Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Small Business Hacks to Grow Your Business with Barry Moltz

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Small Business Hacks to Grow Your Business with Barry Moltz · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
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  I wanna invite you to enter the small business chat podcast giveaway contest for the next 30
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  days starting today.
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  You'll have the chance to win amazing prizes if you subscribe to the podcast.
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  All you need to do is take a screenshot after you've subscribed to the small fish chat
• 0:49
  podcast and tag me, small fish lady, on Twitter or Instagram.
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  Once a week, I'll select a winner and you have a chance to win one of my autograph books
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  become your own boss in 12 months or fix your business or you might even get a chance to win
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  one of my limited edition small bridge chat podcast t shirts.
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  Don't delay.
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  Subscribe to the small bridge chat podcast today.
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  I am so excited to have my dear friend, Barry Bolt, who's been helping small businesses get
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  unstacked 20 years or so back on small business chat with us tonight.
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  He is an author.
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  A keynote speaker, a business consultant, and, you know, I like to say I'm America's number 1
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  small business expert, but he always says, that he's number 2.
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  Very most welcome to Small Biz Chat.
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  I am so excited to hear about your new book.
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  Small Business hacks, a 100 Shortcuts, 26 SaaS.
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  Welcome to Small Beach chat Live.
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  Melinda.
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  So, listen, what do you
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  think the biggest issues are that small businesses struggle with?
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  I think the biggest businesses that small business struggle with definitely is cash flow.
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  You know, people always focused on how big their sales are, how much profit they make.
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  But let's face it.
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  Cash flow is king.
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  Every business goes out of business to the exact same.
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  Here's in Melinda.
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  They run out of cash.
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  And people are too focused in the top line and the bottom line.
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  They gotta think about how much cash they got in the bank.
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  Now your book is all about small business tell us what what is a business hack?
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  When I when I think they're hacking, I think somebody's gonna hack my Facebook account.
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  Like, tell me what you mean.
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  But yeah.
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  I mean, the Russians are not only only people that actually hack accounts.
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  Right?
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  A hack is really in in our vernacular.
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  It's really a shortcut.
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  You know, a small business owner gets into business because they wanna help a customer
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  solve a problem.
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  They don't realize as you and I know all the other things they have to do like They've got
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  to pay employee taxes.
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  Right?
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  They've got to negotiate at least.
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  They've gotta deal with the unemployment office.
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  They gotta figure out a marketing strategy, all of those kinds of things.
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  And they don't have time for it.
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  So what are the shortcuts?
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  Now you could go on Google or Yahoo and you could search for it, but then you get anything
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  and we all know Melinda just because on the internet doesn't mean that it's true.
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  So myself and Rivelsonski who have over we are not 60 years in small business We put together
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  a series of experts that really help us with the top 100 issues that small business owners
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  face as they're trying to run their business.
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  Well, good.
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  I'm so glad you cleared that up for us.
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  Now tell me get just tell me some of favorite hacks that you highlight in your book?
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  Well, actually, one of my favorite hacks is one that I did get from one of the people that's
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  gonna be on the show tonight which is Pam slim.
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  It's how you get someone to reply to an email.
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  And I just love this because you put in the title please reply a, b, or c.
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  And you put like a, you're no longer interested.
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  B, I'm still interested, but I've been busy.
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  Contact me a month or see.
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  Let's talk right now.
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  And I have to tell you my experience has been 95% of the people respond with a single letter
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  and then at least you could move forward or forget about them.
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  And I wanna thank Pam slim for that hack.
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  That's good stuff.
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  Give me another one.
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  Give me
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  another one.
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  Well, another one of my favorite ones is actually how do you go out and pick a lawyer?
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  And our hat really is you should never really hopefully have to use a lawyer, right?
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  Because a lot of small business owners, they get frustrated that I'm just gonna, you know,
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  one of the favorite languages.
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  I'm gonna sue that guy.
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  Right?
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  We've all said that.
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  But when you sue someone, the only people that really come out ahead is really.
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  Right.
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  You've gotta figure out how you really can put together some kind of deal that everyone knows
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  what the expectations are so you don't have to use a lawyer in the short run or the long run.
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  That's actually good advice for business or personal.
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  It's like those of us who've been sued and sue other people, we know it.
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  Shoot at.
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  Alright.
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  So now let's talk about what are your favorite hacks for customer service?
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  Cause that seems to be a big issue.
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  Like, we run out here.
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  We sell stuff you know, we get people's money, but then we gotta ship the stuff, or we gotta,
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  you know, service the stuff.
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  Like, how what is the best way to provide excellent customer service as a small business.
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  See, I don't even like to call Melinda customer service anymore because to me, that's reactive.
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  I like to call customer experience because let's face it.
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  People don't buy products anymore.
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  They buy experiences.
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  They buy relationships with companies.
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  So you as a small business owner, you've gotta personalize it just as much as you can.
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  I mean, Seth Gordon was just on one of my radio shows.
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  He said, you know, It's really great that you sold that woman the engagement ring, but after
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  she got married, did you send her a gift?
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  Did you see how her engagement party went?
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  Because you wanna follow-up and create that relationship because not that she's gonna buy
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  another engagement ring but she's gonna tell everybody else the amazing experience she had
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  it just wasn't a commodity.
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  If you're just selling a product, then, you know, you're not gonna win as a small business
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  owner.
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  You can't compete with price That's not a way to compete with Amazon.
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  Right.
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  The race at the bottom is a race nobody wins.
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  You definitely don't wanna be out here competing on price.
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  Now let's talk about sales hacks.
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  What how can you keep your pipeline filled, you know, as a business owner?
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  Cause it seems to me that we sell a job, and then we start working on the job.
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  And then we look up, and that job is about to end.
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  And we're like, oh, no.
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  I need another job.
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  Like, it's like this feast or famine thing constantly.
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  How can you avoid Yeah.
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  I call this the double helix trap.
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  You know, we only do marketing.
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  We have no sales, but as soon as we get sales, there's all marketing.
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  We stop doing that marketing.
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  So you have to have a automated marketing strategy that happens no matter what you're
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  doing.
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  And it's an older kind of, a strategy, but I think a lot of it's still effective, which is
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  content marketing strategy.
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  We have to go out there and to touch people once a week with some kind of advice.
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  Now We're not selling them.
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  We're building relationship by giving them advice because I believe Melinda, we actually
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  can't sell any to anybody We have to be there when people are ready to buy.
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  And the only way they're gonna be familiar with you when they're ready to buy is if you talk to
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  them every single week and try to offer them help.
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  Now let's talk about that.
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  When you say talk to him every week, are they getting a phone call from me, or are they
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  getting an email for Lee?
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  You might be getting an email with some kind of content.
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  You know, so for example, you might if you're a plumber, you might send them an article that
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  says, the most dangerous thing in your house, which, of course, is water.
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  Right?
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  You're not trying to sell them your service.
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  You're showing yourself as an expert.
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  You could also be putting this on Facebook or Twitter or social media or Instagram.
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  Those types of things.
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  You could show them a customer experience.
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  But what I wanna emphasize is you're not saying, hey, I've got a sale this week.
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  It's 50% off.
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  Right.
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  That's the wrong thing, the absolutely wrong thing to say.
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  Alright.
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  One more question.
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  Tell me of all the 100 packs in your book.
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  Which one is your favorite?
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  Well, I already mentioned one of my favorites, but one of my other favorites is that people
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  actually give up when they go to look for a new domain name and it's not available.
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  I will tell you almost no domain names are now available, but you have to realize there's
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  actually ten steps that domain names go through if they're let go or people aren't paying their
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  bills or something like that.
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  And if you're a patient and you stay in touch, you can actually get the domain name you want,
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  and we go through the 10 steps you gotta get.
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  So I really like that one.
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  You shouldn't give up on it.
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  I agree with that.
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  And, actually, that's how I got the URL fix your business dot com because I waited.
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  You know, like like a a a patient kid on east, you know, Christmas morning.
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  I was like, I waited and I got it.
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  And that's why I was in ended up being able to call my book, fix your business.
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  Mary, this is great stuff, but put a pin in that.
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  When we come right back, we're gonna get very most to tell us even more information, even
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  more hacks.
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  So listen.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, and I want you to stay with us.
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  My new book fixture business is really about encouraging people to take back control of
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  their business.
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  And change how their businesses is run.
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  It's not okay to skip paychecks.
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  It's not okay to never feel like you can take a vacation, and it's also not okay not know how
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  much profit you've made in your business until your taxes are done.
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  I really want business owners to stop letting their businesses be runaway train.
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  I've written this book to teach people processes and systems to help them run their
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  businesses intentionally.
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  My goal is to help existing entrepreneurs create a business that allows them to live
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  their dream life.
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  Hi, everybody, and welcome back.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  Small biz lady and the host of small biz chat.
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  Now listen, I want to talk more to bearing molts about this email thing.
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  You know, I'm not gonna let it go.
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  Email is a good and bad thing for any small business owners.
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  I wanna welcome back very molds to talk to me about Barry, everybody hates email, but it
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  can't be avoided.
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  It's 87% of marketers are out here still using email.
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  But I don't know about you.
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  I feel like you remember years ago when people used to open their mail and if over a trash
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  can, like, that's kinda how I And I need you to help us out.
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  You know, there are people out here saying email marketing's dead.
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  It's really about mobile web marketing, but Is that true?
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  Like, what's going on with email?
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  Listen.
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  It all depends on what your customers, how your customers wanna be communicated with.
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  Right, Melinda?
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  Some still wanna be communicated with email.
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  And I think one of the biggest problems of people that use email marketing is they never
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  go back and see how different email actually did they sent the email out.
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  Who actually opened it up?
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  What links?
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  What things would be interested?
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  What subjects are really working?
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  Right?
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  And you can also further sub subset once people do open up emails.
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  One of the really good things that you have a sophisticated email program, like, I know you
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  and I and some of the other guests do many of us use Infusionsoft.
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  What happens is that you're sending certain sequences to people over time.
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  And then based on their answers, they get different emails.
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  That's really specialized and customized email, and they're just not saying the same glass to
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  everyone.
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  That's really where email is going because people want Melinda personalization and
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  customization.
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  Right.
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  Now I couldn't agree with you more You've got to segment your list in order for email to be
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  effective.
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  The right email has to go to the right person.
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  And really, it's about making sure that you clean up your list, you know, every 12 months,
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  right, you should be looking at who hadn't opened your emails in 12 months.
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  If they haven't opened your email in 12 months, they need to get put on a different list.
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  I don't believe in deleting emails, but I believe that you need to start engaging people
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  differently versus who's opening your stuff versus who's not.
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  Now one of the things that I know about you is you talk a lot about taking a no for a no.
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  You know, I know, you know, sometimes you can as a business owner, you can turn into a small
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  business stalker almost.
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  And I think that that's dangerous for us to get into.
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  Can you talk about when to give up on chasing a customer?
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  Well, I'm a real big believer that you have to have a system about how many times you touch
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  someone.
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  I believe that it's four times And what you really do is you wanna get a no from someone so
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  you can let them go.
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  One of the problems that a lot of people have in sales is Melinda, they have a really good
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  meeting really good call, really good visit, and and the customer says, I wanna do business
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  with you.
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  And then guess what?
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  You never hear from them again.
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  And you keep going after that same person over and over and over again, and they moved on a
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  long time ago.
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  So if you can get a no or no, not now, you can move on to other people.
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  I also don't believe in taking people off list until they take themselves off, but I do
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  believe they should be on a different list and perhaps be sending that email less frequently
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  because they're not interested hearing from you.
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  A lot of small business owners also get nervous when people unsubscribe I think it's great
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  people have subscribed.
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  I don't wanna talk to you either.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Now I I have to say I I do take it personal when people unsubscribe.
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  But
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  I cry every single time.
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  It's very hot.
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  No.
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  I'm always, like, I almost wanna call him up, but what do we do?
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  What happened?
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  You know, I need to let it go.
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  I know I do.
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  Anyway, but listen.
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  What is the best advice that you could give a business owner right now who's trying to
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  reinvent their business?
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  Well, I think yep.
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  Pick one thing that you really wanna work on.
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  What is really holding you back?
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  I mean, I talk about getting small business unstuck.
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  You really have to choose that one thing.
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  It's very difficult, Melinda, to work on 3 or 4 things.
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  Pick the one thing that you think is holding you back.
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  Is it marketing?
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  Is it sales?
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  Is it motivating a manager or people?
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  Is it your finances?
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  Is it retaining customers?
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  What is really holding you back?
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  From taking your business to next step.
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  Focus on that.
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  I think that's great advice.
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  And, you know, the other thing I think too is if your business is stuck, know that 50% of all
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  business problems are not so well hidden personal problems.
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  What's wrong with your business might actually be you.
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  Right?
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  So Listen.
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  Thank you guys so much, and thank you to tonight's sponsor, Adobe.
• 14:22
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• 14:25
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• 14:31
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• 14:36
  There's lots of great things in the Adobe document cloud.
• 14:39
  So you gotta go check it out.
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  Thank you for joining us tonight on small biz chat.
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  I am Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and it is my privilege to help you take your
• 14:49
  business to the next level.
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  If you want more tools and tips for me, Please go and subscribe to my website, which is
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  succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Next time, I wanna help you live your dream life as an entrepreneur.
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  Thank you so much, guys, and good night.
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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 more
• 15:17
  fantastic information and interviews.
• 15:20
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 15:24
  website succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.