investment banker or business broker. Not only are they experts in these types of transactions but any fees you might pay are more than made up for in the increased size of the deal.
Resources Shared:
- Deep Wealth
- Thryv
- The Sell My Business Podcast
- Why You Suck at Selling Your Business (eBook)
Instead of just doing one job with one focus I decided to make life a bit more exciting and run three companies at the same time. When I say run three companies I mean it, I’m not a silent owner or investor, I’m involved with all three companies every day. I have a small team that helps me run these companies and they serve the same role in each of them.
Growing up I’m not sure I ever heard the word entrepreneurship but I always had a passion to work hard. As a kid, my mom worked in PR for the film industry and I had the chance to visit the sets of various TV shows or movies. One Summer I was hanging out on the set of the Cheers sitcom and Ted Danson saw me and asked what I was doing there, so I told him I wanted to learn how to be a director. So he let me write and direct a 2-minute short that included Woody Harrelson, Ted Danson, Kirstie Alley, and George Wendt.
Fast-forward to after I graduated from college I started working in our family business which was selling videos to movie rental stores. As time evolved and people started streaming movies instead of buying them I realized I needed to find other products we could sell. So we pivoted the business to start selling the other items a retail store might buy alongside the movie purchase. Over the years we expanded into other categories and thousands of items.
Plan B is our business that buys and resells excess inventory, we are the backup plan for the manufacture or reseller that makes or buys products they can no longer sell. We help give new life to the products and more importantly help those products find new homes. The typical retailer that buys from us are retailers that focus on expanding the life of products when other retailers are done with them.
When it comes to diversifying your products or services, I always think it’s a good idea. No matter if you are a burger chain or a production company you should looks for areas around your niche to diversify your offerings. Then if you want to take your business to the next level look for ways to diversify into different industries. That way if one industry starts to die you have other industries you can rely on to keep things moving forward. COVID is a great example, I own an event business and you can imagine how that business has done this past year. However, I had two other businesses to fall back on which kept the lights on and employees paid this past year.
As it relates to entrepreneurship, I feel there are a few traits that will help you be more successful. The first is to educate yourself about business, the second would be the ability to make decisions quickly, and the last is the willingness to take risks and try something new. From an educational standpoint, I wish schools taught more classes on things like applying for a business license, steps to apply for a business loan, tips on business networking, or how to overcome objections. I think vocational schools are also a great path for kids to learn a trade and get their start on the entrepreneurial journey.
If you are planning to start a new business, one of the first things I recommend is to go secure your own domain and email address. Do not use Gmail, Yahoo, or the like for your business because it makes you look unprofessional. Domains are cheap and easy to secure and give your new business more credibility than if you use a consumer email provider. One of the tricks I’ve found when you are sending emails to prospects is to ask a question in the subject line and provide the answer in the body of the email. Also, make sure the email is simple and gets directly to the point, no prospect is going to read a 4 paragraph email. These tips will help you get the most from your email marketing efforts.
Resources Shared:
Plan B Distribution
A5 Events
Ideal Content
When I first started writing for Entrepreneur magazine back in 1979, I was conducting research related to small business and at that time the term entrepreneur was not well known or understood. By the late 1980s, the U.S. economy was recovering from the double-dip recession of the early ’80s. Technology was starting to boom but unemployment was still high which was the catalyst behind the shift towards entrepreneurship becoming mainstream.
One of the biggest mistakes I see small business owners make is they create a business plan, put it in a drawer, and never look at it again. Most businesses fail due to a lack of cash flow and I believe that is most often driven by a failure to plan. We often write about how the business plan should be a living and breathing document. If you plan to invest a certain amount on marketing, with the hope that sales will increase, did that happen and what should you do next. You go back to your business plan and update it based on the results, that way you can choose the best path forward.
As we come out of COVID, the reports we’re seeing say business formations are booming. This is great because small business ownership can be liberating and help people break through the glass ceilings that exist for many minorities. When it comes to small businesses, the only thing that matters is the product or service you offer, the price you are charging, and if there is demand for what you are offering.
I was speaking to a group of small business owners and I asked if anyone was using cloud tools in their business today. No one raised their hand, but then I asked how many people use Gmail for their business and hands went up everywhere. So I made the point that Gmail is simply email that is hosted in the cloud. The cloud allows businesses to ramp up quickly with lower costs than you would if you had to have servers on-premise.
One of the problems COVID highlighted was consumers were more forward-thinking than most small businesses. Consumers have adopted technology far more than most local businesses. If you have a main street business or storefront your number one job is to ensure consumers feel comfortable walking in your doors. Offering contactless payment options or digitalizing other parts of your customer experience are critical to helping consumers feel more comfortable. What you have to realize is other businesses do what you do and those that digitalize will take your customers if you don’t change.
When it comes to marketing your business, you need to have some knowledge about what is out there and how it will benefit your business but often the best choice is to outsource or hire someone to market your business. The Thryv software not only offers a lot of great features to help you digitalize and market your business but they provide free support to customers to help them use the tools and grow their business. Often the difference between success and failure for a small business today is if they adopt software.
Resources Shared:
GrowBiz Media
Thryv
Small Business Development Centers
SCORE
Barry Moltz
Small Business Trends
Inc. Magazine Twitter
Your brand is the experience people have when they encounter you. It’s the same idea behind corporate branding or leadership branding, it is your reputation that precedes you. The key behind good branding is to ensure what you are promising and what you are delivering are in sync. No matter the size of your business the entrepreneur sets the tone for the company’s brand.
Your brand experience begins at the moment the consumer first interacts with you and carries through to the completion of the work and even your follow-up process. While there is an aspect of branding that includes your logo, business card, or other creative elements the main driver is the experience you provide to customers along the way. Let’s say you own a home improvement business, the brand experience might start the first time a consumer calls you about a job. If you tell them you will stop by their home between 12 and 2 to provide an estimate, then be there when you said you would be. If something does happen to delay you or force you to reschedule, make sure you proactively communicate with the homeowner to let them know.
The key to improving your customer experience is to ask your current customers for feedback. There are several ways you can go about asking customers for feedback but once you have it, look at what they are saying and make adjustments as needed. One of the secrets behind successful entrepreneurs is they are good listeners, they listen to what their customers or team members are saying and act on it.
As you think about your customer experience you also want to consider how you can leverage technology to create a better experience. Not only does tracking tasks manually create room for error but it limits how many projects or jobs you can do. We are in a digital world today and the companies that have struggled to adapt digitally, especially over the past year, are not likely to be successful in the future.
One of the primary tools we use to help our clients wrap their minds around the customer experience is The Strategic Planning Process. This process revolves around the idea that every action you take is intentional, meaning you have a plan. When I sit down with a client the first topic we discuss are who they are, what do they want to be known for, how do they describe themselves, and who is their target audience? After we work through those topics we get to my favorite part which is what are the short, medium, and long term goals. This helps us understand where we want to go and then we work backwards to fill in the gaps based on where we are today.
Resources Shared:
- The Write Media Group
- Congratulations! It’s a Brand by Melva Robertson
- The Brand New Leader by Melva Robertson
- Thryv
The problem with most marketing today is we don’t talk enough about the real problems we solve for our customers. For example, if you are in the home services space, you might think the kitchen remodel or unclogging the drain is the reason someone hired you. Whereas often you are hired to provide a great experience while you complete the job. Things like answering their questions, leaving the work area clean, or how friendly your staff was throughout the process impact the customer experience.
In our businesses, when the phone rings, we get excited when there is a potential customer on the other end asking about our products or services. But the truth is not everyone we talk to is someone we want to do business with, some customers pay late, others may disrespect your staff, or maybe they just value the lowest price and you value doing quality work. These mismatches not only cause frustration but can often lead to bad reviews. Whereas when you work with the right customers, they love the service you provide, and that in turn generates positive reviews and referrals.
To help you determine who your ideal customers are, look at your customer base and sort them by profitability and referability. Who are those profitable customers that have a network of other people they can refer to you? Once you have that list, pick up the phone and call those customers and ask them about why they chose to do business with you. Then build your website and marketing campaigns around the insights your best customers provided you. All of which will help you attract more customers that resemble your ideal customer profile.
For a new business, that doesn’t have a customer database, the biggest resource I share to help them build their ideal customer profile is to go to the review page of their competitors. Make notes of what people are complaining about and then go build your business model around addressing those issues. As you begin to acquire more customers you can decide if those are the right customers for you and repeat the process as needed.
The way we practice and prescribe marketing is based on a holistic content marketing approach. We include everything along the customer journey to ensure at each touchpoint we are reinforcing the messaging we want a customer to see. That means going way past just the ad copy or website content and into areas like your customer intake forms or proposals. The overarching goal is to make your business the obvious choice when a prospect is trying to decide if they want to do business with you.
Resources Shared:
- Indispensable Marketing
- Thryv
- Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days by Jay Conrad Levinson
- 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller
Business owners often think of law firms as emergency rooms, which means they only call a law firm when circumstances are bad. Instead, small business owners should be thinking of law firms as primary care physicians. However, there is an issue with how most law firms bill clients for their services. Traditionally you pay a lawyer by the hour, which creates a conflict of interest because now they control both the number of hours and the hourly rate. It's that conflict of interest that causes people to be hesitant to call a law firm.
About 5 years after opening my practice, I began to notice my repeat clients would only call when there was a major issue versus working with me in advance to prevent the problems. I decided to hire a business coach to help me work out the details of a crazy new idea. I wanted to create a practice where clients could call me with their problems on demand and I could help solve them in advance. So we created The Access Plan to help small business owners get answers to their legal questions without having to pay out of pocket each time.
The Access Plan is a subscription model where clients get unlimited access to me and my team for all their legal questions. You can also schedule working sessions with us if there is a particular issue you want to dig deeper into. Plus, you get a 30-minute check-in call each month. From the small business owner standpoint, 12 times a year they get to meet with their legal team to help anticipate and prevent problems. When was the last time you heard of a small business owner, that wasn’t in a crisis, meeting with their legal team regularly?
The idea behind shatter proofing your business came from the shatterproof glass in car windshields. Our business is the vehicle to our future and we want to be prepared for the rocks life throws at us. So we created the 5 strategies to shatterproof your business, the first strategy we recommend is to assemble a team of key advisors. This team should include people that can advise you on legal issues, taxes, insurance, banking, and business strategies. You can download the free eBook guide with all the strategies on our website reiblaw.com/mainstreet.
Resources Shared:
- ReibLaw
- 5 Proven Strategies FREE e-book
Growing up I spent a lot of time at my father's tax law firm and I met a lot of small business entrepreneurs that were coming in. I got to know several of them and thought it was pretty cool that they didn’t wear suits and were doing work they loved. I was also introduced to two resources that impacted me which were Nothing Down by Robert Allen and The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley.
One of the biggest challenges when starting a new business can be determining what you should focus on. The first tip I share with people is, don’t spend all of your time getting ready to be ready. If you look at the statistics on business failures they say your best chance of having success is only around 30 percent. So early on your focus should be to see if people will buy your product or service. It sounds really simple but the lack of product-market fit is one of the main reasons businesses fail. The second tip I share is to not take money from other people to start a business. That drive to make the business work when it is all you have will help you iterate faster and find the solution to the problem you are trying to solve.
Once you have a proven solution that also has demand, then work towards replacing yourself so that you are not an essential part of the day-to-day operations. Being able to remove yourself from the daily operations of the business is important to your happiness, health, and homelife, plus it provides the option to sell the business in the future. Lastly, there is a point when things are going well that you need to shift your focus towards building wealth so you can have financial freedom that isn’t tied to your business.
As it relates to your marketing efforts most early-stage businesses focus on direct marketing to jumpstart their growth. This is good and often the right choice however, as your company matures so should your marketing funnel. When you get to the point that your business has share a voice it makes sense to begin brand advertising. While it would be dumb to start with brand advertising as a new business, once you have those direct marketing channels dialed in adding brand advertising makes complete sense.
The biggest untapped opportunity I see in most local businesses is not maximizing the lifetime value of their existing customers. It starts by reviewing the customer journey to see if there are other items they buy before, during, or after their purchase with you that you could offer as well. This allows you to extend your product or service offering to the customers that are already doing business with you.
Time blocking is the time management method I use to maximize my productivity. Not only do I schedule times for appointments but I also schedule time for family or vacations. The key to being successful is to make your schedule in advance because if you don’t your calendar tends to fill up. Something I do that most others do not is I manage my calendar, which allows me to choose what makes it on my schedule. As Steve Jobs said, “it is really easy to drown in opportunity” and I take that to heart when I work on planning. Planning helps to ensure what you choose to spend your time on also brings you the greatest return on joy or ROJ.
Resources Shared
- Roland Frasier
- Nothing Down by Robert Allen
- The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley
- Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars
- Business Lunch With Roland Frasier
There are several ways the newly passed stimulus bill will help small business owners. Most of the provisions are an extension or expansion of what was in the previous stimulus bill. The new part of this bill is the restaurant revitalization fund and grant program. What I’m excited about is, restaurants no longer have to choose between PPP or a grant, they can apply with confidence to both and the funds will balance out.
Except for the targeted EIDL grants, the newest round of PPP loans is available to any small businesses regardless if they applied in the past or not. Additionally, they’ve changed the calculation for self-employed people, so more people are now eligible to receive funds. The biggest group not eligible for funds are start-up businesses that launched during the COVID pandemic.
For the PPP loan, a business can receive up to $10 million but that is limited to 2 and a half times your average monthly payroll. If you are self-employed the maximum you can apply for is $20,833, which is capped based on up to $100,000 in owner compensation. In addition, the new bill has business grants available that are based on revenue lost due to COVID.
Small business credit and financing can be confusing for business owners due to all the different options available and lack of clarity on the terms. Unlike consumer loans, business loan providers don’t have to provide you with a free credit report or tell you the APR. Oftentimes we see lenders using fancy words to describe the terms that make the loan sound affordable when it is quite expensive. As the education director at Nav, my goal is to try and help business owners understand these nuances so they can make better decisions.
The biggest credit mistake we see small businesses make is they are often not aware their business has a credit report and thus they don’t check it. Related to that the other mistake we’ve seen a lot of small businesses make is that they don’t keep their business finances organized and separated from their personal finances. When it comes to organizing your finances, business owners have to embrace that this is part of running a business. If financial management isn’t your strength you can partner with a bookkeeper or financial coach, or even take a class to educate yourself. No matter what you choose, you need to learn to embrace this side of your business and find the solution that works best for you.
Cybercrime prevention is all about protecting your business from being hacked and potentially exposing your customer's sensitive information. If you keep a record of any sensitive customer information, you should have someone advising you on how to protect it, and some insurance to cover your business if something did happen.
Business identity theft is on the rise but it can go unnoticed because business owners aren’t used to monitoring their business credit reports. At Nav, we offer free business credit report monitoring which can help alert you to any issues. Business tax fraud is also on the rise and the IRS offers a free pin you can use to help secure your tax filings.
Resources Shared:
- GerriDetweiler.com
- SBA.gov
- Nav
- Freakonomics Radio
- RV Entrepreneur
- Finance Your Own Business
We are those boring insurance people that no one wants to talk to until a winter freeze causes the pipes to burst. Down here in Texas that was our experience the other week. We are an independent insurance company that focuses on business insurance, we are licensed and serve customers in all 50 states. We help match customers up with the right insurance options for their business. The primary insurance options we see small businesses in need of are; property insurance, business interruption insurance, liability insurance, workers compensation, and auto insurance.
The biggest mistake we see small businesses make when it comes to their insurance coverage is a bulletproof mindset. We go to work every day thinking everything will happen as it should and while most days that is true, I think it is prudent to trade a few dollars to cover you when those bad do things happen. When it comes to insurance costs, one to two percent of sales will typically provide adequate coverage for your business.
Insurance at its core is taking a little money from each to pay for the claims of a few. However, when something like a pandemic happens to everyone it is generally not going to be covered by insurance. As it relates to COVID there is ongoing litigation if business losses should be covered.
The coverage we sell to franchises is the same as we would sell to any other small business. The difference is a franchisee will typically receive a lower rate due to being pooled together with the other franchise units under that brand. We primarily partner with franchisors as a preferred vendor to offer our insurance products to their franchisees.
Resources Shared:
- Program Insurance Group
- Killing Sacred Cows
As a small business owner myself, I understand the vast number of hats we all wear every day. When I started my business, Essential HR, I knew I could help companies solve their HR problems. But finance, marketing, and sales were new to me so I had to learn as I went along. In my experience, you usually learn those other skills in the moment verse a methodical research-based process.
When it comes to hiring the right people for your business good people are hard to find but also for job seekers a good company is hard to find. So your goal should be to position yourself as an employer someone would want to work with and that starts back at square one. When you are looking to hire someone do you know what you are looking for and are you able to communicate that clearly to the people you hope to hire? It is a two-way street between you and a potential employee so make sure you are putting your best foot forward.
One of the first projects we tackle when we begin to work with clients is their policies. As business owners, we have so many ideas in our heads about how we want the business to run. However, oftentimes we think we’ve communicated those ideas many times but more often we haven’t communicated those ideas clearly. At the end of the day, great HR is all about clear communications. Over the past year business of all sizes have had to learn to adapt their practices for the new normal post COVID. We see a lot of job seekers looking for companies that have taken reasonable precautions to make the work environment safer.
Understanding what discrimination or harassment in the workplace is and what it’s not is a key concept business owners need to grasp. You can absolutely hold people accountable but you shouldn’t be yelling or threatening them when you do it. Often a good way to think about it is how would you want an employer to treat your kids or spouse in that situation.
When it comes to HR technology or systems the first thing I recommend is a time and attendance system. Stop keeping manual spreadsheets or other documents and find one of the many apps out there to take this task off your hands. The next area I look at is performance management tools to help you track goal setting and development. The goal of any system is that it is a benefit to the business but not a hurdle to get getting work done. It needs to work with your current business practices and communication culture.
Resources Shared:
- Essential HR
Cash flow in your business can be related to the blood flow in your body. Without blood flow in your body, you will die, without cash flow, your business will die as well. When I talk about cash flow I’m not just talking about revenue but real profit that hits the bottom line. When you have more profit you have more options which give you more freedom.
When it comes to solving your cash flow problems we look at both sides of the coin, increasing revenue and becoming more efficient with expenses. While COVID has been hard on everyone it also gave many businesses a chance to review their expenses more carefully. It sounds a little funny to say but many businesses will come out of COVID stronger because they became more efficient with their expenses.
The best way to understand your numbers is to start tracking them regularly. What sources are generating revenue and are there any opportunities to grow revenue in those areas. Then consider the Pareto principle and focus your efforts on those areas of your business that are driving 80 percent or more of your revenue.
There are several tools out there that can help you track what is going on in your business. Quickbooks or Xero are great accounting tools you can use to help you manage and run your business. If you are a tiny business a simple spreadsheet might be all you need today and as you scale you can adopt more advanced tools. Eventually, you will want to use dashboards, reports, or lead tracking software to help you better understand what is going on in your business.
Most accountants are passive accountants they wait for you to provide them the numbers and receipts during the tax season and they just file your taxes. What you need to find is an accountant that is actively involved throughout the year to help you with strategies that will maximize your tax savings. One strategy that is prevalent today is the Augusta Rule that allows a homeowner to rent out their home for up to 14 days per year without having to pay any taxes on that income.
Resources Shared:
- Xero Accounting Software
- Quickbooks Online
- Calendly
- Thryv
- Augusta Rule
- Money Ripples
The biggest mistake we see small business owners make when it comes to taxes and accounting is failing to plan. Most people look at taxes as something you do in April. However, to truly save yourself on taxes you need to look at your activities throughout the year and create a plan to minimize your after-tax dollars where possible. If you only do taxes during tax season you are likely paying more taxes than you should.
You don’t have to be scared of an audit, keeping good records is the key to quickly resolving most IRS questions. Many of the clients we see that have received an audit inquiry from the IRS just need to provide the supporting information requested and the issue is resolved. We like to help our clients create bulletproof tax plans by following a simple record-keeping process. One trick to keep your files organized is to take a picture of receipts and put them into folders on your computer. You can organize them by a vendor, date, or whatever makes sense for your business. The key is that it is digital and organized in a way that you can find those receipts easily.
When it comes to tax planning the primary concept you want to think about is how do I turn after-tax dollars into pre-tax dollars. Look at the ways you are spending after-tax dollars today and see if there are ways to turn any of those expenses into legitimate business deductions.
We also help with retirement planning which generally fits into two buckets either retirement planning for the business owner or retirement savings for employees. There are a lot of options out there such as a solo 401k, SEP IRA, traditional 401k, safe harbor 401k, and many more. The main two questions you want to ask yourself are what is the goal of your retirement program and how much can you afford to save. Also, retirement accounts are a great way to get a tax deduction for you as a business owner.
The key to being successful at bookkeeping is to do it and do it regularly. There are two primary reasons we do bookkeeping, the first is to prepare and file tax returns but the second reason is to use the information to help us become more successful. You can look at trends going on in your business and create strategies to maximize cash flow or capitalize on opportunities.
Resources Shared:
- Small Business Tax Savings Podcasts
- JETRO Small Business Accountants
- Xero Accounting Software
- Quickbooks Online
I had the opportunity to buy-out a couple of chiropractor practices throughout the years from retiring chiropractors who had let their businesses decline to the point there wasn’t much value left. So I made a mental note that I would not wait to sell my practice until the end of my career but instead, I would sell my business at the peak of its value.
I built my chiropractic business on the foundation of great customer service. Along with my chiropractic work, we decided to specialize in great customer service to help promote and grow the business. It was a 20-year long journey with coaching along the way that helped me find success and provide a great customer experience.
In my book Define and Deliver Exceptional Customer Service the formula I use is based on a study done by the Harvard Business School. In that study, they found out if you can improve your customer retention rate by only 5 percent it can lead to a 25 to 95 percent increase in profit. When we coach clients we begin with the 80-20 rule, we start by focusing on the most important 20 percent of customer service interactions that impact 80 percent of the customer experience.
The two main areas I see that hold a company back from delivering great customer service are overconfidence or a transactional mindset. What I often say is we need to learn to serve better in order to sell more. I have found that in the early stages of a new business they often provide better customer service but over time, as they begin to grow, they lose that focus on customer service. They start shifting into that transactional mindset which can be detrimental to the growth and long-term viability of the business.
When it comes to online businesses, there are three critical areas they can focus on to improve their customer experience. The first is to be faster or more convenient, the second is to be more friendly, the third is to resolve problems quickly. You might not be speaking with customers face to face but you can still offer exceptional customer service by excelling in these three areas.
Resources Shared:
- Define and Deliver Exceptional Customer Service
- Dr. Kelly Henry Business Profit Coach
- Burn Your Goals
I’ve helped lead several start-ups and I was privileged to be part of some great teams. Primarily my focus was on the sales and marketing end of the business. I had a lot of success early on in my career which helped to build the foundation I use today as a business coach. I love what I do and only wish I would have started my coaching business sooner.
The formula I use won’t tell you how to be successful but it will show you if you can be successful. And it provides you the answer more quickly, using fewer resources. First off you need to fall in love with the problem you want to solve and the customers that you will help, get to know them and understand their pain points. Secondly don’t ever run out of cash. Those are the primary two problems as a founder or founding team you should worry about.
Regardless of your type of business, we often think we know why our customers choose us, and often we’re wrong. This is why understanding your customer is key to your success. There is a theory called Jobs-To-Be-Done that applies here, which is what is the job people are hiring you to do for them.
The facts are that most businesses fail, so when I wrote my book Further, Faster I studied those businesses the have survived and thrived. I found that there are a few things that successful business owners do well. The three main things you need to do well is to understand performance is a team sport, you have to build a system for your business, and you have to use cash as your financial growth metric.
What I’ve learned is that most businesses that are run well aren’t run by the leader. Rather they’ve created an environment for other people to be able to run the business well. Because the leader realizes their true job is to predict the future of the business, not run the day-to-day operations.
It’s not your customers' job to tell you what products or services they need. It’s your job to understand your customers' pain points and create products that solve those needs.
Resources Shared:
- Catalyst Growth Advisors
- Jobs-To-Be-Done
- Demand-Side Sales 101
- Further, Faster
- EOS Process
- Workforce Training Fund
Like a lot of entrepreneurs, I ran headfirst into a problem that turned into an idea for a new business, Crowdspring. The question we asked ourselves is why do we have to pay tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for good design work. Including paying in advance only to wait months for a design.
Regardless of your size of business your branding matters. It is your brand identity that becomes your brand's credibility. As consumers, we process images 60 thousand times faster than words. The best thing small business owners can do is create a strong visual identity that makes them look credible. A good design however does not fix bad service or a poor quality product.
The biggest mistake small businesses can make is to underinvest in good design. But that doesn’t mean a good design has to be expensive. Underinvesting in design is the difference between a few hundred dollars and fifty dollars. When you underinvest in a design you end up with a visual identity based on templates and clip art. Making your business look like dozens of other businesses out there. Check out our guide on design costs for tips on how to get the most from your design projects.
A smart business owner knows that small investments can help them grow and under investments holds them back.
Resources Shared:
- Crowdspring
- Complete guide to how much custom design costs
- Complete guide to building a strong brand identity
- Complete guide to branding
- Basecamp
- Thryv
While we, Big Frog Custom T-Shirts of Durham, have survived the storm so far it is heartbreaking to watch other businesses and colleagues that have left or shutdown. Our primary customers are event-based businesses so when the economy shut down we had to pivot or risk becoming another business casualty from this pandemic. The one silver lining the pandemic did give us was the opportunity to reset and adjust our strategy to apply the lessons learned from the past four years.
A lot has happened here since we last spoke, we licensed our first location of The Sandwich Shop. Pre-COVID 80% of our sales were online and our sales have only grown since March. However, we are still being very careful to only spend what we need and operate with a skeleton crew. Looking forward we hope to sell more licenses of The Sandwich Shop and there is a bit of an opportunity to get a good price on commercial real estate in Manhattan right now.
During the early days of the pandemic we, Brooklyn Bark, received the Thryv Foundation grant along with the PPP and EIDL loans that helped us keep payroll going. Right now we are focused on how to best get the PPP loan forgiven and exploring new revenue streams, such as selling pet products online.
Resources Shared:
- Big Frog Custom T-Shirts
- The Sandwich Shop
- Brooklyn Bark
- Thryv Foundation
One of the reoccurring communication issues I see people make is failing to “close the loop”. Which can create real problems for business owners that are busy trying to build a successful business. The key to effective communications is to have a plan and a crucial part is who is responsible for responding to communications.
What I find is most small business owners are busy running their business and simply don’t have the needed time. This is why it’s important to invest in resources, be that people or tools, that help you nurture your customer relationships. Nothing is more important or costly for a business than customer churn. Social media can be a great tool to help your business grow but only if you are engaged with your audience.
When it comes to communication tools, PowerPoint is one of the tools I see that is most often misused. We know that a picture is worth a thousand words and a PowerPoint is intended to help your audience remember what you say. However, when you use it to keep track of your talking script you are doing your audience a disservice. The point of any presentation is to make people interested in your topic or provide the information they need to make a decision. Think about presentations as speeches and structure your content in a way that tells a story. If people can’t remember what you said then your presentation has no value.
Through the Back to Better Podcast, I host with Tim Sanders we discuss how companies are learning and growing through the crises of 2020. The standout companies we found that are being successful approached their situation with a mindset of what’s different and how do we use what’s changed to our advantage.
I think more often than not, meetings are the worse way to communicate. Not to mention meetings often interrupt productivity and prevent more work from getting done. But not having meetings doesn’t mean you’re not communicating anymore. Rather what you will find is your communications get better because it is more specific and more to the point of solving problems.
Learning to manage remote teams comes with unique challenges, especially during a pandemic. A key mindset shift you need to make is to focus on output, what are the tasks that need to be accomplished, and how well are those getting completed.
Resources Shared:
- Back to Better Podcast
- Thryv
I always aspired to start my own business but starting out I didn’t have the resources, knowledge, or courage to do so. I started in entrepreneurship by dipping my toe in the water via a partnership with a friend. We took over a pizza delivery franchise while I continued to work my day job and he ran the daily operations. A line I love to repeat from Dan Sullivan is, “we cannot wait for confidence, we don’t have confidence, we have to have the courage to go try something and then confidence comes”.
When you are considering going into business you first need to determine if you prefer to work solo or in partnership with others. If you choose to work in partnership my recommendation is you start with what I call a memo of understanding. The biggest mistake I see people make is they go into a partnership not considering what happens when there is a disagreement.
The biggest obstacle people often have to overcome when starting a business is the fear of failure. The problem is we are typically surrounded by others that haven’t taken the leap into entrepreneurship and often, unknowingly, they project their fear of failure on us. You have to find a way to get over the fear of failure or entrepreneurship isn’t going to work for you.
A key misconception people have when starting a business is that they will be successful because they love or enjoy the problem they are solving. The reality is we have to be prepared to fail but our goal should be how to minimize those failures. Another misconception is the amount of work it takes to make that business successful. When your business is starting out you will work harder than almost any job you’ve ever had.
Small business systems don’t have to be some big elaborate process or complicated tool. However, a lack of systems is often the number one reason a business struggles to grow. Start with the simple things you do every day and turn them into a checklist. Then as you grow you can identify where you could bring in tools that help you automate your checklist items.
As it relates to should I buy or build a business? In the simplest terms, if you build it will they come verse if you buy a business at least you have an idea of what it might look like. It is true you will pay a premium to buy a business but it can minimize the risk of product-market fit. The rule of thumb when it comes to buying a business is to look at the average revenue, expenses, and profit for the past 3 years. Then apply a multiple anywhere from 1 up to 3 or 5 times profit.
When you are looking to sell your business there are a few things to consider. If the business success is dependent solely on you then you have not created a business you can sell. You should have the systems in place that allows someone else to come in and run the business, which will make the business more valuable.
Resources Shared:
- Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
- EMyth
- The How of Business Podcast
- Thryv
Out of college, I worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car in the fleet services division. During that season I met a man that had recently opened a Mr. Handyman franchise. He was so excited to get started but he only had two vans which were too small for the fleet services we offered. However, he explained there might be a bigger opportunity via their network of franchise owners.
Fast-forward to when I was working with John Rotche to launch TITLE Boxing Club. We had the privilege to have Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza, visit one day. When I asked Tom what he thought of the business his answer underwhelmed me at first. After Tom looked around for a bit he just said, “your product is an experience and this is all great so just do this every time”. The more I thought about it I realized the profoundness of what Tom said. To be great at any business you have to know what your core competencies are and deliver on them at every interaction.
We’ve seen a lot of growth in the franchise space and behind nearly every location is a local business owner. Like any small business owner, those franchisees have invested their sweat and equity into a business they hope will be successful. Where franchise owners get some extra help along their journey is the network of other franchise owners and the franchisor. Together they are all trying to solve the same problems and sharing best practices that help everyone succeed.
If you are considering if franchising is right for you or not there are a few questions to ask yourself. If you like the idea of having some systems already in place and processes to follow while still making your own decisions then franchising is likely a good fit for you. Whereas, if you want to create something unique from the ground up then a franchise might feel a bit too restrictive for you.
I had the chance to co-author a book with John Rotche called Reach. Which is about making human connections. And about the critical importance of mentorship – both receiving and giving. The way we complemented each other working on the book was, John provided the backstories and I wrote the application piece of how we applied those learnings.
Resources Shared:
- Enterprise Fleet Management
- Mr. Handyman
- TITLE Boxing Club
- Reach by John Rotche
- Franworth
As a high school football coach and teacher, I wanted to learn how to motivate my students better. So I began to study the topic of motivation and the more I learn the more it fascinated me. Too often motivation seems to be a topic we ignore or we leave it as one of the last areas we address whereas I believe motivation should be the first area we address.
I had a chance to apply my learnings on a larger stage when an old colleague of mine, Tom Donahoe asked me if I would help him with player recruitment for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So we started testing the players we were considering drafting to look for how they responded in various situations. What we were trying to understand is does the player have faith in themselves, are they able to learn from mistakes, do they raise others up, and how do they perform during an interview.
When it comes to running a small business successfully a key variable you need to have is the word “we”. There was a study done that looked at the most common factor successful small businesses had, which was dyslexia. What they found was those business owners that struggled with dyslexia, had to overdevelop their communication skills to be successful. Hard work and better communication skills are both key traits that can help you be successful in many areas of life, including business.
Connecting with others and bringing other people into what we’re doing has been found to be one of the strongest factors to success. The main factors that influence people to stay at a company are when they have friends there and they feel connected to the culture. You will find the same thing when it comes to your customers. When people come into our business we think they are deciding to purchase because we offer the best product, price, or some other logic-based reason. However, they are often making the decision based on how well you connect with them as a person.
Even if being a people person isn’t your natural tendency you can learn to develop that skill. In the book, The War For Kindness, they found that if people said I can’t do something they never did but when others said I’m not good at a skill but I believe I can learn to do better they were able to improve that skill drastically. You have to have a growth mindset versed a fixed mindset.
When it comes to learning how to deal with change you have to remind yourself these aren’t tough times these are changing times. When your environment changes you have to learn how to adapt. In my book, I Believe Mindset, I talk about how if you going around saying I believe these are bad times then you are just enduring trying to get to the end. But if you believe that these are changing times you will find a way to change along with the times and realize opportunities.
Resources Shared:
- Entrepreneurs and Dyslexia Study
- The War For Kindness
- Nerves of Steel
- Ten Steps to an “I Believe” Mindset”
- Thryv
We help businesses and individuals activate their social media presence so they stand out from the crowd. What makes us a little unique is we embrace helping individuals create their online presence, whereas most other social media firms shy away from that aspect. Regardless if you are a corporate executive or a small business owner we start by helping you determine who your audience is and what message are you communicating to them via your social media presence.
When you begin to advertise your services online we recommend you use landing pages as part of your campaign strategy to ensure that people who are ready to buy can do so easily. It is an easy thing to overlook but it makes a big difference in the conversion rate of leads to paying customers. What I encourage most businesses to do when they are starting is to get a simple one-page website. And then work your way up to a more robust platform with more features when you can invest more resources.
LinkedIn organic reach is fantastic for people with a personal brand. If your business is in the B2B environment you must have a LinkedIn page to be seen as credible. Often the first mistake I see people make is they build their LinkedIn page like a resume. Which is ok if you are trying to find a job but a bad idea if you want to attract customers to do business with you. The headline and about sections of your profile should be written in such a way that speaks to your target customer's pain points and why you’re the best person to solve that issue for them.
I recommend people take 15-minutes on Tuesday or Thursday morning and post something or comment on something that your target customers would care about. If you’re not sure what to say put a pen and a notepad or post-it note next to your computer. As you go through the week and you speak with customers jot down the questions they ask you. Then when you sit down to write a post look over those notes to see what topic you could write a few sentences about.
When it comes to making hiring decisions I think diversity is important because all those different perspectives are valuable. Also, when I’m interviewing people I love to ask them these two questions, what made their favorite boss great and what made their least favorite boss bad. Their answers to these questions will tell you who they aspire to be and how they might fit or fill a need in your organization.
Resources Shared:
- ePresence
- LinkedIn 1-Hour Webinar
- Office 365
- Vidyard
- Thryv
When it comes to creating videos for your business I think you can do 80% of it yourself. The distinction I like to make is the difference between quick videos and keeper videos. A quick video might be a Facebook live, Zoom, or similar video. Those can be powerful because they are in the moment. A keeper video might be one you plan to use on the home page of your website or another place that would represent your brand. Those require a bit more production time and resources but are worth it to enhance your brand credibility.
When it comes to marketing your business via video you first have to determine what platform your audience is on. Facebook live is probably the low-hanging fruit for anyone looking to get started. These videos can be a bit more raw but allow you to get feedback and see what works. Then you might create a version for LinkedIn that is a little more polished and of course post the video on YouTube. Often the successful video creators on YouTube look at what their audience is searching for and then work backward to create a video for that topic.
One of the secret weapons I use to create quick videos is Loom, there is a free version and an extension for the Chrome web browser. I use it for video emails because it is often quicker for me to record a short video than explain something through email. It is a great tool for those one-to-one videos where it might be easier for someone to watch than read.
At the end of the day to be successful using video you have to get started. And what you will often find is it’s not as hard as you might have first thought.
Resources Shared:
- Lou Bortone Creative
- Loom
- Magisto
- Thryv
In early 2019 I was asked by a media company to give a presentation to their clients about the customer journey. As I thought about that presentation I found myself staring at my phone and the idea struck me for ThinkLikeAnApp. Now that does not mean every business needs to build an app but rather it is a framework for thinking about how we engage with our customers.
ThinkLikeAnApp is the framework for why small business owners should adopt technology. There are three pillars to the framework authenticity, transparency, and immediacy. Which if you put those pillars together you create the triangle of trust. Now more than ever trust is critical to your success.
When it comes to creating authenticity it is simply letting people know who you are. Whatever business you are in you have to convey to your customers who you are and why they should do business with you. When your customers can feel your emotion coming through your messaging or branding then you can create those authentic connections.
Transparency is about letting people see behind the curtain of your business. There’s a saying that “nobody wants to see how the sausage gets made” but that’s simply not true. People love to feel connected to the process of how a product or service is delivered.
When you think about immediacy just take a look at your phone. How many emails are unopened and how many text messages have you not read. Because texting is so immediate we tend to look at it more quickly and respond. That doesn’t mean you have to work 24/7 but you need to have a process in place to handle inquiries quickly.
We are working on an educational course to not only help business owners understand the why but also how to implement this framework in their business. How to translate core values into your authentic voice, how to figure out what business processes you can expose to your customer, and what processes you can make more immediate for your customers.
Resources Shared:
- ThinkLikeAnApp
- Thryv
I write weekly about issues concerning small businesses for several publications. The next topic I will be writing about is small business closures. When you hear about retailers, restaurants, fitness centers, and the travel industry there is no doubt they are hurting in 2020. But this is also a big country with 30 million small businesses spread across many verticals. This means there are still a lot of small businesses out there that haven’t been impacted as greatly by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A key reminder though when you’re looking at numbers is how do they compare to other related measures. The three biggest government agencies that report statistics on small businesses the Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Small Business Administration (SBA) all report 7 to 9 percent of U.S. small businesses close each year. There are about 30 million small businesses in the U.S. and around 6 million of those businesses have employees outside of the owners. If you take a 7 to 9 percent closure rate of those 6 million employer businesses that would be about five hundred thousand business closures each year.
The silver lining is when there are economic downturns it also creates opportunities for some businesses to grow or new businesses to start. Businesses have had to learn to adapt to working virtually and leverage technology to run their business. Online sales have increased 28% year over year in 2020, which means businesses have had to pivot from selling products only in-store to selling online as well.
A lot of people that received PPP loans in the Spring are starting to work out how to get them forgiven because those loans are starting to come due. You need to go back to your lender or bank and fill out the forgiveness application. If your loan is forgiving be mindful of the tax implication, whatever expenses you covered using the PPP funds will not be deductible on your taxes. This means your taxable income this year will be greater than you might normally expect to pay. Make sure to talk to your accountant early so they can help you prepare and know what to expect on your taxes.
Some of the technology categories that have become mainstream today are virtual meeting platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) applications, cloud-based accounting systems, and office systems in general like project management or HR applications. One of the biggest problems facing businesses though is security so you need to partner with an IT firm to ensure the systems and tools you are using are updated and secure.
Resources Shared:
- Loan Forgiveness
- Thryv
I’ve been fortunate to spend the past 30-years working in the franchising industry. After college, I took what I thought would be a short-term job at Domino’s Pizza. I was lucky enough to catch the eye of the founder Tom Monaghan, he took me under his wing and taught me a lot about the franchise business model.
One of the key lessons I learned from Tom was simplicity. For 20 years all Domino’s would sell was pizza and coke. While some people would debate him about offering other choices it ran counter to Tom’s goal of being the best delivery company with a quality product. Years later Domino’s does offer more choices but at their core, they are still one of the best delivery companies out there.
My first venture into owning a franchise came when I bought my brother-in-law’s one van air duct cleaning business. As I looked around at the competition it was a fragmented market and a race to zero on price. Our idea was to launch a premium brand in a non-premium category. While we planned to charge a premium price we would also offer a level of service no one else in the industry had seen before. The great news is the idea worked and we were very successful at scaling the business. After that proof of concept, we decided to turn the business into a franchise model and within 3 years we scaled to over 300 franchise units.
Along my journey, I've launched and exited several franchise brands, including TITLE Boxing Club that was named the fastest-growing franchise in 2017. Next, I saw a big opportunity to help smaller franchise organizations scale to 100 or more units. So we started Franworth to partner with brands in a mentorship role to help them succeed.
If you are considering if you should start your own business or buy a franchise just look at the research from the Small Business Administration. What you will find is the success rate for franchise businesses is greater than the success rate of non-franchise businesses. The main reason behind that success is you are starting with processes and playbooks already in hand verse having to create all those processes yourself. Which allows you to focus your energy on the things that matter most like great service and a quality product.
A common myth in franchising is that franchisors make a lot of money selling franchises. This is not the case once you factor in acquisition and startup costs. Where it can be a bit counter-intuitive is the time the franchisees need the most support is the same time they are paying you the least amount of money. There is an enormous amount of work the franchisor has to undertake before the franchisee sees their first customer. A quality franchisor knows this and they provide their services upfront long before revenue starts coming into that unit.
Resources Shared:
- Reach by John Rotche
- DUCTZ
- Franworth
- Blinkist
- Thryv
I started in the fitness industry back in 2009 during a life transition season. It seemed like nothing was working for me so I started going to the gym regularly. After 6 months I began to see the transformation this was having on both my mind and body. So I decided to get into personal training to share what I had learned with other people and help them overcome their struggles.
I have always had a passion to find ways to make the foods we eat regularly healthier. Then I started noticing with my personal training clients that food was one of the main areas they would get off track. So I started making up little bags of my pancake mix and giving them to clients. Then I started getting messages from friends and family members of my clients that had tried the pancake mix and wanted to buy more.
After a lot of research and effort, I launch the ABS Protein Pancakes mix in the Summer of 2014. A few months later I decided to apply to be on Shark Tank, not expecting to hear anything back, but I did receive an invitation to be on the show. The episode was filmed in the Summer of 2015 and aired in January of 2016. It was a crazy 18-months of getting my business up and running and being involved in the Shark Tank TV show.
Going into the Shark Tank my original ask was for $120,000 for 40 percent and my first offer was from Robert Herjavec for the $120,000 at 50 percent. I countered Robert's offer and right when I was about to close the deal, Daymond John came in and offered me the $120,000 for 42 percent, so I took Daymond’s offer.
Everyone has a different experience when they participate in Shark Tank, even when you have the same investor. After the show, there is another long due diligence process before there is an exchange of actual funds. Even after you have a deal you are hustling harder than you were before to make it successful. Just because you get a deal doesn’t mean the shark shows up with their team and fixes all your problems.
I also love wine, like I love food and fitness, so I took the WSET Level 3 Certification to learn more about how I might work it into my business. I started ABS Fit Life for people who have the same passions but don’t fit the traditional box of gym people. We talk about wine, workouts, and recipes with a community of people who want to live a healthy lifestyle.
Resources Shared:
- ABS Protein Pancakes
- ABS Fit Life TV
- WSET Level 3 Certification
Growing up I struggled to find activities I would say I excelled at. When I started working I kept either quitting or getting fired so I started to wonder if there was a better path for me. While I didn’t have much experience in the kitchen I knew I enjoyed eating desserts and I loved cupcakes. So I started a small gourmet cupcake business called The Cupcake Dreamery, which was great for a short time before a bad business partnership took everything downhill.
When I started over I opened a little storefront and launched Dollop Gourmet. From the beginning, I set my sights on getting on Food Network’s TV show Cupcake Wars. In 2012, I was chosen to be on the show and subsequently won. After that our business boomed and I started thinking about what’s next, that’s when I started to consider pursuing the Shark Tank TV show.
Getting on Shark Tank can be a bit of a process, from the application to all the documents you have to submit during the vetting stage. When I was invited to be on the show I was supposed to film in June but when I expected to receive the call about my plane ticket I was told instead that I wasn’t going and I could try again for the next filming.
Thankfully I finally did make it on the show and while the Shark Tank can be a bit overwhelming my main concern was if they were going to like the taste of my icing. I was able to secure an offer from both Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran. Going into the tank I knew that I wanted to make at least one counter to any offer I received. So after Barbara offered $75,000 for 30 percent I countered with $75,000 for 25 percent and she accepted the offer.
After Shark Tank, I didn’t hear anything from Barbara’s team for a while. When I did hear from her team we began another long due diligence process that took 4 to 5 months to complete. At the end of the day, I decided it wasn’t a good fit for me so I didn’t move forward with the offer. The Shark Tank effect is real though and once your episode airs you get a large volume of orders that come pouring in.
After Shark Tank I kept expanding the business and leveraging the Shark Tank experience to get more publicity, I also wrote my second cookbook and brought in some investors via an accelerator program. Then I decided I was ready to make a transition out of the business and I was able to make a deal with a great Canadian company that has been in the frosting and glazes business for over 40 years.
Resources Shared:
- Dollop Gourmet
- The Dollop Book of Frosting
- Crazy Easy Vegan Desserts
In my early days, I was working at a non-tech company in D.C. when I read a book called Megatrends that outlined 10 different trends that were poised to transform our lives in the future. One of those big trends was technology and I decided I wanted to get involved in the industry.
What was interesting about the companies I was involved in early on in my career is we did not consider ourselves a start-up. While today start-ups is a common term we just thought of ourselves as a new type of company. It wasn’t until the dot-com era that consumers began to hear about what was going on in the tech space. It was a lot of hard work to convince people that the way they were doing things could now be done in a new way and why the new way was going to be better for them.
Fast-forward to the early 2000’s I launched BestMarketing to provide consulting services to technology companies. The biggest challenge most technology companies face is how to describe their product in terms of benefits and advantages to their end-users. It’s about helping a company understand the value they are providing and creating messaging that speaks to their target audience.
Today I serve as the chair for the National Women’s Business Council whose mission is to support women business owners and female founders around the country. Every year we make recommendations to Congress, the White House, the Small Business Administration, and other federal agencies aimed at helping foster women entrepreneurship.
Access to capital is universally the biggest obstacle I see women entrepreneurs face. For whatever reason, women entrepreneurs seem to find it difficult to get loans or raise venture capital. Thus, many of the items we are working on at the National Women’s Business Council focus on addressing the issue of helping women get the needed capital to start and grow their business.
What we find is many women-owned businesses tend to be main street businesses and those have been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the bright side when we look at the number of women-owned small businesses in the country, they represent 42 percent of all small businesses which is fantastic to see when we compare that to 1977 when women-owned businesses were first counted and it was only 4.6 percent.
The primary advice I give to aspiring entrepreneurs is you cannot be an expert in every part of the business. Whatever your skills are look for others to round out the team and that will help you be more focused and not waste time doing things that don’t make sense because they’re not your competency.
Resources
- BestMarketing
- National Women’s Business Council
- U.S. Small Business Administration
- SCORE
Despite what it may sound like Matchcraft is not a dating service rather we help match buyers and sellers to local businesses that offer the products or services they need. Our services are primarily sold through resellers that are looking for a way to scale their offering to local businesses. We are a global company with advertising campaigns in over 44 countries.
In today’s economy, the consumer drives it all and they have so much more access to information and channels that influence their buying decisions. Thus, we work hard to ensure our client's information shows up where consumers are shopping and we simplify the process for the local businesses that are trying to reach those consumers. The driver behind this simplicity is performance, we don’t have to think about where the dollar should go and we let the technology shift the focus as performance changes.
Being a global company we began to feel the impact of the pandemic in various markets at different times starting with Europe and progressively across all of our markets as the months dragged along. As it relates to the small business climate, the longer those businesses remain closed the greater likelihood those closures will be permanent. Yelp released an interesting study where they found that 55 percent of the businesses closed today are likely to remain closed.
Consumers are making a play and it’s not just Amazon that’s winning, consumers want to shop local and help support small businesses. Order online and curbside pickup or who is open has become a more important search terms than say near me which use to dominate. From a local business perspective, there is a great opportunity to gain market share if you are creative in how you offer your products or services.
As it relates to big tech we feel consumer privacy and ensuring customers are made aware of their choices are the primary areas big tech companies should be accountable. There are so many ways consumers can protect themselves today but they aren’t always educated on how to do that. I think there is a misnomer out there that cookies are bad whereas I think it is great to have more targeted and relevant ads delivered to me as a consumer. But I do think educating consumers on the choices out there has to be more of a focus.
I see an opportunity for small businesses to leverage large consumer platforms like Amazon and Wal-Mart to sell their products online. While it might not make sense to sell every product online I do see a way for them to generate additional revenue through those types of platforms. However, I also believe local businesses that are selling products and not offering an e-commerce option will not survive.
Resources
- MatchCraft
- Yelp Study on Business Closures
- DuckDuckGo
Lendio is the largest marketplace for small business loans in America, think Expedia for hotel or Yelp for restaurants. We help connect small businesses to the various financial institutions offering loans to small businesses. We offer every type of business loan product from lines of credit to term loans, SBA loans, and many more. It’s a free service for small businesses and we make our cut on the backend from the banks if the business moves forward with the loan.
Our mission at Lendio is to fuel the American Dream, we help entrepreneurs access the capital needed to fuel their American Dream. So far we’ve helped fund a little over 200 thousand businesses for approximately 10 billion dollars. The average size loan we see is 40 to 50 thousand dollars for small businesses with primarily 10 to 20 employees.
Small businesses find us primarily online or through one of our business partners. Once a business comes to us we employ a high-tech and high-touch model. In the background, there are a lot of moving pieces but on the other side, we understand the small business owners want to talk to someone. So we assign a funding manager to each application to help meet the customers where and how they want to communicate.
When it comes to the PPP loans we’re at the tail-end of the first wave of the original PPP loans. As the pandemic continues to rage on, Congress is discussing the second round of PPP loans. From what I understand it will be based on need, such as being able to show a decline in revenue, and it will be targeted towards certain industries. If I were guessing, it all depends on Congress, the second round of funding will be in the 2 to 3 billion dollar range for PPP loans.
So far we’ve helped 300 lending institutions make PPP loans to over 100 thousand businesses for approximately 8 billion dollars in loans. Every step of the way we had to figure out the process because no one had ever done a PPP loan before. There was more demand in one weekend than our lenders had seen in the past 15 years combined. It was a crazy time and we decided to tweak our mission from funding the American Dream to saving the American Dream.
When it comes to loan forgiveness you need to go back to your lender and complete the loan forgiveness documentation. You will have to show how the money was spent and for approved expenses, you won’t have to pay that money back. For any expenses that don’t get approved those funds will turn into a loan that you will have 5 years to pay back. Congress is talking about establishing a threshold for say loans below 150 thousand dollars that could automatically get forgiven.
As we look ahead, I think it’s still going to be a while before we turn the corner but I expect we will begin to see things improve. Entrepreneurs are resilient, creative, optimistic, and they are good at figuring out how to solve problems. Right now it’s about surviving and coming up with creative ways to drive revenue.
Resources
- Lendio
- PPP Loan Forgiveness
SCORE’s mission is to foster a vibrant small business community through mentoring and education. Our volunteers have the, been there done that experience that can help business owners or aspiring business owners avoid some of the common mistakes or pitfalls as they seek to start or grow their business. And because we are a resource partner of the SBA our mentoring services are always free.
One of the unique aspects of SCORE is that we are a truly nationwide network. Meaning, you can work with mentors in your community or across the country. It is more about which mentor has the experience and resources that meet your needs.
We receive hundreds of mentor applications every month and we recruit everyone because we value a diverse volunteer base to mirror the local communities we serve. That being said, once you are a volunteer there is a fairly rigorous and standardize process we adhere to so our clients are receiving the quality mentorship they deserve. We also require every volunteer to sign a code of ethics each year and have ongoing training requirements.
At SCORE we define our success via our client’s success. When we talked with a small business owner we ask them what their goals are, why they started the business, and what they hope to achieve. Last year alone SCORE mentors help to start approximately 30 thousand new businesses and helped create nearly 100 thousand jobs.
If you have a business idea or own a small business already we would love to partner with you. We try to make it very simple to request a mentor, if you go to score.org you can submit a request for a mentor. We can either pair you with a mentor or you can search our mentor profiles to find a mentor that meets your needs.
While there is a lot of fear and uncertainty out there today, new business opportunities are emerging. There is a lot more talent in the market today, unfortunately, due to COVID impacting their previous job. Which allows you to recruit top talent to join your team. There are numerous small business start-up loans available today. Also, there are new needs that consumers have today given what has happened.
Resources
- SCORE
- SCORE Volunteer
- SCORE Find Mentor
- Untamed Book
- Traction Book
- Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!
Looking back you might wonder how I ended up working in the franchise space. I started my career in banking in a small town in Kentucky and altogether I spent 18 years in banking. Towards the end of those years, I started to feel burned out and began soul searching for what I might do next. After leaving the banking industry I started a small consulting firm and got into public speaking for a bit.
My career in franchising came when one of my consulting clients approached me about running the operations side of his regional chain of Fantastic Sams franchises. After a few years, I ended up going to work for corporate Fantastic Sams. Then I got the call from FranNet that my name had been submitted as a potential candidate for their President & COO position. After a few months of interviews, I landed the job and have been here 14 years this August.
One of the key differentiators I see if you are considering whether to start an independent business or join a franchise is the back office support. In franchising, you have that back-office support and a proven process to follow. As we like to say, you are in business for yourself but not by yourself. Good franchisors have a roadmap for you to follow and they have figured out many of the best practices.
Franchising isn’t for everyone though, if you have a great new idea and you’ve done your homework. From competition analysis to best case, worst case, and most probable case scenarios, plus you’ve reached out to your local small business development center or SCORE mentor for guidance. Then starting an independent business is likely to be the right path for you. However, if you do not have that kind of passion for a particular idea then I would say explore franchising and the many options there.
The way to think about FranNet is pretty much as the executive recruiter for high-level franchise companies. Some people have even called us the Match.com of franchising. We mostly specialize in service-based franchise businesses. We help franchisors build their ideal franchisee profile and we match them with potential franchisees that fit their desired profile. We also work with potential franchisees and do the reverse process to match them to a franchise concept that fits their needs.
Resources
- Fantastic Sams
- FranNet
- Small Business Development Centers
- SCORE
Identity LA is a digital marketing agency that specializes in brand development. We help small businesses become influencers in today’s online market and attract the type of customers they want. Most of our clients find us either through our digital marketing efforts or get referred to us by other clients.
One of the key aspects of developing your brand is to determine who your ideal client is and then focus your effort on reaching those clients. As an entrepreneur, it is in our nature to try and help everyone but often we will find more success when we stay focused on the clients that best fit our product or service niche. Focusing your efforts there allows you to become known in that space which in turn helps bring in more of your ideal clients.
We resell many digital services to our clients and Thryv is one of the best platforms we’ve used in a long time. The more I use it, the more value I see behind it. My favorite feature is the client portal which is like a digital business card, I created a custom version and sent it out to my clients and about 75% of them responded. Several clients complimented me on the digital business card and wanted to know more about how I created it. Which was a great segue for me to tell them about Thryv.
Building a brand is really about building relationships. If you don’t understand who you are as a brand you will have challenges when it comes to your marketing and sales efforts. At the end of the day, the customer might not remember your name but they will remember your brand.
Resources
- Identity LA
- Thryv Partners
- Thryv
Fish is a PR agency that serves brands throughout North America and some international markets. We focus predominately on the franchising industry, we help franchisors either attract new franchisees to their brands or increase awareness of their products and services to consumers. We’ve been around about 15-years and are based in South Florida.
When we started our firm we had a few small clients but knew we wanted to target working with larger well-known brands. A couple of our initial clients were smaller franchises and they introduced me to the International Franchise Association (IFA), which is the largest association of franchisors and franchisees in the US. For any small business being known for something specific can help you grow faster. While at the time I didn’t know the franchise industry would become that niche for us, we attended their national convention and had a productive show. After securing a partnership with Dunkin’ Brands, that gave us credibility with other brands and we’ve grown considerably over the past 15 years.
No matter if you are an independent or a franchisee you are the owner of that local business. The main difference is the business concept, processes, branding, and systems are provided to you by the franchisor. As defined by your franchise agreement you will pay a monthly percentage of gross sales to that franchisor as a royalty for all the resources they provide to you. Whereas independent business owners have to create or source all those resources themselves.
The main way franchisors make money is the royalty fee. Based on the research we’ve seen from the IFA and other sources, once a franchise brand hits the 100 unit mark they become sustainable in their own right as a brand. Typically brands under 100 units are considered emerging brands, to give you a perspective I believe the stat is 70 percent of franchise brands are considered emerging. Which of course means very few get to that 100 unit mark.
The secret sauce for brands that make it past the 100 unit mark is that the franchisor realizes they exist to support the franchisee. When you see a franchise company that is primarily focused on selling franchise units or marketing the business to consumers, they aren’t being successful. The franchisor's true customer is the franchisee and when they focus on providing great support to their franchisee and growing unit-level profitability those are the brands that see great success.
There are about 800 thousand franchise business units in the United States today, that collectively provide about 8 million jobs in America. Overall franchise businesses represent about 3 percent of the GDP in America, around 40 percent of franchise businesses are in the restaurant vertical but the rest of them are all non-food brands. Services business and home services have been two of the biggest growth areas we’ve seen in franchising over the past few years.
Resources
- Fish Consulting
- Kitchen Confidential by American chef Anthony Bourdain
At Brooklyn Bark, we recently celebrated our 10th anniversary and we help take care of many types of pets but most of our business comes from dog walking. What makes us a little different is all of our staff is highly trained and certified in pet CPR and first aid. Although we are not considered an essential business and thus closed, some of our clients are medical workers or frontline workers in various capacities. We have been trying to give back where we can and care for their pets free of charge while they are out there saving lives.
We shut down a few days before New York City shut down and that was really hard. We had to put a lot of thought into that decision because we didn’t want to risk losing customers or employees after 10 years of building those relationships. I’ve always preached that safety is number one and we wanted to put our employee safety first. Amazingly our employees and clients were very understanding and respectful of that decision.
We applied for everything we could find related to the various government relief programs. Eventually, we were able to secure some funds but the whole process has been a bit of a mess. I don’t think anyone fully understands the details behind the payroll protection loan (PPP) and New York is a little different than other states when it comes to restrictions.
We heard about the Thryv Foundation Small Business Grant from one of our clients that works in the mayor’s office. She sent over a list of all the various grant programs and we started applying for them. It kind of felt like you were applying to college again and waiting to hear back that you got in. The Thryv Grant was the first guiding light that showed up for us and gave us hope.
Post-COVID we expect to see a lot of changes in our business and the world around us. What is safety now, wearing a mask, social distancing, not getting into crowded elevators, or waiting in long lines? We are working on ideas related to how we best protect our staff and clients to decrease the risk of contamination. Our main goal is that we can operate in a way that keeps our staff, clients, and their pets safe.
Resources:
- Brooklyn Bark
- Thryv Foundation
Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More is a franchise business that started about 12 years ago and today there are about 80 stores across the country. I own 2 stores in the North Carolina area and what makes us a little unique is we have a retail space, free design, and offer one-off custom print t-shirts. We offer screen printing and embroidery as well as direct-to-garment (DTG) printing.
It’s never a good time for a pandemic but our slow season is the beginning of the year, November through February. Then we get hit with the pandemic and most of the businesses we serve are closed or canceling orders. Being an events-based business the pandemic has shut us down and we have lost tens of thousands of dollars of cash flow into the business that we need for working capital.
We closed our business completely when the mandate came down because we are not classified as an essential business. Even if the door had been left open the world had shut down. Now that we have been able to open up again we have seen a little business begin to ramp up. While it is certainly better than the previous 5 to 6 weeks it is a far cry from the normal volume for this time of year.
North Carolina is reopening in phases with precautions. We have signs at the door letting people know we are offering masks and hand sanitizer while limiting the number of people in the store. It is all about safety for everyone, we can’t let this virus come back and bite us again. I’m looking at this reopening as month one of starting the business again, what we have to our advantage is a client base and experience. What we don’t have is the certainty of knowing that come August, I am doing the same sales as last year.
We applied for PPP and EIDL early on and thankfully we receive funds in the second round. Now the trick is what are the rules to pay it back and how to document expenses correctly. In the middle of all of that, someone in my local networking group told me about the Thryv Foundation Small Business Grant and I applied. Then I learned I was 1 of 60 people that received a grant, which was great as those funds helped us pay some bills that month.
There is a reason people join a Chamber or a BNI networking group, those people become your tribe and can help each other. A franchise business is a similar concept where you have a group of other people that are all in the same boat. There’s no cash registered in the franchisor's office, all the money comes into the business through the local stores. So the franchisor's goal is to help the local stores be as successful as they can.
Resources:
- Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More
- Thryv Foundation
We’ve been around for just over a decade, as an advocate for small business owners and entrepreneurs during the loan process. We primarily help business owners secure SBA loans and we’ve helped over a thousand local businesses navigate the application process and secure funding. Our median loan size is about $350,000 and our average loan size is close to $3,000,000.
I don’t believe the PPP loan was intended to be an entitlement, it was created to help save jobs and essentially cover 2 months of payroll. With the hope that the worst of the COVID-19 crisis might be behind us. However, I don’t think that is how business owners understood it and it turned into more of a free money grab.
While all of these details are subject to change based on what Congress ultimately decides. When you applied for the PPP loan you applied for 10 weeks of your 2019 payroll costs, of which 8 weeks could be forgiven. The extra 2 weeks of surplus you could use for other business expenses with some restrictions.
When it comes to getting your loan forgiven it can be a little frustrating because the requirements keep changing. I always tell people to check our website for the latest details. As of right now, the SBA released an 11-page forgiveness application on May 15th. This essentially says if you used the funds appropriately, 75 percent payroll and 25 percent approved business expenses, then the documentation is fairly simple.
The EIDL program has been around for a long time and issues loans to small businesses during a crisis. While none of the money is forgivable, it is a long-term loan. Due to the current demand for loans, I believe there is a cap of $150,000 for the loan amount. What people need to know is the only place you can apply for the EIDL loan is SBA.gov, it is a scam if it is being offered elsewhere.
Lastly, the Main Street Lending program is a bit different and it's expected to be out near the end of May. To qualify for the program your business needs to have had at least $83,000 of positive EBITDA in 2019, assuming you had zero debt. These are 4-year loans that are not forgivable and you have two options. There is a new facility or a priority facility, for the new facility you can get 4 times your 2019 EBITDA minus debt and for the priority facility you can get 6 times your 2019 EBITDA minus debt.
Resources:
- MultiFunding
- SBA Small Business Guidance & Loan Resources
Girl Contracting is a female-managed, commercial and residential construction company that was established in Pennsylvania a little over 2 years ago. We offer a personalized approach to design, building, and renovations. Our projects range from new construction and full rehabs to remodeling and additions.
I started 13 years ago as a small Real Estate investor, buying and flipping homes. I hired all the tradesmen myself and took an interest in the details of every project. I would pull the job permits myself and I was always on-site when we had inspections. Along the way, neighboring property owners and especially women would ask if they could stop by to look at what I was doing or ask me to quote a project for them.
COVID-19 had a substantial impact on our business as it did on most businesses. On March 19th the Pennsylvania Governor ordered all non-essential residential and commercial construction to stop. However, unlike other industries, our industry is dependent on being on the job site to build and construct. Meaning there was no option for us to pivot our business model and thus our business operations came to a complete halt.
We have been fortunate none of our team members have contracted the virus but we have certainly felt the financial constraints due to it. The other hard part is this is our busy season, people are generally getting their tax returns about this time and thinking about their home remodeling projects.
We applied for the SBA EIDL and PPP loan programs along with 24 other applications to various aid programs. In addition, I’ve attended close to 80 webinars from small business roundtables to the Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Development Centers. Which were centered around how to pivot your business and the aid options available to small businesses.
Along the way, we came across the press-release for the Thryv Foundation Small Business Grant and I immediately applied. One of the aspects I appreciated most about the Thryv Foundation application was its simplicity. By this time I had already submitted several cumbersome applications to other organizations, without any certainty of funds. I applied on April 1st and we learned on April 27th that we had been awarded a grant. The Thryv Foundation grant will always remain significant to me because up until that point we hadn’t heard back from anyone else or received any other funds.
Resources:
- Girl Contracting
- Thryv Foundation
The Sandwich Shop has been around for 7 years and was started by my wife, who is a trained chef. After her training, she worked in the fine dining industry for several years before deciding to take an innovative approach to make the simple sandwich more delicious. Her vision was to recreate the local flavors from the various places she had visited and infuse those flavors into each sandwich. My background was in advertising and branding so we put our skills together and went to work building the business.
In a small business and especially a small restaurant you experience a series of pitfalls almost daily. It might be summertime and you get the call that the freezer is broken, so you go grab ice bags while you wait for the technician to arrive. When COVID hit it we quickly went into problem-solving mode. We had just decided to close the shop for a time when we got the call that one of our cooks had been diagnosed with COVID. So we kept the shop closed for 14 days and had cleaning crews come in to disinfect the space. Thankfully our employee that had gotten COVID was able to make a full recovery.
We were lucky in that our business was already doing about 80 percent takeout and delivery before the pandemic. We had the processes in place and our customers were accustomed to ordering from us in that way. Also, we had good relationships with the Pace University Small Business Development Center and after COVID hit they sent us links to all the various grant programs available, including the Thryv Foundation.
The main advice I would share with other business owners during this season is to think about your business presence. What I mean is there are lots of businesses out there that don’t have a strong social media presence because they think it’s only something the larger companies can do. For example, when you go to our Instagram page, it looks very professional and often people are surprised to find out we are just a small shop. If social media isn’t your strength look for a freelancer you can hire. It doesn’t matter how humble your budget is, right now there are so many talented people out there that need work.
Resources:
- The Sandwich Shop
- Pace University Small Business Development Center
- Thryv Foundation
I’m speaking to you today from a high-rise building in Chicago just off a vacant Michigan Avenue, which is crazy considering it's one of the busiest retail districts in the world. There are over 30 million small businesses in America and something like 95 percent of them were impacted in one way or another by the coronavirus. Upwards of 50 percent of them have had to close their businesses and while most hope to reopen without government assistance it will be hard for many of them to hold on for long.
According to the American Bankers Association, they reported $205 billion of the $350 billion in stimulus funds have been claimed. What I hear from my clients and read across the web, is once a business receives the notice that their application has been accepted it takes up to seven days for the funds to be deposited in their bank account. I think the real confusion has been for the independent contractors or sole proprietors, what number do they use when applying for the PPP loans. For those folks, they need to go to their Schedule C form and look at line 31, which is the amount they paid themselves, take that number and divide by 12 then multiply it by 2.5. That will give you the number you can apply for on your PPP loan application.
When it comes to applying for the PPP loans you should start by going to the bank you already have a relationship with. However, if you don’t have a bank or your bank is not responding, go to one of the fintech lenders like Kabbage, Lendio, or PayPal. But don’t give up, a lot of folks are frustrated right now, you deserve to get your fair share of the funds available. I do believe the funds are designed to be a grant as long as 75 percent of it goes towards payroll.
When we are able to start reopening our economy, I think it is critical that small business owners begin to reimagine their customer experience. People might not be getting out as often and certainly not in large groups for a while, so how can you ensure your customers are comfortable doing business with you. What personal protection equipment is your team using and how do you provide space for social distance. You also need to reimagine the products and services your business offers, what could you add or take away that provides the experience customers need today.
Resources:
- Barry Moltz
- Kabbage
- Lendio
- PayPal
- Thryv
- Love Is the Killer App by Tim Sanders
The SBDC helps small businesses with management assistance, technical assistance, and business planning. Whereas the SBA is more of a financial partner in helping small businesses obtain loans. The SBDC and SBA are really two sides of a coin with both organizations focused on helping foster small business in America.
The Thryv Foundation is the charitable arm of Thryv Inc. and we empower, develop, and invest in small businesses across America. We host webinars and seminars for small business owners or those looking to start a small business. Additionally, we provide in-kind donations and small business grants to help small business owners. We also announced our partnership with the SBDC in March on National SBDC Day.
The biggest thing for small business owners to do is, develop a strategy on how to best use the government assistance resources available. That way your business will be in a good position once the stay-at-home orders are lifted and people begin to get back out. Let’s start with the paycheck protection program (PPP), which allows businesses to borrow up to 10 million dollars to cover payroll. You can borrow that money at 1 percent interest for 2 years, but the kicker is if you use 75 percent of it to cover payroll then that money is forgivable. For a lot of small businesses, their payroll is much less than 75 percent of their monthly expenses. That is where programs like the EIDL kick in, you can apply for those through the SBA website, where you can get up to 2 million dollars for a 30-year term at 3.75 percent.
At the Thryv Foundation, we launched our Small Business Grant program last week, and this week we started sending grants out to the first wave of recipients. I spent the last couple of days talking to small business owners across the country and I kept hearing that they had applied for the PPP loan but haven’t received the $10,000 advance they were told would happen. The holdup is that the SBA and treasury are still working out the final guidance on how the loans will be purchased from the banks. The treasury is also working to bring more lenders online so that the loans are more accessible.
Resources:
- SBDC
- SBA
- Thryv Foundation
- Thryv Adapt
Essentially Well Oiled is a store in Colden, NY and we offer local products from about 14 different suppliers. Anything from honey to maple syrup and jewelry to jelly, our biggest selling product is chocolates that I make and infuse with essential oils. We started about 3-years ago selling online and opened our brick-and-mortar store in February of 2019. While our store is still open, we have a 2 person limit and we offer online ordering options. We’ve taken a lot of steps to help customers feel safe and also offer curbside pick-up.
Next, we will speak with Alan Traverse, the head of research for Thryv Inc., to talk about the latest research related to the impact COVID is having on small businesses. Like everyone else, we know small businesses are concerned and this research helps sheds light on what areas they are most concerned about. When we asked them what impact the pandemic has had on the demand for their products or services, 69 percent said they had seen a large decrease in demand. For those that had seen a decrease in demand, 64 percent said they had cut employee hours and another 22 percent said they expected they would. One of the open-ended questions we asked was what are they doing to overcome the decrease in demand. Many of the local auto repair shops said they had instituted a key drop process and a local church said they had started a drive-in church service. We plan to continue the survey over the coming weeks and months so that we can provide insight into the state of small businesses throughout the pandemic.
Colts Neck Pharmacy is a local pharmacy in Colts Neck, NJ that has taken an innovative approach to keep its customers and staff safe during the pandemic. We set up our website to allow people to not only put their orders in but also let us know when they arrive so we can provide curbside service. We implemented the process about a week ago and while it was slow at first, now we are getting more requests through our website than phone calls. We also hired a delivery service to allow us to deliver any products ordered within 24 hours to the customer's doorstep. We require all employees to wear masks and gloves as well as socially distance from each other and customers.
Resources:
- Essentially Well Oiled
- Thryv
- COVID-19 Study: Small Business Impact
- Colts Neck Pharmacy
The one thing I can tell you is the coming recession is very different than the Great Recession. In my business, we sell various CRM systems to our clients across the country and while current projects are still moving forward, future projects are on pause right now. The response we are hearing from clients is very different than in 2009. There is an abundance of capital available, including the massive stimulus from the government as well as private sources.
I talk and write a lot about small businesses and what I can say is it is hard to generalize them because there are over 30 million. Generally, things aren’t going well right now and most small businesses are experiencing what I’m experiencing, a freeze on current or future projects. However, there are pockets of businesses that are seeing an increase in the demand for their services. The point is while generally small businesses have been negatively impacted some are doing quite well.
So far, I don’t feel like the federal response to the pandemic has been enough. The federal government is trying hard to keep things going by providing funding for disaster recovering loans, unemployment insurance, and tax credits for employers. While all of those are good things there is still a lack of certainty and my feeling is the government should provide the direction to shut everything down for a few weeks to let the virus run its course. Give a date when businesses could reopen but for 3 weeks just shut it all down so we can get through this virus as quickly as possible.
In the past, if you wanted an SBA loan you had to go through a process with your local bank to submit everything for the SBA to guarantee the loan, which would take forever. Right now that is not the case, the loans that are available are coming from another area of the SBA that is reserved for disasters. If you go to the SBA home page at SBA.gov there is a big link on there to learn more and apply for the loan.
The advice I have for small businesses right now is to think about how you are using and managing your cash. Go to your suppliers or vendors, especially the larger ones, and request to defer your payments for 60 to 90 days. You will likely find they will be very accommodating because the last thing they want is negative PR about how they are coming down hard on main street America. The next tip I have would be to educate yourself about the new government legislation, especially as it relates to employee benefits, and then educate your staff on what options are available to them. Both so that your employees feel grateful towards you and so they will be ready to come back to work when the time comes. Last, look for ways to leverage technology to help you run your business better.
Resources:
- The Marks Group
- The Hill Article by Gene Marks
- SBA.gov
- Thryv
Today there is a concern from consumers about getting out in public and especially around groups of people. At the same time, I think it’s an opportunity for businesses to pause and think about how they are conducting business. Are there areas in their business, they can leverage technology to improve the customer experience?
About a year and a half ago I was asked to speak on the topic of the customer journey. As I thought about the presentation, I found myself staring at my phone and the idea hit me. Our devices, often our phones, are where today’s customer journey begins and ends. That’s what triggered the idea that local businesses need to reorient their business to ThinkLikeAnApp.
What I have set out to do with the ThinkLikeAnApp framework is to take the learnings from big businesses and empower local businesses with the core principles. I read somewhere, the findings from a 2012 survey, said that 36 percent of companies believed the customer experience was a key competitive differentiator. Today that number has grown to 89 percent. Another stat I saw recently was 86 percent of modern consumers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.
There are three pillars to the ThinkLikeAnApp framework authenticity, transparency, and immediacy. When it comes to creating authenticity it is simply telling the story behind why you do what you do. Whatever business you are in you have to convey to your customers who you are and why they should do business with you. Your website is one of the key areas that you should be communicating this message regularly.
In terms of transparency, it is virtually impossible in today’s world to keep things hidden from consumers. The problem is bad will come to light all by itself, so your job as the local business owner is to shine a light on the good too. That can look like sharing the progress on a job or insights from your industry that your consumers would care about knowing. People love to feel connected to the process of how a product or service is delivered.
When you think about immediacy it is about removing friction points along the customer journey. Small businesses need to think about if they are easy for consumers to do business with them. What are you doing to speed people through your process so they get the help needed as quickly as possible?
Resources Shared:
- ThinkLikeAnApp
- Thryv
Did you know 82% of businesses that fail to cite cash flow as the main factor in their failure? It’s unfortunate, considering the many positive effects small businesses have on the U.S. economy.
The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) works with the Small Business Administration to encourage small business growth. There are about 1,000 SBDCs across the U.S. and its territories. We recently spoke with Thryv friend and SBDC leader Mark Langford, on how the SBDC can help small businesses overcome the most common challenges…so they can keep doing great things.
Who Is Arizona? If you ask digital publisher Michael Kristiansen, it’s the entrepreneur-friendly state. And that’s exactly why he started his small business. Michael helps small businesses promote themselves and generate new leads via his company Who Is Arizona, along with other local marketing and video organizations. In fact, he’s so good at helping businesses “spider the web,” he’s earned the name “Spiderman” locally.
We spoke with Michael about how he uses his customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage his growing database of clients.
Synchronicity coaching. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Hypnotherapy and Mental & Emotional Release® Therapy.
Familiar? Neither were we. That’s where Tom J. Caron and his mindset coaching business come in. Tom runs a small business as a speaker, personal development coach, and mindset trainer in Portland, Maine. According to him, Tom’s been empowering people to reach their full potential for more than 20 years. He focuses on sales training, but he also has specialties in multiple other recognized types of mental and emotional therapies.
Learn how Tom uses technology to attract clients, conduct coaching sessions, and stay in touch.
Are you easy to do business with? It’s a broad, tough question to answer. And compared to the average small business, you can probably safely say, “Yes! I am easy to work with.”
Now, compare yourself to the larger companies that do what you do. Are you just as easy to work with as they are?
Thryv leaders Ryan Cantor and Grant Freeman recently tackled this question and others at Thryv’s user conference Connect19. They dove deep into the topic of rising consumer expectations and how being easy to work with is now more important than ever.
If you’ve ever hired an attorney (or if you are an attorney), you know legal services can be pretty pricey. So naturally, it can be difficult for anyone with a lower income to access legal help.
But entrepreneur Seth Usifo Nwosu says that’s not acceptable. So he started a small business to make justice accessible and affordable for all.
Seth and his small business S.U.N., INC. provide paralegal and nursing consulting services in Phoenix, Arizona, and Newark, New Jersey. But he doesn’t do it alone, and that’s one thing that makes their business so unique. His wife Cambria has been a registered nurse for 10 years, and she’s on staff to support clients needing medical records consultation as well.
Hear more about how Seth and Cambria manage their businesses with CRM, all while keeping their services affordable.
Have you ever felt that as a small business owner, you’re expected to do it alone? There’s no shortage of consulting firms for large corporations. But the resources for small business owners are often a lot harder to find. Or, they’re so costly, they’re inaccessible.
Entrepreneur Andrew Sternke saw this problem, and he knew he could help. So in 2019, he started a small business consulting firm called Advizco. Located in Dallas, Texas, Advizco offers their small business clients meaningful and realistic business growth by way of strategic planning support. In short, they help small businesses achieve their true potential.
Hear more about how Advizco attracts new clients and earns loyal repeat business.
Entrepreneur Lance Whatley started Heeler Wood Care in Dallas, Texas about 10 years ago. The company built its notoriety in wood staining but has since expanded its services into the construction and design of fences, pergolas, decks, gazebos, and more.
Chris Burch handles operations, advertising, and sales for Heeler Wood Care. According to Chris, success in the wood business is all about managing skilled teams of subcontractors. But even with a solid team in place, the real trick is getting found in the first place.
Hear more about how Heeler Wood Care manages their work and their online presence.
77% of small business owners say they’re “happy to extremely happy.” But surprisingly, 44% of those entrepreneurs say they’re working more hours than they did this time last year. And 65% reported they worked at least every other weekend. It turns out the correlation between success and happiness is more mathematical than you’d think.
NYU professor and New York Times bestselling author Scott Galloway has spent countless hours researching and studying this phenomenon. He recently shared his perspective with hundreds of entrepreneurs and software power users at Thryv’s first-ever entrepreneur conference, Connect19.
Can you coast up a hill? Entrepreneur and Thryv President & CEO Joe Walsh recently asked a crowd of small business owners and software power users this question at Thryv’s first-ever entrepreneur conference, Connect19.
The obvious answer is, “no.” But you can probably guess there’s more to the story. Small business owners know best that building a business doesn’t come easily. Consumers are in charge, and their expectations are evolving quickly. But according to Joe, big businesses aren’t the only ones up to the challenge.
Many small business owners always had dreams of building and running their own businesses. Others fall into entrepreneurship and have to figure it out as they go. While neither route is best, all have inspiring stories to share.
Jaron Lucas, the founder of Lucas Construction Services, says he was laid off from his job as a mechanical engineer 7 years ago. But, as a third-generation contractor raised in the industry by his father and grandfather, he didn’t wallow. Instead, he picked up his tool belt and said, “I’m going to start a business.”
We sat down with Jaron to hear what it took to start and grow his business.
These days, more and more business owners are eschewing the brick-and-mortar office and opting to run their businesses virtually. With a web presence and the right technology, you can manage appointments, handle your finances, and even engage your customers from your smartphone.
We sat down with Mary Crevier, owner and founder of MKC Cleaning Services in Olathe, Kansas. In this interview, Mary described how she uses technology to schedule her clients on-the-go and manage her business from her SUV.
Digital marketing can do more than simply get customers in your door. When used properly, it can bring your existing customers together and transform them into a community of loyal fans.
We sat down with Alex McKeown, owner and founder of Hyperion Brewing Company to hear how she’s using social media, text, and email marketing to engage with her customers and keep them coming back.
Hyperion Brewing Company, a craft brewery in Jacksonville, Florida, is as much a passion project as it is a business for Alex. She started brewing beer in her home back in 2015 and teamed up with a high school friend (who had a real passion for craft beer) to open Hyperion in 2017. Hyperion has become a fan-favorite among the Historic Springfield community for its ever-changing lineup of craft beers, each of which is brewed one barrel (31 gallons) at a time.
Being the first to market can be a huge advantage for any small business. But most business owners know copycats and imitators will pop up sooner or later. So how do you stay ahead of the competition?
We sat down with Haley Krotz, founder of Knoxville Room Service, to hear how she uses software to differentiate her business online and stay ahead of local copycat competitors.
Like their name implies, Knoxville Room Service in Knoxville, Tennessee is a high-end retail liquor store offering delivery and concierge services. The first business of their kind in Knoxville, they’re known for bringing new, exciting concepts and products to their local market. In fact, they offer local, niche brands to their clients and customers, always ensuring they’ve tried everything first (for quality assurance of course)!
Small business owners know running your own business takes a lot of work. After all, you’re the CEO, CMO, and the chief of…well, anything that comes up that day. That means the behind-the-scenes work can sometimes overtake the time you get to spend serving clients.
We sat down with Sierra Smith, founder of Hair By Sierra, to hear how she uses technology to reclaim her time. According to her, the software helped her regain valuable time outside of work with her family and allows her to focus on serving hundreds of clients.
Hair By Sierra in Fresno, California focuses on coloring and color correction. Specializing in balayage, Sierra says her business attracts clients in dire need of fixing less-skilled dye jobs.
Many animal services businesses will tell you pet services aren’t all roses. But this small business owner lives for pet pampering. Having never professionally bathed dogs, Ronni Wolverton got her start as a novice dog washer and worked her way up the four-legged ladder from there. Now 17 years later, she runs her own grooming business.
Diva Dogg Grooming is a grooming and pet business located in Providence, Rhode Island. Though dogs make up the majority of their pet clients, they welcome cats, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, and more through their storefront’s doors. We sat down with Ronni to hear all about her journey from dog washer to a business owner.
Many small business owners operate in really crowded, competitive markets. But not everyone. While some small business spaces are crowded, others are on the cutting-edge of technology and face different challenges.
According to Michael Lynn, founder of 3D Print Everything, he didn’t build his company around just one product offering. Instead, he started with the customer in mind. And 3D Print Everything does just what their name implies — they print just about anything and everything their customers could want… in 3 dimensions!
3D Print Everything is a 3D printing business based in Fort Worth, Texas. Michael started the business after looking into the emerging technology of 3D printing and getting hooked. We sat down with Michael to hear what it took to start and grow his business.
I grew up training dogs as a kid and I thought our new family pet would be no different. I was sadly mistaken as none of my training methods seemed to work with this dog. The last straw came after my mother chipped her tooth trying to walk the energetic pup. I reached out to a professional dog trainer for help and ended up enjoying the experience so much I decided to go to work for them. A few years later my wife and I decided to start our own dog training business.
We’ve found in most cases any dog can be trained through a structured obedience process. The approach we take is to train each dog as an individual. After meeting the dog we determine the best strategy to take for that specific dog.
We found success using Facebook to market our services and combined with word of mouth from past clients we’ve been able to grow our business quickly. We also use Thryv to help us manage the business and stay in touch with prospects or clients. One of the main features we love and it has saved us a ton of time is appointment reminders.
Some of the grassroots efforts we use to grow our business are to host lunch and learns at local veterinarian offices. We also do street marketing with our dogs in big-box stores that allow pets.
The key to getting great reviews is to ensure our customers are beyond satisfied with our service. Then all you have to do is ask them to leave a review and most will. We’ve even had some clients leave us a review before we’ve completed the training because they were so impressed with the initial demonstration.
Resources Shared:
- At Whits End Dog Training
- Thryv
I have been able to consistently double the businesses I have acquired in the first year by implementing an infrastructure for growth. Which unlocks additional value for the owner running the business and increases the valuation multiple when the business is sold.
Technology plays a key role in establishing an infrastructure for growth. It allows for rapid expansion and creates a repeatable process that can scale as the business grows.
Simplification is important when you are considering different platform options. If you are using one tool for estimates, another for marketing, and yet another for listings management, pretty soon you’ve lost any efficiencies you might have gained. Ideally, you want to find one or two systems that can manage all the parts of your business.
Everything in business is a process, so when you find something that is not working the key to solving the problem is to review the steps in that process. You might find you need to add or remove a step to ensure you have a predictable outcome.
When I’m looking to buy a business I look for ones that have a quality reputation and good product but are lacking infrastructure. Then when I am ready to sell the business I get to capitalize on my efforts by offering an easier turnkey operation for the new owner.
Resources Shared:
- Affordable Cabinet Refinishing
- Thryv
- BizBuySell
We are a tight-knit family-owned business that prioritizes strong ethics and review worthy service. Reviews are so important to building a strong reputation and the customer experience starts the moment a service request comes in. Once the service has been completed we follow up by email and phone to ensure our customers are satisfied. Most customers are willing to leave a review if you ask them and make it easy to do so.
I would say 90% of our advertising is online, we find a lot of success using social media and email marketing. We used targeted campaigns to reach our desired audience when they are looking for our services. Offering a small discount on the service is an effective way to get a prospect to engage.
Our CRM tool provides one centralized place to track customer interactions and it helps us provide a personalized customer experience. From the conversation history and invoices to payment processing and follow-up reminders.
Resources Shared:
- JC Sewer & Drain
- Thryv
- QuickBooks
In today’s job market having multimodality will provide you with the most opportunities. So we cross-train students in several skills depending on what their goals are and how far they want to go.
Close to 90% of our students come from doctors’ offices that are paying for them to get the needed training. Often the office has either just purchased a new machine or needs to retrain staff members.
Even though we put most of the information about our training classes on our website we find many of our students still want to call and speak with someone. However, when a student is ready to take a class we have adopted software to manage the entire customer journey, from registration and tuition payment to transcript management and review solicitation.
Resources Shared:
- Performance Masters
- Thryv
- MyAttendanceTracker
Your subconscious mind controls your thoughts, actions, and your reactions up to 99% of the time. I use to think my subconscious mind only controls things like my heart beating or eyes blinking but it actually controls a lot more, it is like a blueprint for your life. If you want to change something in your life you have to change that blueprint in your subconscious mind. It's less about self-control and more about reprograming your mind for success.
I believe sales follow-up is important to growing your business and a CRM is a great tool to help remind you to follow up with prospective clients. Plus it lets you see all the interaction history in one place for each client.
When it comes to marketing my business I have found success in forming joint ventures with others in a similar business category. Where their clients might be a good match for my services and my clients would be a good match for them.
In my book, Breaking to Be Me: The Secret to Overcoming Chronic Pain I share my life story of how I overcame pain through the power of my mind. It is a powerful book for anyone struggling with physical or emotional pain. I write about the tools and techniques I used to overcome my pain.
Resources Shared:
- Balanced You
- Follow Up Sales Strategies
- Thryv
- Book: Breaking to Be Me
When I stepped out on my own I wanted to drive the larger chartered-buses but those startup costs are high. So I looked for what options I could do now, which is how I started driving SUVs.
I got tired of hitting that glass ceiling working for someone else. I was helping them grow their business but there wasn’t any room for me to grow with them. Starting a business is a lot of work and I still do other jobs to supplement my income while the business grows.
While I do a bit of online marketing I am finding success canvassing my area in person. One thing that is working for me is to stop by and visit with the local hotel staff. Not only were they glad to see me but I was surprised to learn my competitors weren’t doing that.
Having my website customized so customers can make reservations online has been great and customers seem to like it too. While I am driving or working on other tasks a customer can find the service they need and reserve it right there.
Resources Shared
- Opulence Transportation
- Thryv
As soon as I get a lead I follow up with an email that includes my credentials and I provide links to reviews I’ve received from previous jobs. The construction industry is competitive so you have to find a way to stand out.
When it comes to building a team we have found success through strategic partnerships. I benefit from others who have been in the industry a long time and they get a steady stream of new jobs.
I try to post on social media at least once a day. I like to post about projects that we are working on, a recent review we received from a client, or educational information about different aspects of the services I provide.
When business is slow I jump into my Thryv and look for leads I haven’t talked to in a while and start reaching out to them. The way I look at it is I’ve already paid for the marketing that drove that lead so I want to go back and follow up with anyone that still might need our services.
Resources Shared
- South Edge Construction
- Thryv
- Thumbtack
- QuickBooks
- HelloSign