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Top 10 Things Small Business Owners Need to Focus on in 2025 with Melinda Emerson · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  321.
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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 one 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 to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the smallbizchat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the Small Biz Chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just 20 minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
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  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Business Chat podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I wanna welcome you to another episode of
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  the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  Hello.
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  This is our first episode of January 2025.
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  I am so excited to be here with you all.
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  You know, I consider it an honor and a blessing that I am your small biz lady, America's number
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  one small business expert, and I am really excited to talk to you all today about the top
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  ten things that every small business owner needs to focus on in 2025.
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  Right?
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  It's never gonna stop that we gotta focus on sales.
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  Right?
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  It's never gonna stop that we gotta focus on getting a team so that we can avoid burnout.
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  But there are some very specific things that all of us need to be zooming in on to stay
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  competitive in 2025.
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  And I'm really excited to have the opportunity to give you my best, to give you guys my best
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  opinion of the things that we need to be looking at.
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  So let's just jump in, shall we?
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  First of all, I just wanna say, you know, AI, AI, AI, AI, you know, it is gone from, you
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  know, being being something that we might need to look at to it's really has become a a must
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  have.
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  You know?
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  You've gotta know how to leverage AI so that you can automate tasks, so that you can
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  personalize customer interactions, and, really, so that you can analyze data, for smarter
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  decision making in your business.
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  Like, tools like chatbots, predictive analytics, you know, and AI driven marketing
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  platforms are game changers.
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  And and all of the platforms that we have all been using have now started to incorporate AI
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  extras.
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  Right?
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  So the email platform that you use probably has a way to help you write the emails.
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  Right?
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  Even Gmail has predictive, you know, analytics information in it.
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  They think they know the next thing you're gonna write.
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  So use these tools.
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  I wouldn't completely depend on these tools because you do not want your content to become
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  generic or vanilla or or even sound like everybody else.
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  So one of the things that I wanna caution all of you all is if you're going to be using AI
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  tools for your business, one of the things you wanna do is personalize the tool to you.
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  All of us should have a brand tone document that you can import into any AI tool that
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  you're using, whether it's Chat TBT or Gemini or whatever, so that the tool learns you, so
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  the tool knows your brand voice, so that the content that the tool is gonna create sounds
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  like you and is consistent with your brand.
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  You don't want someone who's been reading your newsletter for years to all of a sudden read
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  newsletter and be like, she didn't write that.
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  Hey.
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  I wrote that.
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  Right?
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  You don't you want AI to be your aid, not your guide.
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  Right?
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  So make sure that you are setting yourself up for success by not just putting a one sentence
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  prompt into chat chat gbt, like, use this tool to learn you.
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  I also believe that you should be paying for at least one of these tools so that you can keep
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  the content you're putting in it private so that it's not gonna be spread all over the
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  Internet so that your competitors can find out your strategy because you're using chat gbt to
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  to create it.
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  So just be really careful, pay the money.
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  It's 20, $25 a month.
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  It's worth it to be paying for at least one of these tools so that you can try to keep your
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  stuff as proprietary as possible.
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  Now do I completely trust all these AI people?
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  No.
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  I do not.
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  But do everything you can to protect your business business's intellectual capital.
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  Please do that.
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  The second thing I want everybody to be thinking about for 2025 is you have got to
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  strengthen your cybersecurity.
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  You know, the wild wild west of the Internet is out here.
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  There are so many scams, whether they're coming through text, whether they're coming through
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  email, and they mostly are coming through email.
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  So be really careful about what you're clicking on.
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  Use your cybersecurity software.
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  Make your team change their passwords every 30 days.
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  Like, you you really wanna invest in robust cybersecurity measures.
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  You know?
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  You wanna make folks use firewalls, and I know multifactor authentication is a pain in the
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  butt sometimes, but it's worth it.
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  And you also wanna make sure that you're training your employees to protect against any
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  breaches.
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  And here's a simple thing, Shut your computers off at night when you leave your office.
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  Even if it's a home office, cut your computer off because a lot of times people are able to
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  sneak in because we leave our computers on.
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  And they're not machines.
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  They need to rest like you need to rest.
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  So do yourself a favor and cut your computer off at night and and reboot it every day.
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  You also wanna look at how you can build a resilient supply chain.
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  You know, we've got a lot of crazy stuff going on, you know, with the new administration
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  coming in and and tariffs and all this kind of stuff.
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  It could become a lot harder to get your stuff in or out of the country.
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  If you sell internationally or if you manufacture internationally, you want to make
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  sure that you've got at least 2 or 3 options to get your stuff and you want to be working on
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  that earlier rather than later.
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  You know, if, Black Friday is your Super Bowl of the year, You wanna make sure that March,
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  you're looking at who some suppliers are.
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  Make sure that you have 2 or 3 ways to get your materials or your finished products in.
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  It just really is a smart thing to do.
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  Big companies are doing it, and we have to do it too because things are about to become
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  really crazy on the international stage with all of the content and and conversations
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  around, you know, avoiding NAFTA and and and adding tariffs to different stuff.
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  And there will be retaliation, and you don't want your business to suffer.
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  You know?
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  So I so I just you know, as a public service announcement, I just wanna say everybody needs
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  to be paying attention to where you get your raw materials from.
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  Number 4 on the list, I want you guys to consider expanding your digital presence.
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  You've gotta have a mobile friendly SEO optimized website.
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  You've gotta be active on social media.
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  Now you do not have to be active on 4 or 5 social media sites.
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  And those of you that have built your life on TikTok, I want you guys to know that I believe
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  TikTok is going away.
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  I do not think the courts is gonna save TikTok, so I hope y'all have transferred all that love
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  over to Instagram, because I do think that TikTok is about to be banned in America.
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  If you are a local retailer, I want you to look at how you can invest in local search
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  optimization.
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  All we everybody should be asking people for reviews.
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  If you do business with someone within 7 to 10 days of them receiving your service, They need
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  to get an email with you with a survey of how they did and a link for them to give you a
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  review on Yelp, Google reviews, whatever.
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  But you wanna get in the habit of getting those great testimonials or finding out if you have a
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  problem.
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  You know, honest feedback is a gift.
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  Sometimes people are afraid of reviews, but reviews are a way for you to, first of all, it
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  helps you with great visibility.
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  I mean, somebody will trust a third party over anything that you personally say.
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  But also too, if there is a problem, if there is a customer service training opportunity,
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  those things tend to pop up in reviews.
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  I mean, I recently, traveled with my family, on American Airlines over the holiday and had a
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  harrowing, travel experience going and coming.
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  And it was so bad that when I got back, it got my mother's suitcase off of the turnstile.
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  One of the wheels of her suitcase was even missing.
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  Like, that's how awful the experience was.
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  But you know what?
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  I sent them an email and told them immediately.
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  They sent me a survey.
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  I sent them a response, and I went on their website and sent them a whole another response
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  about how horrible my travel experience was.
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  That's important because you need to let people know how they treat you, but you also need to
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  do something about it when you get that information.
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  So you do not want to be sitting up here and not be make sure you have a Google alert on
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  yourself, on your personal name, on your business's name so that you do not miss any
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  reviews that come back.
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  And number 5, I want you to consider, enhancing your customer experience.
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  In 2025, you know, customers expect personalization, and they expect seamless
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  interactions.
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  You've got to be using, CRM tools.
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  You've gotta offer, you know, FAQs that are automated, you know, chatbots and stuff.
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  You wanna collect feedback continually so you can improve your customer journey, and really
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  foster loyalty.
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  Now here's the thing.
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  If you're gonna use a chatbot for customer assistance, make sure there's also a human
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  connected to that.
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  You can use a company like Ruby.
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  They do live chat customer service on websites and stuff.
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  So you you wanna kinda make sure that I don't know about you, but sometimes you go through
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  sort of, like, the FAQ stuff and what you need isn't there.
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  That is really, really, really frustrating.
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  So you wanna make sure that you have a live person working the back end of customer service
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  as well, at least, you know, regular working hours so that people can get help and support.
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  You might wanna think about, number 6, prioritizing sustainability.
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  You know, there are lots of customers that prefer brands that care about the environment
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  and care about have social value.
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  So if it's possible, if it makes sense for how you do business, you need to highlight any eco
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  friendly practices that you have.
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  You wanna do things to reduce waste.
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  You wanna use recycled materials, and you wanna communicate your sustainability efforts because
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  there are millennials and gen z's out here who really only wanna work with businesses that
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  have this mentality and and and business commitment.
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  So even if it costs a little bit more for your brand, if you are about saving the planet,
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  there's lots of people that will do business with you because of that.
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  Number 7, I want you to invest in your employee well-being.
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  And if you're not a big company and you can't throw all these benefits at people, you gotta
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  think about what you can do.
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  Could you offer flexible work options?
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  Can you invest in a training or professional development opportunities for your folks?
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  Can you create a wellness day, bring in, a speaker, you know, create a lunch and learn,
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  maybe do a retreat for your team.
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  But but think about how you can bolster your employees.
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  They are the frontline of your business.
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  They are who interacts with your customer, and you do wanna make sure that they feel valued.
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  When people feel valued, they take care of your customers.
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  So do what you can to love on your employees.
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  Really important.
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  Number 8, I want you to think about how you can diversify your revenue streams.
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  What is one more thing you can do to make money?
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  Is it develop an online course?
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  Is it develop an online community?
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  Is it to write a book?
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  Is it to become a speaker?
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  What is it that you can do to add some additional revenue to your business?
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  Is it another, something that you notice that customers are talking to you that they need?
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  Is there another offering that you could create this year?
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  But you need to diversify your revenue.
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  You need to have at least 3 streams of revenue in your business.
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  If you're really kicking it, I mean, do 5, but you need to make sure that your business has
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  multiple ways to make money.
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  Number 9, you gotta leverage data and analytics.
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  You know?
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  I mean, the most basic one is looking at your Google Analytics every month, but there's a lot
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  more information you should be looking at.
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  You should be looking at what your close ratios are.
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  Guys, if you do 10 sales meetings in a week, it's likely that 3 of them will close.
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  It's typical 30% of your sales outreach will close.
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  Well, then who are how can you get more of the kind of people that say yes?
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  You can only know that by looking at who's done business with you, who are the last 3 or 4
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  people.
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  You gotta make sure that your customer persona is right.
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  And so you've gotta look at your data and look at it applies to everything from your marketing
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  campaigns, to your inventory management, to what is driving traffic to your website.
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  Right?
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  That's what your Google Analytics can tell you.
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  So make sure that you are using data to help you make smarter decisions in your business in
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  2025 because that's really gonna be important because there is so much more data.
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  With AI, there's so much more data you can have, but you gotta know what you're looking
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  at, and you gotta make it make sense.
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  And and and even if you have to invest in having someone help you develop a custom
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  dashboard so that you can understand more data about what's going on in your business, The
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  data doesn't lie.
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  People do, but the data does it.
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  So make sure that you are looking at the data about how your business runs, how you get
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  customers so that you can be a sharper, better, smarter CEO in your business.
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  And last but certainly not least, number 10, I want you to stay agile and adaptive.
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  Right?
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  The business landscape in 2025 will evolve very rapidly.
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  You guys, there is a brand new chat gpt that they are rolling out in 2025, and it's gonna
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  make things move even faster, and you gotta be ready.
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  We have to stay informed about industry trends.
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  We have to also embrace change, and we gotta be ready to pivot our strategies to address any
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  challenges and seize any new opportunities that pop up.
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  I promise you this, if you focus on these priorities, your business is going to stay
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  competitive and thrive in 2025.
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  Alright.
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  Now if you are a woman business owner and you're looking for resources to help you make
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  money, help you hone your systems, help you build a better team, help you grow a business
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  that works for you versus a business that's running you.
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  I want you to consider Small Biz Lady Academy.
• 16:04
  It is our exclusive community for women entrepreneurs, and we are all about helping you
• 16:11
  run a successful business.
• 16:13
  You guys, I've taken my 16 years of experience, of data, of ebooks, of courses, and I've thrown
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  it in this community just for you.
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  Plus, once a month, you'll get a chance to have a group coaching session with me.
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  We release a free training in in there every month.
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  And when you first sign up, your 1st 30 days, I'm a train you.
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  Whether you stay with us or not, I'm a train you, and you can join our community with a 30
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  So there's really no nothing to lose.
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  If it doesn't work for you, you can cancel at any time, but try us.
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  Taste us and see.
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  I'm out here trying to change people's lives.
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  I want women business owners to win.
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  And by the way, our content is available in English and Spanish.
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  Yes.
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  Your girl has been studying Spanish for the last year, and I'm teaching in Spanish also.
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  I wanna encourage you guys that in 2025, the world is still waiting on a better mousetrap.
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  And if you build it, the world would beat a path to your door.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
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  I'll leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat Podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
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  more fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.