Breaking Down Your Business | Small Business | Business Owners | Entrepreneurship | Leadership

What’s In This Episode:

Ever needed help finding your tribe? What does that even mean, anyway? Is it customers or colleagues?

"Your tribe are the people that need that special thing that you have." - Brad

It's a common misperception that your tribe - in this instance - is your group of friends. But to find loyal customers, you want to be authentic. Does every brand need a tribe? Not necessarily.

If customers are responding to you, what do they have in common? Where do they congregate? That's where you can be your authentic self. It's very rare that your tribe turns out to be people just like you, which Jill was surprised by when she started The Founding Moms, and it took some testing to figure out what worked best. Brad spends a lot of time with trade groups and that's how he finds his tribe.

"Go out there and test what you think it might be." - Jill

And once you've found them, how do you get them to engage and commit? Jill constantly reaches out and checks in to foster the relationship. Brad looks for hot-button issues that he consistently hears his clients talk about so that he can talk about them passionately and offer solutions to those problems. If you can give a voice to people who are thinking and feeling what you are thinking and feeling, it's a great way to resonate with your tribe.

Then, to turn the tables, Saul has some listener questions and some followup on last episode's employee battle betweenJill and Brad.

Direct download: Breaking_Down_Your_Business_EP_282.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 2:00am CDT

What’s In This Episode:

Jill and Brad are talking about what to do when one of your team quits! What hurts more: the ego punch or the extra work? (Brad's voting for extra work.)

"I don't want them to have loyalty to me. I want them to have loyalty to the mission." - Brad

It does hurt when one of your team members quits. You get used to them being reliable and a good employee. When they leave, you have to cover their responsibilities while hiring someone else. It's a lot to take on.

Does loyalty factor into it? Jill seems to think so. Brad disagrees.

"When employees collaborate with the boss, I would hope that the employee doesn't look at it as a transactional experience in their day." - Jill

At Anchor Advisors, the greater good is to help small business owners run their business because they believe small business is a better place to work. A better offer is not always the best idea. So ideally, creating an environment of trust where employees can talk about their dissatisfaction helps to cultivate engagement. Hopefully, that means a team member wouldn't quit unnecessarily. But if they found an opportunity that worked out better for them, Brad understands.

Direct download: Breaking_Down_Your_Business_EP_281.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 2:00am CDT

What’s In This Episode:

How many businesses are too many? Have you ever thought to yourself, "How many businesses can I run at once?" If you have, listen in!

Pop culture references Jill makes during this episode that may or may not have anything to do with the episode: Sarah Koenig, Jeff Bezos, Julia Child, and Beyonce.

Sometimes people run more than one business simply because they think they can handle it. Sometimes they get bored with the one business that they run, not realizing that the "boring" business is the one that actually makes them money. And the more you do it, the better you get at it, the more money you make, and making money is fun!

Neither Jill nor Brad thinks running more than one business at a time is a great idea, but it took personal experience for them to learn. Jill used to have the perspective that, if the businesses enhance each other, why wouldn't you run them simultaneously? Brad now thinks that a business owner lacks confidence because they don't think they can profit off of just one main business.

"When you figure out you're talking to a different audience, kill the idea. It's not working." - Brad

If you have product lines and they're all to the same audience, then it's possible that everything contributes to one focus. And it may take some time to realize that you're actually not focusing on one audience, no matter what you think. Jill experienced that when she offered Founding Kits for The Founding Moms, a product-based offering that ultimately failed.

Brad has run three businesses all at once, and it didn't work out for him. He kept trying to revise and rework his projects to make them fit, and it just didn't. But he had spent so much time and money, he was unwilling to let it go. Sometimes, you just need to.

Direct download: Breaking_Down_Your_Business_EP_280.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 2:00am CDT

What’s In This Episode:

What do you do when your team member quits? That's the topic of discussion today. Plus, Jill and Brad get the best review ever.

It sucks when you do all the work to hire someone, then train them, and then they quit. Then you have to do their job in the interim, not to mention the morale dip. But there are also upsides.

The biggest advantage of having people quit is that it forces you to have systems. When people quit, it's an opportunity for new ideas. Sometimes you can find someone even better. And in terms of cost, turnover gives you an opportunity to reset salaries to the market.

 "You're already making your marketing easier by specializing." - Brad

Zach Ventresca is an Army veteran and serial entrepreneur. He's having difficulty scaling his newest company, Command SEO, because it's a very saturated market. Brad suggests that he tailors the SEO company to serve lead generation needs of the target market of his other company, which deals with window-washing and power-washing. Once that gets going, get into other niche markets.

"Write down the process you use and create a playbook for your role in this company." - Jill

If you want to explore employee turnover, check out this postthat Brad was inspired by.

Do you have systems for when people quit?  

Guest:

  • After a full and decorated career as a leader in the US Army, Zach Ventrescabegan a second career as an entrepreneur. Beginning with a small government contracting company and later purchasing a residential and commercial cleaning company, he entered the world of digital marketing out of his own frustration with achieving his marketing goals. Zach’s vision has brought together leaders in all aspects of digital marketing in order to provide a comprehensive solution to Command Placement’sclients. This ensures that businesses achieve their full potential even in the middle of this digital jungle, and allows business owners the freedom to focus on what they do best.
Direct download: Breaking_Down_Your_Business_EP_279.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 2:00am CDT

What’s In This Episode:

Have you ever hired someone that wasn't so great? Jill and Brad talk about the reason why you can't fix your team.

"You need to be more specific. You have to give measurements. You have to talk about what you're willing to tolerate and what you're not." - Brad

Business owners always want to task Brad with fixing their team. Maybe they thought they've hired the wrong people, or that those people are too inexperienced or incompetent. But Brad thinks that maybe it's not all those employees who are at fault. After all, the boss is the one who's leading and managing. The person in charge is the one who should be setting up systems.

But the team that you have is fully curated by you. If you need something to change, start by looking in the mirror, he says. And if you don't know how to build the systems that will help your team, you can always hire someone to help you do that.

"You are an expert because you run your business." - Jill

Saul asks listener questions. Q: "How do you convince people that you are an expert?"

Brad:Telling people you're an expert makes them think you're not. So instead of telling people, we have to show them - ideally, by showing that you understand how to solve a real problem.

Jill:You can show people all the time, but you have to also convince yourself. You have to tell yourself, "I'm an expert."

Q: "What are some habits of yours that have been amplified by tech?"

Brad:I used to answer emails right away all the time and I had to change the habit because it was out of control. Social media has amplified our time wasting. But there are certain apps that are so good you don't even notice: 1Password, Zapier...

Jill:I've gone through so many apps and I've had a lot of bad systems. But when it comes to my newsletter database, the technology has made my life so simple and easy.

Do you have questions about fixing your team? Let us know!

Direct download: Breaking_Down_Your_Business_EP_278.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:00am CDT

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