Being self employed can wear you out! Having more energy, taking care of your personal health and wellness and boosting your energy are going to pay big dividends to any entrepreneur. Catherine has figured out how to make it happen and along the way been self employed for over 20 years, written four best sellers and discovered one of the big secrets to business success is low overhead! Listen to her advice on a number of subjects and how she got started and built her business to where it is today.
This is not a get rich quick method of making money- very few of them are and most of those are not legal! But if you have special knowledge to share with a niche crowd you can build a very loyal audience over time that will come to hang on your every word and more importantly buy your products and services once you start charging for them. This is what Strength Running was built on- it started as a blog about overcoming running injuries and grew into a 200K+ audience of loyal readers who now buy coaching products and personal coaching services allowing the owner to make a full time living from what started as just a passionate side project. And the cost to build this audience was only time- virtually all of the traffic came just from producing top quality original content- a system anyone can follow!
It is a truism of business in general and small business and entrepreneurs in particular that there is never enough time to do everything that needs to be done. So how do you prioritize and get what needs to be done finished while not going crazy worrying about the rest of it that didn't get done? And how can you make the time you do spend on your business more effective so you get more done in less time? These are critical questions for anyone hoping to have a great business that doesn't suck up their entire life. Fortunately, Jeff Sanders has some answers and advice and the way forward isn't nearly as hard as you might think. In fact, making some simple habit changes can make a huge difference! Listen to the podcast then start making some changes!
There are lots of paths to entrepreneurship success, even in non traditional businesses- such as juggling! But if performing and being an entertainer is what you love it can be hard to get enough paying gigs to survive- unless you treat your art like a business and think of yourself as selling a product and marketing it appropriately. I spoke at length with Chris about how he made it work, built his business over time and even ended up performing on the Ellen show! Very cool story and inspiring for any entrepreneur!
So many times we focus on growth by way of getting more customers or clients into the business. But that is only one part of the equation and if you are leaking customers faster than you can get them to come in your are in serious trouble. Add to that the fact that getting a new customer costs way more than keeping a current one and you can see why fixing the customer leaks in your business is crucial. Pamela shared a lot of great ideas on this episode and we even got into a little bit about her podcast the Morning Would which sounds dirty but it really a great way to start the day!
Robbie Baxter is an expert on creating recurring revenue subscription based business models and is here to change the current thinking about what kinds of businesses can use these models. There is a lot to love about this kind of business not the least of which is predictable revenue, higher valuations, bigger lifetime customer value and more referral sales opportunities. In this episode we talk about how this kind of model can be applied to any kind of business, the pros and cons of various approaches and the few cases where this kind of model may not be a great fit. Great conversation and one to consider for just about any business looking to up its game and improve cash flow.
Sometimes there is gold in ideas you had no idea where even a business! John Sonmez turned a hobby blog about helping programmers build better people skills into a full time business by building digital content products to go along with his free content. As it turns out, there was a big demand for this kind of knowledge as many programmers realized that they were good at coding but needed help with the soft skills. It is also useful information for those looking to manage technical folks and for those looking to partner with them. And as an entrepreneur story it really resonates because it was built on a real need that was unmet in the market and which John was able to recognize and capitalize on in a way no one else did. Very cool story and nice to see that level of success from something that started as a bobby!
You can't win the race if you don't know where the finish line is or the hurdles you have to clear to get there! Performance expert Nicky Billou shares some of his tips for getting the most out of everything you do and how to work on setting goals, outperforming your expectations and reaching real milestones in business and in life. If you want more- more growth, more sales, more profits or just more wins in life, Nicky has the plan to get there. It was a great conversation with some real practical tips for achieving success that anyone can put into place immediately.
As a true serial entrepreneur and an "entrepreneur facilitator" Vinnie Fisher knows how to grow big companies from the ground up and how to pick the right people along the way. He is an advocate of outsourcing the things that aren't core to your business, hiring for alignment of values rather than for skills and letting the team build the processes the business needs to succeed. Successful leaders know how to get the right people in the right place and then get out of the way. The ones that struggle are the ones who won't delegate and have to micromanage everything. It was an interesting lesson in fast growth and scaling who has the track record to back up everything he is espousing on the show!
There is no shortage of competition in the small business world and being able to stand out is a constant challenge. If you are a small business selling something that many others in your area also sell the challenge can be compounded that much further. In today's podcast I chat with Kevin who digs in deep on how to break out of the mold and find your own voice. He also talks about how to flip the gratitude switch, the subject of his new book. This is a new way of dealing with employees, customers, vendors and even friends and family that will vastly improve your interactions and the way they in turn react and treat you back. Powerful stuff from an experienced entrepreneur!
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