Filling Your Toolbelt
Hey Business Aficionados -
Welcome to the Better Business Brief, where I share takeaways from:
- running a business I’m building to sell for millions
- my consulting with business owners building to sell for millions
- tips and tricks you can use to do the same
This week, I’m feeling generous. I’ve had a lot of great help lately in my business from a lot of great people, and I wanted to give back.
I’m going to do this by trying to lay as much helpful stuff for your business on you as humanly possible in a short read.
Don’t get overwhelmed, but I feel like this might just help you grow REALLY FAST 😮💨
In other words, I want you to open up your tool belt so I can fill it up with the tools that will help you grow.
So today, in less than 5 minutes, I’ll give you:
🤑 Your Local Source of Free Money
🛠️ 5 Quick Fixes for More Growth
🗣️ A Call for Some Humility
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I had a talk with two great people from the city of Orlando economic development center yesterday (thanks Michael and Jennifer).
I’d approached them wanting to know what types of opportunities there were for small business owners, and thought it would be helpful to share because they dropped some knowledge on me that applies nationally.
I wanted to know this in case it could help any current or prospective clients I was working with in attaining new opportunities, and it turned out there was a lot of great stuff to uncover.
A few of the things I picked up from them that can be helpful to new or established entrepreneurs:
- Start by going to the local economic development center in your city (make an appointment. I just showed up, and while I met someone initially, I had to set an appointment. The way you find it is simply by Googling it).
- Ask specifically about what opportunities, grants, or programs are available to small business owners locally
- They will have some things that may or may not apply to you
- Then ask them what other centers in the city might have helpful resources or programs for entrepreneurs and small business owners
- In my case, they listed off quite a few (National Entrepreneur Center, Orlando Economic Partnership, Starter studio, UCF Research Foundation, Rally Orlando, Startup weekend, Innovate Orlando, and a few general types to look out for: [your city] Economic development organizations, [your city] Accelerator programs
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The reason this is such a big deal for entrepreneurs is that knowing and getting in with people like this can be the difference between finding new opportunity and not. They have programs all the way from grants that are literally free money to grow with to specific coaches or mentors that can help you find growth resources to even permit help or other resources that can help you expand if you are a brick and mortar business.
No matter what business you’re in, it’s well worth going in and talking to these centers to find out what opportunities just might be the next way to grow for your business.
One thing I’ve noticed about all small businesses - they all have deficiencies somewhere.
A lot of my job ends up being spotting these, so I’ve developed a critical eye for what a business should and should not be.
I wanted to share 5 things I’ve been directing business owners towards lately to help improve their business and its processes:
- Getting a Fractional CFO: Most small business owners can’t afford a full on CFO to be doing financial projections on potential growth areas, but getting someone to do it fractionally can be helpful from time to time or even regularly for a Fraction (hahah, see what I did there) of the price
- Benchmarking: For every business, there is a main cost to delivering what you do. For most service based businesses I work with, this cost is labor/payroll. Something helpful you can do is search what payroll as a percentage of sales should be in your industry and see if you are on track or off base. This will help you know where to adjust
- Getting Feedback: I work with a personal trainer that does a great job of this. Every once in a while, he will ask me “How could I be doing better at delivering my service?” I always feel compelled to give open and honest feedback, and ultimately this helps him increase his overall customer satisfaction
- Hiring Handbook: A client of mine had been having a really difficult time hiring what she felt were the wrong people over and over again. She was feeling overwhelmed, so we decided to make a “Hiring Handbook.” It is a guide that she’s now training her hiring manager on that lists out all the qualities to look out for when hiring someone new - both good and bad, based on past experience.
- Know Your CAC (Cost of Acquiring a Customer): It’s a simple equation - (Amount spent in marketing for your last year) / (Number of New customers acquired that year). This is can help you hone in on whether your marketing is working or not working.
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These are just a few of these tips I cover in my latest video. Check it out here for way more FREE TIPS.
I'd advise you to take an honest look at your business with a critical eye and figure out where your deficiencies are. No business is perfect, and you are not the exception. If you don't look at your business honestly like this, it won't grow.
Drop the ego, get humble, and get to work fixing them.
ONE QUICK PLUG FOR ANY OF MY LOCAL ORLANDO PEOPLE:
I'll be speaking at an event for entrepreneurs here in town on March 27th about the two traps I've faced in entrepreneurship, how I've overcome them, and how you can too. Check it out and RSVP here...
We all need tools to grow with. The more you have in your tool belt, the quicker you can move.
Be great. Keeping growing and aspiring. And as always: I hope you got something from this.
If you did, share it with a friend who may too, as this is the best way for me to grow it and make this better.
They can even sign up here :)
Happy value-building to all of you!
See you next time for Better Business Brief,
-Brody
If you are growing your business to sell, let’s talk. Grab some time here and we’ll make sure your plan is on track.
