Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How To Be In Business For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Melinda Emerson

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How To Be In Business For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Melinda Emerson · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  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 succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small bizchett podcast?
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  Well, it's time every Wednesday we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start
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  and grow a successful small business.
• 0:45
  And just 20 minutes or so a week you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
• 0:52
  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the small beachhead podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  Welcome to another edition of the small business chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  The small biz lady.
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  America's number 1 small business expert and your host for the small business chat podcast.
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  Today, we're gonna be talking about how to be in business for yourself and not by yourself.
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  Now being in business is both exhilarating and daunting.
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  And while the allure of being your own boss is great, the road to success is often paved with
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  challenges and a lot of certainty.
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  And it's essential that you remember that you do not have to go it alone.
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  To thrive in business, you need a team.
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  You need a mastermind group of peers that are gonna support you.
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  You need a thriving online community of support, and you need a coach.
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  To guide you along the way.
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  Now you're not gonna be able to afford all these things day 1 in your business, but these
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  are things that you need to be shooting for and at least, you know, the first thing you gotta
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  do is address building a team.
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  So let's let's just dive into that for a minute.
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  No matter how skilled or driven you may be, doing everything yourself is a recipe for
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  burnout.
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  You wanna start The first thing you wanna do is start with the right productivity tools and
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  make sure that you're maximizing your personal productivity.
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  I'm going to say this again.
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  You're not using chat GPT, you are really doing too much work.
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  There's so many things chat can do for you And, you know, certainly all of your marketing
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  emails, all of your, you know, social media promo copy, headlines for your blogs, even an
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  outline for what you need to put into your blog post.
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  A chat can easily, easily do that kind of stuff for you.
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  Now, I'm not a fan of chat GPT writing a whole book for you or original content.
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  Think you've gotta feed it your own content, and it can wordsmith it for you.
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  But there's lots of other basic communication stuff that you're doing that chat could easily
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  easily be doing for you.
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  But you also need to look at some of your other productivity tools.
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  How do you communicate with your team?
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  Do you have project management software?
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  Are you using, you know, document sharing software?
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  Like, Google Docs, Dropbox, that kind of stuff.
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  You know, do you have a CRM system?
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  Are you using Nimble or insightly pipe driver.
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  You know, it doesn't matter what you use.
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  Just make sure it integrates with all the other stuff you're using.
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  I mean, the biggest challenge about productivity tools is that you pick something
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  that doesn't talk to the other stuff, and that's a pain in the butt if you ever need to
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  do something else.
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  Right?
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  So make sure that you've got the right tools in place so that you are maximizing the stuff that
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  you actually have to do.
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  Then, you know, if you're a mom or even especially if you're a single mom, you gotta
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  make sure that you got daytime evening and overnight child care support.
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  To make sure those kitties get picked up on time or that you have a safe trusted person to
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  leave them with overnight.
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  I was a single mom when my child was 4.
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  And I live in a city where I don't have any family.
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  So I had to pay for all the help I had.
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  I had to pay for daytime, evening, and overnight help.
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  And so, you know, there was no grandma that could come pick them up.
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  I mean, obviously, if I had to go out of town and I had enough notice, I could invite my my
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  mom or my former in laws to come.
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  But I you know, they're all elderly and stuff, and I didn't wanna bother them too much.
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  So unless it was something really important like a conference I had to go to for multiple
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  days, I had to pay for the help.
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  And so you have to make sure that you line that up.
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  Even if you're married, you need child care support because sometimes your partner is doing
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  their thing and you're the master of these kids and these kids' schedules.
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  So just make sure that you have, some summertime support, some, you know, daytime
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  evening, and overnight support so that you can keep doing your business.
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  There's always networking events to attend, you know, and you you may have to travel to trade
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  show or a conference or, you know, if you have a service business and you got customers that
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  are outside of your town, you gotta travel to go see them.
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  So Just make sure that you have that in place.
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  Now when it comes to the actual operations of your business, I think the first thing you
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  gotta have as a virtual team member.
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  You gotta have somebody to help with, like, back office and administrative tasks.
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  Later, you may need marketing and sales support.
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  Your marketing support might be in the form of somebody to help you with your social media or
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  your content on your blog and stuff like that.
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  But eventually, you're gonna need sales support because somebody's gotta be making sales other
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  than you.
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  And so you've gotta figure that part out.
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  Number 1, you gotta write a detailed job description for a sales rep, but 2, you can
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  develop a sales process before you hire a sales Emerson.
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  The process takes pressure off the person.
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  So you wanna make sure that you have something already thought out for them to do.
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  That you have a customer list.
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  You have your marketing materials.
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  You have a CRM system ready to go.
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  You know, you wanna make sure that you have all of this stuff going.
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  So that you can really leverage, of this person when they come.
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  Sometimes we hire salespeople as small business owners, and we hope they're gonna save us.
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  Okay.
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  Well, listen, if you do not have a sales process, you are doomed for failure with this
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  sales rep.
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  So Don't do that.
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  Also, don't forget about college interns or co op students.
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  I love co op students because they're with you for 6 months.
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  I'm a graduate of Drexel University, so would be remiss if I did not tell you guys about the
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  great co op program.
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  We have at Drexel.
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  But I actually had a a co op student from Harvard that worked for me last year in my
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  business who now works Mackenzie as a consultant.
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  So you can get great people.
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  I like to keep them around for 6 months because it takes 2 months to train these guys.
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  You know, when a college student comes to you, all they are is trainable, and you've got to
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  make sure that you have a process in place to train them, that you have your processes
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  documented so that they have a road map to follow.
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  You don't wanna just hire an intern without a plan for the intern.
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  So do not do that.
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  You you want to make sure that you set aside time, to train them, but also know that you
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  have to pay interns nowadays.
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  The days of interns coming to work out for free, that does not exist anymore.
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  You have to pay these guys, you know, 10 to $15 an hour.
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  So just be prepared to do that.
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  And, you know, even if you're working with interns and a virtual team or whatever, you
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  still should have staff meetings.
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  Everybody should know what's going on.
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  You you need to share your vision with everyone you hire to help you because you also wanna do
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  something that that I was scared to do, and I didn't do it for, like, maybe the 1st 4 or 5
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  years in my first company.
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  My first company was a video production company.
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  And I thought nobody could produce videos and rice cribs.
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  But me and that was actually very foolish.
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  I remember the first time I just got to the point in Bandwidth that I just couldn't produce
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  the stuff myself anymore.
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  And I hired someone else to handle a shoot, develop a script, supervise the edit.
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  And my gosh, it was the best thing I ever did for my life was let someone else do my core
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  thing that I did in the business.
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  And the Emerson why I did this was because I realized that my most valuable skill was
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  actually selling the next job, not doing the job.
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  And so I want to encourage all of you that if you believe that nobody can build your widget
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  like you, you are wrong.
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  So as soon as you can replace yourself in the operations on the org chart, you need to be in
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  sales, not in operations.
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  And so you wanna make sure that you document how you like things done, but do not be afraid.
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  The sooner you bring somebody in to do what you doing to execute the work, the better off
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  you're going to be.
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  And so the the last thing I wanna say about building a team is this.
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  Whether you're hiring interns, virtual assistance, freelancers, or full timers, you've
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  gotta get the right team in.
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  That's critical.
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  Melinda you really want to hire people that you can get invested in.
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  If you invest in them and you invest in their dreams, they will not let you down with your
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  dream.
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  And you just wanna make sure that even if you hire your best friend, your best friend needs
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  to be qualified for the job.
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  You can't just give them a job because they need a job.
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  You need to give them a job because they happen to be your friend, but they also happen to be
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  an expert in this thing over here.
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  So just keep that in mind when it comes to working with, people that you love.
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  The second thing I want you to think about in terms of your business is really joining a peer
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  group and securing a mentor.
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  You you need to see guidance and support from peers and mentors.
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  And and one of the ways that I've done it is I've been a part of many, Mastermark groups,
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  some that I paid to be in, some that it just three or 4 of us that has similar businesses
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  just got Emerson, and and we put ourselves in 1.
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  But Having trusted people who have similar experience and backgrounds to you, to bounce
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  thing off of is just an incredibly valuable resource in your business.
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  And certainly, you know, there's score mentors out here.
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  You can get a free mentor through score, but but there's lots of places where you can pick
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  up a mentor, somebody that's interested and invested in your success.
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  So the point is is that you need to surround yourself with people, who have been successful
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  who can give you advice or people that have similar business model to you.
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  You can do this through, like, maybe a trade group, like a trade industry group, or you can
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  meet people at the chamber, or, you know, business association, you know, National
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  Association Women Business owners or National Speaker Association, whatever.
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  I mean, those are two groups that I joined, but there's plenty of business groups out here.
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  And attending events is an invaluable way to promote your business, but you should also be
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  looking for other smart people that you can network with.
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  You wanna connect with fellow entrepreneurs who are on a similar journey that you know, just
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  allows you to gain valuable insight, learn about technology that's coming up.
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  And, honestly, through Mastermind groups, it's just an amazing way to tap into collective
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  wisdom that can help you navigate challenges.
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  Sees opportunities or even accelerate your growth.
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  Because when you work with businesses that complement yours, you guys can help each other
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  grow.
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  You guys can partner JV develop a joint marketed product together.
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  The third thing I wanna just touch on is, you know, every small business needs a coach.
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  I mean, if Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey have coaches, lord, clearly, you
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  little small business owner, me, Melinda, little small business owner, we need coaches.
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  And and I have to tell you, I actually have 2 coaches right now.
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  Now you guys know I'm a top business coach, but I pay people for coaching because there's
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  another level that I want to get to.
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  So you know, really having a coach just allows you to get personalized guidance and really
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  keep you accountable to your goals.
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  A coach can offer objective feedback, challenge you on your assumptions, and help you develop
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  strategies to overcome obstacles and achieve success.
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  I also love it that coaches a lot of times, if you have a good coach, they'll lever leverage
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  their personal network to help you.
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  It's not just about what they can do for you.
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  It's about what they're what their network can do for you.
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  And the best business coaches are people who have accomplished significant milestones that
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  you wanna achieve.
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  If you wanna sell your business one day, you need to coach with somebody who has done that.
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  Right?
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  You know, you a lot of people out here, I see working with coaches that are, like, one step
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  ahead of them.
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  That's a mistake.
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  That's not what you want to do.
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  You want to build, you wanna build a coaching relationship with somebody who's way beyond
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  you.
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  That way they'll be able to really give you the depth and breadth of their full experience.
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  You know, don't coach with somebody who's who's never had to pay payroll and and you got
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  employees.
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  Right?
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  You know, just that's not the right coach for you.
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  So just be really careful, about who you hire and what qualifications you think they need.
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  Because there's a lot of people out here.
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  They're just really good salespeople, and that's not what you need.
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  You need somebody who actually has the ability to coach you to where you're trying to go.
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  The other thing too is you should be able to make real strides with a coach, you guys, in 6
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  months, 12 months top.
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  You should not need one on one coaching for years years from the same coach.
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  You really wanna make sure that, the person who you're working with, you're gonna work with
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  them for a finite amount of time to accomplish something real specific.
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  You need goals when you hire a coach.
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  And you wanna make sure that this person is invested in your growth and development and
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  that they're willing to leverage their resources and connections to help you get
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  clients or customers or even employees.
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  More of which really just being in business for yourself, not by yourself also means
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  cultivating a network of support beyond your immediate team and mentors.
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  And this includes building relationships with industry peers other stakeholders who can
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  contribute to your success in different ways.
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  And that's actually why I have created small biz lady academy.
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  It's my brand new online community for women entrepreneurs that offers knowledge, support,
• 14:47
  and exclusive content, and access to monthly live coaching with me We're gonna have monthly
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  member roundtables.
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  And, really, we're gonna enable you to build relationships to grow your business and
• 15:00
  yourself.
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  And if you guys want information, want you to head over to
• 15:03
  smallbizladyuniversity.comforward/academy.
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  Just check out our landing page.
• 15:08
  Check out what I'm offering.
• 15:10
  We're gonna have virtual networking events.
• 15:12
  You're gonna have discounts on all of my live conferences.
• 15:16
  Y'all know Brandon to Man Live is coming up again this September.
• 15:19
  And we're gonna have a community that is gonna provide great avenues for you.
• 15:25
  We're gonna help you forge meaningful connections that could open doors and create
• 15:30
  opportunities for collaboration and growth.
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  And listen, we're gonna we have 2 pathways in our community.
• 15:37
  If you're a business that is a newer business under 2 years, you should go to our how to
• 15:43
  start, you know, pathway.
• 15:45
  And that's gonna give you all that great startup and early stage content.
• 15:49
  If you've been in business for a while, if you're over 3 years in business, you wanna look
• 15:53
  at our ready to grow platform because That pathway is all about up leveling, hiring your
• 16:01
  next level team, positioning yourself to add value to your business and and really more
• 16:08
  advanced marketing and sales strategy.
• 16:10
  So We have been spending the last 6 months building this platform.
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  You guys, I have 16 years of content to pour into this platform.
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  So know that we have really built an incredible resource for you.
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  And right now, because you're one of my loyal members of my community, we're offering founder
• 16:33
  rates.
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  So if you join our how to start pathway, it's only gonna be $37 a month for life.
• 16:40
  If you join right now before we flip into full full full mode, you're gonna be able to pay $37
• 16:47
  a month for life to to be in that platform.
• 16:50
  If you are a more established business, you are ready to grow pathway is is $87 a month right
• 16:58
  now.
• 16:58
  And so, listen, eventually, it's gonna be a lot more than this, but these are our founder rates
• 17:03
  We wanted to love on our loyal community first before we launch this to the wider world for
• 17:10
  some different pricing.
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  And I'm just really excited to share it with you guys because this is the for me at my stage
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  and my business, after 25 years in business, I'm now about influence, and I'm about training
• 17:26
  the next generation of of entrepreneurs.
• 17:29
  And so this Small Buslady Academy is my labor of love.
• 17:34
  And if you want some more information about it, I just invite you to head over to
• 17:38
  smallbizladyuniversity.comforward/ Academy so that you can check out our landing page and our
• 17:44
  FAQs.
• 17:44
  So you can get all the information about it.
• 17:47
  The site will go live June 1st.
• 17:50
  But you're gonna have an opportunity to get in, before anyone because you're one of my loyal
• 17:55
  listeners and you're gonna be hearing about this.
• 17:59
  The awesome thing about small business lady economy is really gonna be the community.
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  You will be surrounded by like minded women who believe that they can transform their lives and
• 18:08
  families with a business.
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  And we're gonna help you leverage the expertise and support of this community and navigate your
• 18:15
  challenges.
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  I mean, because, look, entrepreneurship is hard.
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  Everybody can't do it.
• 18:18
  So we wanna help you leverage all of my heart, learn lessons, but we're gonna have fun.
• 18:25
  We're gonna give you opportunities to grow, but we're gonna laugh.
• 18:28
  And and listen, we're we're gonna have all of this material Available in English and Spanish
• 18:34
  because I know that I have a global audience.
• 18:37
  My book becoming your boss was printed in Spanish and Portuguese And so I actually have
• 18:43
  you guys.
• 18:43
  I have been learning Spanish because soon, I'm gonna be able to teach in Spanish, but we do
• 18:48
  have some amazing coaches and facilitators who are bilingual.
• 18:53
  So we're gonna make sure that you have the support that you need And so if you are
• 18:59
  interested in checking out smallbizladyacademy, I just wanna invite you to head over to
• 19:04
  smallbizladyuniversity.comforward/a academy so that you can check out our landing page to see
• 19:10
  all the cool things.
• 19:11
  This site will go live June 1st.
• 19:14
  And shortly thereafter, the price is gonna change.
• 19:19
  So we're gonna make it available to our founding members, our loyal followers, really,
• 19:24
  for the 1st month or so.
• 19:25
  But after that, everything's going up.
• 19:27
  So I wanna invite you guys to jump on this opportunity now.
• 19:31
  You're having if you always wanted to coach with me and you didn't think you can afford it,
• 19:36
  Well, now you can because I'm gonna be doing live hot seat coaching every month inside the
• 19:41
  platform.
• 19:41
  We're gonna be doing live.
• 19:44
  Webinars every month in the platform.
• 19:46
  We're gonna have an amazing amount of content that's gonna be specific to people how to start
• 19:53
  and and and more so for people ready to grow.
• 19:56
  So there's plenty of information.
• 19:59
  It's gonna be stimulation overload.
• 20:02
  So I'm just really excited about this.
• 20:05
  It's been a labor of love to build it.
• 20:07
  And I hope that you guys will realize that you do not have to be in business for yourself.
• 20:14
  You could be in business for yourself, but not by yourself.
• 20:16
  And if you become a member of small business lady academy, We're gonna help you do it.
• 20:22
  We're gonna help you stay in business because that's the hardest part.
• 20:25
  So I really appreciate you guys.
• 20:28
  We're always following and supporting the Small Bridge Top Park.
• 20:31
  As this is Melinda Emerson, your host, Small Biz Lady America's number 1 small business
• 20:36
  expert.
• 20:37
  I'm gonna leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
• 20:42
  God bless everybody.
• 20:48
  Thanks for listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 20:53
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you the podcast and join us next Wednesday for more
• 20:58
  fantastic information and interviews.
• 21:01
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 21:06
  website succeed as your own boss dot com.
• 21:09
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.