Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Build a Business Transition Plan with Laurie Barkman

Transcript

How to Build a Business Transition Plan with Laurie Barkman · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

0:00
The biggest thing is to be clear on what your goals are.
0:03
If you want to build a business that one day will thrive without you, then you will set the
0:09
course now.
0:11
You will create processes.
0:13
You will document processes.
0:15
You will probably look for systems and tools to help you streamline.
0:19
You'll realize that while you are talented, you don't want the business to be orbiting around
0:24
you, and have it all be about you.
0:26
You want it to be about the team, the process, the product, the service, the brand, and you'll
0:32
you'll think that way.
0:33
You'll have a growth mindset.
0:34
You'll have a mindset towards structural capital, social capital, customer capital, all
0:40
these things that help make a business more valuable.
0:43
3,
0:44
2, 1, 0, ignition I left off.
0:52
Ending small business failure.
0:54
Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
1:00
Emerson.
1:01
Melinda's goal is to end small business failure.
1:04
And she'll give you the information you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
1:09
Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson,
1:16
Hi, everybody.
1:17
I'm Melinda Emerson's small business lady.
1:19
America's number one small business expert, and I'm so excited to welcome you to another
1:25
edition of the small biz chat podcast.
1:28
We have an amazing show today.
1:31
Now here on the small biz chat podcast, We talk about how to start and grow successful small
1:37
businesses, and my guests have amazing insight to share from multiple angles Now we think of
1:44
the small biz chat podcast as a peer to peer mentoring opportunity for you So I want you to
1:52
listen close, take notes because my guests are going to give you invaluable advice that is
1:58
going to help you take your business to the next level.
2:01
Because here at the small biz chat podcast, our mission is to end small business failure.
2:08
Now it's time for me to introduce my guest, Lori Bachman, the CEO of small dot big.
2:14
It's a business transition advisory firm.
2:16
Helping business owners maximize value, create succession plans, and identify merger and
2:22
acquisition strategies.
2:24
She enjoys developing structured brands that empower business owners to live their dream.
2:29
For more information, go to small.big.com.
2:34
Worries.
2:34
Welcome to the small Bishop podcast.
2:36
Thanks, Melinda.
2:37
It's exciting to be here with this wonderful group.
2:39
Thanks for having me.
2:41
Well, listen, 80% of business owners want to stop working in their businesses in the next 5
2:46
to 10 years.
2:47
Would you say that most have not planned for that transition.
2:52
How can people improve their businesses so they actually have something that they can sell?
2:59
That's the $1,000,000 question or it could be more than a $1,000,000 depending on your
3:04
business, and that's what makes it difficult.
3:07
But not impossible to solve.
3:10
It starts really with where they are.
3:12
I like to talk about where are we today?
3:15
And it's like holding up a mirror to your business.
3:18
Do you see where the trick wires are for risks?
3:21
Do you know which things are lying around in your business that if you said, well, wait a
3:26
minute.
3:26
If we just changed a few of these things, the low hanging fruit, if you will.
3:31
That it could improve value.
3:33
And then there's the big stuff.
3:35
And there's 8 different value drivers.
3:37
I'm happy to talk about any or all of them tonight.
3:40
But at its core, there's external things that drive value or takeaway value, and there's
3:46
internal things, things that we can control And what I like to do is work with clients on the
3:51
things we control.
3:53
And in summary, it's really how do we create value help you minimize risk and transition
3:59
with success.
4:00
That's the mission.
4:01
Alright.
4:02
So before we get into the 8 things, because I do what you to tell us what they are.
4:07
Tell us how did you become the business transition Sherpa, if you will?
4:15
That moniker came around.
4:16
I think this really started for me several years ago.
4:19
I was the CEO of a division of a privately held company.
4:23
And the entire company, including our our group, was acquired by a strategic company.
4:31
It's a household name.
4:32
Everybody would know it, and it was a really interesting experience to go through an M and A
4:38
process from the inside.
4:39
So I was one of several executives that went through the acquisition, went through the
4:44
integration, and then on the other side of it, working with the big company and and seeing it
4:49
through.
4:50
After I left, I worked in private equity for a bit, and then I was on the other side of the
4:55
deal table.
4:56
And I guess I figured out that I like deal doing deals and I was a deal junkie.
5:00
But at its core, I have been orbiting entrepreneurs for a very long time.
5:06
In startups, entrepreneurship, in large companies, people who have the entrepreneurial
5:11
spirit, people who have purchased businesses, acquired businesses, you know, acquisition on
5:16
for Norris, people who have have bought franchises.
5:20
And the common theme throughout and why I call myself a Sherpa is It's not about me having the
5:26
answers.
5:27
It's about me helping people, see what they're not seeing.
5:31
And There's a funny story too if we have time for it about the name of my firm and why I call
5:36
it small dot big, but it's really about having a different perspective that moment And that's
5:41
what I find as one of my superpowers.
5:44
Love it.
5:45
Love it.
5:45
So why do you think that you know, 2 out of 10 businesses are not sellable.
5:53
Like, what is the biggest issue?
5:57
Is it that people This is worth a heck of a lot more than they really are.
6:01
Like, like, what would you say is the reason the biggest reasons why businesses are not
6:05
sellable?
6:07
There's a there's a lot of reasons as you can imagine.
6:09
A very common reason is because the business really isn't transferable.
6:14
Many businesses in our country are what we think of as lifestyle businesses where maybe
6:19
it's 1 or 2 people.
6:21
The business is probably in the hundreds of thousands, not millions.
6:26
And so we can all get our heads around that and think, oh, yeah, that's not really a
6:30
transferable business.
6:31
But even as a company gets bigger, hits a $1,000,000 threshold in revenue, that's a
6:37
pretty good threshold to hit.
6:38
But still between 1,500,000, there can be a perception of risk about transferability in
6:46
small businesses of around that size.
6:48
And why is that?
6:49
Well, in many cases, the business is largely organized around the owner.
6:55
The owner might be the rainmaker, the person necessarily bringing in the majority of the
6:59
sales, how long has it been since you've taken a vacation?
7:02
How long is your vacation when you do take 1?
7:05
And are you really checking email or not checking email when you're on vacation.
7:09
And so that's a good that's a good thing to just sort of check-in on yourself.
7:13
I do a business assessment.
7:16
I offer a business assessment.
7:17
100 of business owners have taken this assessment, and that is one of the questions.
7:21
When is the last time you took a vacation?
7:23
But if you peel back the layers of the onion, what we're really trying to understand is what
7:27
are the risks associated in your business, not only about you, But if you have other
7:33
employees, and that is one of the things and and I just mentioned the 8 drivers is a key
7:39
aspect.
7:39
We call it the Switzerland structure.
7:41
Which is about neutrality.
7:43
And it's not only neutrality for employees, which includes you, but it also includes, risks
7:49
around your suppliers and risk around your customers?
7:51
Do we have too much customer concentration?
7:54
Let's say you've got a really profitable business.
7:56
It's a healthy business.
7:57
And even if it's north of a $1,000,000, What if more than 60% of your revenue comes from one
8:05
customer?
8:06
Yeah.
8:06
And then that customer goes away.
8:09
So those are some examples of of transferability risk, and I think it's a big
8:13
big reason why a small percent of companies actually have a transaction But to the your
8:19
point earlier, Melinda, which is a great point, yeah, a lot of times the there's a gap between
8:24
what the market thinks the business is worth and the owner thinks what the business is
8:30
worth.
8:31
Because let's face it in the private market.
8:33
It's in the eye of the buyer just like when you're buying a house.
8:36
Alright.
8:36
So if I wanna get started, building a business that I can one day sell, What do I need to do
8:45
to start preparing for my business transition?
8:49
The biggest thing is to be clear on what your goals are.
8:52
If you want to build a business that one day will thrive without you, then you will set the
8:58
course now.
9:00
You will create processes.
9:02
You will document processes.
9:04
You will probably look for systems and tools to help you streamline.
9:08
You'll realize that while you are talented, you don't want the business to be orbiting around
9:13
you and have it all be about you.
9:15
You want it to be about the team, the process, the product, the service, the brand, and you'll
9:21
you'll think that way.
9:22
You'll have a growth mindset.
9:24
You'll have a mindset towards structural capital, social capital, customer capital, all
9:29
these things that help make a business more valuable.
9:32
And it's hard for those who seek the ego and the identity from the business ownership.
9:38
Right?
9:39
Another question on the survey is, do you own a business or are you a business owner?
9:44
And there's a nuance Right?
9:45
What is that nuance?
9:46
Well, the nuance is is can you be arm's length?
9:49
If you really have that identity, you absorb that identity.
9:52
It's harder to let go, isn't it?
9:54
And that's true just as a human.
9:55
It's harder to let go, especially when your name is on the door.
9:59
If you've named it because you are the founder or perhaps your next gen and your gen 2, gen 3,
10:05
whatever it might be, I have a podcast called succession stories.
10:09
And we're coming up on episode 100.
10:11
And I've talked with so many wonderful people who talk about these challenges.
10:16
So there's really no one problem that we can say, oh, this is the most common thing.
10:21
There's also no one solution.
10:23
And, you know, we just have to take it Everybody's a snowflake, and that's okay.
10:29
But there's definitely some patterns that we see.
10:32
I like that analogy.
10:33
Everybody is a snowflake.
10:34
Right?
10:35
There is individuality out here.
10:37
But now I know that there's a lot of business owners that wanna transition their business to
10:43
their kids.
10:45
Let's talk about that because if if you want your kids to run your business, do you make
10:52
them buy it?
10:53
Or do you, like, kinda hover around and, you know, micromanage, maybe do a earn out, like,
10:59
like, What is the best way that you've seen people transition their business to their
11:07
family or to to their children specifically?
11:10
Well, on my show, I've talked to a 2 wonderful multi gen companies.
11:14
The most exciting example is generation 10.
11:18
Just pause for a minute on that.
11:19
Wow.
11:20
The company was founded in 1767.
11:23
It's a applejack Brandy company, layered, and I spoke with a mom and son.
11:28
So she's gen 9, and he's gen 10.
11:31
And that's a that's a special legacy.
11:35
And none of the generations truly own the business.
11:39
They own it for the next generation in a mindset.
11:42
Right?
11:42
They know they're handing it down.
11:45
So the mechanics of do they buy it?
11:47
Do they not?
11:48
I actually didn't ask them those questions.
11:50
In other company examples, highlights magazine.
11:53
If any of you're listening or have children, you might know highlights.
11:57
I remember it from when I was a kid and so looked forward to it in the dentist office.
12:01
The CEO of highlights is 4th gen.
12:04
And Ken Ken Johnson, wonderful, wonderful person.
12:08
And the way he thinks about the legacy of his company is that it's not about him.
12:13
He's so strong in that culture.
12:14
He doesn't want to be, and his mindset is it's about the future.
12:19
And really creating a sustainable, future future thinking organization.
12:24
And so if that's where you are, if you're gen 1 and you'd launch your company and your vision
12:28
is to have an organization that's gonna thrive without you and you wanna make it a success and
12:33
you want your children to be part of it, that's your vision, which is great.
12:37
Your kids might have 1, not the interest, and 2, not the skill set.
12:43
I've had conversations with people on my show on air, off air, you know, in consulting and
12:49
talking to clients.
12:50
Also, I have years of experience in human resource management.
12:53
It was my undergraduate degree.
12:55
So I come into, I come into all of this with a practicality.
13:00
Right, that it is essentially it needs to be a fit.
13:04
If junior wants that wants that role, but junior is not qualified, Junior needs to not be
13:10
in that role.
13:11
And and that's a and that's a reality.
13:13
Sometimes there's a skip generation where we hire in a leader from the outside get help get
13:18
the next generation ready.
13:20
So your question of should they buy it?
13:22
Should they not?
13:23
Again, it depends because And I and I think I also have to sort of, acknowledge here that
13:30
there's tax consequences, estate planning, issues, and we really wanna consult our
13:36
advisors.
13:37
If you work with a wealth adviser and a and a generational planner, for state planning.
13:43
That's a really great thing to be doing if you have a business and you wanna maybe be gifting
13:48
shares to set up trust There's all kinds of mechanisms.
13:52
I am not the expert on that.
13:54
I can just point you in the right direction, and that's what I'll do tonight.
13:58
But I think, you know, realistically, again, it comes back to your goals as a company as a
14:04
management team.
14:05
If you have a board, if you have a family advisor board, If it's just you and you're
14:10
talking to yourself, that's okay.
14:11
Maybe you're in an organization like this stage or YPO and you have peers and you know they've
14:16
done other things.
14:17
It's great to get advice and and and but when it comes to decision making, get the facts and
14:23
then put a plan together.
14:25
So let's talk about the sell side of a business.
14:29
So if you how do you keep the emotion out of the the process of selling your business
14:38
because, I mean, you might think it's worth $10,000,000 and somebody will come in and offer
14:44
you too.
14:44
And it's like, how do you act like they didn't just call your baby ugly?
14:48
Do you know what I'm saying?
14:49
Like Oh,
14:50
I know what you're saying, and I've seen it up close and personal.
14:52
It is very it can be very emotional.
14:55
That's the benefit of working with someone like myself.
14:58
I have a client who is a self acknowledged emotional person, and I knew that coming into
15:04
the working relationship.
15:05
And it's kinda like a running joke.
15:07
He he's very humble about that, and he knows he knows that about himself.
15:11
However, We did have a situation with a buyer where emotions ran high, and my client decided
15:18
to walk away from the opportunity and there was nothing I could say or do.
15:23
I think there were some emotions that that, you know, it's a competitive situation too.
15:29
And that's the other comment I'll make about emotion is when you're looking to sell your
15:33
business to a competitor, there's inherent emotions already.
15:37
So that can also create other dynamics that we need to be well aware of.
15:40
There's also a motion when it comes to decision making between family members.
15:46
There is a situation.
15:47
I I was not part of this, but in the storytelling on my show, one person talked
15:51
about deal was was ready to be done, ready to be signed, but then, uh-oh, we gotta tell
15:56
grandma.
15:57
And then when there was a conversation with grandma, grandma was like, oh, no.
16:00
That's not happening.
16:01
And the deal was off.
16:03
Grima was a driving force, a decision maker who, what, called the economic, you know,
16:08
decision maker, in that situation, but she wasn't consulted early enough in the process.
16:13
Right.
16:14
Right.
16:14
So doing an end around is not that, like, you know, If you know you got a difficult family
16:20
member, you gotta talk to him up front right because trying to come to him at the last
16:23
minute.
16:24
That's a great way to get the whole thing torpedoed.
16:27
Interesting.
16:28
So when it comes to figuring out what your business is worth, I mean, you know, I went to
16:35
business school too.
16:36
So it's like, some multiple of EBITDA, right, you know, earnings before taxes, but but I
16:44
mean, how do you figure it out?
16:47
Well, that's
16:48
probably its its own session in and of itself, but I'll give you the best to summarize.
16:52
And I think there's a couple different ways to look at it.
16:54
In the non MBA language.
16:56
I'll try to do my best here.
16:58
And your your math is right, Melinda.
17:00
This is very common.
17:01
One of the things that I start with that I do value I'm a certified mergers and acquisitions
17:05
adviser.
17:05
I do evaluations for clients, and it's a great way to get started in a relationship because if
17:10
we have a gap in what they think it's worth versus what my estimate is we have to talk
17:14
about that.
17:15
And if it's too far apart, then maybe we can't work together.
17:19
But if it's reasonable and I think they're reasonable, we're in the ballpark.
17:22
That's great.
17:23
The way we do valuations at Stoney Hill Advisors, it's the firm that I'm that I'm
17:27
affiliated with for the M and A work that I do.
17:30
We look at it a couple different ways.
17:33
Because we're looking at lower middle market companies, privately held companies, they share
17:37
tax returns with us.
17:38
We ask for 3 years.
17:40
We take the financial information that we're given.
17:43
Right?
17:43
We're not auditing their information.
17:44
We're not verifying.
17:45
We're just we're giving that information, and that's what we're working with.
17:49
And so we take the 3 years and we try to understand also, if there are any expenses that
17:56
have then one time expenses.
17:59
Maybe they're personal, maybe they're business.
18:02
Maybe they are personal, and they are recurring expenses, but they're personal, not business.
18:06
However, need to understand that, and we need to separate that.
18:09
Likewise, if we've gotten income or revenue, that's one time.
18:12
Well, maybe it's a giant credit that we've gotten either from the government or from a
18:17
customer situation.
18:18
So we look for any anomalies.
18:20
We try to adjust, make adjustments, in the net income, which is what we call seller
18:26
discretionary earnings or the acronym would be SDE.
18:30
And if there's reasons to do an add back, we look for reasons for an add back.
18:35
So like I was saying earlier, taking money, taking expenses out.
18:40
So that would make your that would make your net income number higher.
18:44
Or we're gonna add money back in because perhaps you are undercharging yourself for
18:50
rent.
18:51
And if someone else buys your business, they probably need to pay more for rent.
18:55
So that would be considered something we we put back in.
18:58
And so that gets us a adjusted EBITDA number.
19:03
Mhmm.
19:03
And
19:03
a lot of times, there's a multiple of EBITDA.
19:07
There can be a multiple of STE.
19:09
There can be a multiple of revenue.
19:12
Some companies have backlog, and they have a pipeline.
19:16
And there's a very a variety of ways to look at that.
19:20
So how do we know what that multiple is?
19:23
And and across those four different areas, it's not the same multiplier as you can imagine.
19:27
So what we do is we look for comparable sales just like in real estate.
19:33
And we have databases and we pull that.
19:34
We try to find recent comps let's say within the last 5 years, we try to look at, deals that
19:40
are relatively of the same nature size industry.
19:45
And we plug that back into the model.
19:47
We also look forward and we say, well, can we do a discount cash flow model?
19:51
It doesn't work in all businesses.
19:52
If it's a recurring revenue business that has a high percentage of recurring revenue, then that
19:57
would make sense to project forward.
19:59
And then also in this business assessment that I mentioned where we have some of the
20:05
intangible value drivers.
20:07
I look to get a quantifiable measure on that and use that as another data point in my
20:13
analysis.
20:16
That's a lot of technical information.
20:20
I mean, I do know enough about this to be dangerous, but you just made my head swooned
20:25
just a little bit.
20:25
But sorry.
20:29
I asked the question, so I deserve to make my head hurt.
20:31
Right?
20:32
I wanna understand how can someone use a role of strategy or a mergers and acquisition
20:39
strategy to scale up and really add more value to their business so that they could be more
20:44
attractive for potential buyer.
20:47
At the top level, there's 2 ways to grow organically and through acquisition.
20:52
I'm a big fan of organic growth.
20:54
That's what I've done in my career over and over and over, especially on the marketing
20:58
side.
20:58
So I get it.
20:59
It's fun.
21:00
It's hard work and you want us to figure it out, especially if you're a startup.
21:04
That's where you're at.
21:05
But eventually, your organic growth might flatline.
21:10
There could be shifts and and dynamics in the marketplace that are causing that to happen.
21:15
There could be internal reasons why that's happening.
21:18
But a lot of times, it's happening.
21:20
So what are we gonna do about it?
21:21
When you're big enough and we're interesting and interested enough, to look outside of your
21:26
business and think about acquisition as a growth strategy, it can be very, very
21:32
interesting and compelling.
21:34
A couple of examples from folks with comma on my show.
21:37
These are not huge companies.
21:39
Right?
21:39
So your listeners who are thinking, oh, I'm I'm not a a big company, how can I afford to do
21:44
this?
21:45
Well, I don't think you have to be a $100,000,000 business to buy other businesses.
21:49
One rule of thumb just to put it out there Typically, what we see is the 5 and 20 rule.
21:55
If your business is between 5 to 10 times large, excuse me, 5 to 20 times larger, than
22:01
your target, that's about right.
22:03
If you're the same size as them, yeah, that might be tough.
22:07
Why is that?
22:08
Well, You gotta go get financing, and you're either gonna get financing from an SBA lender,
22:13
a small business loan from the, you know, the US government is underwriting.
22:17
Or you're gonna get a commercial loan from a bank.
22:20
And so those are small business lending opportunities.
22:23
Now what are the bankers gonna do?
22:25
I talked to bankers.
22:26
I've gotten some prequalification letters for businesses that I'm representing for sale, and
22:31
it's really interesting.
22:33
Sometimes well, a lot of times, I should say from their end, what are they looking at?
22:37
It's the same information that I'm looking at when I'm doing my evaluation.
22:41
They're doing the same thing, Melinda.
22:43
What they really care about is a ratio of your cash flow to your debt, and they call it debt
22:50
service.
22:51
Is the business gonna produce enough cash so that they can you can pay off your commitments
22:56
on time?
22:57
That's the biggest thing they care about.
22:59
So, therefore, the business has to be big enough that you have enough padding.
23:04
You don't have take on a lot of risk.
23:07
Because you're also putting your personal collateral up perhaps, right, or if you have a
23:12
house, imagine.
23:13
Right?
23:13
So you you gotta really think through those things.
23:15
But grow through acquisitions really, really important.
23:18
The other thing about being big enough and being able to take it on, you know what it's
23:21
about?
23:22
It's actually about the integration.
23:25
Integration is the biggest thing.
23:27
I like to do strategic planning with clients and especially a client that's big enough to do
23:31
an acquisition.
23:33
Guess when we do strategy for for the integration.
23:37
It's not at the closing.
23:39
It's in the beginning.
23:40
Right.
23:41
If you wait to the end to do your strategy on how we're gonna integrate, it's really probably
23:46
not gonna go well.
23:48
I can see that.
23:49
I can see that.
23:50
So so let on that note, let's talk about what some of the common pitfalls of mergers and
23:55
acquisitions?
23:56
Well, from the sell side, we've talked about a number of them that there's a disconnect
24:00
between the seller's opinion of what the businesses were what the market is telling
24:04
them.
24:05
And another one is, is readiness.
24:07
That's a really big one.
24:08
There's 3 aspects to readiness.
24:10
We've hit on a number of things tonight.
24:13
What I'll call business readiness.
24:15
Is the business ready to sell?
24:18
Is the owner and the business, are they sell ready?
24:22
That can be a huge disconnect, ready to sell versus sell ready.
24:27
Just let that sink in for a second.
24:29
We think we're ready to go to market, but hold on.
24:32
We've got this risk, that risk, this risk.
24:34
And so as we start to talk to buyers and putting the company out there, what's gonna
24:39
happen?
24:40
We're gonna see a discount in the price.
24:42
Maybe we want 700 k, but you know what?
24:45
The offers are coming in at 300.
24:46
Why?
24:47
Well, we've got retirements happening at the top level.
24:50
Our business owner is so tied in with the sales process, and we've got a customer concentration
24:56
list that is making people run the other direction.
24:59
You know, it can be any number of things.
25:02
Another derailer is the other owners.
25:06
The other owners are important.
25:07
We've gotta get them on board, whether they're family or not, they're still they might still
25:11
have a vote.
25:12
There's one situation that I was in that the seller was making too much money just in cash
25:18
flow.
25:18
He's the single shareholder.
25:21
And even though he's in his seventies and he has no succession plan, he wanted to keep going
25:27
because selling the business wouldn't necessarily replace his cash flow and his
25:33
lifestyle.
25:34
And so that's another reason.
25:36
And what is he doing?
25:37
Well, he's just holding on.
25:39
And he's at this point, probably 75.
25:42
And you would think somebody like that would have planned for retirement, so they wouldn't
25:46
feel like they still had to run their business because they liked making whatever a month.
25:51
Now, obviously, a transaction intermediary is very helpful for dealing with some of this
25:57
stuff or having some of these hard conversations.
26:00
Right?
26:01
Absolutely.
26:02
We provide a sense of grounding.
26:05
For me, one of my things is clarity.
26:07
A lot of times, business owners just feel that they're running, you know, circles day to day.
26:13
This they're so involved day to day.
26:14
It's hard for them to think about the future.
26:17
But they know it's really important and they know they should.
26:19
They also are not familiar with the process.
26:21
And for many business owners, this is the only time.
26:24
This is the one transaction.
26:26
And the folks who try to go on their own many times end up turning to us and saying this did
26:32
not go well.
26:33
I need help.
26:33
Why?
26:34
Because emotions can get in the way.
26:35
Someone is telling them their baby is ugly, right, or they really need to focus on the day
26:40
to day, and it's difficult to run an M and A process and run your business.
26:45
And we also have the expertise of doing this and and doing this for 15 years.
26:49
And and We do see a lot of things when they go wrong, and we see things when they go right.
26:55
And we can provide, I think, not only the clarity around the process for the business
27:00
readiness, but also the personal readiness and helping them get organized financially.
27:05
We tend to have pretty solid rolodexes And I know for me, one of the things I really bring
27:11
to the table for my clients is the introductions to other professionals who can
27:16
help them and in a way that they need.
27:18
And I've got the the bat phone, you know, and these people pick up.
27:21
And that's a big thing.
27:22
Like, you can't just, you know, get along a firm partner on the phone like some of us can
27:27
if we if we have those types of relationships.
27:30
I could keep talking to you about this stuff all night.
27:35
What is the best piece of business advice anyone has ever given you?
27:42
I think that It's my one of my early mentors, and he basically said it doesn't matter if
27:50
people are reporting to you or not.
27:53
You need to be able to influence without authority and have the confidence to do that.
27:59
And I've really taken that with me throughout my career, and it's helped a lot with client
28:03
work because I don't manage them.
28:05
Right?
28:05
They they are my boss, but I'm helping to influence a direction and a process.
28:10
Lori, what's your favorite podcast?
28:13
There is a podcast that I'm blanking on the name, but I'll talk about it generally.
28:17
And it's about second actually, now I think of it.
28:20
It's called second act.
28:21
It's the second acts, and it's second act stories.
28:24
And I love it because people tell about what's next in their career and their life, and
28:30
they're very inspirational.
28:32
Love it.
28:32
Love it.
28:33
Alright, Lori.
28:34
What's your favorite app?
28:36
I really like otter.ai, like the animal otter.
28:40
It is a artificial intelligence platform that does text, voice to text.
28:46
Transcribing.
28:47
It's not a 100%, but I don't know if there are systems that are 100% yet, but it's pretty
28:51
good.
28:51
And I use it for transcribing.
28:53
You can connect it in with zoom.
28:55
So let's say this podcast, right, and after the podcast is done, it creates a transcript.
29:01
So it's really it's really awesome.
29:03
What's your favorite old school marketing tip?
29:06
Fish for the fish are.
29:08
Love it.
29:10
I'm I believe in that, especially online.
29:11
You don't need to be doing five plan 5 platforms.
29:14
Do one.
29:16
Wonderful.
29:17
What is your favorite business book that you've ever read?
29:20
Talk about old school.
29:21
This is from my senior year of college.
29:24
Ken Blanchard was an eager for a weekend presentation.
29:27
And as a senior in college, To see him live, it was incredible.
29:32
And I bought the book series from the 1 minute manager.
29:35
I I still have it.
29:36
I have the series.
29:38
And I think this one is about building high performing teams.
29:41
Love it.
29:42
Love it.
29:43
My favorite business book is disreview by Jay Samit because he says if you wanna disrupt the
29:48
world, start by disrupting yourself.
29:52
Well, thank you so much, Laurie.
29:53
You have given us so much valuable insight on how to build value in a business, and it has
29:59
just been invaluable.
30:01
And thank you all for joining me for this episode of the small pitch chat podcast.
30:05
If you're still working on your digital pivot, please check out all of our offerings over at
30:10
Small Bizlady University, you deserve to make the money that you need to make online.
30:15
And we've got all the tools over there to help you with it.
30:18
And the last thing I wanna tell you is I wanna leave you with this.
30:21
You never lose in business either you win for you, learn.
30:25
Thank you so much, everybody.
30:29
Thanks for listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
30:33
Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday for more
30:39
fantastic information and interviews.
30:41
You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
30:46
website succeed as your own boss dot com.
30:49
Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.