Small Business Naked

George Ryan – Learning to do more with less in your business

Have you ever wanted to grow a business, but not wanted to manage any employees?  On this episode of Small Business Naked, Nick and Johnny interview George Ryan, a former lumber yard worker, turned internet marketer.  His company Hatchwise leverages the power of the world wide web of designers from around the world with a smoking hot website that connects designers to mostly small business owners.  Because he has leveraged the power of his website, he has been able to build a business that only requires himself and one other subcontractor...his brother.

George has decided to keep his life and his business simple.  His business allows him to spend a lot of time with his family.

Hatchwise was one of the first design contests sites that connects individuals needing design services with thousands of graphic designers from around the world.  Once a design contest is started on the site, over 16,000 designers have the option of submitting a design given the design brief.  Depending on the length of the contest, a winning design can be selected with two days or a week.  The person creating the design contest chooses how much prize money will be awarded, and Hatchwise makes sure that the customer his happy with the end result, and that the designer is paid.

Both Nick and Johnny have hosted design contests with some great results.  If you are interested in hosting a design contest, visit their website at hatchwise.com.

After having our conversation with Tres fro Voodoo Doughnuts, Johnny and Nick talked about how they do a lot of things the opposite of what the so-called experts would say are the "right" things to do in business.

Check out our Resources page.  You will find services and tools for your business that we use.

Keeping things simple is easier said than done.  Johnny and Nick have both experienced trying to do too many things.  One of the best examples of focus is In-N-Out Burger. They only have a few things on their menu, and do it very well.  It is hard to turn customers away, but if we say no to some people, it allows us to say YES to the things and people we really want to do.

 

Steve Jobs is another example of a company that was saved by focus.  Steve Jobs came back into Apple, and chopped everything but about 4 main products.  This is what led to maybe the biggest company turnaround in history.  They were able to put all their energy and effort into making 4 great products, instead of 15 or 20 weak products.

Tres Shannon - co-owner of Voodoo Doughnuts

If you have never heard of

On this episode of What's Up, Nick and Johnny talk about being weird and standing out. Sheldon Adelson tells us all how to do it, and because he is a gazillionare and owns the Venetian in Vegas...we believe him.

We have interview many successful business owners, and most of them stand out in the crowd.  Jerome Grady, founder of Colorado Ski and Golf, Johna White from the Billy Bob Teeth company, and many others have shown us this again and again.   Being different is not only more profitable, but it is more fun.

Johnny has his core values hanging from the ceiling in his shop that his company believe in, and the main idea is: Get Shit Done!  Some believe he needs to be more professional, but he believes that is truly what they want to be like.

Johnny's list of Core Values:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tattoos in the workplace?  Nick and Johnny actually disagree on something!  Nick hires purple hair, tattoos, and nose rings, and John wants NO tattoos.  John wants his team to look nice, but worries that his customers will be put off by an employee that is not clean cut and nice.  Nick uses the edgy look of an artist to further the story of hiring starving artist and teaching the art of painting houses.

How do you create fun in the business.  Johnny believes that it needs to be the owner or manager.  He needs to lead the team into fun.  John reveals how he is walking the walk and provide fun for his team.  After a long season, he is bringing his managers on a trip after a long hard season.

If you have a topic you'd like to hear Nick and Johnny talk about in an upcoming What's Up talk, let us know below.  Or, if you have done something to provide fun or weirdness in your business, let us know below.

Jayla Siciliano - Bon Affair

You would never imagine that this nice, and sweet lady would be so bold, but what may have landed her a spot on the hit TV show Shark Tank, was the idea to lead with, "We have fucking bubbles" as her headline or attention-getter in her application video that she sent in.  It was just enough to get the much needed attention she needed, and then to land a $150,000 investment from Mark Cuban.

Jayla started a wine business based on her own needs and likes.  After noticing that others also wanted some of her concoction, she thought she might have found a business worth pursuing. Jayla was having a hard time keeping up with the big boys when she worked at Burton.  With the problem solved, she then had her jock guy friends asking for a her spritzer.  It was at that point that she knew she might just have something.

While Jayla did come from corporate America, she had been looking for just the right thing to go start.  She had attempted a few time, but nothing stuck.  Until this.  

Jayla fought had in the tank, and even had received four NOs from the other sharks before getting the one yes that mattered. Mark Cuban stepped up, offered her exactly what she had asked for, and invested into Bon Affair, taking a 35% stake in the company.  She was just grateful for getting the opportunity, and now it is off to the races.  She knows that, that was just the beginning, and she is pressing hard to grow her company.  She is not in Costco, as Mr. Wonderful had suggested, but is selling in Whole Foods, and other retailers with plans to expand across the nation.

If you would like to try Bon Affair, Jayla can ship it to most states across the US.  Here is a link to the Shark Tank Special.  If you are interested in viewing Jayla on Shark Tank, I have posted the video down below.  For more information on Jayla and Bon Affair, go to their website at www.BonAffair.com

 

Items Covered

00:50 – Introducing Jayla Siciliano, business owner.

01:10 – Getting Naked Questions for Jayla

05:28 – Putting the idea into a bottle

06:30 – Jayla talks about her product

07:21 – Who makes the wine?

07:40 – How the formula came up

09:20 – Jayla shares the next morning experiences of drinking a bottle of her product and the others

10:48 – Product distribution coverage and shipping

11:49 – Jayla talks about what she learned from previous companies

14:22 – When Jayla decided to go to Shark Tank

15:55 – What she sent to Shark Tank

17:43 – Jayla talks about her journey with Shark Tank

21:00 – Jayla talks about what it was like after the show aired

22:28 – Jayla talks about her experience during the show

23:35 – What advice Jayla followed from Mark

27:25 – Work relationship with Mark Cuban and Shark Tank

30:47 – Jayla talks about her investors

31:58 – Role change since the show

Nick & Johnny do a weekly 'what's up' catch up session to talk about their week in business, crazy business ideas and the little things that can make a big difference to your small business.

On this episode of What's Up, Nick and Johnny talk about some employee issues.  Namely, we talk about uniforms, policies, and workman's comp issues.  Do your employees wear a uniform?  Do they follow the dress code?  Are they wearing appropriate clothing?  How does that effect the small business owner, and what kind of impact can it have on the customer?

Nick and John both talk about showing up on Saturday projects, and each catch an employee not dressed appropriately.

A proper uniform can do several things for a business.  It elevates the brand.  It raises the professionalism.  It can also increase job-site safety.

What do your employees wear?  Do they follow it?  Let us know in the comments below.

John Dicker, owner of Geeks who Drink, joined us for another interview...4 years later.  It was really fun to see how John's business has grown, what his new roll in the company is, and how he has stayed true to what he believes his business is about, and who is ideal customer is. We tried to give John a hard time with some trivia of our own, but in the end John made us look bad once again.

In the new economy, one of interesting things that we see is the ability to work from anywhere.  John manages a managerial staff of just under 10, but a production team of several hundred...all without the overhead of an office.  Remote working is not just for the big companies.  Through the use of VOiP phone systems, cell phones, cloud computing, and many other tech resources now at your fingertips, you too can run a virtual office like John and his team.

Sales!  How do you get more sales?  

Huge question for most entrepreneurs.  We talked about how John is doing it all over the country.  What once started in a few bars around Denver, has blossomed into a national business, which brings national problems.  Could your business scale like this?

Click here for entire transcript.

From the radio show archives, here's Nick's & Johnny's interview with Joy Gendusa from PostcardMania.

Direct response marketing is not the sexy cool marketing activity that most people want to talk about, but Joy has built a great business helping small business owners market their businesses in a more traditional way.  Direct response postcards are a cost effective way to get your message out to your perfect customer profile.  she started her business after being a graphic designer, and having issues herself trying to kick off a postcard campaign to get customers.  With the experience and knowledge she had from brokering print jobs and designing for customers, she decided that she could really grow a business that specialized in postcards after her bad experience in using another postcard company.

Starting her business in 1999, Joy launched PostcardMania.  Due to their belief in their own marketing system and delegating tasks to key individuals, PostcardMania has experienced tremendous growth...so much so, that they actually use their own services by sending out 150,000 postcards each week to attract new customers.  Joy does share her other keys to marketing their business.  This has been a large strength:  giving away the information.  Joy shares with everyone, even her competitors.

While many business owners complain about the economy and how hard things are, Joy has decided not to participate in the recession, and she wants everyone to prosper.  Beat the recession:  market your butt off.

We talked about a lot of different things in marketing her business as well as yours, you can learn more about Joy and PostcardMania at their website:  www.postcardmania.com

From the radio show archives, here's Nick's & Johnny's interview with Nick Friedman from College Hunks Hauling Junk.

From taking college not too serious, to being on a reality TV show, to building a multi-unit franchise, Nick and his partner Omar Soliman have proven themselves to be fabulous entrepreneurs.  We were able to do a phone interview with Nick to find out how they started this company at such a young age and manage to succeed.  The idea of the business is to move junk that no one wants or can move themselves, weather it is a lot of junk or just large items.

In this show we talk about how Nick and his partner launched the business out of college with the help of his mom.  They have reached out to others that have gone before them to learn and for mentor-ship.  Because of this, they have built an atmosphere of helping others get into business, and so when they look for employees, they look for team members that would someday want to own their own business.  They don't just look for laborers.  They want people that want more.  When they find them, the invest into them.  They teach them about the business.

Nick sent us some books that he and Omar

had written entitled Effortless Entrepreneur, and his philosophy was summed up in his inscription: "Keep living the Dream".

We learned that there is a big difference in running a franchise of a junk business vs. actually hauling junk for people.  There was a big learning curve to figure out how to sell and how to service his new customer:  the franchisee.  If you want to learn more about Nick, Omar, and their business College Hunks Hauling Junk, please visit their website.

From the radio show archives, here's Nick's & Johnny's interview with Wende Curtis from Comedy Works.

If you've lived in Denver for any amount of time, you know Comedy Works. It has been a staple in downtown Denver for over 25 years.  Not only does Wende own Comedy Works, but she books all the talent, answers emails, and waits tables.  There is nothing beneath her.  She is a very active and engaged business owner.  Many today love to talk about working on their business, and not IN their business.  Wende does a great job of doing both.  This is PROOF that the experts and the consultants are not always right.  We like to look at the really successful owners like Wende to see what it actually takes to be successful.  FULL engagement is what it takes.

While Wende did not start the Comedy Works, she did save it from dieing. Wende started working in college as a cocktail waitress. Eventually bought into the company that had a few partners, and when things started to go bad financially, bought everyone out.  She bought into an existing business, and eventually bought out all of her partners.  Because of this experience, she is fairly firm on never having another business partner.

Most people are very familiar with the downtown Denver location, about 4 years ago, Wende decided to expand, and in the worst banking environment our generation has seen, Wende borrowed money to build a Greenwood Village location that houses the Comedy Works club, a martini bar, and an event center. Quite the accomplishment.

Wende is not only a fantastic club owner, she manages the carriers of several comics, and consults other would-be club owners. Wende is truly one of Denver's best and most successful entrepreneurs. Find out more about Comedy Works