Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast

When is it time to turn a labor of love into a real Small Business? And what pitfalls do you have to watch out for during the process? Dave and Shannon try to answer those questions and more on episode 143 of the Small Business Show! Join us today as we discuss why we do the Small Business Show and the numbers behind our downloads and subscribers. Information that any potential sponsor of the show would want to know. We also discuss ad rates and how to go about avoiding future conflicts over advertising rates when your show is still small, but growing fast. We then chat about how working with sponsors has us thinking of ways to invest that revenue to make SBS better for everyone. Should we invest in a new website, new advertising to grow our subscriber base or something else? Here’s your chance to give us your two-cents and offer us some advice. Listen in for a behind-the-scenes look at the Small Business Show and the business of Podcasting. Then, join us in the Small Business Support Group to share your thoughts on just where to invest our earnings. Chapters/Timestamps 00:00:00 Small Business Show #143 for Thursday, November 2, 2017 00:01:11 Tangent: the business of leasing hunting blinds 00:03:26 Seeking sponsorships 00:06:02 The numbers 00:11:21 Managing the customer expectation 00:12:25 Strategies for customer success 00:14:04 Contact us at Feedback@businessshow.co and in the Small Business Support Group on Facebook 00:15:12 It’s time for a new bank account 00:17:57 Then what? Where to invest this back in the podcast? 00:21:16 Finding the right partner… under your nose! 00:23:22 Finding the right sponsors for your content 00:25:09 Glasses … for nerds! 00:26:27 Give us your feedback 00:27:29 SBS Outtro The post Podcasts as a Small Business – Sponsors and Where to Invest for the Biggest Impact – Small Business Show 143 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Ever have problems getting paid by your clients in a timely manner? We’ve all been there – that’s why it’s worth joining us today on the Small Business Show for tips and tricks that can improve your cash-flow by getting you paid on-time and in full. Oh, and there’s also another rant from Shannon about online banking and restrictions – you’ve heard these before, but he’s got a bit of a different take on it this time. Specifically, the inefficiency of banks when it comes to sending wire transfers on a regular basis. We then jump into the best way to bill for your product or service and how to make it so easy for your customers that they won’t have any excuse but to get you paid quickly. Of course, there will be those that still have problems and those folks require some special attention. Dave makes the case that an unpaid invoice is a customer service opportunity (or a disaster) and if you handle the payment collection correctly, you can solidify a customer relationship for a lifetime. We close the show with our thoughts on when to stop providing products or services to a company that has one or more past due invoices and some ways to negotiate a payment plan. Listen in and then send us your tips for getting paid on time! And if you’re looking for some cool Small Business folks to hang out with, jump over to our Facebook Small Business Support Group to learn more and to share your knowledge.   Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00:00 The Small Business Show #142 for October 25, 2017 00:00:36 Dave The Nerd’s Consulting Business… Kicks Back Into Gear! 00:03:17 Finding the right bank Online bank “High yield” savings Money Market Accounts and The Regulation D 6-Transaction Limit 00:06:16 Then the Roadblocks start 00:09:28 Approving your transactions 00:11:55 Wire transfer efficiency SWIFT Code 00:13:56 Contact your two favorite business geeks 00:15:37 Set yourself up to be paid easily! 00:21:28 What to do when they’re not paying 00:22:43 Keep emotions out of the process 00:25:30 An unpaid invoice is a customer service opportunity 00:26:42 What to do when someone doesn’t pay? 00:31:31 Radio silence is easy… and painful! 00:31:59 SBS Outtro The Small Business Support Group The post Tips for Choosing an Online Bank and How to Get Paid on Time – Small Business Show Episode 142 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Ever dream of driving an exotic sports car? How about having a dozen of them parked in your garage, all being paid for by your rental customers? This week Shannon and Dave meet two entrepreneurs who have built a fast-growing and successful Small Business using the Turo car rental platform. If you’ve ever dreamed of that new Porsche or Jaguar, but couldn’t figure out a way to pay for it, this is the show you don’t want to miss! Gurjit Singh and Kevin Chou started The Gentleman’s Garage about two years ago and have expanded it to a dozen sports cars with availability in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vegas. The guys share their story today, talking about the challenges of getting started, dealing with problems and removing obstacles to growth. You’ll learn about managing risk, protecting yourself (and your cars) and the importance of having a strong platform that backs you up with insurance and background checks. We discuss how Gurjit and Kevin divide up their duties and how they have fine tuned their rental business to insure that each car is profitable – removing older, slower performing vehicles and adding newer models to keep their fleet fresh. One key aspect becomes clear during the interview, Singh and Chou are focused on creating and managing the customer experience for customers that value convenience over price. By distinguishing there rentals with concierge style service, they have built a strong reputation with continued plans for growth. Join us today to learn about these topics and more, then join the discussion on the Small Business Support Group! Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #141 October 18, 2017 00:01:36 Gurjit Singh & Kevin Chou – Using Turo as a Small Business platform 00:03:46 It all starts with two Mustangs … and a BMW 00:04:25 Turo covered the repair! Shift – online car buying and selling 00:05:36 Beware the damage claims 00:06:47 Think about how people will drive your vehicles 00:07:58 Turo manages the risk 00:08:46 Turo valet service 00:09:20 Each car makes 2-3x monthly payment 00:11:31 The logistics of management 00:13:34 One-way fee 00:14:41 With affluent customers, you’re managing an experience 00:17:17 If you’re going to rent it out, don’t buy new! Certified Pre-Owned works very well for Turo 00:20:23 Managing the fleet – new cars, selling cars, registrations 00:21:38 The bankers slow you down! 00:24:46 Did making it a business ruin your hobby? 00:25:44 “The cars are still a thrill to drive” Converting to a membership business 00:27:45 Visit Gurjit and Kevin’s The Gentleman’s Garage on Turo … and Facebook 00:28:57 SBS 141 Outtro The post Building a Rental Car Small Business on the Turo Platform – Small Business Show 141 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Ever been surprised by the small print in a contract that you signed for your Small Business? Join us today for episode 140 of the Small Business Show for tips on how to respond when companies try slip egregious terms and conditions into their contracts, how to shut down automatic bank withdrawals by using the Revoke Authorization tactic and much more. Dave and Shannon then jump into a discussion about setting up clear and concise payment terms to be sure you get paid quickly for your products and services. Setting a clear payment policy that is shown up front to your customers is critical to avoiding problems with getting paid in full and on time. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for part 2 of our Getting Paid discussion when we’ll discuss the best ways to manage debt collection. Next week, we’ll be joined by a pair of Small Business owners running their company on the Turo car sharing platform. Listen in and then jump over to the Small Business Support Group to comment and ask your questions. Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #140 October 11, 2017 00:01:20 Follow-up on Phone systems – Get enough data! Small Business Phone Systems – PBX, VOIP and Mobile Mac Geek Gab 00:04:20 Credit Card Follow-up 00:06:51 Pay attention to contracts 00:09:50 Learn about “Revoke Authorization” compliance 00:13:46 Send important emails with the recipient on the phone – to confirm verbal receipt. 00:16:45 Watch out for the arbitrary fees 00:17:52 Mind the details 00:19:15 Things you can do to make sure you get paid Brittany Alwerud from Handlr Business Management 00:20:32 Have a very clear payment policy 00:23:56 Get comfortable discussing money 00:24:45 “The value of your skill drops precipitously once you perform it” 00:27:12 Have a pre-services info sheet/agreement 00:28:16 Make sure to bill for your time 00:30:12 Debt Collection coming up! 00:30:40 Turo.com car sharing platform interview coming up next week 00:31:00 SBS 140 Outtro The post Small Business Contracts and Getting Paid on Time – Small Business Show 140 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

What’s the best Small Business phone system? Join Dave and Shannon today on episode 139 of the Small Business Show to hear about options ranging from pricey PBX systems, to Voice Over IP services like Phone.com, RingCentral and Grasshopper. During the discussion, Shannon spends some time pointing out how critical your phone auto-attendant can be when showing your customers what type of company you are. Current and potential clients will quickly learn about your business, based on how they are treated when calling your Small Business. We then jump into a discussion about mobile phone plans using traditional carriers, along with new offerings from Xfinity Mobile. Watch out for hardware compatibility issues and be sure to do the math correctly when comparing plans. Join us today and then share your phone tips at the Small Business Support Group! Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #139 October 5, 2017 00:01:08 Beware of too much time on your hands 00:02:30 Gone is the $10,000 PBX Phone System! 00:05:25 Are wired phones obsolete for your business? Phone.com RingCentral Grasshopper 00:12:14 Your phone system’s auto-attendant defines you 00:15:53 Question your existing systems 00:18:57 Beware the snowballs Beware T-Mobile and iPhone Spectrum 00:23:26 Xfinity Mobile 00:27:15 Make sure you do the math! 00:29:14 SBS 139 Outtro The post Small Business Phone Systems – PBX, VOIP and Mobile – Small Business Show 139 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

How important is it to understand and review your Small Business Balance Sheet, Profit and Lose Statement and Cash Flow Statement and how often should you be doing it? Join us today on episode 138 of the Small Business Show for our thoughts on these issues and more! Your financial statements are a window into your business. Failure to understand and review them frequently can lead to some massive headaches (take it from our own experiences!). On today’s show, we discuss where to get help in understanding what the data in your financials means and how to spot red flags that can be addressed early, before they become major issues. We then discuss the pitfall of focusing solely on Revenue instead of Cash flow that is the blood of your business. Many “profitable” Small Businesses have closed up shop for lack of cash. Then it’s time to roll out the idea of sharing your financials with your employees – in ways that protect your information but help to explain just how your Small Business makes money and where that money goes. There’s no doubt that your employees think your making more cash than you actually are, so it’s important to let them in on the data that shows how much it really costs to run your company. Finally, we discuss how often you should be meeting with your accountant – definitely NOT just at tax time. Join us for these topics and more and then click over the the Small Business Support Group to comment and provide your own tips!   Resources mentioned on this episode: The Balance: Guide to understanding financial statements QuickBooks: Warning signs in your financial statements The Balance: How to prepare a Cash Flow Statement The post Mistakes to Avoid and Tips about Small Business Financial Statements – Small Business Show 138 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Should you be worried about only using a .COM domain name for your Small Business? How do you deal with coming up with a domain name if your Small Business name is not available as a .COM web address? Join us for episode 137 of the Small Business Show to find out what longtime, serial Small Business owners Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean think about this and much more. We then jump into a riveting discussion about old-school merchant credit card processing vs. newer solutions from Stripe, Square and Paypal. Dave shares his story of having to dig deep into actual paper reports to find out just how much his business has been getting charged and what roadblocks are being put in his way to keep his customers ongoing, subscription based payments intact when he changes processors. In the end, we agree with Paypal COO Bill Ready when he says “Talking about payment processing just for the sake of payment processing is just not that interesting.” The discussion needs to be about how transparent, contextual and portable can payment processing become. Listen in and then visit the Small Business Show Support Group on Facebook to ask your questions or comment!   Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #137 September 20, 2017 00:01:00 The concept of limited willpower 00:03:04 Todd-URLs for your Company name  00:07:25 Changing Merchant Providers Traditional gateway/bank processor vs. Stripe, Square, Paypal 00:11:06 The power of printing reports on paper to find out what’s going on 00:13:07 Watch the numbers! 00:15:27 Authorize.net tries one last time to screw Dave 00:17:50 Watch out for old-school, handcuff business models 00:23:19 Payments should be a boring thing, with the price going down 00:24:54 SBS Outtro The post Small Business Website Names and the Exciting World of Credit Card Merchant Processing – Small Business Show 137 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Do you take the time out to attend Small Business conferences and trade shows? Would you like to make some powerful connections, meet some great people and renew your energy? Listen in to episode 136 of the Small Business Show to find out how you can have all this and more! Shannon just returned from the Paypal cNow conference in Chicago and he’s ready to talk about the people he met and what he learned. The conference included roughly 50 Small Business owners from across the country that got a chance to meet Paypal, Braintree and Venmo executives to see their latest “Contextual Commerce” payment products and sit in on some excellent Small Business discussions. Dave and Shannon spend some time discussing the power of attending these types of events and why you should be seeking them out as part of your business development system and the building of your personal brand. You’ll learn how to engage with the speakers, make long term connections and how to work your way onto discussion panels and to ultimately become an invited guest. Shannon also discusses his meeting with Marcus Lemonis from The Profit and why Marcus thinks that we all need to be more vulnerable when managing our employees, customers and suppliers. We wrap up the show with a discussion of “handshake deals”, Working Agreements and how to sniff out the people that just want to make you their race horse. Join us on this episode of the Small Business Show for all this and more! After you listen, click over to our Facebook Small Business Support group to ask questions and comment on the show. Chapters/Timestamps 00:00:00 Small Business Show #136 September 13, 2017 00:00:43 Paypal cNow (C for commerce) conference in Chicago Venmo 00:03:46 The power of attending conferences 00:09:12 Don’t give in to feelings of inadequacy 00:10:55 Engage when you’re there 00:13:02 Contact us! feedback@businessshow.co 00:13:14 Marcus Lemonis from The Profit 00:15:05 The Most Important Word in Business 00:18:03 Digging into vulnerability 00:20:34 Confidence erodes empathy 00:22:07 Be careful using other people’s tools 00:24:36 Lack of confidence… breeds lack of confidence! 00:26:10 Maybe “we’re struggling here” is OK to say 00:28:47 Handshakes vs. Lies 00:31:50 Working agreements 00:34:20 Beware the pitchers! 00:37:12 SBS Outtro The Peninsula Chicago The post Why You Should be Attending Small Business Conferences and Let’s Get Vulnerable – Small Business Show 136 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Do you run your Small Business from your home? Are you tempted to wear sweatpants everyday and move your desk close to the refrigerator for convenience? Join us today on the Small Business Show to get some great tips on how to stay motivated and disciplined while working from home. Long-time home office Small Business owner Dave Hamilton answers questions today as Shannon transitions from going into the office each day (24-years!) to working out of his home. We discuss finding a routine that works for you, checking in with your remote employees or partners each morning and the power of regular video meetings in Google Hangouts. We also spend time going over ways to manage remote interruptions, since no one can “see” that you’re busy when they ask for your help, using Slack reminders and the importance of actually combing your hair before you start work each day. Join us for these topics and more and then jump over to the Small Business Show Support Group to comment and offer us your own tips about working from home. Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #135 September 6, 2017 00:01:19 Blue… and Normal 00:02:39 No office is a joy… until it’s not! 00:05:47 Finding a routine that helps motivate and discipline your workflow Slack: Good morning! Water Cooler 00:10:41 Regular, Virtual meetings with your team or co-workers – facetime is important. Google Hangouts, Skype, FaceTime. Keeping you connected 00:12:03 Get More Done: 18 Tips for Telecommuters 00:12:50 The Pomodoro Method with Bob Levitus on Small Business Show 00:13:21 Recognizing that remote team members don’t know if you’re available and may contact you at the worst time. 00:17:25 Slack Reminders to keep you (and your team) on task when you are tied up and need to come back later to review 00:19:52 Get dressed. No Sweatpants! Comb your hair, bro! 00:22:42 Set clear boundaries and work hours for family and friends 00:25:21 Use the kitchen wisely! 00:28:59 Watch that your routine doesn’t become a rut 00:30:00 Make yourself accountable to YOU 00:31:26 SBS Outtro The post Tips for Running Your Small Business from Home – Small Business Show 135 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

What’s the best way to build your companies brand and create fans that are passionate about your products? Cory Fosket and Doug Butcher took a company focused on a single product line and expanded it over the last 13-years into a trusted brand for waterfowl hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. Along the way, they’ve learned about the importance of quality and how to step outside the business to plan 3-5 years ahead rather than just grinding it out day-after-day. Listen in to this episode of the Small Business Show to hear the Tanglefree story! During our discussion today, we get some great tips on creating strong relationships with your customers as well as your overseas suppliers to create a win-win environment where your company and suppliers profit while the customer gets a great value, high quality product. Cory and Doug spend some time discussing various measures of success and what means the most to each of them, as well as what they are doing to power through obstacles to propel Tanglefree into the future. We also learn about the pros and cons of selling to big-box retailers vs smaller stores and how to manage each different type of relationship. Finally, you’ll learn what to watch out for when developing products in China and how to create long term success with factory owners. Join us today on the Small Business Show for these tips and more! Then, jump over to the Small Business Show Support group to discuss the show. Chapters/Timestamps 00:00:00 Small Business Show #134 August 30, 2017 00:01:17 Duck season and Ducks Unlimited 00:01:24 Cory Fosket and Doug Butcher from Tanglefree Waterfowl Products 00:02:20 An Intentional Family Business 00:03:30 Acquire a minor line in someone else’s business and expand it 00:04:57 Expand the staff by bringing in more family 00:07:49 Building a brand in today’s world 00:10:28 Making brand engagement a daily focus 00:11:28 Relationships with Customers 00:13:40 Redefining a relationship ahead of its time 00:15:23 Favorite mistake: Not applying vision 00:16:38 The other favorite mistake: learning that quality is better than price 00:19:04 Success metric: Brand Engagement 00:21:40 Look three-to-five years out 00:22:46 Focus on relationships 00:26:01 For a business relationship to work, both parties need to make money 00:29:45 Reward Quality Control 00:30:12 SBS Outtro Tanglefree Waterfowl on Facebook and Instagram   The post Small Business Show Interview with Cory Fosket and Doug Butcher of Tanglefree Waterfowl – Small Business Show 134 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.