Latest / Small Biz Florida / Ep 425 | Beyond the AI Hype: Technology That Fits Your Business with Kathy Durfee

Transcript

Ep 425 | Beyond the AI Hype: Technology That Fits Your Business with Kathy Durfee · Small Biz Florida

• 0:00
  Welcome to Small Biz Florida, your go-to podcast for all things small business in the Sunshine State.
• 0:08
  This podcast is sponsored by Florida First Capital, your trusted partner for financing and support.
• 0:13
  Here, you'll discover the latest news, trends, and invaluable resources to help you grow and succeed.
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  From startup strategies to scaling your business, we've got you covered.
• 0:23
  Join us as we explore the vibrant Florida small business ecosystem
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  and connect you with the experts who can make a real difference.
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  And now, please welcome your host, Tom Kindred,
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  Regional Director of the Small Business Development Center at Indian River State College.
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  This is Small Biz Florida, the podcast and broadcast that's all things business across the state of Florida.
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  And we are at the 2026 Small Business Success Summit.
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  It's all taking place here in Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor, Florida.
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  The conversation is all about small business entrepreneurship in Florida.
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  The lobby here is full of exhibitors and vendors displaying their tools and resources for small business owners.
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  And the room is absolutely full of small business owners and entrepreneurs here to take part in workshops,
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  trainings, breakouts, breakouts, keynote speakers.
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  Incredible gathering of small business owners and operators here.
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  We have one of those very innovative support programs and organizations and businesses
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  that is providing innovative resources and assistance to small business owners.
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  We've got our good friend, Kathy Durfee, who serves as the founder and CEO of TechHouse.
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  Kathy, welcome to Small Biz Florida.
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  Thank you, Tom.
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  I'm excited to be here again.
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  Yes, absolutely.
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  So let's start as we always do, Kathy.
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  Just a little bit of your background, pathway to your current role as CEO of TechHouse.
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  Okay.
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  I'd say the quick version is I was in industry and I had a sick child and I wasn't able to go into the office to work,
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  so I lost my job.
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  And my sister said to me, you know, tech, you have to be home, create a company, call a tech house and go make some money.
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  Wow.
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  So that's how it got started 30 years ago.
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  Wow.
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  Unbelievable.
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  Okay.
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  I love the name.
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  Now I get the name.
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  Take out.
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  All right.
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  We spoke for just a couple of minutes before I hit the record button.
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  I love what you do.
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  So let's talk about it.
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  What does TechHouse do for small business owners and operators?
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  Yeah.
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  We're a mission-driven business.
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  Our goal is every small business, like independently owned small business on the planet, can achieve their goals.
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  That's why we exist.
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  Our part in that is that we provide IT consulting.
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  We do it from strategy to implementation to support.
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  We'll do as little or as much as they want, whether it's break-fix, specific a la carte maintenance, or full managed service.
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  All right.
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  So take me just on a little deeper dive when you say IT support.
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  Give me an example of what that, I get the break-fix, but what would, how would you help me with my IT strategy at my small business?
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  Okay, great.
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  So we have 18 different assessments we do.
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  And I think all of us know in our business, we can do better strategy when we understand where we are.
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  It's hard to do a map somewhere when you don't know where you're starting.
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  So we think strategy starts with a good assessment.
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  And once you have a good assessment, then you can say, how do I get where I want to go?
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  Nice.
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  And this is IT meaning?
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  Great question.
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  Yes.
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  Software?
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  Okay, yeah.
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  Computers?
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  What does IT mean in that small business space?
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  Because for us, small business is from solopreneur to 300 employees.
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  And we actually serve up to 2,300.
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  But in that space, a lot of people may have an IT person who's doing help desk and security and things like that.
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  But IT is more than that, right?
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  It is our Excel programs that we're using to run our business on.
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  Or it's our accounting software.
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  Or it's our CRM, however we're tracking that.
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  I was just talking to someone earlier who's using Google Sheets to manage their customer base.
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  So all of that is your technology.
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  And sometimes what happens is we may even have a support person to help us with security, let's say, and keeping the computer running.
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  But they basically tell us, well, when you find the package you want, let me know and I'll help you connect it.
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  But you really need someone to help you find that package and make sure it all goes together.
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  So we can provide the whole umbrella, whether it's just strategy and work with your partner or the whole shebang.
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  And I don't think it goes without saying, obviously, that small business owners really are jack of all trades.
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  They've got to be doing all kinds of things.
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  Back in my day, when I owned and operated my small business, I knew nothing about tech.
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  But we had multiple locations.
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  So we were connected.
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  And that was way before.
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  Yeah.
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  Big coax cable.
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  And so this is one of those tasks, one of those areas of responsibility for that small business owner that makes sense to probably turn over.
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  Is that a fair statement?
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  Is that?
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  I think it is.
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  I think in everything, it's knowing our strengths, right?
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  I did not start my business because I won the lottery, right?
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  So we all have to pick and choose and understand our risk sensitivity in different areas.
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  But I do believe having a subject matter expert helping you in anything you don't know well.
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  I tell my team, I feel like I'm a B student in a lot of different things, but I hire them because they're A students at what they do.
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  Right.
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  Yeah, it makes sense.
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  And in today's really business environment, we are tech heavy, right?
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  I mean, this is, you know, we're leveraging the internet.
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  We're leveraging AI.
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  We're using computers.
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  You said we're using Excel.
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  We've got CRMs.
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  I mean, there's a lot going on, even in a small business in terms of technology, correct?
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  Yes, I would say so.
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  And I would like to put out there two thoughts on that.
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  One is 10 years ago, a business need would drive tool adoption.
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  You wouldn't say, I got some time.
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  I'm going to go explore what accounting packages are doing today.
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  Like, let me watch a YouTube video about the latest CRM package.
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  Like, nobody cares.
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  Right.
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  You would be, oh, now I have too many customers to keep an outlook.
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  I need to go find something better.
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  Right.
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  And then the business would drive the technology evaluation.
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  Right now, AI is moving so rapidly.
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  And I'm on a couple of AI advisory boards.
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  And on one of them, somebody recently said, being, there's sort of a cool kids thing going
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  on with AI right now.
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  Do you know the latest tool?
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  Do you know the latest term?
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  Do you know, you know.
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  And then it kind of makes you feel like high school.
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  Am I not keeping up?
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  But I think what all of us as small business owners need to keep in mind is at the end of
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  the day, we're running businesses and those businesses have challenges.
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  And so we drive, what is the challenge or what's the opportunity?
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  And then let's go find a tool to address it, not the other way around.
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  Yeah.
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  I remember, and that's a great, great point and a great story.
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  I remember in my business, again, pre all this AI, I realized that we needed some tool
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  to connect to customers, to keep them updated on warranty dates on their equipment and things.
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  And I bought the program called ACT.
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  Oh, I remember ACT.
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  Yeah, of course.
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  Yeah.
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  And I mean, I was so impressed with what ACT could do.
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  We could send out, you know, email blasts.
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  We could send out letters and we could actually reference the customer's name and the date
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  they bought the equipment.
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  And so, but only because, you know, I had some tool that had directions and somebody helped
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  me with, could I do that?
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  Right.
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  You know, that's kind of where you come in in today's world is helping that business
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  identify the tools.
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  Yes.
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  Yes.
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  And implement in some cases, I would say, you know, when we think about evaluating tools
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  and we're using AI, right.
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  And AI is helping us understand what tool do I need?
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  What problem do I have?
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  How should I fix it?
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  What I would encourage you to do is think about when you last went to the internet, you did
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  a Google search and you asked it some health question.
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  I think all of us have always at some point in our life asked the internet, what's wrong
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  with this, with this health issue.
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  And we get back a lot of things.
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  Some of the things we get back are clearly trying to sell a supplement of some type.
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  Some of it may be the Mayo Clinic, which has, you know, great prestige.
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  So we take our understanding of the topic and we assess it to see how valuable and accurate
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  it is.
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  When we're working with AI to help us understand what we need to do, like evaluating what we
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  can do ourselves, whether it's marketing or tech or legal or any kind of knowledge-based
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  professional service, I would just encourage to say, do you have a subject matter expert
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  yourself or someone in your life who can validate the efficacy of what you're coming up with?
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  Because at the end of the day, you know, the AI is trained on that same digital information.
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  Okay.
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  What does client engagement look like for TechHouse?
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  How does it all start?
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  How does it work?
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  Yeah, we have a pretty well-defined funnel.
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  So I'm celebrating our 30th year this year.
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  Wow.
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  So, so we're pretty well-defined.
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  The first thing that we do is we reach out to have a conversation and that conversation
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  could just be by email because you just, you kind of know what you want.
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  You just need it.
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  Oftentimes though, it's a conversation to try and understand what you're trying to accomplish
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  so we can make sure you get the right solution.
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  Then we do a review with you of that solution, get a roadmap, and then we move forward.
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  It's pretty straightforward.
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  What's your business model?
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  Membership, subscription, by the hour type?
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  Yeah.
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  How do you engage with the client?
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  We say we meet you where you are.
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  So it can be hourly break fix.
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  You can be a subscription for a specific maintenance item, or you can be managed service, the whole
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  thing.
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  Okay.
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  Very nice.
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  Yeah.
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  And you are an exhibitor here at the conference.
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  Yes.
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  Very nice.
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  Yeah.
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  We are.
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  We're excited to be here.
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  It's such a good learning event.
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  This is definitely a conference with powerful, as a matter of fact, one of the people on my
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  team who's manning our booth, she's actually, she was going to be here, but she's just finding
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  the session so interesting.
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  She's still in one of the sessions.
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  So yeah, great sessions here.
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  The purpose of our whole little platform here, Small Biz Florida, when I created this
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  back in 2020.
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  Thank you for doing that.
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  Yeah.
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  I spent 25 years in private enterprise.
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  I never knew about the SBDC.
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  And I'm sure people have heard me say this a million times, but I would give anything to
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  have known about the SBDC and leveraged the resources.
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  So the whole reason we created this little platform was to make sure that we highlighted
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  all the resources and assistance programs and tools like TechHouse.
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  So these are the valuable conversations I like to have to really, again, create awareness for
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  things that people can use to do better in their business.
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  Where does someone find you and TechHouse?
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  Tech-house.com.
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  T-E-C-H-house.com.
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  Okay.
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  That's our website.
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  You can email hello at if you want.
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  Okay.
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  Very nice.
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  And where are you located?
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  Where is TechHouse headquartered?
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  Are you?
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  We're in the Gulf Coast of Florida in the Sarasota-Brington area.
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  Okay.
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  Excellent.
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  But our team's all over the state and our customers are in 38 states.
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  Okay.
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  It is Kathy Durfee, who is the founder and currently serves as the CEO of TechHouse.
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  Kathy, thank you for your time here on Small Biz Florida.
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  Thank you for being an exhibitor and supporting the 2026 Small Business Success Summit.
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  Thank you for all you do for small businesses.
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  Thanks for the chance to be here, Tom.
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  Absolutely.
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  Thank you.
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  This is Small Biz Florida.
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  I am Tom Kinninger, your host.
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  It is all about small business here at the 2026 Small Business Success Summit, all taking place at the beautiful Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor, Florida.
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  Stay tuned.
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  A whole lot more to come.
• 12:36
  This is Small Biz Florida.
• 12:37
  That's all for this episode of Small Biz Florida.
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  We hope you found valuable insights and inspiration to fuel your entrepreneurial journey.
• 12:45
  Don't forget to subscribe to Small Biz Florida on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode.
• 12:51
  We're also active on Instagram.
• 12:54
  You can find us at Small Biz Florida.
• 12:56
  So follow us for exclusive content and connect with fellow Florida small business owners.
• 13:02
  And for even more resources and support, visit our website at floridasbdc.org forward slash podcast.
• 13:08
  That's floridasbdc.org forward slash podcast.
• 13:12
  Until then, keep innovating and keep growing.
• 13:15
  Thanks for listening.
• 13:16
  We'll see you next time.