Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Why Small Businesses Fail

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Why Small Businesses Fail · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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Hi, everybody.
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3, 2, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff, Ending small business failure.
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Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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Melinda Emerson.
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This is Melinda Emerson.
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A small biz lady, and I'm coming to you from the small biz chat podcast.
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And today, I'm recording another episode of the small business lady diaries.
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And today, what I wanna talk to you about are the reasons why small businesses fail.
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Now There's lots of reasons why people, you know, end up going out of business.
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And to me, it's the saddest thing in the world.
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When I drive down the street and I see a 4 rent sign in the in the window of a business that I
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knew was just there or everything must go that kind of stuff.
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Oh gosh.
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It hurts me to my heart because y'all know my mission as the small biz lady is to end small
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business failure.
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So everything that I write, everything I share, all of these interviews that we do on the small
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base chat podcast is really about empowering you, giving you information, so that you can
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sidestep all those potholes that are out there waiting for you in business.
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You know, I had a really good friend of mine say this to me, Sydney, Melinda, when you start
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a business, it's like you're in a tsunami.
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And if you're not careful, you you will hit a a twenty foot storm surge that'll wipe you out.
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And And that's actually a very accurate, description of what it is.
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And I think that it's important to talk about why businesses fail so that you can position
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yourself or position your business, your new business, if you're just starting out, or to
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reposition your business if you had to hit the pause button and had to regroup.
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And and it's okay to regroup because I can tell you right now, my business quintessa's group We
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are on our 3rd iteration of what that business is since I started it.
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You know, when I first started my company, I was a video production company because my
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background is in television.
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I was a television news producer for many years.
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And when I first started my business.
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Of course, what would a television producer do?
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More video production.
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But then as the years went on, I realized that A lot of people were using the videos we were
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developing for websites.
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So then I was like, well, you know, we're losing out on money.
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We better start building websites too.
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And then my company kinda morphed into about 2006, 2007, we really started looking at trends
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in our industry and realize that social media marketing was gonna be the next really big
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thing.
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And so I scrapped video scrapped websites and really started figuring out how to become a
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black belt in social media marketing.
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And and that's what I did.
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And a lot of how I learned social media marketing was with my own small business lady
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brand.
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And so I, you know, built my small business lady brand up and then corporations started
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calling saying, hey.
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You know, you've done such a great job building the small business lady brand.
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Do you think you could come help us?
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And so that turned into me being a social media marketing consultant.
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And, eventually, now these days, I mean, my company is a full fledged marketing consulting
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firm.
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And now we work with large brands on things like customer acquisition, customer retention,
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we develop influencer marketing programs, and we do social media content and strategy,
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particularly social media contests is a big thing that my company is known for.
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You know, and I and I feel like I need to explain that because I think there's people out
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here who think being the small business lady is, like, all I do And what my joke about that
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is, well, how do you think I learned all the things I know to help you in business if it
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were not for the fact that I've run a business?
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So I've I've run my company, Quintessa's group for 20 years.
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And like I said, we have evolved, as the needs of our customers evolved as our expertise
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evolved, opportunities.
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You know, my, a friend of mine, Eric Thomas, he always says, you know, your gifts will make
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room for you.
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And I believe that.
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And so what I'm saying to you is that as you read, as you go to conferences, as you learn
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things, as you acquire more expertise and experience, people will pay you for it,
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particularly if you demonstrate, that you know it.
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And so I think that it's okay to reinvent.
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It's okay to expand.
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And it's okay for the thing that you fell in love with at first to be something you
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eventually don't love doing.
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Anymore.
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You know?
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And so it's okay.
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I once had a woman tell me that every woman has 4 reinventions in her life.
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And I was like, you know what?
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I think that's fabulous.
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And so I guess I want number 3.
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So there's gonna be one more.
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There's gonna be one more reinvention.
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I don't know what it is.
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Right now, this small business lady thing is working well for me, but what I want you to
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know is that when you think about why small businesses fail.
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One of the biggest reason is because people are not flexible.
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People are not coachable.
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So they start a business and they already know everything.
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Well, that is a great way to not engender people to wanna mentor you, to wanna help you.
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And also to not have employees wanna work for you because nobody wants to work for a no at
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all.
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Right?
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So I think it's really important just to think through some of these things.
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So not being flexible, not being comfortable is 1.
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But but I also think, there's a lot of people out here who wanna be a boss.
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Like, everybody, even my thirteen year old wants to be a boss, but nobody knows what that
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really means.
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And what happens is people underestimate the work involved in signing the checks on the
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front and the back.
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People really don't know how hard it is to make all of these decisions all the time.
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Because when you put your shingle out there and you say you're over for business, literally,
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you're taking on 10 to 12 jobs, like, all at one time, any of which can close line you on
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any given day.
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But if you really don't understand that.
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Your business can become a nightmare to you.
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And I'll tell you a a story a woman I knew she was a senior executive at 1 of the
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pharmaceutical companies around here.
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And couple years ago, she left her good six figure job, to start a reader's water ice,
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which, for those of you that are not based on the East Coast, we don't have quote, unquote
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ice cream stands here.
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We have water ice.
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And water ice is like, I guess, what you all maybe call Italian ice but it's a very East
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Coast Philly thing.
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But anyway, Rita's water ice is one of the biggest chains of this they do custard and
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stuff like that too, but mainly they're known for this stuff called water ice.
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And This young lady quit her job, opened a Rita's waterized franchise, and I saw her right
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when she was getting ready to open, and she was so excited.
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Oh, handed me an invitation to her grand opening And I ended up bumping into her maybe,
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like, a year, year and a half later at one of my sons, like, little kid birthday parties, And
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I was like, oh, how's the business going?
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And she looked at me with this gal on her face, and she said, Melinda, I cannot be a slave to
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anything, especially something that I don't have passion for.
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And you know what else?
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And I said, what?
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She said, and I hate teenagers.
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And that's who my cuss that's who my workers were.
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And largely, that's who my customers even were.
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Now what that told me was that she didn't do enough research about the business before she
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started it.
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She just thought it would be a good idea to to open a franchise and really didn't think
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through, you know, what her life was gonna be like running that business.
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Like, of course, you you sell you have a seasonal business where you're selling ice
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cream and one rice.
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Who else would work for you?
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But a high school kid, you know, for 8 to $10 an hour.
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So, of course, our employees were teenagers.
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And but if you've never been married, you don't have kids.
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Yeah.
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Maybe teenagers might not be something that you like.
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And so You know, I see this a lot, though.
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People start businesses.
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They start restaurants because they like to eat, not because they know anything about
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running a restaurant.
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Do not do that.
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You know, make sure whatever business you're starting is something that first you have
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business experience in, and make sure you do your homework.
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You do not wanna start a business that you end up hating.
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And and that's that's bad for business for sure.
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The second I guess this would be, like, the 3rd reason that I think, small businesses fail is
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because people chase anybody that they think has money.
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As opposed to having a specific niche target customer.
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And my rule of thumb for that is, look, if everybody can use your product or service maybe
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nobody will.
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And so you have very limited resources when you start out in business and and all through your
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business.
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So why not pick a target you could actually hit instead of trying to market to the world?
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How are you gonna buy Facebook ads when everybody can use your product.
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You know, you've gotta really be specific about the group of people that you're gonna
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specialize in serving and the problem that you're gonna solve.
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And the best way to do that is get really, really specific.
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The other thing too is you gotta figure out How can you stand out in the marketplace?
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Well, specialists can always stand out.
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And when you are a specialist, you can charge more money.
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Right?
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So who makes more money?
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Your primary care physician or your cardiologist?
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Let's think.
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Cardiologist, of course, the cardiologist that I know drive Lamborghinis.
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So you wanna make sure that you figure out how to become the cardiologist for what you do.
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And and you you really wanna specialize.
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Sometimes people will say yes to anything.
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Well, you know what?
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Sometimes you wanna be known for what you turn down.
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And people will respect you and refer you because you are the dude for that, or you are
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the lady that specializes in doing that.
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So, you know, you wanna make sure that you have a specific niche target customer because If I
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say who's your customer and your answer is everybody, my head's gonna pop off and spin all
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the way around.
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So do not do that.
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Make sure you know who your customer is.
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The 4th thing I would say is so often I have people email me or call me or send me a note.
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Melinda, How do I get new customers?
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And you know what my answer is to that?
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How about you focus on your existing customers?
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So many people waste so much time chasing new customers.
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And let me tell you something.
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The first sale you make to someone is the most expensive sale So why wouldn't you try to
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nurture your existing customers for repeat business and making sure you're capturing their
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information in staying in touch with them as opposed to being out here chasing every
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ambulance down the street that you think got money hanging out the back.
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Like, that does not make sense.
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You really wanna specialize, in serving a specific group of people.
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And once you get those people, they've already said yes.
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They've already spent money.
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They are actually your best opportunity to make more money and someone who's already bought
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from you.
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So don't forget, please, please, please, don't forget to focus on your existing customers.
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Because you can turn those guys into a referral source and unpaid Salesforce, all kinds of
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stuff.
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If you just say thank you, if you just pay attention to them, If you give them incentives
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that come back in your store or do business with you some more.
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Now another common thing that I've seen people do is not leverage, their lawyer or their
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accountant as business advisors.
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Now if you're only calling your accountant at tax time, they are just a tax preparer.
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They're not a business adviser.
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But you should be talking to your accountant at least quarterly, if not monthly, about what's
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going on in your business.
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And what do they think you need to be paying attention to when it's time to do your budget
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for the new year?
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You need to sit down with your accountant and look at what your expenses have been
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historically and figure out where you need to budget or where you need to cut so that you can
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make more money.
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And you need to make sure you're evaluating how much profit you're making year to year as well
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so you can figure out how to make more, right, because it's not about what you make.
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It's about what you keep.
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So those are the things that are really important.
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Do not wait until tax time to call your accountant.
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Your accountant should know what's going on with your business all year round and be able
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to advise you.
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And then at tax time, what you guys can talk about is tax planning.
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We can talk about tax shelters.
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You can talk about whether you should buy that expensive piece of equipment to get an
14:05
additional write off on the year.
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You can't do that if you're, you know, taking a ziplock bag of receipts, nothing's been entered
14:13
in QuickBooks for the whole year, and that's when you're calling your accountant.
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That doesn't work.
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The same thing with your lawyer, you need to use your lawyer as an adviser to your business.
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Don't just call them, you know, when somebody throws in a a contract in front of your But
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please at least call them when someone puts a contract in front of your face.
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You do wanna make sure that you don't sign anything binding that a lawyer has not looked
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at.
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But you also want to, you know, be strategic with your lawyer.
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If you're thinking about if you have a business partner or you're thinking about doing a joint
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venture or something with another business.
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Make sure you got a piece of paper between you.
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You know, you're you're going into business with your best friend.
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That's great.
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You need a partnership agreement.
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Those are the things that you need to be talking about your lawyer, you know, or I have
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a good friend.
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Her name is Nina Kaufman.
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And she says you need an entrepreneur's prenup, and that is a partnership agreement.
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And so it's really important that you nail this kind of stuff down because stuff happens.
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People get divorced.
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People die.
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You wanna make sure that what's gonna happen next is already thought through and figured
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out.
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Right?
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I mean, really, really, really, really important.
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Because at the end of the day, small businesses fail because people fail to plan.
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And that, you know, and it it it kinda all of this stuff I'm talking about kinda comes down
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to it.
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But what you really need to do is think about, you know, your business plan.
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When you're first starting out, usually, that's when people do a business plan.
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But then after that, you know, you put it on the shelf, you know, like it's a historical
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document, it's not.
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Every 2 to 3 months, you should be looking at your business plan and making adjustments
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because your first business plan is really what, like, your hypothesis and what you think
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is gonna happen in your business, but really, you need every year to have a strategic plan of
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what you're gonna focus on this year?
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Are you gonna develop a new product this year?
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Are you gonna come up with a new book this year?
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Are you gonna launch a brand new podcast this year?
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You know, what are you gonna do to build your brand and get more visible and get more
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customers.
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What are you gonna do?
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And you need to think through that because if you do not plan, then you kinda plan to fail.
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And that is, unfortunately, it exactly what happens.
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So you wanna make sure that you're thinking about that.
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Now another reason why small businesses fail is because people don't save up enough money
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before they start their business.
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You know, startup capital does not come from banks.
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It comes from you.
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It comes from your savings, your 401 k, your home equity, whatever resources or liquid cash
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you have, credit card capacity you have.
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That's usually where your start up money comes from, unless you're gonna go on a a roadshow
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and try to get investors.
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But, again, that could take years So your initial capital that you're gonna invest in
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your business is gonna come from you.
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And too often, people start undercapitalized, and then they just spend the rest of the time
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in their business pushing a rock uphill with their back because any day the weight from debt
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and from other pressures or poor cash flow management could roll steamroll right over
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them.
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And that is a poor position to be in.
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So, you know, one of the things I talk about is part of the reason why it takes 12 to 18 months
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to start a business is because you gotta get your money straight.
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You gotta save up your money.
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So you wanna make sure that you are fully capitalized, at least for your 1st year of
17:46
operations, and that you're not carrying a bunch of crazy credit card debt because your
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personal credit is actually your business's credit when you first start out.
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So you wanna make sure that All of that stuff is tight, as you go in to start a business.
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Now once you you know, have the capital, though, you really do need to make sure that
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you're managing your cash flow well.
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You know, poor fiscal management is a big issue.
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And and here's the deal, guys.
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If you're not managing your household with a budget, you're probably not managing your
18:25
business with a budget.
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And you need to make sure that when you're faced with a financial decision about your
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business that you're using up to date financial information.
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By 15th the month, you should know how well your business did last month.
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You should not be just checking your bank account to know what you think you might have.
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You need to make sure Then on a monthly basis, you're looking at your accounts, your accounts
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payable, your accounts receivable, that you have an accountant reconciling all of your
18:55
books with your bank statements to make sure that everything's cool.
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And so that if you are hit with an unexpected expense that's not in your budget, you can make
19:06
a real informed decision about whether or not that's a go, no go decision.
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And it's just that simple.
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But if you're not looking at financial statements, if you're just out here weighing
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it, And at the end of the year, when you get your taxes done, that's when you get the
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surprise as to whether or not you're making money or not.
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That is crazy.
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That's not how you run a business.
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So that's how you wing it, and that's a scary, scary place to be.
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You wanna make sure that you're on top of your numbers and that you know your numbers, that
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you know how much it even costs you to run your business a month.
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That kind of stuff.
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You need to know that, and you won't know that if you're not using, you know, financial
19:41
statements.
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So you just gotta make sure that you know that stuff about your business.
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Now another thing that I see people do to set themselves up for failure is they hire the
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wrong people.
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You know?
19:52
If you have a poor support team, because you're hiring maybe the people you think you can
19:57
afford versus the people you actually need, that is how your business is gonna come off to
20:02
people.
20:02
You're gonna get people that don't care.
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You're gonna get people that are gonna come to work and treat it like a job and not like an
20:08
opportunity.
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And So you wanna make sure that you're really careful about the energy and the personalities
20:15
you bring into your business because you want people who are gonna lift you up You do not
20:20
need anybody dragging down your business.
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You just don't.
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So you wanna make sure that you have good job descriptions that you actually go through a
20:29
thorough interview process.
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And even if you're just a business of 1, I would get to other, maybe a mentor, maybe
20:37
another business owner to sit in so that you could do panel interviews so that all three of
20:43
you can interview candidates because I think sometimes as a business owner, particularly if
20:48
we do a phone screen interview, we can fall in love with people over the phone.
20:52
You know, people are very charming and You know, you might forget to put them through that
20:57
skills test.
20:58
You might not feel like checking their reference because you really need a button to
21:01
see, you know, because We as business owners sometimes wait until the last minute to hire
21:06
people till our hair is on fire so that we don't do a thorough interview process.
21:10
And then we end up with boo boo the full looking for us.
21:13
So you wanna make sure that you have a strong support team, and that starts with you.
21:18
That starts with hiring well in the first place.
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Now One of the other things that I see people do, that is just really not good for them in
21:28
business is they don't have a very clear value proposition.
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And your value proposition is sort of like your reason why people do business with you.
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And, you know, you gotta be really careful, particularly if you're an online retailer or
21:42
you are a wholesaler retailing goods that people can find elsewhere, you gotta make sure
21:49
that you have a strong value add.
21:52
You have to make sure that you are really on top of your expertise and that you are you
21:59
know, known for that and that you do other things to demonstrate your expertise.
22:03
If you're selling goods, you gotta be careful because people buy things because they're
22:08
cheaper, better, or faster.
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And if you if your value proposition is that you're cheaper, Be careful.
22:15
You sell it on Amazon.
22:16
You're gonna be in a race to the bottom, and that's a race that nobody wins.
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And you wanna make sure that you are selling your products and services at a healthy margin
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that's gonna allow you to pay all your bills and make money and pay yourself too.
22:30
Really, really, really, really important.
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So you wanna make sure that you have a clear value proposition, and that goes back to that
22:38
sort of niche specialty thing.
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Right?
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Because you gotta think about it like this.
22:43
Is anyone looking for another Graphic design firm, you know, generic graphic design firm.
22:51
No.
22:51
They're not.
22:52
Is someone willing to hire a graphic design firm that specializes in educational materials
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all day.
23:02
People are developing education materials and want people that know how to develop education
23:06
materials.
23:07
They don't wanna teach you how to educate how to develop education materials on their
23:11
project.
23:12
So it's really important that you sit and think about your value proposition.
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Very, very, very, very important because I want you to know that this stuff is critical.
23:24
You know, again, people wanna hire people who specialize in solving their problem.
23:30
So you need to make sure that your value add is good.
23:34
Like, one of the companies that I work with I order printing, supplies from them.
23:40
Like, whenever we need new business cards or new cards or something.
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And you know what?
23:43
They always put a little bag of candy in the box when they when they send me their stuff.
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And you know what?
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I look forward to that now.
23:51
Like, that's that's a little thing.
23:53
But it's but it's a sweetener.
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You know what I mean?
23:56
Literally, because it's sugar, but you need to think about is there something special that you
24:01
can do that really adds value to your customer without adding price.
24:06
I had one time a funeral home company and whenever they would do a service for a family,
24:13
they had these beautiful wooden clocks and they would engrave them with, you know, always
24:19
remember the good times.
24:21
And they would send them to the family 2 weeks after the funeral.
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So that they would always have a keepsake.
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And they didn't stamp their logo all over it.
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I think their logo was maybe on the back of it.
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But the point is they're gonna display that clock and they're gonna always remember who
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gave it to them.
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And so these are things that you can do to add value that are small but very memorable.
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So you wanna think about how you can add value to a to your business in a way that helps you
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stand out from the competition.
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And one of the deadliest things that I see small business owners struggle with is people
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just don't know how to sell.
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People are afraid to sell.
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People have, you know, poor money mindsets and you know, like, I can't sell my gift.
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Well, yes, you can.
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Like, people need to learn how to sell.
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And matter of fact, everybody in your business that works for you needs to know how to sell.
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But you as the business owner, if selling isn't your natural, thing that you're good at, go
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sign up for some sales training.
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Get you a sales coach.
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It's too easy for you to get information on how to sell better.
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You know, it just is, but you need to know how to sell you need to have a CRM system, a
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customer relationship management system, you need to be touching your customers, you need to
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be following up.
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If you're selling something online, within 7 to 10 days of people buying it.
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They need to get a email from you asking them how did they like it?
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Would they please give you a review?
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And put the link inside the email for them to give you the review right there.
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Make it easy for people to give you feedback, but ask for feedback.
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But you have to know how to sell.
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You have to know how to upsell.
26:15
You have to know how to cross sell.
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You better know how to sell.
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Because selling sales is like the engine.
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It's the engine that's driving your business.
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It's like gasoline in a car.
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It can't go without sales.
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Your business won't work without sales.
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And I have to tell you it's probably one of the biggest issues that take small businesses down.
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Because everybody knows how to build their widget or how to do whatever it is their
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expertise is, but how you gonna sell the next job?
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How are you gonna get the next customer?
26:56
You walk around here, afraid of buying ads?
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Are you afraid of picking up the phone, dialing for dollars?
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Smiling and dialing whatever you gotta do, but you have to learn how to sell.
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Because if you don't, you will go out of business.
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I can guarantee it.
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And it's unfortunate because it's you can learn it.
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It's it's there's there's a science to it.
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You can learn it.
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There's tons of great books and great experts out here teaching you how to sell, you know,
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but you have to know that it's a deficiency that you wanna turn into a strength.
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And you gotta know that it's not just enough to have traditional selling skills.
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You gotta know how to sell online too.
27:35
You gotta know how to build your brand online.
27:38
But you also have to recognize there's a difference between marketing and sales.
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When you were just emailing people and letting people know you're out there, that is
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marketing.
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It is a sale when you send somebody a proposal or you send somebody an invoice.
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That is a sale.
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And there is a difference between sprinkling, you know, dust out there saying, hey.
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You know, I do that?
28:02
You know, I do that.
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You know, calling people checking back in, connecting with people at networking events,
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that's marketing.
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It doesn't turn into a sale until somebody asks you for a proposal, or they ask you to send
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them an invoice.
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And that is what the goal should always be.
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You gotta get to the point where somebody's asking you for a proposal.
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Right?
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And so that is it.
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And and, you know, I I that's about 10 or 11.
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I think I just spit off the top of my head, but I will also tell you guys one more because, you
28:36
know, I feel like this is in my spirit to just share today.
28:41
The other thing that a kill a business faster than anything is a unsupportive spouse
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boyfriend, parent, mother, you have to be really, really careful who you tell your dreams
28:57
to.
28:58
Because there's tons of dream snatchers out here.
29:02
And it's sad to say, you know, sometimes you're sleeping with your number one hater.
29:08
And so you wanna be really careful about how much you share.
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And because honestly, An unsupportive spouse can kill a business faster than a bad marketing
29:19
plan.
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So ladies, this is particularly for you.
29:22
You gotta choose your partner well.
29:24
You gotta make sure you're with somebody that supports you, that loves you, and then somebody
29:28
that's not gonna get jealous when you start blowing up because That's the other thing.
29:32
It's not always when your business is doing bad that your spouse or partners mad at you.
29:37
Sometimes your spouse or partners mad at you when your business is doing good.
29:41
So you wanna be really careful and make sure that the people in your life that you share
29:47
your genes with are people who support you.
29:50
If they aren't, you gotta do something about that because it's not gonna change unless you
29:56
do something about it.
29:57
Listen.
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That is all for today.
30:00
I am Melinda Emerson, the small business lady.
30:02
If you want more tools and tips about how to take your business to the next level, Check out
30:07
my website.
30:07
Succeed is your own boss.com.
30:09
I've got thousands of articles about how to take your business to the next level.
30:14
And how to avoid some of these booby traps we just talked about.
30:17
But I can't go without giving you my action point of the week, and it is this.
30:22
Make sure you know why you're starting your business.
30:25
Focus on a specific customer base.
30:28
Keep in touch with those existing customers and make sure you're making financial decisions
30:34
based on up to date financial information.
30:36
And lastly, make sure you know how to sell And if not, make sure you hire somebody to sell for
30:42
you.
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I'm Melinda Emerson.
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I'm the small business lady, and that's all for today.
30:46
We'll see you next week.
30:49
Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
30:54
For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
31:01
Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.