This week, we brought back one of our favorite guests to talk more about small business marketing:  Tim Reid from the Small Business BIG Marketing podcast.  Tim comes from a background of corporate marketing, but helps small businesses all over the world by encouraging them to take action.  Tim can often be found saying: "There has never been a better time to market a small business."  But before you market your business, you need to know your WHY and figure out WHAT your message is before you figure out WHERE to put it...and that is exactly what we talk about today.

https://youtu.be/tRfrJ-4iwJk

To listen to the entire interview, please visit us on iTunes or Stitcher or at our website, smallbusinessnaked.com.  Small Business Naked is one of the best free small business podcasts to listen to if you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or you are stuck working for The Man and are looking for small business ideas.  Please give us a review on iTunes and follow us on Facebook.

Ever want to know how to start a music school?  BUT, this is not your "normal" music school!

Today, Nick and Johnny Battle interview Danny Thompson who owns The Music Factory from Orange County California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIgCnDJp2H4

We talked about how he got into owning a music school, how they found their focus, and what separates them from the competition.  They know what they know best, and they do it with style.  They also know who they are, and who they are not.  In small business, we have a hard time saying no to customers, but when you say no to some, you are able to say yes to exactly what kind of customer you want to work with, because they only have 11 teaching rooms, they need to find the students that will be there every time.

As we got into the business, we talk marketing.  Danny told us about online advertising, their referral program, building a new website, as well as tracking and ROI on marketing.

If you own a business that caters to parents or kids, there are some great lessons in here to learn.  Danny tells us how he has done it.  How he has learned what to do, and how to give good service.  He also mentioned how he has employed a software system to help manage his business that is specifically designed for dance and music schools.

Check out this video that they created with their students.  It's an Alice in Chains song!  This is not what I remember music to be like from my childhood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HsuaDDz6y0

To listen to the entire interview, please visit us on iTunes or Stitcher or at our website, smallbusinessnaked.com.  Small Business Naked is one of the best free small business podcasts to listen to if you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or you are stuck working for The Man and are looking for small business ideas.  Please give us a review on iTunes and follow us on Facebook.

Summer of 2015 was hard on us, but WE'RE BACK!!

I hope you missed us.

In today's podcast we talk about how the wheels fell off for both of us this summer.  Some good, some bad.  This lead to a great discussion about managing a small business:  do you work on your business or in your business...OR both!  John has decided to take a step out, and let his team run the business without his constant input.  Nick has had to go the other direction and be more integral in the day-to-day due to his field manager leaving.  Both have experienced some new and interesting dynamics in their businesses.

Then we went on to talk about minimum wage and how to best compensate employees.  Some think raising the minimum wage to a liveable level is better, but we disagree.  We believe that it is better to pay someone more based on the value they bring to the business.  But businesses like Costco and The Container Store have have raised the bar, and have higher expectations on their employees, and so they just pay those team members more.  You get what you pay for I always say.

Look for a new podcast every OTHER week, as we are trying to set a feasible rhythm for the podcast moving forward.

We have some good stuff planned (and we talk about a little of it), so stay tuned the the Fall Season of Small Business Naked.

We are a little behind with getting episodes us, but today we talk about why that is the case.  This week, we talk frank.  Both are having a tough go in their businesses with employees, cash flow, hiring, retention, production, and just about anything related to people.  Maybe you can relate.    So often, all people want to talk about is how well their businesses are going, but if you have been in business a while, you know that is not always the case.  Hopefully we learn in the tough times and grow from it.

To listen to the entire interview, please visit us on iTunes or Stitcher or at our website, smallbusinessnaked.com.  Small Business Naked is one of the best free small business podcasts to listen to if you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or you are stuck working for The Man and are looking for small business ideas.  Please give us a review on iTunes and follow us on Facebook.

This week Johnny and Nick talk to Donnie Shelton from Triangle Pest Control in North Carolina.  Donnie has a unique story on getting into business ownership...the MBA cost too much and he thought killing bugs sounded better.  Now Donnie is a smart guy and a hard worker.

To listen to the entire interview, please visit us on iTunes or Stitcher or at our website, smallbusinessnaked.com. Small Business Naked is one of the best free small business podcasts to listen to if you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or you are stuck working for The Man and are looking for small business ideas.  Please give us a review on iTunes and follow us on Facebook.

On today's podcast of Small Business Naked, we talk about podcasting, working in and on your business, how to retain a employee, how different the United States is from Australia, and Johnny gets a really strange accent.

No, today, Nick is joined by Warrick Bidwell from The Tradies Business Show podcast.  Warrick is a co-host with Michaela Clark, and together they host a podcast dedicated to helping Tradies (tradesmen and women in Australia) get off the tools, and into real business ownership. Warrick is a business coach, speaker, and obviously a podcaster...and one good looking bloke!

Johnny is so slammed with work, that today, he had to get on the tools and away from the tools.  Maybe he needs to meet Warrick?  But in all seriousness, Johnny is just in the weeds, and I asked Warrick to come on the show and have a bit of a chin wag, as they say Down Under.

To listen to the entire interview, please visit us on iTunes or Stitcher or at our website, smallbusinessnaked.com. Small Business Naked is one of the best free small business podcasts to listen to if you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or you are stuck working for The Man and are looking for small business ideas.  Please give us a review on iTunes and follow us on Facebook.

 

We are very excited to share a really great interview with you today.  We speak with a lot of really  great entrepreneurs, but few achieve the kind of success that Brian Scudamore has achieved.  He owns three businesses, but the most well known is 1-800-GOT-JUNK.  It started as Rubbish Boys.  He idea for the  trash business came while Brian was in college, and the idea was born when he was sitting in a McDonald's parking lot.  After doing about a million dollars in business, he realized that the name was not going to be a great long term play, especially because he knew he wanted to expand into the United States, and Rubbish just did not have the same ring in the States as it did in Canada.

Brian than added a second business concept called WOW 1 Day Painting after trying to hire a paint contractor for his own home.  They currently have franchises spread across Canada and the United States.

The most recent business model Brian has started is You Move Me.  A moving company focused on creating a fun and pain-free move experience.

When Brian starts a new franchise model, he looks for models that can scale to multi-millions.

"People don't fail, systems do."  Brian Scudamore

What they do different than their competition?  They take the ordinary, and do it exceptionally.  They look for the little things to blow the customers away; whether it is moving, painting, or removing junk.

We also interviewed Hugh McKee who owns a franchise of Wow 1 Day Painting.

To listen to the entire interview, please visit us on iTunes or Stitcher or at our website, smallbusinessnaked.com. Small Business Naked is one of the best free small business podcasts to listen to if you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or you are stuck working for The Man and are looking for small business ideas.  Please give us a review on iTunes and follow us on Facebook.

If you have owned a small business for a while, one of the biggest things you deal with is hiring.  I don't know about you, but I've hired thousands of people over the years.  Yes...THOUSANDS.  Johnny and I have lots of fun on today's show sharing our pains and victories in hiring staff.  Probably more pains than victories though.  If you run a seasonal business that is dependant on employees, you know just how hard it is to hire the right people.  Sometimes you might just want a warm body though...like Johnny.

We talk about systems for finding key employees, how to bonus employees, problems with hiring, hourly pay vs. performance based pay.

Nick and Johnny Battle talk about the hard issues of hiring, finding the right person, and just finding a person.  It gets a bit real on this weeks episode of Small Business Naked.

Before you we go any further, WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU.  Call us on our new phone number, (775) Fi NAKED or 775-346-2533.  You can tell us anything.  What do you like about the best small business podcast: Small Business Naked?  What kind of business do you have?  What has been you favorite episode of the Small Business Naked podcast?  Who do you think is better looking?

Today, Johnny and Nick interview maybe the most successful plumber in the world.  Charlie Mullins bunked off school at age 9 and dropped out of school by 15, started working for himself by 19, and never looked back. They run over 120 trucks on the road and over 150 staff, doing around 20 million pounds a year.  Charlie's company, Pimlico Plumbers clears drains for James bond and the Prime minister.

Pimlico Plumbers:  The UK's largest independent plumbing company and the most recognized plumbing company in the world.  They have expanded into all sorts of services for the home and work around the clock...24 hours a day.

Best small business tip from his book Bog-Standard Business:  Give someone the best service you can give them.  You can buy it on Amazon!

Charlie likes to employ a great mix of people.  He had Buster working for him at 104 cleaning vans.  Charlie knows the value of having older team members and younger people.  Charlie thinks we can learn something from older and younger people.

Business is like making a cake:  a bit of this and a bit of that.  Eventually, you will find the right mix.  When you get the right mix, stick with it.

Charlie like to say that he runs his business on common sense and hard work.

Charlie has a fantastic small business, and is a wonderful guy.  Charlie gave us, and our listeners an open invitation to come see their offices if you find yourself in London.

If you want to hear the full story, sign up on the right to join our mailing list and you will get access for exclusive content.  We have at least another 30 minutes of juicy content to share with you.  This is new, but you will also get access to all the additional edited content from our interviews.

To listen to the entire interview, please visit us on iTunes or Stitcher or at our website, smallbusinessnaked.com. Small Business Naked is one of the best free small business podcasts to listen to if you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or you are stuck working for The Man and are looking for small business ideas.  Please give us a review on iTunes and follow us on Facebook.

Big show today on our small business podcast.  Even though it is just the What's Up episode.  Several announcements.

FIRST, we have a new phone number.  If you have a question, comment, or just want to get on the show, call us and leave us a message.

The number is (775) Fi - NAKED or (775)346-2533.  We would love to hear from you.

Second:  We are on MeetUp in Denver and in Boulder (in April).  We would love to have you join us.  AND, if you are interested in having a Small Business Naked MeetUp in your city, let us know.  We want to expand it soon.

Third:  We have a new sponsor!!  MhelpDesk.com can help you if you have a service based business.  Nick has been using them for about two years.  Check them out FOR FREE!!!  It is all cloud based, and easy to use.  Even Nick can use it.

Then, we spent most of the time talking about how we both need new websites, and that we have each selected different companies to build new websites for each of us.  AND yes, we are spending real dollars.  If you have ever had a website built for your small business, you know what a chore and a time suck this can be.  We have each chosen very different companies to do each site, and we are going to be reporting back and sharing how things go.  Stay tuned!

To listen to the entire interview, please visit us on iTunes or Stitcher or at our website, smallbusinessnaked.com. Small Business Naked is one of the best free small business podcasts to listen to if you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or you are stuck working for The Man and are looking for small business ideas.  Please give us a review on iTunes and follow us on Facebook.