Totally Clutch - the Clutch Businesses podcast

In business, I love end of year planning. I love having a chance to look over what happened over the last twelve months, compare it to what I planned and then start a vision for what the next year should look like. I love doing it in my business and the companies I work with.

Everyone listening deserves to make the money you dream of making. Having a clear idea of what's working, what's not and what you need in order to hit that number is the only way you're going to get there.

In the work I do, I rely on the numbers to tell a story. So let's dig in and see what your numbers are telling you and how you can use that to make your business unstoppable in 2021.

Download a copy of our end of year planner at www.clutchbusinesses.com/plan and follow along.

Do you enjoy the holidays or does every moment you try to cherish seem fleeting or overshadowed by all the money and time you have to spend to get just a glimmer of joy?

Join our coffee talk with Bradley Joseph of Hawthorn Concierge based in Colorado. We're talking strategies for thriving this holiday season.

Download the checklist at: www.clutchbusinesses.com/holidaythrive

Find out more at Hawthorn Concierge at:

www.hawthornconcierge.com

In this episode, we talk about how to be a strong leader with Francine Lasky. Francine is the Founder and CEO of Francine Lasky Enterprises and Chair of the Chicago chapter of Vistage Worldwide. She's a motivator, leader, speaker and listener. I found a quote from her that said her superpower isn't having the perfect answers but asking the important questions so we're turning the tables today to hear how she elevates the companies, communities and families of the leaders she works with.

In this episode, we talk about how running a business will get easier with Sheila Hatfield and Lynne Ly. Sheila's a consultant for PSI Metrix and Lynne works at the Credit Union of Colorado. They've been working together to update the Credit Union of Colorado's digital technology and are total software experts.

Now, before you tune out, I promise that this conversation won't jump above anyone's head. We'll explain all the buzzwords but really we're going to focus on how life is going to get easier for you and your business in the near future. SaaS platforms, these are things like your website, Canva, Zapier….basically anything you pay a monthly fee to use that helps run your business, are getting smarter and doing more everyday.

I'm already a huge fan. They're really cost effective, accessible (aka user friendly) and create awesome efficiencies, so they're perfect for small businesses.

In the work I do, I tend to take the platforms as they are with a little tweaking and coding behind the scenes to tailor to the needs of my clients. Sheila Hatfield, on the other hand, works on complex customizations and integrations. The functionality that she builds eventually trickles down and becomes the new feature from your favorite platforms. And Lynne is figuring out new ways to integrate them into day-to-day life within her organization.

We've got a whiz kid in the house today! Laura Vogel just graduated from CU Boulder and already has a booming handbag business. She tells us all about her seemingly fairytale start in this week's episode. Check out her wears while you listen at www.vogelle.com.

Women are amazing at doing whatever it takes to get shit done. We throw ourselves in, make sure everyone is taken care of, don't ask for a thing while we make magic happen. In our business, in our families, with our friends.

But we can't keep that up forever. It's exhausting and we have the best intentions to keep everything out of the cracks but things inevitably fall through. A deadline gets missed, an invoice goes unpaid, a soccer snack gets forgotten, we cancel on our friends because we just can't, maybe your health even starts to deteriorate. In your business, your customers and employees start to suffer right along with you.

I recently spoke with several women starting their companies. All of them believed that the most important thing for them to keep their eyes on were their clients and their finances. YET, all of them were spending hours and hours down some admin rabbit hole. What they were working on was really important but it was out of their wheelhouse so it was taking them more time and a lot more energy and was detracting from their clients and their finances. I can totally relate and even enjoy learning these kinds of things sometimes, that's my cross to bear. I can also appreciate that it doesn't feel like you have any other option if you don't have an assistant. So, what do you do?

Online businesses are all the rage and for good reason. Have you ever wondered what it's like behind the scenes to start an online business? Our guest, Nicole Colwell, is building a membership program and an online course and is here to fill us in on all the dirty details.

Nicole Colwell is a very special coach helping ambitious professionals and entrepreneurs to break through blocks, make their stress work for them and build profitable businesses and is currently developing La Societe, a membership program as well as an online course to support businesses with their strategic mission.

Curious if a membership business is right for you? You can take our online biz quiz at www.clutchbusinesses.com/onlinebizquiz

Thank you for joining us and please remember I believe in you and your business.

I'm flying solo again today to take a step back and talk about some business basics.

So, we have a teenager in the house and have been having a lot of "check yourself before you wreck yourself" conversations as her wings are starting to spread. Her heart is giant and she's so smart, creative and adventurous. And in the midst of fighting for independence things get WILD. It's easy for her to lose sight of the basics (thank you's, asking instead of taking, asking instead of DEMANDING) that will get her further along in life than the alternative. I trust that you're good on your pleases and thank you's but Clutch is all about finding those "check yourself before you wreck yourself" basics in women's businesses, so let's look at one.

Last week, I stumbled upon a coaching site that was offering free 30 minute consultations to anyone interested in learning more about her work. Super common and a great way to build relationships with potential clients. It's the only call-to-action on her site so I imagine she'd like to see a lot of appointments scheduled.

Out of curiosity, I clicked to book an appointment, found a date and time and was asked for my name and email address. All pretty standard. Except, this is where I see tons of businesses leave time and conversions on the table.

If you offer these to clients, you can relate to this. The first 10-15 mins of every call is usually you asking the same questions you ask everyone you talk to. You get different answers, which is the juicy part of the conversation, but how you get those answers is generally the same. This particular coach pays for a great appointment booking system that allows for a lot of really nice customizations. Customizations that would allow her to ask those questions when they were booking and store their answers in their client profile. You can see a comparison below of "what is" versus "what could be". She could look them over quickly before their call and would have a record of them forever that she could refer back to. That cuts the call time in half!

If you want to learn more about the three areas we work with clients on to move from hustle to flow, you can download our free 3 Ways to Always Have Time, Energy and Business at:

www.clutchbusinesses.com/start-here

So, I have to give a WARNING. This episode might be a little controversial! My guest and I may end up convincing you that the assistant or 10 extra staff members you've been dreaming about may not answer your business woes.

Our guest found all the things we help our clients find; more time, more money and greater fulfillment. But she found it on her own and in an unconventional way.

Janis Isaman is the owner and founder of My Body Couture, a private one-on-one health studio. She helps humans move better, feel better and live better.

I want to draw special attention to the fact that she's making more money, has less stress and is spending way more time with her son, her photography and writing. ALL the things.

Listen now to hear all the juicy details. You'll be surprised.

If you're interested in working with Janis, visit her at www.mybodycouture.com

This episode piggybacks off our last but breaks from our new norm of live interviews just for this week. Once you've got your business idea dialed in, looking for a platform is the next big step. We'll talk through the key things to look for when choosing an online platform and will also provide a worksheet to help you work through the considerations for your specific business. This is a quick but important video.

Finding the right platform to support your online business is a make or break decision and it needs to happen really early in your planning. So you have little to go on to make this ginormous call. It can be the difference between growing a successful business and barely holding on.

I worked with a service organization a while back that was paying a lot of money every month for a membership platform. The information available to clients was so outdated and confusing that the front desk staff was on the phone constantly answering questions because no one knew how to make updates or set things up properly. They were paying a lot for the membership site, and were also paying desk staff to provide the same information instead of allowing them to truly host clients arriving for their service. And that's not a situation you want to find yourself in down the road.