Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / Simplifying Success: Downsizing Small Business with Michelle Borders
Transcript
- 0:37Jennifer Johnson: Today we welcome back into the studio Michelle Borders.
- 0:40Jennifer Johnson: She is the co-founder of Naples Network Services, and last time we were talking all about networking and I just admire your networking abilities, michelle.
- 0:51Jennifer Johnson: Welcome.
- 0:51Michelle Borders: Thank you, Jen.
- 0:52Michelle Borders: I'm so happy to be here again.
- 0:53Michelle Borders: Yes.
- 0:55Jennifer Johnson: I want to talk about small business downsizing.
- 0:57Jennifer Johnson: Some people look at it and say you know what?
- 1:01Jennifer Johnson: I don't want to get smaller, I want to get bigger, but bigger isn't always the better way to go.
- 1:06Jennifer Johnson: Would you mind sharing your story with our audience before we really delve into this topic?
- 1:13Michelle Borders: Sure, I would love to, because I think everyone's encouraged to grow, grow, grow, grow, but it's seldom discussed that you could choose to get smaller.
- 1:24Michelle Borders: And here's my story, I'll say my husband's family.
- 1:29Michelle Borders: So we were moving along with our IT business and my husband's family had a flood in their home up north twice while they were down here.
- 1:37Michelle Borders: They were seasonal and he had the idea to create this product called myenvirocom.
- 1:42Michelle Borders: So he researched it and we ended up partnering with Conditioned Air and they changed the name to my Comfort Monitor and they so they put their own spin on it and they went to China and got parts for it and really tried to get it in the high rises and things like that.
- 2:05Michelle Borders: So people that were seasonal could get a notification if they had a flood or a temperature change, and the idea was the property managers could see that Okay.
- 2:17Michelle Borders: So that was one way that we expanded.
- 2:20Michelle Borders: And then another way, my son went away to school and we started Hurricane Development Studios and they did websites and they were doing all these different things and we had all these college students at the.
- 2:31Michelle Borders: University of Miami working with us and it just became so hard to manage the IT and then manage.
- 2:39Michelle Borders: My husband's sister worked for us and she came from big corporate and wasn't in love with working out of the house and just having to be so disciplined and things like that and we hired a kid that was out of college and maybe didn't have the skills and sending him out and having.
- 3:01Michelle Borders: So it was just too much diversification and, um, the product nest came out and technology moved ahead and you kind of have to have to get into the high rise and things like that.
- 3:14Michelle Borders: Even condition air, a 50-year company, had had so and so that kind of like was stressing us out.
- 3:22Michelle Borders: Then, like all these relatives and kids, and we had a kid in Miami that was suddenly unresponsive and she was in the middle of doing a client's website and wouldn't respond and we had to get a lawyer and we just eventually decided that it would be much easier to just be Kevin and I.
- 3:43Michelle Borders: So we talked about earlier partners.
- 3:45Michelle Borders: We partnered with StickBoy.
- 3:47Michelle Borders: They take the big things, the software.
- 3:50Michelle Borders: Their company Vector takes the websites All those college kids are doing their own thing now.
- 3:57Michelle Borders: His sister is working for Arthrex, a big company like she really wanted to do, and it's him and I and it works smoothly and we're happier, much happier.
- 4:06Jennifer Johnson: Isn't that funny, though.
- 4:07Jennifer Johnson: We think that we want it all, and then we bite it off and it's too much, and then we realize that we're better just the smaller, and you can make more money doing that sometimes right, you're not wasting your resources and really the clients are happier, because we lost a client because of that kid that was not as experienced as he should have been.
- 4:30Jennifer Johnson: Right, and you're dealing with other people and you're responsible to yourself.
- 4:35Jennifer Johnson: Right, You're accountable to yourself, so you know I have to do this.
- 4:39Michelle Borders: But it is scary, though, because your clients do get used to Kevin's sister or my son, and then you're like, oh no, especially the ones that they connect with better.
- 4:49Michelle Borders: Everyone does not connect the same with everyone.
- 4:53Jennifer Johnson: So how do you think small businesses should look at whether or not they should grow or they should stay the same, or they should downsize?
- 5:00Jennifer Johnson: How do you know?
- 5:01Jennifer Johnson: Well, if they're super unhappy, they're stressed out pulling their hair out, right?
- 5:07Michelle Borders: And I think if you're doing three totally different things, like I said we started to do that's too much.
- 5:13Michelle Borders: At least it was for us.
- 5:17Jennifer Johnson: And I mean I know they say diversification is great and that's a great insulator with the economy and everything.
- 5:23Jennifer Johnson: But it sounds like you know there is a point at where you can get too diversified.
- 5:29Michelle Borders: Absolutely, and there there is a point where you can be too stressed out and is it worth it?
- 5:35Michelle Borders: Isn't it worth it?
- 5:36Michelle Borders: But I think the thing that mostly concerned me was the clients.
- 5:40Michelle Borders: Obviously, you want them to be happy and you want them to be okay with.
- 5:44Michelle Borders: Oh well, they may have to wait for Kevin.
- 5:47Jennifer Johnson: Right, but on the other side it could be a slippery slope, because you have all these employees and they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, so then that upsets that customer, and then they tell somebody you know that whole saying like if somebody's unhappy, they tell like seven people, if they're happy, they tell one.
- 6:06Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely Right, so you risk that as well, right?
- 6:10Michelle Borders: So I think you just have to be honest, because I kind of I do consider my clients my friends because we're a family company.
- 6:19Michelle Borders: So I say, if that's for you, if you want to feel like you're my family, and so the way to handle it is to just be honest, and if they want to stay, they stay, and that decision should make it better, right.
- 6:37Jennifer Johnson: And it's certainly not a sign of failure at all.
- 6:40Jennifer Johnson: It's a sign of knowing your business and knowing you.
- 6:43Michelle Borders: And I have to share.
- 6:44Michelle Borders: So my neighbor, he's a builder and I saw him while I was walking the dog and he said, Michelle, I thought of you the other day because he had the opportunity to get this big client and he didn't really connect too much and he chose not to take the job.
- 7:00Michelle Borders: And he said and I thought of you, because some people stay small, because they don't know what they're doing, but you stay small intentionally and, coming from him, because he's bigger.
- 7:08Michelle Borders: Someone might consider him a small builder, but he's a, you know pretty successful.
- 7:13Jennifer Johnson: He's a big, small builder.
- 7:14Michelle Borders: Yeah, and coming from him, he didn't have to say that, right, so but that's very true.
- 7:21Jennifer Johnson: It's so true.
- 7:22Jennifer Johnson: You know being intentional about everything that you do is going to get you to where you want to be.
- 7:29Michelle Borders: And you could still be award-winning.
- 7:31Michelle Borders: Absolutely, gulf Shore business, best in business.
- 7:34Michelle Borders: The number one spot was by a company with over 30 employees, but we still got like the second or third.
- 7:40Jennifer Johnson: I mean, look at that, that's amazing.
- 7:42Jennifer Johnson: And you're a company of two.
- 7:44Jennifer Johnson: It doesn't matter your size, you could be very powerful.
- 7:48Michelle Borders: And it also doesn't matter where you work, because, especially after COVID, it became more acceptable to work out of your home.
- 7:54Michelle Borders: For a while it was like, oh, you work out of your home, but now I'm like, yeah, I'm lucky Everybody wants to work out of their home.
- 8:02Jennifer Johnson: now it totally changed.
- 8:04Michelle Borders: Right, and we're always setting people up to work out to be able to do that Right.
- 8:08Jennifer Johnson: So and now it's become a kind of a you know a token like oh, I get to work from home.
- 8:13Jennifer Johnson: You know everybody wants that.
- 8:15Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, not for everyone.
- 8:15Jennifer Johnson: Right, Absolutely Right.
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- 8:35Jennifer Johnson: You can reach out to them online at truefashionistascom, or come into their store or check them out on Facebook or Instagram, and that's truefashionistascom.
- 8:45Jennifer Johnson: Welcome back, friends.
- 8:47Jennifer Johnson: We are in studio with Michelle Borders, the co-founder of Naples Network Services, and we are talking about small business downsizing and how it's not a bad thing at all, and I'm curious to know how it works, or maybe how it worked for you when you decided you know what we're going to downsize our business.
- 9:06Jennifer Johnson: How do you tell your employees?
- 9:08Jennifer Johnson: When do you tell your employees?
- 9:09Jennifer Johnson: When do you do that?
- 9:12Michelle Borders: Well, and also we didn't suddenly it wasn't everyone was gone either, it was little by little, by little.
- 9:18Michelle Borders: I don't know that it was intentional, that it was just going to be us two ending up that way.
- 9:21Michelle Borders: I don't know that it was intentional that it was just going to be us two ending up that way.
- 9:24Michelle Borders: But as I guess you address the worst problems first and then go from there and try to be completely open and honest with the other people that are still there and do whatever you can for them, but also you care about the people that aren't going to work with you anymore, so you do whatever you can to help them.
- 9:44Jennifer Johnson: I mean, again, it's the golden rule treating people the way you want to be treated.
- 9:51Jennifer Johnson: That usually works for everything, right?
- 9:53Jennifer Johnson: It sure does.
- 9:53Jennifer Johnson: It certainly does.
- 9:54Jennifer Johnson: And somebody had said there was a platinum.
- 9:55Jennifer Johnson: Do you remember the platinum rule?
- 9:57Jennifer Johnson: I remember hearing that somewhere and I can't remember what it is, but it tags along with the golden rule.
- 10:04Jennifer Johnson: Okay, but I agree the golden rule Take care of them how you'd like to be taken care of, right, Right.
- 10:10Michelle Borders: Even in tough situations.
- 10:12Jennifer Johnson: Right, how about minimizing the effects on your customers as you're doing that downsizing?
- 10:18Jennifer Johnson: Now, like you said, it wasn't like overnight.
- 10:21Jennifer Johnson: We turned the switch off and decided we're going to be a person in a company of two.
- 10:25Jennifer Johnson: It happened gradually, but how do you prepare your customers for that?
- 10:29Jennifer Johnson: Because some people don't get the choice of doing it gradually.
- 10:32Jennifer Johnson: You know, like when COVID hit a lot of people, I remember me it went down to my husband and I because that was all we could do.
- 10:42Jennifer Johnson: Right, you know what?
- 10:44Jennifer Johnson: How would you handle that?
- 10:47Michelle Borders: Again, I would be honest and and it was hard when people called and asked for certain people that were no longer there.
- 10:55Michelle Borders: That was hard and I just had to be polite and as honest as I could and I I don't.
- 11:05Michelle Borders: I don't think we lost anyone, yeah.
- 11:09Jennifer Johnson: That's you were open and honest.
- 11:10Michelle Borders: Right, but it is hard to not have other people to, let's say when Kevin is in the field and someone calls and needs help.
- 11:21Michelle Borders: It would have been nice, like it used to be, where I could just have someone else help.
- 11:25Jennifer Johnson: but it's worked out.
- 11:27Jennifer Johnson: Did you notice like people talk about growing pains when they grow their business?
- 11:32Jennifer Johnson: Were there pains, downsizing, like you said, that wasn't a great example.
- 11:36Jennifer Johnson: Were there other things that came that were unexpected?
- 11:40Jennifer Johnson: Or maybe not just challenges, maybe some very positive things that came out of that?
- 11:46Michelle Borders: Well, I'll say there were some.
- 11:47Michelle Borders: We couldn't get at this website that was being created and we had to get a lawyer, and also another website that was being created.
- 11:57Michelle Borders: The programmer was blocking it.
- 12:00Michelle Borders: It was this whole thing with GoDaddy and it was not fun.
- 12:07Jennifer Johnson: It was being held hostage.
- 12:08Michelle Borders: It was someone that didn't live here.
- 12:09Michelle Borders: And that's the thing with all these remote workers, you don't have that much control, right?
- 12:15Michelle Borders: So getting that intellectual property, getting access to it, getting someone else that could and I did end up getting an intern through the Naples Chamber.
- 12:24Michelle Borders: That was with Lorenza Walker.
- 12:27Michelle Borders: She was a student there and the first thing I said is you have to be responsible and responsive.
- 12:32Michelle Borders: It's so important I'm still using her to this day.
- 12:35Michelle Borders: Oh my gosh, yeah, it was years ago.
- 12:38Michelle Borders: She's about to graduate from FGCU and she's so good ago.
- 12:44Jennifer Johnson: She's about to graduate from FGCU and she's so good, but see, okay, there goes back to that connection.
- 12:47Jennifer Johnson: Like none of the conversations that we have, they all are about your connections.
- 12:52Jennifer Johnson: You know, going back to what we were talking about on the last podcast that we did together, it's about connections Like you're still working with that person today.
- 13:01Michelle Borders: Yeah, and we got our website redone and I said we have to.
- 13:05Michelle Borders: She has to be able to get in there and change it, cause I'm not taking.
- 13:09Michelle Borders: I still want to work with her.
- 13:11Michelle Borders: So they did.
- 13:11Michelle Borders: They gave her access to it and, um, I met with her for coffee recently and I'm going to try to help her find a job in her field as a programmer.
- 13:22Jennifer Johnson: How has your life changed since you changed the trajectory of your business?
- 13:29Michelle Borders: I would say that Kevin and I get along better, believe it or not, right, I know you would think you would get along worse because you don't have as much help.
- 13:37Michelle Borders: But really we know we can trust each other.
- 13:40Michelle Borders: We know we're both giving 100%.
- 13:42Michelle Borders: We know we're good with working out of the house.
- 13:46Michelle Borders: It's not like we're going to disappear and we're going to wonder where the other person.
- 13:50Michelle Borders: You know what I mean.
- 13:51Michelle Borders: It's better we can trust each other.
- 13:54Jennifer Johnson: So you know this is unrelated to the topic, but it just occurred to me because I work with my husband as well.
- 13:59Jennifer Johnson: What challenges or what positives are there with working with your spouse?
- 14:04Jennifer Johnson: I just threw that at you because I'm like you know what, as we're on that topic, because you know, I know at times my I sit across from my when I'm in my home office.
- 14:15Jennifer Johnson: I sit across from my husband like we're sitting right now.
- 14:17Jennifer Johnson: He wants to kill me.
- 14:18Jennifer Johnson: I type really fast and it's annoying to him.
- 14:22Jennifer Johnson: He's like go somewhere else.
- 14:24Michelle Borders: Well, we're so lucky because we have two buildings, two houses that are next to each other.
- 14:30Michelle Borders: So he works in the other one.
- 14:32Michelle Borders: So that's what keeps us married, right?
- 14:34Michelle Borders: Yeah, it's really so.
- 14:36Michelle Borders: That's nice.
- 14:37Michelle Borders: But also over the years I've learned like not to be too pestery about oh, did you get back to this person?
- 14:43Michelle Borders: Or like sometimes I'll just put things on his calendar even though I don't know if he's done it or not.
- 14:49Michelle Borders: But it's safer to just put it on the calendar than be like did you do this?
- 14:53Jennifer Johnson: Did you do?
- 14:53Michelle Borders: this, did you do this Right?
- 14:55Michelle Borders: And I think I've just learned to relax, because before I guess I would just more like being a naggish wife instead of being a coworker, and I should just realize it will get done and I don't need to be nagging.
- 15:12Jennifer Johnson: I need to like you know, I know Zip it yeah, I know you know what it's worked.
- 15:15Jennifer Johnson: It works.
- 15:16Jennifer Johnson: I have to, so get better at that, because I'm that person.
- 15:19Jennifer Johnson: Did you do this?
- 15:20Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, how about this?
- 15:21Jennifer Johnson: Did you do that?
- 15:22Jennifer Johnson: When are you going to do it?
- 15:23Jennifer Johnson: That's it, it's.
- 15:25Jennifer Johnson: When are you going to do this?
- 15:26Jennifer Johnson: Well, when I get around to it.
- 15:29Michelle Borders: So I have to learn to just put it on the calendar and then we have a color code.
- 15:34Michelle Borders: So if it's orange, it's done.
- 15:37Michelle Borders: Yeah, out of the office is dark green.
- 15:39Michelle Borders: So yeah, it's colors.
- 15:40Michelle Borders: So I said can you orange some of that stuff out, and that way I don't have to.
- 15:45Jennifer Johnson: Right, you can see it as a glance and you know exactly what's happening.
- 15:48Jennifer Johnson: So positive things with working with your husband.
- 15:51Jennifer Johnson: I need the cricket machine.
- 15:56Jennifer Johnson: It's so funny Well.
- 16:00Michelle Borders: I'm here.
- 16:01Michelle Borders: I feel like it's flexible and he always knows what the schedule.
- 16:07Michelle Borders: We know each other's schedule.
- 16:08Michelle Borders: He's not gone all the time.
- 16:12Jennifer Johnson: It's great, I like it.
- 16:13Jennifer Johnson: And, like you said, I heard one thing from you before you can trust him.
- 16:17Jennifer Johnson: Yeah Right, like you've got each other's back and you know that.
- 16:22Jennifer Johnson: Like.
- 16:22Jennifer Johnson: You both want the best for your marriage and your business, exactly Because you've got each other Right, sunny and Cher, I got you babe Right.
- 16:31Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, it's that whole thing.
- 16:33Michelle Borders: And I understand that, yeah, and I'm grateful and I'm sure you are that it works for us, right it does.
- 16:39Michelle Borders: Maybe it wouldn't work for everyone.
- 16:40Jennifer Johnson: Right, I mean, there are days, like I said you know I don't like my typing skills, but you figure your way through it.
- 16:48Jennifer Johnson: You get through whatever the rough spots are and it makes the brighter spots even brighter, Absolutely so.
- 16:54Jennifer Johnson: It has been wonderful having you on again today.
- 16:58Jennifer Johnson: Is there anything that we missed in wanting to talking about downsizing that I didn't?
- 17:05Michelle Borders: It's not a common thing to do.
- 17:07Michelle Borders: Everywhere you look, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, but I am much happier and I am thrilled to connect with anyone that wants to talk about it or help in any way that I can, because we are functioning better.
- 17:20Jennifer Johnson: It was the best decision for us, and you would be such a great resource to our listeners If they want to connect with you.
- 17:26Jennifer Johnson: How can they do so if they want to?
- 17:29Michelle Borders: The best way would be email mborders@ naplesnetworksservices.
- 17:30Michelle Borders: com.
- 17:31Michelle Borders: I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Facebook and I'd be happy to help any way I can.