Excellence Expected: Small Business Action - Define, Challenge & Conquer Your Biggest Issues!

What processes have you got in place in your small business? If there’s just yourself or a couple of others, it might not seem like you need any. After all, you know what you’re doing and you know who you’ve been dealing with recently. But, what happens if one you is stuck at home for a few days with the flu? Will you know which clients your sick colleague has been working with? What happens if you take on more staff? Will they just learn how things work, bad habits and all, from those already there? These questions will probably ring a bell with a lot of people out there who are running their own small business. When you think of processes, you probably think of business giants like Amazon, with their staff scurrying around the warehouse with a set route and schedule. However, processes can be a benefit to anyone in business, regardless of the size of their company. Going through each process in your day and noting down the steps can be a bit of a chore, but the benefits are massive. Firstly, you take all of that information from your mind and get it down on paper so if you’re ill or away, anybody at your company can step in and take care of the majority of tasks. Secondly, it shows you where your inefficiencies are and allows you to address them. When you’re working on autopilot, you’re not conscious of how things could be improved. By focusing on the process and writing it up in a ‘user manual’ style, you are thinking about things in a new way. You’ll realize that ‘that’s just how things are’ is not actually the case. A third great benefit of creating a ‘user manual’ type document for your business is how it can be used to help new members of staff. Say you have a new employee – they’re young and eager but a little bit nervous about working in a new environment. Giving them the manual and explaining the importance of processes could have a great impact on them. They’ll be able to complete quite complex tasks just by following the process and their competence, and confidence, will grow. Having a process gets a huge amount of buy-in from staff. Joining us on this episode of Excellence Expected is Super Joe Pardo who has extensive experience of implementing, maintaining and improving processes from his time as part of his family’s multi-million dollar auto parts business. He’s going to walk us through how he identified processes that needed to be changed, how he changed them and how he dealt with resistance from people who were less than eager to change their ways. He’ll also be leaving us with three actionable tips that you can implement in your small business today. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I create specific processes in my company that will help me to excel? About Joe: Joe Pardo is a podcaster, author, motivational speaker and business coach. His motivational Dreamers Podcast has helped countless people pursue their dreams and embrace bright futures. Prior to all of his current activities, Joe was part of his family’s multi-million dollar business and he’s going to discuss with us the things he has learned about processes and what they can do for a business. Actionable Tips: * Identify inefficiencies. Analyse your business and its processes and work out how you could do things better, more efficiently and more economically. You need to be frank with yourself and your staff but by changing things up, you will make things better for the business and improve the working environment. * Be fearless, put a plan into action and make adjustments as needed. You need some courage to put a new plan in place but at the same time you need to be willing to modify it as you’re going along. Being flexible and learning from feedback will help you optimize your processes. * Give people a little more of your time than usual. Being able to listen to people and giving them more time than you norm...

The interconnected world of today has made living our lives and running our businesses a lot more straightforward. Keeping up with international clients, monitoring cash flow and sharing ideas with colleagues are just some of the business activities that can be handled at the touch of a button. However, as we become more connected, we are also becoming more vulnerable. Protecting ourselves and our businesses needn’t take up too much of our time and can start with some basic steps. For example, how many times have you been to a café and connected to their open Wi-Fi without giving it a second thought? I know I’ve done that more times that I can remember. Connecting to an unencrypted, public Wi-Fi network is a potentially dangerous thing to do as an attacker within reception range of the router can insert themselves as a ‘man-in-the-middle’, receiving your data without you even noticing. E-mails, banking information, passwords and whatever else you have stored in your phone could be accessed using this method. If you’re using an unencrypted public Wi-Fi, don’t use your phone for anything sensitive. It’s much safer to use an encrypted network which is one requiring a password. If you can use a VPN (virtual private network) at the same time, then even better. Keeping the software on your personal computer and any other machines used for business is another simple and effective way to combat malicious attacks. Every time you receive a notification to update something, there is a good reason to do so. Usually patches and updates are a response to a vulnerability or exploit that has been found and could be used to gain access to a system. Malicious attackers target those who haven’t updated their software because they can use these vulnerabilities to gain access to their systems. So, next time you see a notification alerting you that it’s time to update, update! Another great way to keep things secure is to choose your passwords wisely. Hackers can use vast online dictionaries to brute force their way into systems and accounts. The entries in these dictionaries number into the hundreds of millions and sophisticated algorithms can go through them all in a matter of minutes. Therefore, however obscure your password, there is a good chance that part of it features in one of these dictionaries. The key then, is to use a password that couldn’t possibly feature in one. Gobbledegook, long strings of words joined together or memorable nonsense are all good ways to select a password. Use a service like Last Pass, and you’ll only need to regularly remember one password to access all your favourite sites. Joining us on this episode of Excellence Expected is network security expert Dr Kevin Curran of the University of Ulster. Kevin’s going to take us through some of the risks that we may overlook and what to do to keep safe online. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I keep myself and my small business safe online? About Kevin: Dr Kevin Curran is a Reader in Computer Science at the University of Ulster and the group leader for the Ambient Intelligence Research Group. During his academic career, Kevin has authored over 600 published works and become one of the world’s leading authorities on pervasive computing and internet security. His pioneering work has led to speaking and lecturing invitations from international conferences, overseas universities and research institutes. Kevin is also a regular contributor to the BBC and other major media outlets. He’s joining us on this episode of your favourite small business podcast to discuss some of the dangers facing those of us who conduct business online and what we can do to improve our internet security. Actionable Tips: * If you didn’t go looking for it, do not install it! A lot of the trouble that people get into online is related to malware and ransomware that is installed on their computer after the...

How many of your ‘friends’ on Facebook do you speak to regularly? If you’re like most people, it’s probably not a great deal. If you’re a small business owner, how much of your business comes through social media? Again, if you’re being honest, it’s probably not that much. That’s not to say that social media isn’t a great tool for publicizing your business and interacting with people, but there needs to be more to a relationship than simply clicking ‘Accept’. Let’s flip that around the other way. How much of your custom comes from those that you have a real relationship with? It’s probably a much higher figure than comes through social media. In today’s business landscape, social media is big news. We’re all on it, our competitors are all on it and our potential clients are all on it. And it is fantastic for many reasons, but in order to forge real relationships with others we can’t rely on just connecting with each other once. These less than real relationships don’t serve anyone in business or in life. The only meaningful relationships that we should be pursuing are those that are genuine. Our guest on this episode of the number one small business podcast is Mike Muhney, the inventor of ACT! and the CEO of VIPorbit, and he’s going to be discussing how you can form and sustain real relationships that will have a fantastic impact on your business and your life. When Mike was working as a salesman at IBM, he was taught to check out what people had on their office walls. People will only have things on their office walls that they genuinely care about or are passionate about. This can tell you a great deal about a person, their values and interests. These are the things that you should be asking about and listening to. Plenty of people see business as transactional. I want to sell X and then get onto the next sale. If making relationships is important to you, then that’s not the way to go about things. In this episode, Mike it going to explain why his company’s relationship statement is, “We believe in the infinite potential of closer relationships”, and he’s going to leave us with three pieces of actionable advice that will help you hone your skills so that every time you create a new relationship, it is real and meaningful for both parties. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I create relationships that translate into results? About Mike: Mike Muhney is the CEO of VIPorbit, an entrepreneur and an in-demand public speaker. Mike’s also one of the inventors of ACT!, the contact manager tool that is has been used by millions of people around the world. After switching to using a Mac, Mike realized that there wasn’t an equivalent product for the system and so set about creating Vipor CRM which allows users to bring their calendars, contacts and tasks all into one sleek app. Mike has also published a book, Who’s In Your Orbit?: Beyond Facebook – Creating Relationships That Matter, and it’s this question of how to create real relationships that Mike is going to discuss with us on this episode. Actionable Tips: * Make sure your attitude reflects your desire to create meaningful relationships. Mike’s company not only has a mission statement, but it also has a relationship statement that illustrates his thoughts on building relationships – “People matter. We believe in the infinite potential of closer relationships.” * Maintain your reputation. How you conduct yourself in your industry will affect how others view you. Keep an excellent reputation by taking the time to foster great working relationships with everyone that you come across. Potential clients will remember that you were professional, that you cared and that you listened to them. Some of your competitors may not have left should a good impression! * Keep swinging! Every attempt does not produce a hit. Every hit does not produce a home run.

The decision to rebrand can arrive for a number of different reasons. Perhaps your business has merged with another and you want to project a new image to reflect that. It may be the case that your branding has become dated and an update is required. Or it may even be that you are pivoting your business and changing your entire focus and, as such, need a new brand to signal your new direction. Whatever the reason behind a rebrand, we all want to get it right as the memory of rebranding failures such as Consignia, New Coke and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince still loom large. What if my clients don’t accept the new brand? What if it drives away customers? These types of questions will naturally arise but our guest on this episode of the number one small business podcast says that we often worry more about these things than is necessary. Last year, Kyle Wilkinson oversaw the rebranding of DMSQD to HACKSAW™ and so he has recent experience of this very topic. A lot of the doubt and uncertain that naturally comes up prior to a rebrand is due to us being too precious about the existing brand and what it means, or doesn’t mean, to our existing customers. It’s important to remember that people work with people and if you provide the same great products or services after a rebrand, your customers are going to continue working with you. A rebrand can rejuvenate your business both inside and out and even bring in more clients. Don’t be afraid to go in a new direction if you think the business needs it. Kyle also suggests that putting something of yourself into the rebrand is the right way to go. By being emotive and honest, you can connect with clients, and those working in the business, on an emotional, human level. This is vitally important when trying to build ongoing business and colleague relationships. You also need to be flexible and adaptive. Having too rigid an idea in mind for the rebrand doesn’t leave a lot of room to react to changes, improvise or be inspired further down the line. A rebrand is supposed to freshen things up and it can be difficult to predict what will be fresh several months down the line. Keep things unresolved, be yourself and go for it! Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I successfully rebrand my business? About Kyle: Kyle Wilkinson is a partner in, and the Creative Director of, HACKSAW™. The design, brand and web consultancy was previously known as DMSQD until October of 2015 when Kyle and the other partners spearheaded a dramatic and successful rebrand. As an agency, HACKSAW™ has worked with a diverse range of clients including Wired Magazine, the Art Directors Club and Immersive Rides, earning prestigious design awards in the process. As a designer, Kyle has won coveted awards for his innovative furniture design and experimental design projects. He has also been featured as a contributing guest on the BBC and his work has been exhibited internationally. Actionable Tips: * Keep it unresolved. Don’t try and finalize everything from day one as you won’t allow yourself to evolve any further over time. The key to any rebrand is staying fresh in an ever-changing marketplace. Keeping things unresolved also allows you a little bit of room to react and change things if need be. * Be emotive and honest. This creates a real bond with the audience and helps ensure longevity for the brand. People connect with emotive brands. Think of Coca-Cola and their Christmas adverts. It connects with people on an emotional level and can engender nostalgia. It takes courage to put some of yourself into your brand but the benefits can be enormous. * Don’t be too precious. Don’t be afraid of making changes and going in a new direction. If you are worried about instances of your old branding out there, use it as an excuse to contact old clients and introduce your new brand.

If you were asked to think of adjectives that best describe the experience of being a small business owner, what would come to mind? Easy? Peaceful? Relaxing? Not likely! Entrepreneurship is inextricably linked with stress, late nights and burnout. Of course, there’s a huge amount of positives that go with being your own boss and most of us just accept these negative aspects as par for the course. Does it need to be this way though? Are we doing enough for ourselves and our wellbeing? Or are we stuck in this mind-set without the time, space and resources to discover a better way? When we’re not busy working for our clients, we’re working for our families and we always feel that there are not enough hours in the day. When we get a few minutes downtime, we can feel guilty if we do something for ourselves. We think we should be using that time to do some follow up with potential clients, help our partners at home or make sure that our employees are doing well. This, however, can be a recipe for disaster and the spectre of burnout always looms large in the entrepreneurial life. If you burnout, you will have caused yourself real damage and you’ll be no good to your family, clients or employees. Therefore, a long-term strategy is needed. Our guest on this episode of the number one small business podcast is Kathryn Lovewell and she is an expert when it comes to creating emotional resilience. Emotional resilience is needed when working in high pressure environments and being an entrepreneur is definitely up there with some of the toughest. Without emotional resilience, each knockback, late night and crisis can chip away at the body and mind. Over time this can lead to serious problems such as the aforementioned burnout. By using strategies to make yourself more resilient, you will be able to handle challenges, rise above problems and put events into perspective. This is not only great for yourself and your wellbeing but it will also have a huge impact on your effectiveness, productivity and leadership. Kathryn’s going to talk us through how we can create more emotional resilience and how this can have a positive impact on our lives and businesses. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I develop the emotional resilience needed for long-term success? About Kathryn: Kathryn Lovewell is an expert in the field of emotional resilience and using mindfulness to create wellbeing. She worked for many years in mainstream education and during that time found that she and her colleagues were all suffering from the stresses and strains of the job. Kathryn studied techniques to help her cope and now works with schools and teachers around the world to help educators build up emotional resilience which can have a fantastic benefit on physical and mental health, wellbeing and performance. Kathryn’s programmes, seminars, book and audio resources have helped thousands of people develop skills that have improved their lives in so many different ways. She’s joining us on this episode of Excellence Expected to talk through some of her experiences and how her techniques can be applied to those in the business world. Actionable Tips: * Take the oxygen first. Often, everything else comes before ourselves. The needs of family and clients are always at the forefront of our minds and it can be easy to forget about yourself. You need to take the time to focus on yourself and make sure that you are looking after yourself. How you do this will be unique to you and your circumstances. Looking after your mental, physical and spiritual health by dedicated some time each day to yourself will have a profound effect on how well you can perform at work and look after your family. * Create the weather. It’s all about having the attitude that will allow you to meet all the challenges that you will meet throughout the day. Your attitude and ‘respondability’,

As entrepreneurs, we’re always on the lookout for additional revenue streams to bolster our main sources of income. In the early days, it may be through necessity as we’re trying to raise funds for our small businesses, but whatever stage we’re at, it’s always good to have different ways of bringing in cash. If these secondary income sources can generate revenue passively then even better! There are many ways that we can go about this and each method has its own positives, negatives and levels of relevance to our lives. Of all the possible ways to generate secondary income, perhaps one you haven’t thought of is vending machines. I know what you might be thinking. Vending machines are big, expensive and require a lot of maintenance. That doesn’t really sound that passive. It sounds like there would be a big initial investment of money and an ongoing investment of time. Our guest on this episode of Excellence Expected, Matt Miller, says that this needn’t be the case. The big electric drink and snacks machines can be expensive and time consuming to maintain, but mechanical vending machines can be relatively cheap, low maintenance and profitable. You may have seen them vending everything from toys and temporary tattoos in arcades to travel toothbrushes and mints at motorway services. Can there really me good margins in such simple vending machines? Well, according to Matt, there certainly can be. He has built a multimillion dollar business in the vending industry over the last nine years and he has raised millions for schools across America in the process. On this episode of your favourite small business podcast, Matt is going to talk us through his journey and what gave him the idea to try vending for himself. He’s also going to discuss some of the basics of the industry as well as leave us with his actionable tips for how we could follow his lead and make vending a low-impact, high-profit secondary revenue stream. Not only that, but he’s also going to be giving away his e-book on the subject so you can research if vending can work for you. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I create a secondary income from vending? About Matt: Matt Miller was formerly a pilot in the US Air Force but he always had dreams of starting his own business. A chance conversation about gumball machines lead him down a path he hadn’t expected and soon Matt and his company, School Spirit Vending, were at the forefront of the vending industry in his area. Matt’s company has grown into a multimillion dollar endeavour that has helped raise millions of dollars for schools all across America. He’s with us on this episode of the number one small business podcast to talk about his journey and how vending machines can be used to create secondary revenue streams. Actionable Tips: * Learn about vending. There are lots of different types of vending machines so you should do some research to find the right type of vending for you. * Start small. Take a small risk that you can afford at first. Maybe buy some used equipment to test the markets and to learn the ropes. If all goes well and you’ve proven the concept in your market, you can then spend more money on the right equipment. * Begin prospecting immediately. Head out and work out where your locations are going to be and who you’re going to be working with. You can have your first location all lined up before you even have any equipment. Don’t get stuck in research mode. Top Quotes: * “I knew I was a lot better than the situation I was in so I didn’t get down on me, I got down on the situation and got busy trying to figure out how to get out of it.” * “I was looking to a quarter to solve my problems and most people don’t see real money in a quarter.” * “Sales is a numbers game and if you’re willing to work the numbers, you will succeed.”

When most of us think of happiness, there are two words that often creep into our minds. ‘If’ and ‘when’. If I can achieve x% growth this year, I will be happy. When I reach x amount of clients, I will be happy. Amongst small business owners, happiness is always seen as a destination, somewhere that we will reach when certain goals have been reached, or certain conditions have been satisfied. But how many times have you thought like that and nothing has changed after you’ve reached your goal? There’s always something new to be achieved, so where does it end? Well, it doesn’t. And that’s because we mix up happiness and achievement. Achievements are great because by setting ourselves goals, we strive to be better than we are now, but they are not the be all and end all of happiness. They certainly factor in how happy we are, but there is something more, something deeper to being truly happy. Happiness is, of course, experienced and measured differently by each person but as entrepreneurs in the same boat, we probably all have quite similar metrics. Revenue, growth, profit and so on. Our guest on this episode of the number one small business podcast is going to talk us through why most of us have this whole happiness thing back to front. Rather than achieving success in order to gain happiness, we should be making sure that we are happy in order to achieve success. Rather than burning ourselves out chasing success at work, we should be focusing on making ourselves happy and then there is a greater chance of achieving success. Think of it this way. If you are stressed out, tired, irritable and grouchy, are you going to be working at your very peak? How about if you’re relaxed, calm, content and focused? Now, that doesn’t mean that running a business will always be the most relaxing experience, but there are steps that any of us can take to enjoy a little more happiness. They don’t take up a great deal of time and the benefits to our lives and businesses can be huge. Frederika Roberts is joining us to discuss her work and how focusing on happiness before success can do wonders for us, our families and our businesses. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I make sure that I am focused on my happiness while running a small business? About Frederika: Frederika Roberts is an expert in happiness, a renowned public speaker and workshop leader, social media marketing specialist and author. As the Happiness Speaker, Frederika has shared her expertise with businesses, government organizations, schools and charities. Her seminars and workshops aim to help those in attendance become happier, more resilient and more successful at achieving their goals. Frederika is with us on this episode of Excellence Expected to share some of her experiences and wisdom on the topic of how small business owners can be happier, healthier and more productive. Actionable Tips: * Volunteer your time. Research shows that altruism is being selfishly selfless because helping others can have a great impact on your own life. Giving your time, when you don’t have so much of it, will give you an enormous sense of wellbeing and help those in need. Be nice, help people out and say yes to conversations and it will come back to you in many different ways. * Exercise and laugh. It’s really important to find ways to laugh even when you’re not in the mood. Check out laughter yoga on YouTube and you will get an abdominal and facial workout and you’ll release endorphins and reduce the amount of cortisol in your body. It will clear your mind and make you so much more productive. Exercise has the same effect and it doesn’t need to be a heavy workout at the gym. Even something like dancing around your living room can have an energizing effect on your body and mind. * Practice gratitude daily. This is the most important tip. Writing down three things for which you are grateful...

There may come a time when you feel it is the right time to sell your business and move on. Perhaps you’ve got a new project in mind, fancy a change of location or have some personal matters to focus on. Whatever the reason may be, you want to make sure that you are able to get the best possible return on all the hard work you’ve put in to build up the business. Joining us on this episode of your favourite small business podcast is Ace Chapman, who has bought and sold more than 40 different businesses over the years. Ace is going to share with us what is needed to prepare a business for sale and what to do to ensure the best return for the countless hours of blood, sweat and tears that you’ve put in. For a lot of small enterprises, the owner is the business, meaning that the success of the business is down to the personal service of the owner and the relationships that they have built with customers are key to continued success. This is great when you are growing your own business, but when you come to sell that business, it can be seen as a negative, as buyers will be wary that a lot of regular custom could fade away after the owner leaves. In order to combat this if you’re thinking of selling, it’s a good idea to productize as many of your services as possible. That’s not to say that you need to be more distant from your valued customers, but it’s good to show potential buyers that there is a system that they will be able to continue to use to give the customers the same great experience. Taking this one step further, an operational manual that outlines all of your processes and systems is a truly valuable resource. Think of franchises. The reason that they are often expensive in the beginning is because they come with a detailed manual of how to carry out every single process in that business. With this manual, the new owners of a franchise have a much better chance of success and will make back their money in the long run as they are able to follow the steps to provide customers with the experience that they have become accustomed to. You can do the same for your business if you decide to sell. This kind of manual is still valuable if you’re not thinking of selling right now as it allows you to see your processes laid out on paper and see if there is anywhere you could improve. It’s better to see this manual as an ongoing project rather than something to cobble together in a hurry when you want or need to sell the business. It can point you toward areas in need of improvement and instead of throwing ideas at potential buyers of how they could improve the business, you can take your time, implement improvements yourself and then be in a better position to ask for a higher price when those changes take effect. Of course, this all depends on the reasons why you are thinking of selling up. Unfortunately in life there are always things that we can’t plan for, but if you are thinking about selling and don’t have financial or family pressures, give yourself a little time to map out your processes, implement some changes and you could see a much higher return when you come to sell. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I prepare my business for sale? About Ace: Ace Chapman started out in the world of business when he bought his first business at only 19 years of age. Since then, he has bought and sold more than 40 businesses, both online and off. As well as looking after his own deals, Ace now runs his own business acquisition consultancy. He has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs either find the right deal to help them expand their business portfolios or prepare their business for sale to another party. Ace is with us on this episode of the number one small business podcast to share his story and some fantastic tips that can help you prepare your business for sale and ensure that you get the most return on all your hard work.

Maintaining a healthy cash flow is absolutely essential for a small business to survive. It sounds so strange to have to say that, but if it’s so obvious, why do so many of us get into trouble when it comes to cash flow? Why aren’t we more aware of where we stand financially? What are the issues that are affecting our cash flow? Cash flow can be a problematic area for businesses of any size, but it can be a particularly difficult for small business owners, especially during their first couple of years. We can often get distracted by finding the clients and doing the work. This means that invoicing, accounts and so on take a back seat. We’ll get the money for that next month, we tell ourselves. And, because we’re just starting out, we justify dipping into our personal accounts as we say that’s just what entrepreneurs do in the early days. The buzz of completing a project successfully and looking for the next big client might mean we don’t start invoicing right away. We may accept a client’s longer payment terms without any negotiation just to ensure we get their business. These are all understandable reasons why accounting gets neglected sometimes but we can quickly find ourselves in trouble if we don’t keep an eye on our finances. And, there are always going to be other issues that will crop up. Clients may take their time to pay your invoices and it can feel rude to keep chasing them up. You may have some emergency personal expenses that can’t be delayed or a larger than usual tax bill. Before you know it, you’ve got nothing to show for the many hours of hard work you’ve put in and the wolf is at the door. How can we avoid some of these issues and help our businesses thrive? With us on this episode of your favourite small business podcast is Gary Turner, the managing director of small business cloud-based accountancy service, Xero. Gary’s been working on accountancy software for more than twenty years, so he has a wealth of experience and knowledge about what companies do well and not so well when it comes to maintaining a healthy cash flow. As ever, our guest is going to be giving you some actionable tips that can be implemented in any small business and help you better avoid the stresses and strains that come with dwindling cash reserves. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I stay on top of my cash flow and grow my business? About Gary: Gary Turner is the managing director of Xero, an innovative and beautifully designed cloud-based accounting software for small businesses. With Xero, small business owners can connect with their accounting data anytime, anywhere and on any device. In only a few short years, the company has grown to become the market leading cloud accountancy product in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Prior to joining Xero, Gary gained over 20 years’ experience in the accountancy software field. He’s here on this episode of your favourite small business podcast to share his expertise and tips for keeping on top of your finances as well as some of the pitfalls to avoid.  Gary’s Actionable Tips: * Keep on top of your accounts. Staying on top of your books and making sure they are as accurate as possible is the most important aspect of maintaining cash flow. Updating your records as frequently as possible will help you know where you stand. * Be fair and direct with your customers. There’s no need to be too lenient or a pushover. Just be clear about your terms in the beginning. Although it can feel nerve-wracking, there’s nothing wrong with asking to be paid within a reasonable amount of time for quality work. Your customers know that for you to continue working, you need to be paid. * Keep your accounting as simple as possible. We often use our own systems to keep track of data and financial information but this can be difficult for anyone else to make sense of. Maybe Evernote for this,

The idea of creating a community around your business is something that a lot of us are hesitant about. It may be because we think that it doesn’t really apply to our business, or that it will take a lot of work. However, with the advent of social media, it doesn’t need to be such an arduous task and as Google is the first port of call for most people who are searching for a solution to their problems, it can be a benefit to almost any business. The networking opportunities created by a thriving community can open up a new world. If you create community of people who are passionate about your products of services then this can really give your business a boost in a number of ways. Firstly, it can help develop a network of ambassadors who will promote your business organically. People are more likely to trust information if it comes from a real customer as opposed to a PR department. If customers receive fantastic service, they’ll want to tell others about it. This has always been the case, but it’s even more important these days thanks to social media. Maintain a great relationship with your community and it will promote your business for you. This promotion can give you fantastic opportunities to network with other people in your industry and respected entrepreneurs in niches different to your own. Secondly, it will help you climb up the Google rankings. A community of people talking about you and your business creates a lot of hits for the search algorithm so that when a potential customer is searching in your niche or industry, your page is more likely to feature near the top. It will also make networking a whole lot easier as you will be easier to find. Lastly, creating a community allows you to inject some personality into your business. If you provide no way for your customers to interact with you, your business could come across as bland. How many ‘About Us’ pages have you seen that just seem like the same, generic stuff? With a community, you can engage with your client base, offer content that will be of value and show the personality behind the business. You’re passionate about your business and industry, and others are equally passionate. People network with people so it’s important to get yourself out there. It’s time to harness that passion you have to create some tangible benefits for your business. With us on this episode of your favourite small business podcast is inventor, entrepreneur and author, Stephen Key, who has some first class advice for those looking to grow and maintain a community of passionate ambassadors. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I cultivate loyal fans who will grow my network for me?  About Stephen: Stephen Key is an inventor, entrepreneur, intellectual property strategist, speaker and author. He has spent the last 30 years coming up with innovative ideas that he has taken to major companies to generate licensing opportunities. He is a regular contributor to both Entrepreneur and Inc. and his website, inventRight, is a treasure trove of fantastic resources. Stephen’s best-selling book, One Simple Idea: Turn your Dreams into a Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work, has helped thousands of entrepreneurs around the world build a following and connect with their customers to push their businesses forward. Actionable Tips: * Create a YouTube channel. Practice in front of the camera and try to learn to love the camera. You can do this anytime and anywhere. You can become comfortable with yourself and start to critique yourself and improve before putting yourself out there. * Share your enthusiasm for other people on social media. Make it known that you appreciate other people and people will come back to you. Flattery will get you everywhere! * Find someone you really look up to and reach out them. We’re all at different levels and sometimes we need reach out to those wh...

Building and maintaining valuable relationships is vitally important in life and business. We all want to make the best relationships with people that we can but it doesn’t always come naturally to us all. Some people are more talkative, some are more reserved. Some people are never off the phone and other prefer to communicate by e-mail. The skill with which we develop relationships needn’t be the fixed attribute that we often think it is. As with almost everything else, we can work at improving it through practice and study. Relationships are indeed an art and fostering the right kind of relationships can do wonders not only for ourselves but also for our businesses. How can we make sure that we are creating the right kind of relationships in the most beneficial way? With us on this episode of the number one small business podcast is Jason Treu who is an expert in the art of relationships and knows how radically different peoples’ lives can become after they reconsider how they approach relationships. The traits that we currently have do not need to define us as people or small business owners for the rest of our lives. Working towards changing your relationships with those around you can have benefits far beyond the entrepreneurial. Taking time to introspect and focus on new ways of building relationships can even bring passion back into your life and work if you’ve noticed it fade. Jason is going to take us through some of his experiences as one of the world’s leading business and executive coaches. The methods and tools that he has developed have helped thousands of people around the world improve their lives and their businesses.  Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I master the art of relationships? About Jason: Jason Treu is a business and executive coach who has helped some of the world’s leading CEOs help develop their skills in building and maintaining valuable relationships. He is a regular contributor at The Good Men Project, Inspirationfeed, Under30 CEO, YourTango and KillerStartups. He is also the author of several bestsellers including Jump Start Your Social Life and Social Wealth. The tools and systems that Jason has created to unlock the potential within has helped thousands around the world to exceed their limits and achieve their goals while putting the passion back into their work and lives. The key to all of this is changing how people approach relationships. Actionable Tips: * Engage with people. Social and communication skills are learned behaviours and can be practiced and improved. Don’t worry about the outcomes, but get practicing. Part of it is doing some internal work and trying to identify your blind spots and what behavioural patterns you have that are no longer serving you. * Go to events where people want to talk. Go to charity events, art museums or community events where people are open to speaking and are there for the same reason. Going to talk to random strangers is less helpful as you don’t know why they are there or what’s going on in their lives. Events are great as everyone is on a level playing field and there for the same reasons. * Lead with giving and generosity. Rapport, likability and trust are the key things that you need to get follow up from new people or to build deeper relationships with people that you already know. The best question for building rapport is ‘What are you passionate about life?’ It gets to the emotional core of the person. Everyone in life is led by their emotions. Top Quotes: * “People believe that we’re born with certain social, communication and emotional skillsets and they’re as good as they’re ever going to get. That couldn’t be further from the truth, they are all learned behaviours.” * “After they have addressed some of their issues, they just get excited about their lives every day and they feel passion and fu...

When you’re a small business owner or solopreneur, it’s easy to become gradually isolated from those around you. You need to rely on yourself and make sure that everything gets completed on time. This can see you eating at your desk. Your friends don’t have the same worries as you and you don’t want to bore them, so there goes your drinks after work. Slowly but surely, these missed occasions add up and soon you may find yourself isolated. Isolation can take a serious toll on our health and relationships as we as cause us to lose perspective on our businesses. Does it really need to be this way, though? And what should we do if we’re feeling isolated from our friends and family because of our business commitments? Nicky Roche joins us on this episode of the number one small business podcast to share her experiences of this very common problem and how to change the situation. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast: How can I overcome small business isolation? About Nicky: Nicky Roche is an entrepreneur, consultant and podcaster. Her show, Small Business Drivers, aims to help small business owners around the world optimize their working processes and focus on the main drivers of their businesses and interactions with others. She is also aiming to create a worldwide community of likeminded individuals who can share their experiences and grow their businesses. Nicky believes that networking with people who are in the same boat can not only help stave off the feelings of isolation but can also bring positive gains to your business. Nicky is on this episode of the number one small business podcast to discuss the issue of small business isolation and how we can overcome it. Actionable Tips: * Dream big but define that dream. Take the time to define a vision of what you want and where you want to be. Having a clear, defined idea of what you want makes other decisions much easier. * Don’t be scared to share and learn from others. Intelligent people, confident in their own abilities, shouldn’t be afraid to share with others. Mutually beneficial relationships will help your business grow. * Bridge the knowledge gap one brick at a time. Don’t be overwhelmed at the start and learn as much as you can. How do you know what you can do if you put a ceiling on your abilities?   Top Quotes: * “If we’d all just share our motivations, challenges and solutions, everybody could benefit from it.” * “People need to understand that adjusting the sails is expected. People need to learn to not be so hard on themselves and to remind themselves of the things that they have achieved.” * “Sometimes it’s about ensuring the people who are influencing your mind set and business decisions are the right people who are in your life at the time.” * “One of the drivers of business success is networking because life and business are team sports.” * “There’s an instant reward for networking. The people you associate with ask different questions and they see your business from a different perspective. They might spark something in your mind that you hadn’t thought about before.” * “I don’t think people realize how much expertise they have. Many entrepreneurs, through isolation, minimize their own expertise. In actual fact, they are experts in something already thanks to their business and they’re an expert in something that someone else isn’t.” * “Isolation creates a lack of perspective. If you let other people into your life, you regain that perspective. If those people don’t help you regain that perspective, then change the people you’re associating with.” Nicky’s Links: * Small Business Drivers (http://smallbusinessdrivers.com/) Key Timestamps: * 00:49 Challenged Issue * 01:42 Nicky’s Introduction

We’ve all seen advertising campaigns from banks and telecommunications companies that advertise a whole range of benefits for new customers. Wow, it sounds like a fantastic way to bring in new customers, right? If you are already a customer, how does that make you feel? You’ve been loyally giving them your business for several years but you can’t have access to these ‘new customer’ perks. Large companies can afford to do this due to their size, but, as small business owners, we don’t have the luxury of an endless, nationwide list of potential customers. It’s so important for those of us with small businesses to maintain a loyal customer base, but, in order to grow, we also need to concentrate our time and energy on finding new customers. In terms of who to give your attention to, it can be a delicate balancing act. We don’t want to spend too much time looking for new clients as this could alienate our existing customers and they could take their business elsewhere. At the same time, if we are too focused on a core group of existing customers, our growth could stagnate. How can we get the maximum value out of our existing customers and still find new ones to add to their ranks? How can we stop wasting, or even destroying, the existing relationships that we have with our customers? In this episode of the number one small business advice podcast, we’re speaking to marketing strategist and the author of Evergreen: Cultivate the Enduring Customer Loyalty That Keeps Your Business Thriving, Noah Fleming. Noah knows just what’s required to build loyalty with your customers and he will sharing his expertise and experience with us in this episode. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast How can small business owners maximize the value of their existing customers while also finding new ones? About Noah Noah Fleming is a strategic marketing expert and independent consultant who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs improve their skills when it comes to retaining loyal customers. He is considered a thought leader in his field and is the author of the bestselling Evergreen: Cultivate the Enduring Customer Loyalty That Keeps Your Business Thriving. Noah’s extensive experience and innovative thinking has seen his clients increase their profits, customer value and competitive advantage while at the same time reducing their customer acquisition costs. Noah’s also a renowned public speaker who has delivered keynotes and workshops for high profile clients around the world. He has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine and The Globe and Mail. He’s here with us for this episode to share his insights into how we, as small business owners, can create a foundation of loyal customers that will help our small businesses grow. Actionable Tips * You should understand your character and create marketing that speaks from that character. Create a story that’s interesting to your customers. Who are you and what do you want to be known for? * Start to think about your community and what you can do to bring people together. There are so many different ways you can do this. Just let your customers engage with you and each other. * Maximise the value of every customer. Reach out to customers that you haven’t had contact with for a while. Ask customers for testimonials. Set yourself three tasks every day related to this and soon you will be reaping the rewards. Top Quotes * “The best companies and organizations that really maximize customer value and build that evergreen sense of customer loyalty are those focused on building a sense of community.” * “This is the bread and butter for small businesses. This is where the money is made.” * “We spend all this time creating a marketing campaign, we put our effort into attracting the customers,

These days, just having a website for your small business is not enough. Your site needs to be visible and it needs to generate leads that are going to help your business to grow. How can we drive traffic to our sites and also generate profitable leads? Quick fixes, keyword hacks and creating all manner of backlinks are not the way to give your business the visibility it needs to succeed. More than ever before, content is king. So how can you produce valuable content that will not only help us rise up the search rankings, but also convert visitors into customers? For long-lasting, organic results, we need to remember that nothing happens overnight and any SEO company who promises instant results should be avoided. Quality blog posts, great videos and valuable, actionable content will set your business on the right path to the first page of the search results in your niche. Give your visitors an irresistible offer in exchange for an e-mail address and you’ll soon have a captive and relevant audience with whom you can engage in targeted e-mail marketing. Our guest in this episode of your favourite small business podcast is Lindsey Anderson, a web strategist who has spent the last ten years helping small business owners get the most out of their web sites. Her company, Web Impakt, has helped hundreds of clients navigate the ever-changing waters of online business. She is going to share her expertise with us and provide a guide to getting the most out of your online presence. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast Episode: How can we drive traffic to our sites and generate profitable leads? About Lindsey: Lindsey Anderson is an expert in the field of online traffic and leads. For over ten years, she’s been at the helm of Web Impakt, a company that specializes in web design, SEO, social media marketing and PPC management and also provides expert consultation to small businesses. Her site, Traffic and Leads, aims to provide small businesses with complete traffic and lead generation solutions. Lindsey has a wealth of experience in helping businesses achieve tangible results from their websites. Actionable Tips: * Select a social media channel and start posting, especially with video. Don’t be shy, just start posting and let people know that you’re out there, you have a personality and you want to do business with them.  * Make sure your website has a lead capture form so you can get that all-important e-mail address. Just start today and your list will grow and grow. * Start generating content. Write long articles, short articles or create some video content. You don’t need to work with an SEO company. Write about your industry, small business or anything else you think your customers will be interested in and soon you will start coming up in the search results in your niche. Be patient and keep writing! Top Quotes: * “Content is king. Google is now so smart at knowing when people are trying to trick the system.” * “Boring, generic websites are just sitting there passively. Add a blog or add an offer and your site will see the benefits.” * “Make sure you have an irresistible offer on your website to capture that precious e-mail address.” * “E-mail marketing helps us keep in indirect contact with our potential clients. When they are ready to do business, yours will be the first name that will come to mind.” * “Any information that we can get from visitors should be considered a win. Even if they don’t make a purchase instantly, you can slowly start marketing your products or services to them.” * “With an e-mail address and the permission to e-mail your visitors, you’re no longer at the whim of Google or Facebook algorithm changes. Bring them from social media onto your home page.” * “Make sure you do video! A quick,

We live in an increasingly connected world and it’s never been easier for us to make contact with others around the globe. Whether you want to make new contacts in your industry or niche, or if you want make connections with people who work outside your own field, technology has revolutionised this process. However, the very systems that make this possible have also created a world in which we all seem permanently busy. We fire off hundreds of e-mails a week, take countless calls and scan through our social media accounts day and night. But, how much do we really listen to those around us? And how supportive of our friends and colleagues are we? For all of us, but especially entrepreneurs, it’s easy to switch off as others seek help with a problem. I think we’re all guilty of this to an extent, especially when we’re trying to manage our own businesses. We have too much for ourselves to worry about, without taking on the problems of others. Does this lead to long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships though? In this episode of the number one small business podcast, we’re speaking to former NBC and Wall Street Journal reporter Kare Anderson about how mutuality can help us forge relationships that will not only help our businesses but also improve our lives. Kare’s current area of expertise is connective behaviour and how it affects people and businesses. Her TED talk on this subject was hugely influential and she now covers this topic for Forbes and Huffington Post. Kare believes that mutuality can help build and improve relationships. Changing a contact into an ally is a powerful transition. And the more that we help our allies, the more support, opportunities and connections we will receive in return. The more allies we make in different niches, the bigger our web of connectivity grows. Finding a sweet spot of mutual interest is the first step to forging a lasting, mutually beneficially alliance. Issue Challenged in this Small Business Podcast Episode: How can we forge relationships that help us navigate the increasingly complex aspects of living in a connected world? About Kare: Kare Anderson is an Emmy award-winning former NBC and Wall Street Journal reporter. She currently works as a columnist for Huffington Post and Forbes magazine with a focus on connective behaviour. Her TED talk, The Web of Humanity: Becoming an Opportunity Maker has been viewed more than a million times and her books have helped thousands of people around the world learn how to forge mutually beneficial relationships that create real benefits for their lives and businesses. Kare has also worked as a public speaker for a vast array of clients including Novartis, Salesforce and The Skoll Foundation. Actionable Tips: * Find allies who are different from yourself but with whom you share a sweet spot of mutual interest. Reach out, learn about them and be there to provide ideas and support. * Be a favourite subject matter expert to a columnist or blogger in the world you seek to serve. Connect with them, cite them in your own work or offer up different perspectives on issues that they may be writing about. Pull them in by providing insight as opposed to pushing them away by demanding attention. * Be quoted more frequently. You can achieve this by using the AIR formula. A – Is your message Actionable? I – Is your message Interesting enough to warrant people’s attention. Is it a unique perspective or does it contain something startling that will grab their attention? R – Does your message have Relevance? Are you speaking directly to something that’s already on their mind? AIR – Actionable. Interesting. Relevant. Top Quotes: * “Listening is an act of love. Let people talk and find sweet spots of mutual interest.” * “Check your assumptions and ask follow up questions. Notice when there’s a rise in energy or interest.