Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Leverage Coaching to Grow Your Business with Jane Veron

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How to Leverage Coaching to Grow Your Business with Jane Veron · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  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 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 small biz chat lady 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 twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch 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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  Now the whole purpose of the Small Biz Chat podcast is this is a place where small business
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  owners get knowledge, resources, and strategies that they need to start, grow, and succeed in
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  business.
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  Now today I want to emphasize the whole purpose of the Small Biz Chat podcast and that is to
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  end small business failure.
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  Now we are going to be talking about one of the most important issues entrepreneurs face today
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  and that is how to access expertise, guidance, and support that you need along your way to
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  growing a successful business.
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  My guest today is Jane Vernon.
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  She's the co founder and CEO of the Acceleration Project known as TAP.
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  TAP is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping small business owners accelerate
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  growth, create pathways to economic mobility through expert business advisory support.
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  Before launching TAP, Jane held strategy and marketing leadership roles at Bain and Company
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  and American Express.
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  She also served as the mayor of Scottsdale of New York, and she advised the US Small Business
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  Administration and currently chairs the New York Congressional Task Force on Jobs and the
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  Economy.
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  Jane spent her career helping organizations grow and today she helps entrepreneurs access
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  strategic guidance to overcome challenges and break through growth barriers.
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  Before we get started, if you are a fan of the Small Bitch Chat podcast, I want to invite you
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  to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
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  And as always, please, no hate mail.
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  Now your reviews really help us reach more entrepreneurs and continue to bring valuable
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  content.
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  Now, join me in welcoming Jane Vernon to the Small Bitch Chat podcast stage.
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  Hi Jane, welcome.
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  Melinda, I am so happy to be here.
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  Now, let's just jump into it.
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  I'm very interested in how you came about launching the acceleration project.
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  Tell me what led you to do that.
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  So like you mentioned, I started in the private sector and I had the good fortune of working as
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  a consultant where I got to advise Fortune 500 companies and give them excellent guidance to
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  succeed.
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  I recognize that small business owners deserve that same opportunity.
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  And what I did was build the acceleration project TAP to take that Wall Street expertise
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  and to partner it with empathy and care and deliver it to Main Street.
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  Interesting.
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  So a lot of entrepreneurs believe that access to capital is their business obstacle in
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  growth, but you don't believe that.
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  So tell me what you believe and why.
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  Well, access to capital matters.
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  It is very, very important, but it is not enough.
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  Think about it.
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  If you were to get a new car, but didn't know how to drive it, that wouldn't be very helpful.
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  And that to me is the analogy about what we do and why we do it.
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  Access to networks and information and support that makes it so relevant for the small
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  business owner, that's how you're going to grow and flourish.
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  And I could even give you examples.
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  Sure.
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  Why don't you give us one?
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  So this wonderful business owner, nurse practitioner turned medical spa owner, had
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  loans.
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  She had loans to outfit her space.
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  She had loans to make her new storefront even better.
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  But then the landlord gave her thirty days notice and she had to pivot and she had to
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  figure out how to continue to sustain revenue, increase customers and be able to hire people,
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  more people outside of who she was so that she could actually deliver a great business.
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  The capital didn't provide the solution.
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  It was the hand holding and the support that we were able to deliver to her that really moved
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  her because she's awesome and she got 40% increase in sales, 80% increase in bookings and
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  social media off the charts.
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  So okay, that's one instance, but I know so many other businesses that I work with that I
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  coach through our Small Biz Lady University who they have a good business, but they bootstrap
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  their business, maybe their credit's scarred because they did that and they might be
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  1,000,000 in revenue with cash in the bank and can't borrow money because their credit is
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  scarred from the bootstrapping that they did in the early days of their business.
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  So I wanna push back on you just a little bit about capital because I think even when things
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  are going well in a business, not being able to borrow money, I mean there is no business, not
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  like Morgan Chase or Wells Fargo or Visa, anybody else who didn't grow from capital and
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  so I still think that capital is a real issue particularly for minority and women owned
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  businesses but I know that's not the only problem.
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  I agree with you.
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  It's a capital and, but what you're describing is a credit score problem.
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  And we designed the EDGE program at TAP, for example, to be able to give people strength
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  around their personal business credit so that they could borrow at much more favorable rates.
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  So I am 100% in unison with you.
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  We I agree that making sure that could penalize you for the entirety of your And
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  I can't even tell you how many businesses, 1,000,000, 5,000,000, 10,000,000 call me and
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  they can't borrow the money they need to grow because six years ago they missed a mortgage
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  payment.
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  Mean, and that stuff is stupid.
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  In my opinion, I believe that credit scoring is actually how institutional racism is enforced.
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  And so for me, I believe that we have to look at additional mechanisms to press capital to
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  good businesses with good ideas that didn't, that might have had a rocky start for whatever,
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  because you and I both know you only need one client to pay you net 45, net 90 to have a cash
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  flow crisis in your business.
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  And we know the bigger the business you do business with, the more likely they've got some
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  shady payment terms like that.
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  So, but let's just slide over and just talk about the biggest mistakes that you believe
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  that entrepreneurs make after they receive capital or just in general, the biggest
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  mistakes that small business owners make.
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  So the biggest mistake is very often not knowing your numbers.
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  Your numbers are your friends.
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  Very often they get outsourced to the accountant.
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  But that's what's going to help you know if you're actually able to make a profit and able
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  to take home income.
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  My goal, everything at TAP is about income generation, wealth generation, providing for
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  the individual, the family and the community.
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  We're all about wealth generation and jobs.
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  And so if you don't know your numbers, you may not know if you're earning enough to be
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  yourself.
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  That's problem one.
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  A second problem is thinking that you can do it all yourself.
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  And you should lean into your superpower, your secret sauce, and then build around you because
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  you can't build a business outside yourself if you do everything.
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  No question.
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  No question.
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  What was the last thing you think that they struggle with?
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  I think that they struggle with asking for help.
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  And I want to say there is no shame in not knowing.
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  We are built on the premise that big companies have board of advisors.
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  They have people who can help them in every which way.
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  So too should our small businesses, like the 62,000,000 Americans who are gunning our
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  economy, they're keeping our economy sustained.
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  Sure.
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  Get advice, get support.
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  That's what it's there for.
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  Now, one of the things that I often see is people make emotional decisions and not
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  strategic ones.
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  And I was wondering how you thought that coaching could help business owners become
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  better decision makers.
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  When you are running a business you are triaging everything and you work in the
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  business.
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  Coaches allow you to step out and work on the business and coaches provide perspective and
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  can ask you questions that you don't get to have the breathing room to ask yourself.
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  So tell me a little bit more about your organization and like how people can access,
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  you know, well, first of all, what does it take to become a coach?
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  Like, do you have, you know, criteria certification process or something like that?
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  Or, you know, and or how does one potentially access a coach from your organization?
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  So great question.
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  What differentiates us is that we screen coaches and don't take anybody in who wants to
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  be it.
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  We turned on a third of people who volunteer to coach.
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  And that's because not only do you need to have business acumen, but you also need to be able
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  to walk in someone's shoes, speak their language, feel their pain, know how hard it is
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  to become a small business owner.
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  So we identify vet train relentlessly.
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  So no TAP consultant isn't overseen by my paid team.
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  Huge high quality.
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  And that's how we sustain it.
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  Your second.
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  Are they all volunteers then?
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  Well we have a leveraged business model which is what enables us to bring this high caliber
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  support to small businesses across the entire nation.
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  So we have a paid team that unlocks multiples of that in pro bono talent.
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  We harness Wall Street expertise, train them on how to work with business, and deploy them to
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  small business owners.
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  Interesting, interesting.
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  Okay, all right so
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  But you asked about the I want clients to know small businesses.
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  We are here.
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  We turn nobody away.
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  They don't have to pay anything.
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  We fundraise to support them.
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  So we are here.
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  So is it I can come and get one session or is it like I could get on a rotation and every
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  month I could talk to somebody?
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  Like how does it work?
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  We believe that the most important thing is to be there with a small business owner across the
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  entire journey.
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  So it's not one and done.
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  You come, you show up, you tell me you need help accessing capital, we'll help you get your
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  numbers ready.
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  You tell me you have to deploy it, we'll help you there.
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  We'll help you when you think about exiting.
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  We'll help if you want to have deep help, we'll do that for you.
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  If you want to be in a group, a peer counseling group, we'll facilitate that as well.
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  We are not transactional, we are relational.
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  Okay.
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  So can people access this anywhere in The US or is it just in New York or what like?
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  All over The United States Of America.
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  Okay, okay.
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  You know, a lot of business owners don't have CFOs or CFOs or board of advisors, so how can
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  entrepreneurs maybe start with a coach but move forward and kind of build a little ecosystem
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  around themselves?
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  Great question.
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  Look for the areas where you feel you're not as strong and find that friend, colleague,
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  partner, friends of friends, cousin, and have them bring that expertise to bear and build
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  your own mini board of advisors.
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  People like to offer perspective.
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  Yeah, know it's funny in my book Become Your Own Boss in twelve Months, which believe it or
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  not I wrote seventeen years ago, I talk about how every small business owner needs a kitchen
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  cabinet of advisors And I call this group of people a kitchen and cabinet of advisors
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  because these people will work for food, right?
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  They're not looking to bill you every time you call and ask them a question.
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  So I am perfectly aligned around what you're saying.
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  Now one of the things I want to ask you though is what are some of the warning signs that a
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  business needs coaching?
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  I would tell you that every business benefits from coaching.
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  It's always better to get ahead of a crisis So I would argue that everybody should avail
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  themselves of it.
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  But you certainly need coaching when you're going to make a very big decision.
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  If you're going to hire, if you're going to take on more debt, because those moments can
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  either make or break you.
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  And then how big is your organization?
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  We have over 200 consultants across the country.
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  We serve thousands of small businesses every year.
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  To date, almost 12,000 small business owners.
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  And then, of course, we also help people through digital content and so forth.
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  But really, the human piece is the 12,000.
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  So I know that a lot of small business owners define success by revenue, right?
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  People love to throw out gross revenue numbers, which always cracks me up because I'm always
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  like, honey, it's not about what you make, it's about what you keep.
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  But how do you think that small business owners should really define business success?
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  They should be able to take income for themselves because you're always the last one
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  to get paid, but you need to be able to sustain yourself and your family.
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  So success is making sure you can take income.
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  Success is being able to do a plan forward to know what your margins are, like how much money
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  you can keep earning doing the thing that you're doing.
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  Success is building an entity outside yourself so that you're not just the only one.
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  Because when you're ready to retire, you need to have an asset that you could pass down and
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  have harvest all the kind of reap the rewards of all your hard work.
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  Sure, sure.
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  Now, I know that a lot of entrepreneurs are afraid to ask for help, right?
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  Because they think it makes them look weak.
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  What would you say to a business owner who believes that they need to figure it all out?
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  You know, hide in their office with the door shut and try to figure it all out.
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  What would you say to this person?
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  Tell me one successful person who does it alone.
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  You know, our elected officials have cabinets, our CEOs have boards and there is no great
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  success requires partnership collaboration.
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  You can lead, but you should lead by inspiring others.
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  I like that.
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  You think that you said earlier that you believe everybody needs coaching, like, you
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  know, whether you're, you know, just getting started or trying to figure out how to exit,
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  know, trying to figure out how you can build a business that you can sell.
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  But what do you think is the most critical stage, I guess?
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  Yeah, I mean, you're right.
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  There are moments when you're that you must seek advice and that's when you're making big,
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  taking big risks in your business.
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  Are you about to if you just got a major contract and you have to up your supply
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  significantly, or you're deciding, do you move to a new geography?
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  Or you decide, can I afford to take on new employees?
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  Those are the times when you're making, when you're really trying to grow and pivot, that
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  it's really important to have assemble groups to help kind of kick the tires on your
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  assumptions.
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  And then I think that's a good point, but for my entrepreneurs that are listening right now
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  that are like up to their ears and alligators, I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on.
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  This DEI stuff has really wrecked a lot of people's businesses.
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  AI has wrecked a lot of people's business models too.
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  So for people sitting right now that are feeling overwhelmed, lost their government
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  contracts or they are stuck, What is the first practical steps you think they can take to
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  begin to build financial systems, but even coaching support systems for their long term
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  success?
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  First of all, I would say that almost I haven't met an entrepreneur who isn't scrappy,
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  resilient, and can pick themselves up, brush off and figure out a new way to approach it.
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  There is no doubt that this has been an incredibly turbulent world for small business
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  owners.
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  And certainly, everything that you cited is something that people contend with.
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  But let's figure out what your core capability is, like what your secret sauce is, what really
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  differentiates you, and then rebuild from there.
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  It's kind of like it becomes so clear at that moment of crisis what that thing that you must
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  retain is, lean into that, and then incrementally build back up.
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  All right.
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  What is the I wanted to ask you one last question about TEP.
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  Who is the ideal customer for you guys?
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  Do you guys focus on serving women entrepreneurs or like what?
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  Right, so 90% are women.
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  We have almost 70% under resourced populations, 40% LMI communities.
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  We are Main Street America.
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  Have people who are building wonderful lives for themselves and their families.
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  It is professional services and contractors and health, beauty, fitness, child care, people who
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  are making food is huge, who's making a name for themselves, low barriers to entry,
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  immigrants, first generation.
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  These are most awe inspiring individuals.
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  And we help they need to realize the American dream, and we're here to help.
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  Good stuff.
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  All right.
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  So what is the best business advice someone ever gave you?
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  Change is constant.
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  So never, never get comfortable where you are.
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  Always look at what's ahead.
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  Love it.
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  Thank you so much, Jane Vernon, the Acceleration Project TAP.
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  It sounds like you have a great resource, so I'm glad to be able to let more people know
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  about you.
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  Thank you so much for being here.
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  I'm excited to let the world know that we're here to help.
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  Good stuff, good stuff.
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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, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.