Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Navigating through the Technology Transformation
Transcript
- 0:00Three, two, one, zero.
- 0:04Ignition.
- 0:06Lift off.
- 0:09Ending small business failure.
- 0:11Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
- 0:17Emerson.
- 0:18Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
- 0:23you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
- 0:26Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
- 0:34Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
- 0:37Well, it's time.
- 0:38Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
- 0:45small business.
- 0:45In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
- 0:51your business forward.
- 0:53Be sure to subscribe to the Small Biz Chat podcast today.
- 0:59What if you could replace nine business apps with just one platform?
- 1:05That's right.
- 1:06Zoho One gives you a complete operating system for your business, sales, marketing, finances,
- 1:10scheduling.
- 1:11And look, you can try for thirty days free.
- 1:13Just head over to zoho.com/1 and experience the power of zoho One.
- 1:21Hi, everybody.
- 1:22Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast where we help small business owners get real answers so
- 1:28you can succeed as your own boss.
- 1:30Hi.
- 1:30I'm Melinda Emerson, small biz lady.
- 1:32I'm America's number one small business expert, and I am so excited to be your host for today's
- 1:38episode.
- 1:39It is all about the future of small business and how to stay competitive in a rapidly
- 1:45evolving digital economy.
- 1:47And I'm so excited to welcome Raju Vegesna, who is the Chief Evangelist at Zoho as my guest
- 1:55today.
- 1:56He plays the leading role in presenting Zoho's message to the business market worldwide, and
- 2:01he has been with Zoho almost since the beginning, over two decades, And in that time,
- 2:06he has helped guide the company's evolution from a small SaaS provider into a global
- 2:12technology powerhouse serving more than 150,000,000 small business owners globally.
- 2:20Zoho now offers over 50 applications, all supported by its own in house tech stack to
- 2:27help you run your business better.
- 2:29So in today's conversation, we're gonna be diving into how small businesses can navigate
- 2:34digital transformation, what role AI is gonna play for all of us in the future, and why data
- 2:41privacy has become such a critical issue in this idea of this competitive ecosystem that we
- 2:47all work in.
- 2:48We're also gonna learn a little bit more about Zoho and what they do because I think they're a
- 2:53really amazing unkempt secret.
- 2:56So let me welcome Raju Vegesna to the stage.
- 3:00Thank you so much for being here with me, Raju.
- 3:02Thank you, Melinda.
- 3:03Thank you for inviting me.
- 3:05You know, one of the things that I think a lot of small business owners are struggling with is
- 3:10being overwhelmed by technology, you know, and overwhelmed by yet another subscription SaaS
- 3:15product.
- 3:18I think it's really important to have this conversation today because I really kind of
- 3:22want us to center around how to future proof businesses and what they need to be thinking
- 3:26about going forward.
- 3:28Are the machines gonna take over and none of us are gonna have a business anymore?
- 3:31Is that what's happening?
- 3:33So I'm really excited to talk to you about that so that we can really kinda get down to the
- 3:39bottom of what you think people need to be thinking about to stay competitive in the
- 3:42future.
- 3:43So let's start from the beginning.
- 3:45Can you tell us how Zoho got started and and, like, what problem you guys were originally
- 3:50trying to solve?
- 3:52Frankly, we were solving our own problem.
- 3:55You know?
- 3:55We we had we had customers, and we were managing them.
- 4:00And we were using Salesforce for our CRM.
- 4:03I said, damn.
- 4:04This is expensive.
- 4:05Maybe we need to create our own.
- 4:07So we created a CRM.
- 4:09And then our accountant called in and said, hey.
- 4:12Accounting solution is not scaling.
- 4:14And then I said, okay.
- 4:15Maybe we'll create our own accounting system.
- 4:18And our email provider called in and said, hey.
- 4:20You you guys have too much load, and I can't scale.
- 4:23Go find a different provider, and the providers were expensive.
- 4:26I said, okay.
- 4:27We'll create an email hosting solution.
- 4:30Because we started solving our own problem.
- 4:34And if you solve your own problem, it turns out that they can solve someone else's problem as
- 4:40well.
- 4:40There are enough businesses out there with the same problem.
- 4:43So we started solving a problem, keeping it simple, making it affordable, and then kept on
- 4:50growing from there.
- 4:51Mhmm.
- 4:52Awesome.
- 4:52Awesome.
- 4:53So what would you say in your more than two decades with Zoho, what would you say are some
- 4:58of the most pivotal moments that you all have had in the company's growth and evolution?
- 5:05Because I think you guys are a huge company not enough people have heard about.
- 5:09Right?
- 5:09You guys got a 150,000,000 customers, but there's still all these small businesses in The
- 5:14US that don't know about you guys.
- 5:16So so what would you say are some of the pivotal moments that you've had to really, you
- 5:21know, grow, you know, grow the business or innovations that you guys have created?
- 5:24I guess the key is how do you pivot during those pivotal moments.
- 5:30I think that is the key.
- 5:31Start one pivotal moment.
- 5:33I remember shipping our first product on a three and a half inch floppy drive.
- 5:38Yeah.
- 5:40It feels like a long time ago.
- 5:41That's only about twenty five plus years ago.
- 5:44Right?
- 5:44And and then it shifted to downloadable products, shifted to SaaS, shifted to
- 5:50smartphones.
- 5:51So now we have to make the shift.
- 5:53Know, company's survival is dependent on how you navigate those pivotal moments.
- 5:59Can you pivot during those pivotal moments?
- 6:02And if you are able to pivot, then you have a good road ahead.
- 6:06And navigating that is the key.
- 6:07I won't say there is one pivotal moment, but, you know, the company's future is defined by
- 6:13how often you pivot during those pivotal moments.
- 6:16And in our case, we have navigated and we stayed on top and stayed the course, and that
- 6:21defines our future.
- 6:25Well, let's dig into that, though.
- 6:26You guys have made some strategic decisions to not be like a lot of other SaaS companies.
- 6:32And can you talk about, like, the things that your core pillar values that are not
- 6:38necessarily how we see all the other data hungry, data manipulation?
- 6:44There just seems like the minute you sign up for something, your data has already been sold
- 6:49to somebody else before you hit send almost.
- 6:53And so I wanna talk to you about the strategic decision that you guys made around data and
- 7:00privacy and how all that works in you guys' business.
- 7:04All of these flow back to one simple question.
- 7:09Who is your customer?
- 7:11It's actually very simple question, but the answer is is really a lot more complex than
- 7:16that.
- 7:18As a private company, as a bootstrap company, our customer is our real customer.
- 7:25Who we sell our product to is is our customer, and we we collect money as a as a as a result.
- 7:32And that's how we keep it simple.
- 7:35But if you, let's say, raise in raise some money through an investor, all of a sudden,
- 7:40that those dynamics change.
- 7:42Now your real customer is really the investor.
- 7:46And if you're a public company, your real customer is an investor.
- 7:50Shareholder.
- 7:51Yeah.
- 7:51Shareholder.
- 7:52Every quarter, a public company reports their results to their real customer, not the
- 7:58customers, the real customers.
- 8:00So you know who the real customers is.
- 8:02And the thing about these real customers is they're always hungry, and they're always
- 8:09greedy, and you can't give them enough.
- 8:12So you get to compromise a few things to feed your real customer and the investor.
- 8:17If and that could mean compromising on your users, in this case, your customer's data and
- 8:25and shifting the line on on privacy.
- 8:27You may say, hey.
- 8:29I'm okay selling my customer information and make more money so that I can feed my real
- 8:35customer, which is the investor.
- 8:37So there is a fine line between those.
- 8:39Where you draw the line matters.
- 8:41In our case, as a private and bootstrap company, we say privacy of our customers are
- 8:47important because they are our customer and the real customer.
- 8:51And that defines the where you draw the line.
- 8:54And we say privacy is important, and we are serving our customers, and we'll continue to do
- 8:59that.
- 9:01So tell me about what do you think that small business owners will need most in the next five
- 9:10years to stay competitive in this digital economy?
- 9:15Five years is is too long, frankly, in the current economy.
- 9:19The when the ground underneath keeps shifting, you can't really build a house because the
- 9:26landscape is changing.
- 9:27The same way when the technology landscape is shifting and it is shifting on a weekly basis,
- 9:33you can't really build a product or to build a business or build a business model.
- 9:38All you can do during those shifts is understand the dynamics of the shifts and make
- 9:43sure you're on top of it.
- 9:44Know what's going on.
- 9:46Once you stay on top of it, then you can figure out what to do and how to how to navigate this
- 9:52landscape.
- 9:53And my recommendation to small businesses is that stay on top of what's going on with AI
- 9:59because this is a a significant shift.
- 10:02Make sure you use the tools.
- 10:04And this is gonna be a major shift because, historically, we have digitized things around
- 10:11us.
- 10:12We have digitized maps.
- 10:13We have digitized photos.
- 10:15We have digitized currency.
- 10:16We have digitized snail mails.
- 10:18For the first time, we are digitizing ourselves.
- 10:21We are digitizing our brain.
- 10:22We are digitizing, call it digitizing our body in in terms of robotics.
- 10:28And so we are shifting from digitizing things to digitizing ourselves, and this is a massive
- 10:35shift.
- 10:36And you have to be on top of it.
- 10:39Once you are on top of it, then you'll figure out how to navigate it because this is the one
- 10:43of those pivotal moments, and you know when to pivot.
- 10:48And I frankly see this as a massive advantage moment for small businesses partly because now
- 10:54they have tools that they can use that can let them be small and nimble, yet have the power of
- 11:05a small or medium to large business as well.
- 11:07You know, this is this is one of those advantage points to a small business.
- 11:11Right?
- 11:11Being small is an advantage in the current technological shift.
- 11:17I think that's a really important point.
- 11:20Does it go beyond AI?
- 11:22Like, is there something else going on beyond AI, or do you think AI is driving all of the
- 11:27transformation right now?
- 11:28AI is a big thing.
- 11:30AI and robotics, I think those are the two two big items.
- 11:33So AI is the brain, robotics is a body, and the brain and body are coming together, and that
- 11:38has a massive shift coming.
- 11:42So what do you think is the simplest way that small businesses can start integrating AI into
- 11:50their operations today?
- 11:53The good news is they're they're already using AI.
- 11:56They just don't know that they're using AI.
- 11:58And that's a that's a best use of technology.
- 12:00Right?
- 12:01When the technology goes to the background.
- 12:03When, let's say, if a fraud transaction is detected and and avoided, well, that means it's
- 12:10an AI engine in the back end that that is helping them.
- 12:14Or when you're when they don't see an email with a spam, that means an AI engine is
- 12:18detecting that that virus and and eliminating it.
- 12:24Now how can you be proactive about it, and how can you execute that and and use AI for
- 12:32execution?
- 12:34You know, let me use an analogy on where this shift is.
- 12:38You know, let's say we wanna clean a house.
- 12:40We used to be using the old good old brooms.
- 12:44Later, we shifted to vacuum cleaners.
- 12:46Vacuum cleaners is a productivity tool.
- 12:49Now you move to a robotic vacuum cleaner where you just delegate the task of cleaning to a
- 12:55device.
- 12:57The same shift is happening in cars these days where, of course, we have we have changed from
- 13:03wagons to our cars, and car is the productivity device that takes us from point a to point b.
- 13:11And now we have gotten to automated cars where you just sit in there like Waymo or or Tesla's
- 13:18latest vehicle, and you just go from point a to point b.
- 13:21So the act of driving is now delegated to this.
- 13:25Now that is coming to software.
- 13:27Software is a productivity tool, but now it is moving toward delegation, whereas a business
- 13:33owner, you can delegate tasks to software and let it do things.
- 13:38So you can delegate and have about 100 different so called agents.
- 13:43One agent could be a good designer.
- 13:45One agent could be a content producer.
- 13:46One agent can be your marketer.
- 13:49One agent can be doing your accountant.
- 13:51And you can have a delegated set of agents.
- 13:54You can delegate tasks, and you can have about 100 different such agents and make you
- 13:59productive.
- 14:00So we are shifting the the the market here.
- 14:04The market is shifting.
- 14:06And how can small business leverage this technology to delegate and and do a lot more
- 14:13things which they may not have the resources otherwise?
- 14:18I like it.
- 14:19I like it.
- 14:19So let's talk about Zoho and what Zoho actually offers.
- 14:24Like, you know, you guys have many, many products, but your flagship product is the Zoho
- 14:30One project.
- 14:31Right?
- 14:31Because the Zoho One product really gives you access to what, more than 50 apps that you guys
- 14:36have created in your whole app universe for one low price.
- 14:42Can you describe how your platform is really an ecosystem to streamline small business
- 14:49operations without things becoming too too complex?
- 14:52Yeah.
- 14:53I mean, if you look at a small business, you know, they have a business to run, and using
- 15:00tools is not their primary job.
- 15:02Just like we subscribe to our utilities, whether it is a water or power
- 15:09Mhmm.
- 15:09Can you subscribe to software, the tools that you need?
- 15:14So we are not a company that sells these individual tools.
- 15:17We are selling the entire toolkit and say, here are all the tools that you need to run your
- 15:22business.
- 15:23Go run with it.
- 15:24Like, you say, hey.
- 15:25I want to set up my business.
- 15:27Every business needs to do accounting.
- 15:29I want I need an accounting tool.
- 15:30Sure.
- 15:31We do that.
- 15:32And then, okay, I I sell a service or a product.
- 15:34I need to collect money.
- 15:36So we have a payments product to collect money.
- 15:38Some cases, you may want to manage your customers.
- 15:42You may want to manage your vendors.
- 15:43You may say, hey.
- 15:44I want a website.
- 15:45I want a domain.
- 15:46There's a domain with Zoho domains.
- 15:48Set up a website with Zoho sites.
- 15:50Or you want to sell if you're selling online, set it up on commerce.
- 15:54Manage your inventory.
- 15:55You may be selling on Amazon or Etsy or or or any other shops out there, physical retail shop
- 16:01to point of sale.
- 16:03If you look at the the entire spectrum, whether it is for marketing, sales, customer service,
- 16:10whether it is helping customers through phone number, phone, email, or social media to
- 16:15managing your back office things, you need a lot of tools.
- 16:19What we do is pull all of these tool tools together under a single toolkit and offer that
- 16:25to our customers.
- 16:26The advantage with this is intelligence come, Sandy, because intelligence is about collecting
- 16:32the dots.
- 16:33And if you look at each of these dots, whether it is your sales information, your accounting
- 16:38information, your customer service marketing information, if they're under the same platform
- 16:44and they're connected, then you can build artificial intelligence on top of it.
- 16:50And that's why we offer an integrated suite with AI tools built in, and, of course, at an
- 16:56affordable price.
- 16:58And what is the price for Zoho One?
- 17:01It's about $37 an employee.
- 17:04And if you're a solopreneur, let's say $37 a month will give you about 50 tools roughly, all
- 17:10the tools you need to run your business.
- 17:13Wow.
- 17:13So so a lot of us are paying subscriptions for one tool that's like I can think of one tool in
- 17:21particular that I pay a $127 a month for.
- 17:25So I guess I should ask you, what do your tools not do?
- 17:29You said you got one for CRM, you've got one for payment processing, you've got one for
- 17:36accounting.
- 17:37What, you know, what what what do I still need?
- 17:40Like, are are you guys all I need?
- 17:42Like, do I still do I need still a host for my website?
- 17:44Like, do do you guys do everything everything?
- 17:47So for the for the most part, and if there are things that we do not do, assume that that's
- 17:52part of the road map.
- 17:53In other words, let me put it this way.
- 17:56We are a company with about 18,000 employees now, and we operate and we we sell in about one
- 18:01eighty countries and have office in 25 countries.
- 18:04Mhmm.
- 18:05We are able to run our entire business on Zoho.
- 18:09And I believe a lot of businesses can be done on Zoho.
- 18:15We have a lot of tools, but it's not about the number of tools.
- 18:19It's about how easy we make it for businesses to run, and we do not want to be a big cost
- 18:24center for businesses.
- 18:27Right.
- 18:28No.
- 18:28I I mean, I think I think it's really, really good.
- 18:33What would you feel like are some of the biggest mistakes you see small businesses
- 18:37making when it comes to, like, technology adoption?
- 18:42I think they get excited about the latest tool and then they pick one tool.
- 18:47And then another tool excites them and then bring in the second one or the third one, not
- 18:53realizing the complexity of dealing with it.
- 18:56You know?
- 18:56Using a tool is like juggling balls.
- 18:59Right?
- 19:00If you use two two tools, well, you're juggling two balls.
- 19:03Once you bring in the third one, it it becomes exponentially complex.
- 19:08After you're dealing with five or 10 tools, then you're gonna give up and balls are gonna
- 19:13drop.
- 19:14And that is a mistake we typically see.
- 19:17They they are looking at it tactically, but they don't look at it strategically and say,
- 19:22what benefits me in the long run?
- 19:25And and so buy the toolkit and not the tool.
- 19:30Right.
- 19:31One of the things I think that I see a lot of times is people buy a tool and then they don't
- 19:36bother to really learn how to use it.
- 19:38So, like, they know how to use 10% of the tool when they could really be, you know, they could
- 19:43really be leveraging it.
- 19:45Like, it's one thing to use AI for content.
- 19:47It's another thing to create an AI workflow.
- 19:50Right?
- 19:50You know, so it's like, and I feel like a lot of people are just doing these one sentence AI,
- 19:56write me this, you know, do the whereas how how can we like, how easy is it to learn the tools
- 20:03that you guys have at Zoho?
- 20:05Yeah.
- 20:05I mean, obviously, there are it is as much as as tools are powerful.
- 20:12How well you use the tool is diff is user dependent.
- 20:18And we have a lot of training material.
- 20:20The tools, we try to make it really, really simple.
- 20:23And then there's a local partner ecosystem that can help you if you don't have the time.
- 20:28Either routines or the partner ecosystem can help you implement these tools and all of
- 20:32those.
- 20:33But end of the day, it's not a tool itself.
- 20:36It's about what you do with with the tool, and it comes down to the users.
- 20:41And you're you're spot on that a lot of people use only ten ten to 20% of the tool, but the
- 20:47delta is where you can you can really excel and maximize the tool.
- 20:52If you're if you can maximize it, you're gonna see real benefits of out of it.
- 20:56And that applies to AI too.
- 20:58Now in terms of numbers, what is the most popular Zoho software that people use?
- 21:05I would say it's Zoho One.
- 21:07And if you look at within Zoho One, CRM is very popular, managing the customers.
- 21:13And then Zoho Mail is very popular.
- 21:17Mail is where, you know this is a hosting thing hosting email system with calendar files and
- 21:23and others, the entire workplace suite, and that is very popular.
- 21:27And then if I have to pick another one, I would pick Zoho Books, our accounting system.
- 21:32That is fairly popular too.
- 21:36Now I don't know about you, but when I think about taking my data out of my current
- 21:42accounting system and putting it in any other accounting system, I feel like I would rather
- 21:48run my tongue through ground glass than do
- 21:50that.
- 21:51So
- 21:52help me understand what, you know, what kind of support do you have for people who are like,
- 21:58I'm sick of paying a 100 and something a month for my accounting software.
- 22:02I wanna try Zoho Books.
- 22:04What what kind of facilitation do you guys have to make that happen?
- 22:09One, we do we offer migration tools, number one.
- 22:14Number two, we offer migration service.
- 22:17We can work with you to migrate your system.
- 22:19Okay.
- 22:19And number three, we also have our partner ecosystem as well.
- 22:24If you prefer working with a local partner in your city, they can they can migrate as well.
- 22:30All three options are available.
- 22:31And that is one of the beauty about AI too where AI removes the the the moat that some of
- 22:38the software companies built, where now you can pretty much move between vendors fairly easily
- 22:44without being stuck there.
- 22:45That's one of the byproducts of of AI.
- 22:47It is a it is a moat breaker.
- 22:50Well, that's good to hear because I gotta tell you, the thing the thing about moving a twenty
- 22:57five year company's accounting data to another platform is like, I don't know.
- 23:02It gives me a little bit of hives.
- 23:03I I don't know.
- 23:04It's it's it's just something that sounds scary.
- 23:06So I'm glad to know that you guys have migration services that people can engage to
- 23:11help with that if they wanna make that transition.
- 23:13That's a really
- 23:13And certainly, and they do typically do it at the end of their fiscal year and then they
- 23:19start fresh to make to keep things simple.
- 23:21Yeah.
- 23:22That is that is the best time, fourth quarter.
- 23:24Unless, of course, if the holidays are your Super Bowl, you can't do it in fourth quarter,
- 23:29but for the rest of us that sell B2B, December's a good time to do that for sure.
- 23:35Now, if you wanna talk about, like, for my small business customers that are listening
- 23:41today, what do you what do you think are the top three things they should be doing right now
- 23:49to future proof their business?
- 23:53One, make sure you digitize various aspects of the business.
- 23:57Because digital is where the productivity is, and and that's that's a step one.
- 24:04Step two, as I said, intelligence is all about connectivity.
- 24:08Make sure that all your systems are integrated because, you know, you get intelligence.
- 24:14That's why we call it business intelligence when the systems underneath are are
- 24:18interconnected.
- 24:19So you have a holistic view of the customer.
- 24:22When you look at a customer, you have a good view on whether you're making money or losing
- 24:27money on that customer.
- 24:29And you gotta bring in various aspects of it.
- 24:31Maybe the customer's paying x amount, but they're draining your support resources.
- 24:37Maybe you're losing money on the customer.
- 24:39Do you have an idea?
- 24:39Unless you connect these systems, you're not gonna get a full full picture of it.
- 24:44So connect each of these systems after you digitize it, and then intelligence bill is
- 24:49built on top of it.
- 24:51And leverage the tools.
- 24:52There are a lot of beautiful tools out there, excellent tools out there.
- 24:56Leverage the tools to maximize it because the distribution is there with the with now the
- 25:01Internet and the AI and all of those.
- 25:03The distribution channels are are changing.
- 25:06And once you have these in place, when a technology shift like this happens, that offers
- 25:12opportunity for disruption.
- 25:14And you can see it as a a threat or an opportunity.
- 25:20I see this as an opportunity.
- 25:23Mhmm.
- 25:25Now I know that Zoho has sort of like a unique approach to growth by avoiding you guys have
- 25:33always avoided outside funding.
- 25:37You guys have really just focused on long term sustainability of your business and your
- 25:41business is, was it '28, 29 years old?
- 25:44How old is Zoho?
- 25:45It's 30 now.
- 25:46It's 30, ah, in the big three o now.
- 25:50So how has you guys commitment to sort of like long term stability really shape your ability
- 25:58to serve small businesses?
- 26:01Yeah.
- 26:01We have been a small business, and if you look at majority of our offices around the world, we
- 26:06are still we consider and operate as a small business.
- 26:09Small businesses make up, you know, 95 plus percent of our customer base.
- 26:14And that is the core core of it.
- 26:17Now in terms of our own approach to it.
- 26:22Mhmm.
- 26:23When we create a product, we ask a simple question.
- 26:26What is the most expensive part within the product, and do we own it?
- 26:32If you do not own the most expensive part within a product, then you are really a
- 26:36reseller of that particular part.
- 26:38You don't own own the core part of it.
- 26:41And that's why if you are if you are to create a company or a product or service, do you own
- 26:45the core part of it is what that that makes up your IP, the intellectual property.
- 26:50And what is your intellectual property as a business?
- 26:53Do you have one?
- 26:54If not, then you're you're reselling someone else's.
- 26:57And that is how we have built.
- 26:59And over a period of time, we have built a lot of intellectual property in the last, say,
- 27:03three decades.
- 27:05You know, you see there are a lot of cloud companies today.
- 27:08They they don't own their cloud.
- 27:11You know?
- 27:12Cloud companies not owning their cloud is like a car company that doesn't make their own
- 27:16engine.
- 27:18Right.
- 27:18And and and so what we do is own the the core components so that we can offer more value to
- 27:27our customers, to small businesses.
- 27:29Now often customers come in and say, why are you so affordable?
- 27:33What is the catch here?
- 27:35Right?
- 27:36While while I'm paying three to five times.
- 27:38Well, the catch is, you know, we own all the underlying components, and then we are serving
- 27:46you and not our investors.
- 27:48Mhmm.
- 27:49And so that means we are happy if you're if you're happy.
- 27:54We grow as you grow, and it's as simple as that.
- 27:58And if we become a big expense to you as a small business, then you don't have enough
- 28:04money to put back into your business.
- 28:07No.
- 28:07You should have enough money to put into your business, and we should not be a bigger expense
- 28:12as a as a tool provider.
- 28:14That's interesting.
- 28:16That is a really, really interesting philosophy and a and a good one that I appreciate for
- 28:22sure.
- 28:23What would you say I just have one more question for you.
- 28:27What would you say is the best business advice you've ever received?
- 28:34They said one person, when we went to one of the the meetings, they said, you know, one of
- 28:39the best things you guys did, whether you did it purposefully or not, is not taking taking on
- 28:46investors.
- 28:48Please never do that.
- 28:51And and that was one of the one of the advises.
- 28:54You know, the interesting thing is when we need needed the money, no investor was ready to
- 29:01invest in us.
- 29:03And when they are ready to invest in us, we did not need their money.
- 29:12And I and that is the case where I the the best thing that as as a business that has worked
- 29:22well for us is freedom.
- 29:25We control our destiny.
- 29:27And because we do not have any investors, you know, the precious things are important, like
- 29:33sleeping well at night.
- 29:34And we all sleep well at night because we don't worry about quarters and all of that.
- 29:38We don't worry about what the end of the quarter numbers are.
- 29:42And that freedom and that peace of mind is extremely important, and that reinforce what
- 29:50what we had in mind.
- 29:52So being being private, not taking on investors, and us controlling the destiny.
- 29:59I love it.
- 30:00I love it.
- 30:01Well, Raju, thank you so much for spending this time with me.
- 30:05Raju Vegena is the chief evangelist of Zoho, the SaaS company.
- 30:15And I just thank you for your insight and information today because I think it's
- 30:21important for us.
- 30:22AI is freaking a lot of people out.
- 30:24People are overburdened by subscriptions, and I think that you've helped us all think about it
- 30:30from a different way.
- 30:31So thank you so much for being here with me on the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
- 30:36And thank you all for joining me for another episode of the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
- 30:41I'm Melinda Emerson, your host.
- 30:43If you enjoy our podcast, please do give us a review and share this link with another great
- 30:48small business owner who you want to make sure gets access to this wonderful advice.
- 30:53As always, if you have a need in your small business, particularly with sales, I invite you
- 30:57to head over to smallbusinessladyuniversity.com and check out our Sales Accelerator Boot Camp
- 31:03program and our Revenue Reset.
- 31:05We know that revenue can solve a lot of problems and we would love to help you with
- 31:08that.
- 31:09And so now I want to leave you with this.
- 31:11You never lose in business.
- 31:13Either you win or you learn.
- 31:16God bless everybody.
- 31:22Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
- 31:27Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
- 31:32more fantastic information and interviews.
- 31:35You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
- 31:40website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
- 31:43Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.