Grow A Small Business Podcast

In this episode, I interview Emily Osmond, an international marketing coach, speaker, and podcast host. She is the founder and editor of Australian interiors blog GetinMyHome. Her podcast, The Emily Osmond Show, shares practical strategies and candid real stories of entrepreneurs to help other entrepreneurs make marketing, mindset, and money their superpowers. Aged 27, she left the marketing world in corporate five and half years ago to start a consulting business focusing on branding, strategy, and website design. She had the idea to try providing online courses and hasn't looked back. She launched her first course within a few weeks of having the idea back in mid-2018. She now has 500+ students in more than 10 countries and banked $40,000 in the first year of selling the courses. In 2019, she grew that to $200,000 compared to the $100,000 she made in her first year of providing consultancy services. The courses have grown 214% in the last six months since April 2020. She has one and half full-time employees, has funded the business purely from savings, and spent $60,000 on professional development in the last five years. Emily has worked hard on pricing and her mindset to be able to shift to then succeed with online courses. She felt she had succeeded when early in 2020 she checked the Stripe bank account and was able to reduce her work hours. Emily believes the hardest thing about growing a small business is, "Mindset, backing yourself, knowing there is no manual, and trusting yourself" The one thing she says she would tell herself on day one of starting out in business is, "You can if you think you can" Stay tuned and enjoy! This Cast Covers: Starting out a service-based business and later shifting the business model to run on her online programs. Building a business out of her passion for running workshops and teaching business owners how they can do their own marketing. From $100,000 a year in revenue to $200,000 a year solely from the online programs with four additional income streams. Working with a team of skilled professionals on a part-time basis to boost the profits of the business. The lessons she learned from the challenges she went through with pricing. Working predominantly with women who run home-based businesses that are in their first 3 years of operation. Using a combination of content marketing, Facebook ads, and podcasting to market her business and build her audience. What the Emily Osmond Show is all about and where it's currently at. Maintaining a 6 to 10% churn rate for her online programs by studying exactly what causes people to exit and coming up with ways to solve the highlighted issues. Currently having 400 students paying every month with over 600 students having gone through her programs. The immense benefits of using Kajabi to sell her online programs. How to upload your customers' email addresses into Facebook and use that to figure out your target audience. Starting the business with her own cash and growing it from profits. Being trapped in the mindset of what other people were doing successfully and how she got out of it to just do her own thing. The power of mindset and boundaries when running an online business. Having to make decisions in the business and the pressures that come with it. Overcoming the belief that she was not good at numbers to figure out all the numbers related aspects of her business. Hiring people who free up her time so she can focus on her core business activities. Achieving work-life balance by specifically building her business to allow her to have a low number of working hours. Uplevelling her skills and building lots of great relationships from spending $60,000+ on her personal development. Working less in the business by setting up systems and trusting others to run things. Additional Resources: Emily Osmond The 4-Hour Work Week By Tim Ferris Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast Goal Digger Podcast Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I interview Bob Moesta, the Founder, President, and CEO of the Re-Wired Group. The Re-Wired Group specializes in Demand-Side Innovation and they help companies and individuals grow by enabling innovation from the Demand-Side; Changing buying and consumption behavior. They identify, design, and execute marketing, selling, and buying systems for growth and focus on fast, high-impact actions that lead to immediate results, growth, and insight. Their approaches, methods, frameworks, and software have helped companies grow more than 20% when their current market was down more than 50%. Bob is a founder, maker, innovator, speaker, and now a professor, and he enjoys making innovation more predictable and successful for entrepreneurs and enterprise leaders. Among the principal architects of the Jobs to be Done theory in the mid-90s along with Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, Bob has continued to develop, advance, and apply the innovation framework to everyday business challenges. He is a fellow at the Christensen Institute and has worked on and helped launch more than 3,500 new products, services, and businesses across nearly every industry, including defense, automotive, software, financial services, and education, among many others. The Jobs to be Done theory is just one of 25 different methods and tools he uses to speed up and cut costs of successful development projects. He is a guest lecturer at The Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Entrepreneurship, and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He is an entrepreneur at heart and engineer and designer by training. He has started, built, and sold several startups. Bob started out as an intern for Dr. W. Edwards Deming, father of the quality revolution, and worked with Dr. Genichi Taguchi extensively. He traveled to Japan and learned first-hand many of the lean product development methods for which so many Japanese businesses, including Toyota, are known. A lifetime learner, he holds degrees from Michigan State University and Harvard Business School. He has studied extensively at Boston University's School of Management, MIT School of Engineering, and Stanford University's "D" School. Stay tuned to gain from Bob's wealth of expertise on matters demand-side sales and it will definitely help you change the growth trajectory of your small business upwards. This Cast Covers: Starting seven companies and letting other people run them once they top $50 Million. Moving away from managing more people and selling to focus more on doing work. From engineer to helping people in the defense and food industries build products, to becoming a highly successful serial entrepreneur. Continuous learning to gain horizontal skills that helped him communicate with the right people. His guest lecturing work and how his books are helping educate future innovators. Starting the entire sales process by understanding why people buy in the first place. Demystifying what Demand-Side sales is all about and why it's important when growing a small business. The value of understanding the forces of progress. Translating the three motivations of progress into the dimension of product. A great example of how powerful Demand-Side sales can be for a business. Innovating by learning enough fast enough and focusing on the things you struggle with by either eliminating them or figuring out new ways to them. The importance of realizing that sales is much about timing and listening that it is about you as the business owner. Learning to understand demand instead of getting obsessed with pushing a product. Additional Resources: The Re-Wired Group Dark Horse By Todd Rose The End of Average By Todd Rose How to Fly a Horse By Kevin Ashton Little Red Book of Selling By Jeffrey Gitomer Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I interview Kym Power, the Founder of Rejuvenators Health Massage, Australia's largest professional mobile massage company. Kym passionately believes in holistic wellness, self-care, and taking personal responsibility for one's health and life success. In 1993, aged 21, she quit hairdressing for the love of providing massages. Now 27 years later, her mobile massage business is in all states and territories except Tasmania. They provide massage and beauty services in rooms mainly in 800 4 or 5 star hotels such as the Stamford, Pullman, Novotel, Mecure, Meriton, Rydges, Adina, Mantra, Pan Pacific and Park Royal Hotels to name just a few. They also help celebrities on tour such as Lady Gaga, Richard Branson, Matthew McConaughey, and Russell Brand. Kym started the business as the one full-time employee earning $20,000 in the first year, which was more than she was earning as a hairdresser. She now has nine full-time employees at her head office with around 100 independent contractors providing their services. Their pre-covid annual sales was around $2 Million. Kym recommends putting in good systems, procedures and training because that allows her to take three months a year off and travel overseas. Her only external business funding was a $5,000 car loan when she was starting out, and from there she funded the business purely from profits. She really struggled to find work-life balance earlier on but now feels she has it at the right place. She felt she had succeeded when she found things doing better and she was actually helping people. To her, the hardest about growing a small business is self-sabotage. She says that the one thing she would tell herself on day one of starting her business is, "It's harder than what I think, but it's worth it" Stay tuned and be inspired. This Cast Covers: Running a mobile massage company that operates all across Australia. Starting from very humble beginnings 27 years ago to build a successful business. From being clueless on pricing when she started out to growing the annual revenues up to $1 Million. Building a strong team of 80 to 100 independent contractors and up to 8 contract employees. Getting success from refining things all the time and finding ways to do them better and smarter while consistently helping more people. Being able to step away from the business and having it run well by itself. Marketing the business by forming strong and lasting business partnerships. Self-funding the business from the get-go and how that has worked out for her. How being creative and big-picture minded affected her ability to work on the numbers/financials. Having to fire sale her house to save the business from failure. Challenging herself and her beliefs so she could change her business mindset. The satisfaction of experiencing the positive impact that her business makes in people's lives. Going from being a sole therapist to bringing on other therapists to join her service delivery team. The importance of small business owners focusing on their overall health and wellness. The mistake she used to make by hiring people she liked and how she dealt with it. Successful Hiring 101: Hiring people who are really good in doing what you're hiring them for. Constantly changing things up in their culture to meet the demands and needs of employees. How she succeeded in finding work-life balance despite the challenges she was facing initially. Investing in tons of professional development and how it has impacted her life over the years. Self Sabotage: The one way that small business owners hinder themselves from growing their businesses. Using NLP techniques to clear her mindset of negativity and improve her productivity. The power of automation and outsourcing in growing a small business. Additional Resources: Kym's Website Rejuvenators Health Massage The E-Myth By Michael E. Gerber The Barefoot Investor By Scott Pape Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I interview Rhiannon Beach, the Founder of Pups4Fun, Canberra's leading dog daycare and dog adventure center specializing in behavior-based service. Pups4Fun offers daycare, playgroups, and out and about excursions, activities usually associated with children. Rhiannon was ahead of the curve when she started Pups4Fun, tapping into the sentiment that animals in a household were not just pets, but members of the family. Her journey into small business ownership started in 2005 when was completing her high school. A great teacher pushed her to enter a business plan competition and she went on to win the Australasian award. Aged 19 in 2008, she started a law degree part-time and launched the dog daycare, walking, and sitting business. There were only two other dog daycare businesses in Australia at the time. They currently walk up to 50 dogs at a time and take them to unusual locations like the war memorial. Rhiannon clearly has a passion for dog wellness. The business has grown every year, on average at 180%, from herself alone to now 29 full-time employees. When she launched the business, the industry was worth $3.8 Billion per annum in Australia and is now at $12 Billion. In 2017, she bought another salon 30 kilometers away and two years later, she closed it and brought 98% of the customers to headquarters. At the end of 2008, she got a $10,000 loan for a few months from her father to replace her 1982 small car. That is the only financing she has ever had. In late 2013, she had burnout which led to an infection in her brain and it took 6 months for her to recover, but it was the best thing to ever happen to her. She had to let go, trust her team, and let them run the business. She felt she succeeded when she achieved work-life balance and started getting great feedback from clients. She believes the hardest thing about growing a small business is, "Sacrifices you make and letting go" She shares that the one thing she would tell herself on day one of starting out in business is, "Set systems and procedures up to where you want to be, not where you are now" Sit back, relax and enjoy as Rhiannon shares her awesome small business ownership story. This Cast Covers: Caring for 500 dogs a week in a way that encourages the dogs to be good social citizens. Starting one of the first dog daycare centers in Australia while also studying law. Valuing and standing strong on the pricing strategy for their high-end prestige service. Achieving an average growth rate of 180% every year for the last 13 years. Aiming at creating credibility for other people in the pet industry so other people can understand that it's a serious business. Buying a grooming salon and how it contributed to their expansion. Running things from their head office location with an offsite location where they do the dog daycare from. Considering going into the statewide market and looking at franchising as a growth option. Having a great team that enabled her to find work-life balance. Valuing their customers and the great feedback they get from them because of their great work. Constantly conducting short customer surveys to stay informed of their customer satisfaction and loyalty. Remembering not to assume that your customers' beliefs and values are not the same as yours as the small business owner. Growing the business purely from cash flow by starting small and having financial discipline. The challenges she faced from the business' rapid growth and how she had to battle a life-threatening disease brought on by burnout. Working with her staff to build the great culture they have now. The value of having the flexibility to travel and do what she wants to do. The importance of trusting your employees to run the business without you, trusting your gut, and having advisors. Basing their recruiting process on their values to ensure they hire the most fitting employees. Acknowledging that the risk, sacrifice, and time you've put into building your business entitles you to have a life. Investing in heaps of both formal and informal professional development and learning from other small business owners. The impact of winning at the 2020 Telstra Business Women's Awards. Advocating for good accounting software and systems and processes for every small business. Additional Resources: Pups 4 Fun The 4-Hour Workweek By Tim Ferris The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People By Stephen Covey Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, Troy interviews Devin Miller, the founder, CEO, and managing partner of Miller IP Law, a law firm that focuses on helping startups and small businesses with patents (inventions), trademarks (brands), and copyrights (creatives). He built his first multi-million dollar startup when he was still in law school in 2013 as part of a competition. After getting involved in startups, he wanted to start a law firm to help startups and small businesses by protecting their IP and helping them grow. He has an electrical engineering degree, a Mandarin Chinese degree, a Masters in business administration, and a law degree. Devin's small business ownership journey is incredible. He came second in a business plan competition while at university and the following year, from his passion for running marathons, he pitched a wearable device that monitors your hydration. In 2013, aged 28, he saw the potential in the product, decided to buy out his business partners, and landed over $1 Million in investment in late 2015 pre-revenue. That value has since more than tripled with no sales yet. He, later on, merged the business with a diabetes wearable device company and the combined business now has an eight to nine-figure valuation (Somewhere between $10 Million and $99 Million) The business grew from one full-time employee, himself, to 40 in the merged business. When asked at which point he felt he had succeeded, Devin said, "I'll let you know when I get there" He says the hardest thing about growing a small business is finding work-life balance and the one thing he would tell himself on day one of starting out in business is, "There's going to be a lot of ups and downs. Strap in and enjoy the ride" Get your notebook and get ready for tons of free small business growth advice from Devin. This Cast Covers: Starting several 7/8 figure businesses and how patents and trademarks were crucial to their success. How he came up with the idea for a wearable device that monitors a person's hydration during a marathon. Partnering up with a diabetes monitoring company to form a single company and raise 8 figures in funding with plans to launch their technology within a year. The intricacies of learning Mandarin by knowing about 20,000 characters. Working a lot of hours to be more hands-on in the operations of the startup and the law firm. Measuring success in business in different ways based on one's long term goals. The potential of getting bought out by a much bigger player in the wearables industry. The importance of defining who your target market is before launching a product. The diverse funding options that they have leveraged to raise cash for their business. Demystifying convertible notes and why small business owners should consider them to raise capital. The investment opportunities in the wearables business. The stress he had to deal with from a lawsuit that was filed against them. Having to step out of a comfort zone to get involved in a SaaS company. Hating taxes and payroll, and how it took him a while to learn proper and effective hiring. Loving the idea stage of a business: Coming up with an idea and executing it. Why he doesn't like the idea of getting a new minimum viable product. Shifting from the foundation of making money to growing the business. The importance of learning constantly and staying informed about what's happening in your market. The pressure that leads a small business owner into making a bad hiring decision. The genius hiring technique that Devin uses to get the best performers into his team. Building a great culture by figuring out what you want your company to focus on and how you want to approach it. The challenges that business owners face when trying to find work-life balance. Learning by listening to podcasts and reading books. Diversifying their board by bringing on investors and people who can help grow the business. Automating your business not to get rid of jobs but to free up time so you can focus more on core activities. Additional Resources: Miller IP Law That Will Never Work By Marc Randolph Entreleadership Podcast Dave Ramsey Business Wars Podcast Profit with Law Podcast Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I interview Julie Mathers, the ethical Founder, and CEO of BCorp Certified Flora & Fauna, the world's largest self-funded vegan and cruelty-free product website. She launched the business in late 2014, aged 38. Flora & Fauna has done more than 8,000 SKUs and they have a warehouse and small retail shop located in inland Sydney. Julie is very driven when it comes to our planet, animals, and making a difference. Describing their business as a platform for purpose to do good, one of their initiatives has saved more than 30 tonnes of plastic after their move to minimal packaging. Adding a personal touch by handwriting each order, they have now done it more than half a million times. The business grew from $60,000 in sales in their first year to now $20 Million per annum, growing almost 700% in the last three years, and more recently, 30% per annum. They mainly sell in Australia but a little to New Zealand, the UK, and the US. Julie and her husband started as the two full-time employees and they now have over 40 full-time employees. They got their funding from their initial savings and have sustained their growth from profits. Julie is very passionate about disability employment. She felt she had succeeded when she realized they were making a difference and when they employed the first people, bought a warehouse, and won the national Telstra business awards. Flora & Fauna was awarded the Top Sustainable Retailer in 2020, Best Small Retailer and Best Online Retailer 2018, and was shortlisted as a finalist for Responsible Retailer of the Year at the World Retail Awards 2017. Julie highlights that the hardest thing about growing a small business is keeping going and says that the one thing she would tell herself on day one of starting out in business is, Don't give up, and stress less" If you're an existing or aspiring small business owner, get ready to be inspired! This Cast Covers: The global impact phenomenon that is Flora and Fauna. From a small entity in November 2014 to the huge platform for purpose that they are now. Using their reach, engagement, and profits to make a difference. The measurable results of how they save the environment with minimal packaging. Starting out as a bakery worker at age 16 and how her immense love for retail-led her to where she is today. Growing 699% over the last three years and sustaining a 30% growth over the last very challenging year. Shipping all their products from Australia to the US, UK, and New Zealand by focusing more on the speed of shipping. Expected turnover of over $20 Million in 2020, 6 years after their first year turnover of $60,000. Their immense growth in terms of team members brought about by a continuous increase in the number of orders. How the shed outside their house inspired her to start the business. The surprise and emotion of winning in the national Telstra awards. Seeing success in all the little moments of achievement in one's small business. Her passion for disability employment and making a difference through her business. The importance of working out what you want to achieve with marketing before you invest in a marketing channel. Owning 100% of the business from starting with her own money and growing it solely from cash flow. The challenges in the skincare industry and the advice she has for anyone who wants to get into it. Successfully managing their cash to achieve their business goals despite the stresses they had to overcome. Growing the business by running her own race and focusing primarily on her plans. The experience of moving from corporate to a small business. The importance of a small business owner being relentless. Lessons from their previous hiring blunders that enabled them to win at building a team that fits into their culture. Learning to let go as an owner and founder to give team members the opportunity to do what they're best at. Working tirelessly hard to build Flora and Fauna, and focusing more on the flexibility that the business affords her rather than on the idea of work-life balance. The difficulties she experiences when she tries to shut her mind off when she's not working. Investing in a lot of professional development and the impact it's had on her as a small business owner. The benefits of having a great network you can pull on rather than having a specific mentor. Additional Resources: Delivering Happiness By Tony Hsieh Creative Little Souls The Mentor with Mark Bouris Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I interview Pam Brook, the co-founder of Brookfarm, Australia's leading producer of gourmet macadamia products known for its Macadamia Mueslis, Walkabout Mixes, etc. With some friends, Pam and her husband Martin bought 4,500 acres of rainforest with Macadamia trees in beautiful Byron Bay in 1989. Ten years later, they moved from Sydney to finally start their business. Since no one was adding any value to Macadamia nuts, they launched their cereal range and started selling in the late 2000s at the Bangalow Farmers' Market. They now export to 12 countries and sell around Australia but choose to never stock in Coles and Woolworths after seeing how they treated suppliers in the 90s. Pam stayed as a part-time dentist for the first few years and Martin would hit the road selling. In 2003, they built their own factory on the farm and sales grew between 50% and 100%, 10% to 12% per annum. Sales grew 50% to 100% in the early years, now 10% to 12% per annum. From two full-time employees to now over 70, they funded their business from their own capital, bank credit, and some grants without taking on investors. They grew the business mainly from profits. Pam shares that she felt she had succeeded when she gave up a part-time job as a dentist and went all in, winning the Telstra Business of the Year award a few years later. She says the hardest thing about growing a small business is getting the finances right. The one thing she says she would tell herself on day one of starting out is, "You can do it, and focus. Focus, focus, focus!" This Cast Covers: How they planted 1,500 Macadamia trees and later on decided to add value to them which formed the start of Brookfarm. Leaving their jobs to go all-in with Brookfarm and combining their skills to run it successfully. From 2 full-time employees to over 70, and growing to export their products to over 12 countries all over the world. Growing by more than 50% a year in their early years while currently maintaining a 12% annual growth over the last 10 years despite challenges. Why they decided to make their business a generational family business. The lessons she learned from being awarded the Telstra Business of the Year award. Successfully marketing their business by sharing the genuineness of their brand story. Regularly measuring their customer loyalty using the Net Promoter Score. Starting out with their own capital from savings and using bank credit instead of bringing on investors. The impact that the Export Market Development Grant has had on their business. Losing a customer that set their exports back about 50% and how it taught them not to be complacent or take anything for granted. How sales and distribution are some of the most challenging parts of doing business in the food industry. Enjoying the difference that their business makes in people's lives. Hiring people who are smarter than you at what they do, understanding them, and trusting them appropriately while managing them well. Leveraging contract manufacturing to use their machinery to a maximum and help their employees build their skills. The importance of focus and listening for every small business owner. Why a potential employee's attitude is critical to the success of a business. Building a kickass culture by connecting, developing, and celebrating team members. Being the only brand that adds allergens to their natural organic baby cereal to meet the health needs of babies. Everything she does to achieve some work-life balance. Investing in continuous learning, books, conferences, courses, and networking that contribute to her business knowledge. Combining the passion for a business with getting the business plan and finances right. Collaborating with those who can help you grow your business. Additional Resources: Brookfarm Call of the Reed Warbler By Charles Massy TED Talks The Health Report with Dr. Norman Swan Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I interview Anna Ross, the Founder, and CEO of Kester Black, an Australian-made, cruelty-free and vegan lipstick, and nail polish brand. She is also the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Arné Skincare. Anna started out with a small jewelry business in Melbourne in 2009 when she was just 19 years old. To increase her product range, she added nail polish which soon tripled revenue, so she dropped the jewelry to focus on starting a leading ethical beauty brand. Now with lipstick added to the range, and warehouses in Melbourne, Wanaka, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, they also sell through distributors in Germany and Malaysia. Four years ago, sales were 10% online and 90% wholesale which has now been flipped to 89% online. The business tripled its revenues in the last three years, and in 2020 is growing 3% to 5% every week. She started with 1 full-time employee, peaked at 9 in 2017, and is now down to 2.5. She won the Telstra Business Woman of the Year and that went to her head so much that she added expensive overheads with an office and more team members before meditation woke her up. Anna testifies that she has had great Facebook ad success and is currently investing $50,000 a month, and shares a key contact to use at a Facebook agency. She describes a recession phenomenon called "The Lipstick Effect" which affects businesses in her industry. She funded her business solely from profits though she recently walked away from a $500,000 investment, turning it into a short term loan instead. Anna felt she has succeeded when this year cash flow improved and she says that the hardest thing about growing a small business is staff. She shares that the one thing she would tell herself on day one of starting out in business is, "Just do it. If I knew what I know now, I would never have done it" Stay tuned for more on Anna Ross' amazing small business ownership journey. This Cast Covers: Being an Australian business located in the very beautiful Wanaka, New Zealand. A leading ethical beauty brand that sells polish and lipstick globally. Diversifying from wholesale brick and mortar to increase their online sales to about 89% of total sales. The Lipstick Effect: How the sales of lipstick and nail polish skyrocket during an economic recession. How they warehouse their products themselves and distribute them to retailers. Their presence in 300 stores in Australia, Germany, and Switzerland with strong partnerships with great wholesalers. Why she's been careful all along in making sure that they own their intellectual properties themselves. From working in retail to starting Kester Black as a jewelry business and diversifying into other products. Growing exponentially by increasing its revenues by up to 915%. How she got a big head from winning the Telstra Business Woman of the Year award. The mistake she made by hiring more staff than she needed. Tripling their revenues in the last three years and growing by about 3% to 5% every week. Using Fulfill By Amazon and the numerous complexities that come with it. Working towards hiring someone to run the day to day activities of the business or exiting. How she has leveraged the power of Instagram and Facebook to sell more. Starting the business with $50 and growing it purely from cash flow. The lessons she learned from trying to get investor/Equity funding. Doing their R&D cost-free through their manufacturers. The stressful experience she went through when she found out that nail polish is classified as "Dangerous goods", and cannot be shipped by post. Keeping a close eye on the financials of the business to ensure long term growth. The importance of being more of a manager to your team than the business owner. Looking for people who actually wanna work in your business and can share in your vision. How understanding herself and how people perceive her helped her grow personally and in business. Using Shopify and Asana to help streamline their daily operations. Additional Resources: KesterBlack Crystal Knows Harvey The E-Myth By Michael E. Gerber How I Built This Podcast Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I interview Christoph Petzoldt, the Managing Partner of Simon-Kucher's Australia/New Zealand operations. Chris has 20 years of management consulting experience across all industries and his work focuses on strategic marketing, portfolio/bundle design, and pricing optimization. He has conducted more than 80 consulting projects in Europe, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Oceania, and South America. Chris is specialized in portfolio optimization, value-based pricing, pricing research, retention, and sales execution. He founded Simon-Kucher's Australia/New Zealand business in 2011, covering all industries in the region. Before that, he was responsible for telecommunications in APAC, a topic that remains his focus. He comes on to talk about how small business owners can use proper pricing to build and grow their businesses towards long-term success. This Cast Covers: A subject matter expert on pricing for the last 20 years with experience working in a variety of industries. The importance of growing businesses looking at their pricing at different stages of their growth. Demystifying the concept of the price elasticity of demand. How to start a business that makes a profit by fulfilling the needs of customers. The harm that "Jumping to conclusions" kind of pricing causes to small businesses. Using costs and competition as a guide for product pricing. The pricing assumption that cost Audi $400 Million in lost opportunity. The power of pricing: How branding, packaging, and the story around a product can help a business in the commodities space come up with its own unique price for the product. Why small businesses should not start with very customized offers when they're starting out. How Christoph worked in helping a railway company come up with an effective pricing model that enabled it to make more money and remain competitive. The effectiveness of combining behavioral economics and market research when working on pricing. Perpetual discounting and how it works without eroding the value of a brand in consumers' minds. Why large retailers should consistently collect customer-oriented data by surveying their employees on the ground. Doing optimal pricing by looking at what the data shows, what the customers give as feedback, and what common sense and behavioral economics show. How small businesses can use knowing their actual revenues, costs, and profit to do their pricing. The businesses that can use loyalty programs and why. What to do about pricing on day one of starting in business: Check whatever you do and what value it creates for your customers. Additional Resources: Influence By Robert Cialdini Monetizing Innovation By Madhavan Ramanujam Price Management By Hermann Simon Christoph on LinkedIn Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I interview Kate Johansson, the Founder and Managing Director of Koja Health, an Australian company that produces a range of healthy foods that are rich in nutrients, fiber, and plant-based protein, without the excess sugar and artificial additives found in so many others. In 2014, aged 27, Kate started the business by producing and selling healthy protein bars, the only all-natural low sugar bars on the market. By the end of year one, she had made $70,000 in sales and was stocking three stores. In FY19, she got to 400 stores then 1,500 by the end of FY2020. Very soon, she expects to almost double that to 2,600 stockists, with Coles and Woolworths forming the backbone of their distribution. When she started out, she was the only full-time employee for the first three years and now has 6+ contractors. With no bank or investor funding, she started with $20,000 of her own savings, and after landing an investor on Shark Tank in 2015 (Which later fell through), she funded growth using the over $100,000 profit she made the month after the episode aired when online sales jumped to $200,000. She went on Shark Tank asking for $150,000 for 45% equity, valuing the business at $330,000 and is very glad John McGrath, the Sydney real estate mogul, walked away because now she still owns 100% of the business. She felt she had succeeded the minute she got a product on the shelf and launched, and believes that the hardest thing about growing a small business is believing in oneself. She says the one thing she would tell herself on day one of starting out in business is, "It's a good thing. You don't know what you're going to face, but you'll love what you do. You've created a business you're so proud of that makes a real difference in the industry and people's lives." Stay tuned and enjoy all that Kate had to share about her small business ownership journey. This Cast Covers: Making real nutrition snacks with their peanut butter bars as their best-selling product range Advocating for healthy eating by building a business around her passion for health and wellness. Aiming to move away from online sales to focus on their growth in terms of store distribution. Using contract manufacturers and consultants to ensure they can scale up or down much more easily. Focusing on what makes your business different when doing your marketing. Self-funding the business to success despite a failed funding opportunity from a Shark Tank investor. How she had prepared herself to kill it on Shark Tank and why she's glad the deal she was offered didn't go through. Destined for food and working towards finding the people that love what they do. Learning to deal with stress and enjoying the challenges that come with being a small business owner. Outsourcing marketing and the other tasks she's not the best at doing or doesn't enjoy doing. Growing the business strategically by bootstrapping to overcome the challenge she has had with the lack of access to capital. Trying out crowdfunding and how to successfully raise funds. How their transparency and great customer service have led to loyalty from all their customers. Doing the business more for the positive impact that it's having in people's lives rather for the purpose of making a ton of money. Changing her mindset to stop having second thoughts about the business and doubting her ability to run it to success. The power of big picture planning and how it has worked out for her. Hiring a HR consultant to help her pick the right people for her team. Using yoga and meditation to manage her energy levels in order to achieve some work-life balance. Some of the ways she invests in her own professional development. Communication and relationship: The two things that have been fundamental to her business journey. Additional Resources: Koja Health Website Blue Ocean Strategy By Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim No Bullshit Leadership Podcast Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/