Small Business Conversations

Barbara Crowhurst of Retail Makeover in Canada  visited with Bill and me. It was a whirlwind hour as we covered many,  but just a piece of Barbara's knowledge of retail. Barbara was our first  Canadian guest expert and we welcomed her to the program in a grand  manner. You will want to listen to this replay.

Michael Kalscheur, CFP (Certified Financial Planner) of  Castle Wealth Advisors was the guest expert as we discussed the  transition of a business from the current owner to a partner, child,  employee, a competitor, or outside individual.

Michael commented on 'add ons' and how to prepare  your business for the sale. He explained how far in advance you should  be making the plans to transition out of the business.

This was an awesome hour with a lot of information being shared.

Gene Sower of Samson Media was our guest expert. Gene's area of  expertise is social media, websites and search engine optimization. Gene  gave a great explanation of the social media using the making and  consumption of a donut. We discussed what was free and what you paid for  within the social media. Gene also explained why a business should not  turn some teenager loose with handling the social media of a business  just because the teenager enjoyed the social media.

Our favorite CPA, Mike McCormick made a repeat visit to  the e-ret@iler conversation. In addition to questions, Mike talked about  his book, "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Forming a Business Entity'. Mike  talked about the issues to be discussed when talking with your  accountant about how your business show legally be established.

Mike also discussed how a business owner can  outgrow their accountant and how grey is his favorite color. (You'll  want to listen to the recording to understand this comment and how  accounting is not all "black and white".

Steve Drake, the "causeaholic", is the guest for this e-retailer  conversation. You have likely heard of cause marketing; it is the event  in which your business joins with a non-profit to raise funds or  awareness. Steve will give some examples of how you can make a  difference in your community as well as make your business stand out  from others because of your efforts.

Need cash? Got some inventory and equipment you need to  get rid of? How about your business has multiple locations and you want  to close a location? Maybe you have decided you want to just close the  business as compared to selling it.

The guest was Bob Nelson of Power Retailing. Bob's  company specializes in solving the very problems that was mentioned in  the previous paragraph. Listen in as Bob shares has dozen steps to  increasing your odds of success and his top 10 biggest mistakes that  business owners make. This session is definitely worth your time.

Branding your business; Shelly Brander (yes, that is her real last name)  is an expert on the topic as well as being the owner of two retail  operations and Internet based business integrated with her retail  operations. During this conversation, Shelley explained how branding and  advertising are linked. She also told about logos and updating them.  This was an hour packed with lots of information that is invaluable to  those that hear the message.

Ever think about how much your business loses, financially, because   of  theft, shoplifting, losing equipment, or just not tracking inventory and equipment properly? Jerry Obarski, a 37 year veteran of loss prevention with major department stores joined  Tom Shay to share ideas of what a business can do to eliminate this 'hole' in your business.

Georganne Bender and Rich Kizer joined Tom Shay in a  discussion about the differences in how women and men shop. We discussed  what kind of signs are most attractive for each as well as what colors  draw the most attention. This was one hour that was packed with a lot of  information that you can put to use immediately.

Shawna Schuh was the guest for March. The discussion was on  professionalism. We talked about why people skills should be important  to a small business; how to network at events; name tags; hand shakes;  telephone usage and other things that you might not think your existing  and potential customers might notice about you and your business.