Grow A Small Business Podcast

In this episode, Troy interviews Ivan Brewer the Founder and Managing Director of Peiso Profitability Software based in Townsville, Far North Queensland, Australia. Ivan has set up his business that guides managers and business owners to revolutionize their hospitality business to ensure profitability. Ivan started to manage a profitability software that guides managers and business owners to revolutionize how the hospitality business operates. It is his expression of 25 years of hospitality experience and deep-seated drive to improve the profitability of the hospitality business industry. The hospitality business started in 2018 and has operated for over five years. It was growing over 6 FTEs and annual revenue of around 1 million dollars. Ivan has stated that managing a hospitality business agency necessitates preparing for the challenges and opportunities that come with it. It is especially true due to the complicated ecosystem and tiny margin of the hospitality business industry. "It's bloody hard," he says, " but it's a process of the belief that you believe them into existence. You're taking something intangible and creating it into being tangible." This Cast Covers: Managing a profitability software that revolutionizes how the hospitality business industry operates. Taking 25 years of hospitality experience and a deep-seated drive to improve the profitability of the hospitality business industry. Incorporates unique strategies and insight to magnify the critical drivers of a business's performance. Starting in 2018 have gone one to six FTEs over the last 12 months, now growing at about 100 percent every three months. Represents success as being able to help and see the business increase the profitability of customers by 100 grand in six months. Talks about how habits and changing behavior can hinder success. Recommendations on how an investor, owning your space, and proving there's a reason why people should believe are crucial to success. Explains why growth and opportunities have no barrier or limit in a technology-driven world. Discuss how understanding the ecosystem, behaviors, and paradigm can be leveraged in expanding globally. Suggest that committing yourself wholeheartedly to your belief, achieving goals through successful management and culture, and a complete immersion in knowledge within your space can ensure success. Links: Ivan's Linkedin Ivan's Facebook Additional Resources: Peiso The Goal Book by Elihayu M. Goldratt Organizational Behavior Book by Stephen Robbins Quotes: "People are doing things now, so habit or their default behavior is a competitor, that's changing behavior is quite challenging." —Ivan Brewer "You need to own your space and prove that there's a reason why people should believe in what you do." —Ivan Brewer "Tech provides in a sort of global, connected web world is phenomenal, and very exciting." —Ivan Brewer "Understand the ecosystem, the behavior, and the paradigm and then simply leverage that." —Ivan Brewer "It's literally a process of the belief that you believe them into existence, you're taking something that's intangible, and creating it into being tangible." —Ivan Brewer

In this episode, Troy interviews Tyler Horsley the Founder and CEO of Nuclear Networking based in Denver, Colorado, United States. Tyler has set up his own business to help customers, especially CEOs, business owners, and the like in creating digital marketing strategies that ensure growth and bottom-line revenue. Tyler started to manage a digital marketing agency that provides digital marketing strategies, particularly for CEOs, business owners, and the like, after transitioning from intelligence work to marketing ventures. Nuclear Networking started in 2010 and has been in operation for over 13 years. It was growing with over 15 FTEs and annual revenue of around 9 million dollars. Tyler has stated that starting a digital marketing agency necessitates preparing for the challenges and opportunities that come with it. This is especially true if you had transitioned from a completely different industry. "I would say it is the polar opposite as the two industries sound", he says, but with the right attitude and skill sets you will have high leverage in the transition. "Adaptability is the key to success right in any business in the hardware world", he added. This Cast Covers: Managing a nuclear networking agency focusing on helping companies in four ways. Taking adaptive strategies in the marketing world to ensure success. Starting in 2010 pivoting a lot and grow over 100 percent year over year growing it to over $6 million in valuation. Establishing a partnership with the state/private equity groups that ensure growth. Growing and retention of the business growth agency model in strategic ways. The establishment of "methodology" a small business owner needs to develop and maintain. Recommendation on how to add people to the team and how to build a sustainable and kickass culture that helps with the growth. Talks about how certain skill sets can be the breakthrough in the odds of business venturing. Shares about investing in tools for personal and professional development and balance. Discuss the factors that need to be considered before exiting or selling, and how research can help especially government programs before diving into the win-win decision. Links: Tyler's Linkedin Tyler's Instagram Additional Resources: Nuclear Networking Traction Book by Gino Wickman Built to Sell Book by John Warrillow Quotes: "Adaptability is the key to success right in any business." —Tyler Horsley "Learn to befriend your competitors for it's better to share and know each other because, in the future, it might be beneficial with each other." —Tyler Horsley "Try to work towards this falling in love with the journey of building and growing, not falling in love with the illusion of a finish line." —Tyler Horsley "Invest in people first, and then look for business models because trust and work ethic cannot be bought." —Tyler Horsley "Understanding who you are can help you move to what quality objective-driven offer can you offer to the market." —Tyler Horsley

In today's Quick Fire Friday episode, Michael interviews Tim Reid, Founder and CEO of the Small Business Big Marketing. He's based in Australia. Tim specializes in marketing, specifically helpful marketing, which means, creating marketing that solves the problems of your customers so they can make a more informed decision; other than that, he's also a host of the 13-year-old, award-winning, Small Business Big Marketing Show, a popular keynote speaker, and a conference emcee. In the big wide world of marketing, where there are many shiny objects, it can easily make you feel that marketing is complicated and overwhelming. However, that isn't the case today where lots of services and technology will make marketing for small businesses easy. That's where Tim comes in, Tim helps small-medium-sized business owners create marketing that works, that solves problems. He calls it, helpful marketing, a type of marketing that solves the problems that your customers have, a type of marketing that is more about building trust over time. The one thing Tim recommends a small business owner go and do is to respect marketing, seriously contemplating and a good think about what you feel about the marketing of your business. To treat it as an expense or a hobby? Because when something's a hobby, you find time for it, the money, the energy, and you can't wait to do it. This Cast Covers: Tim's insights into marketing and how he can assist small business owners. Services and technology that make marketing for small businesses easy. Small-medium business owners think marketing in the modern world is expensive. Determining what constitutes a helpful marketing tactic. The vitality of answering the big questions you get asked as a business owner. Tim's thoughts regarding risk in the context of marketing. How Search Engine Optimization can significantly improve your advertising results. Helpful marketing is a long-term process, not a quick dash. Carefully contemplating about what you feel about marketing your business. Links: Tim's Linkedin Tim's Company Website Additional Resources: They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer by Marcus Sheridan, Krista Kotrla Quotes: "When something's a hobby, you find time for it, the money, the energy, you put it in your diary, and you can't wait to do it." — Tim Reid. "Sometimes a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous. Other times, it can be very helpful." — Tim Reid. "You just have to choose very, very wisely." — Tim Reid. "Helpful marketing is a marathon, it's not a sprint." — Tim Reid. "Play to your strengths." — Tim Reid.

In this episode, Troy interviews Darrell Evans the Co-founder and CEO of Yokel Local based in Las Vegas, United States. Darrell has set up his own business to help customers, especially CEOs, business owners, and the like in creating digital marketing strategies that ensure growth and the highest ROI. Darrell started to manage a digital marketing agency that provides digital marketing strategies, particularly for CEOs, business owners, and the like, after switching from multiple business ventures. Yokel Local started in 2011 and has been in operation for over 12 years. It was growing with over 6 FTEs and annual revenue of around 2 million dollars. Darrell has stated that starting a digital marketing agency necessitates preparing for the challenges and opportunities that come with it. "This is the hardest business I've ever had", he says, "we are responsible for growing companies on platforms, but we don't own that change all the time. Yet, we are responsible for the result. That is why we're changing the model today to deliver the output consistently." This Cast Covers: Managing a digital marketing agency focusing on helping their customers in four ways. Taking a traditional service business and productizing it. Starting in 2011 providing as the number one driver of their revenue and the number one driver of client's results in success. Learning the use of dynamic tools in the fast-paced digital arena with proven ROI. The formulation of "recipe" or "frameworks" to find the shortest sales cycle with the highest profitability in the first 60 to 90 days. Strategies that produce the highest ROI in the past 20 years. Business experience from a young age breakthrough the odds of business venturing. The perks of joining an entrepreneurial conference, fairs, and cast for successful business ventures. Learn how to attract an M&A market. Talks about being mindful of internal operational systems than scaling in a fast-growing business. Links: Darrell's Linkedin Darrell's Facebook Darrell's Instagram Additional Resources: Yokel Local A Scrum Book by Jeff Sutherland Quotes: "Success is giving people fulfilling opportunities to explore their gifts and to have a ripple effect on their lives and their family." —Darrell Evans "Make sure people have autonomy, to make mistakes, and to do things without repercussion. If we make a mistake, we try to learn from it." —Darrell Evans "The money will never always be in one pot of gold in one spot, to take care of yourself along the way." —Darrell Evans "There are seasons when you'll be extraordinarily out of balance so that you can have an ultimate life balance." —Jim McMahon "You can start an entrepreneurial thing even if none of your friends are doing it." —Darrell Evans

In this episode, Troy interviews Rob Watchorn the Founder and CEO of Blythe & Watchorn based in Hobart, Australia. Rob has set up his own business to provide high-end residential renovations with the highest quality in construction, finish, style, and functionality. With over 31 years of experience in growing his business, Rob has been through deep dark times which taught him to become wiser and be able to appreciate the most important things in life in order to manage his business in the finest way. Blythe & Watchorn was established in 1993 and has been running for over 31 years. Became multi-award winning in-home alterations and ecstatic customers with over 10 FTEs. Rob has said that growing a small business requires time management because you can't work in your business 24/7 and expect to have a happy life. So he added, "At the end of the day, if you find yourself falling into this trap, you've got to do something to change that or you'll end up losing everything you have." This Cast Covers: Focus very much on high-quality work and focus solely on home renovations. The positive effect of keeping your business manageable. Helping professional people and handling top-end projects. With over 31 years of experience in managing businesses. Learning how to recover from very dark times. Helping entrepreneurs improve work and life balance. Learning how to have a stress-free life business through proper money handling. Importance of voluntarily asking and accepting advice from experienced ones. Benefits of establishing your business with ethics and morals. Sharing is the finest way to add people by training them, keeping them enthusiastic, and offering them opportunities. Links: Rob's Linkedin Rob's Facebook Additional Resources: Blythe & Watchorn Quotes: "Try different things, see what works, eat what didn't, and then swing your business around and focus on the things that did work rather than things that didn't." —Rob Watchorn "Success is your security and the time to spend doing the things you want to do with the people you love." —Rob Watchorn "If you don't allow yourself time to recover and rekindle then you're never going to have the enthusiasm you need to run a successful business." —Rob Watchorn "If you want a stress-free life in business, you've got to have a decent bank balance and not too much debt." —Rob Watchorn "You have to take the courage of voluntarily asking for help or you're not going to get out there." —Rob Watchorn

In this week's Quick Fire Friday episode, Michael interviews Harry Sanders, Founder and Director of Studio Hawk, a specialized agency dedicated to search engine optimization with a mission of reforming what people think about SEO. He is based in Melbourne, Australia. He has been in the SEO game for 10 years, growing to a team of well over 60 SEO specialists, winning multiple awards such as the Best Large SEO Agency in the 2023 APAC Awards, Best Large Global SEO Agency in the 2021 Global Search Awards, and the list goes on. SEO has dramatically changed in the past 10 years, back then it was about how many keywords you have on your page, shortcuts if you will, but now it is about building a solid foundation and understanding of a brand and its positioning with the help of moderate use of artificial intelligence. To catch up with the paradigm shift you can start learning at Hawk Academy, or kickstart your business' digital presence with StudioHawk and their white hat SEO techniques that will undoubtedly reach your goals and maintain an average of 300% ROI. As a small-medium business owner, you must consider your expertise and authority carefully. Contemplating what makes you unique in the market, owning a niche that others don't have. That's the only way a small business could compete with the big ones. A prime example is Harry, who specializes in SEO and masterfully carves out that niche. This Cast Covers: Various complexities of Harry's company, Studio Hawk. Changing the public's perception of SEO. SEO is concerned with organic results rather than people clicking on advertisements. What SEO is today is a paradigm shift from what it was ten years ago. The significance of branding and positioning in today's world of digital marketing. Small businesses learn about SEO and P&L through different online resources. Using artificial intelligence to alleviate rather than solve a problem. Thinking about insights that will make you unique to the rest of the world. Handling digital public relations via various media sources. Allocating a huge amount of time to build a business. Links: Harry's Linkedin Harry's Company Website Additional Resources: Hawk Academy SEO 2023 by Adam Clarke Quotes: "It's not a Swiss army knife that needs to come in for very specific tasks to help or provide insight." — Harry Sanders. "How do you position your expertise and authority? What makes you unique in the market? What's that niche that you feel that other people don't feel?" — Harry Sanders. "It takes time to build a business, it doesn't happen overnight, regardless of what you think." — Harry Sanders. "You need to have that consistency that focuses on discipline." — Harry Sanders. "Sit down and think about one unique insight you have about your industry or field." — Harry Sanders.

In this GASB Podcast episode, Troy interviews Shawn Shewchuk, President and Founder of Change Your Results. He's based in Calgary, Canada. Shawn grew up as a farm kid, going out in the springtime planting 1000s and 1000s of plants, later on, he started knocking on the doors of his home city of Calgary, at the age of 13, thinking he could help them, a true coaching spirit right from the very start. Fast forward 28 years, Shaun is now a successful coach, a bestselling author, and a serial entrepreneur, he successfully worked with well over 12,000 clients and profited from 43 different companies. When it comes to building a business, it doesn't matter what the company is, there are always only two things to be concerned about, profitability, and growth. Shawn helps small-medium business owners achieve those goals first, is by helping them be aware of the things they shouldn't be doing as complacency is one of the main things that hinder business growth, and second is to engage in high-leverage activities to see the outcome they want to see. One tool he recommends to accelerate business growth and generate results is to get a business coach. Two heads are better than one, business coaches can help hold individuals accountable, ease the cognitive load on strategic planning, and help expand your network and make valuable connections in the industry. This Cast Covers: Focusing on what drives the outcomes and results. Impacting the lives of entrepreneurs in a positive way through coaching. Key things that are hindering business growth as well as business owners. Fundamentals of a business: profitability and growth. One of the hardest things an entrepreneur must do is let go. Prioritizing engaging with high-leverage activities to deliver results. Developing a multi-pronged proactive approach to marketing. Carefully selecting who you take in as a business partner. Investigating thoroughly and doing reference checks around the applicants. Various benefits of investing in a business coach. Links: Shawn's Linkedin Shawn's Company Website Shawn's Twitter Additional Resources: Change Your Mind, Change Your Results: #1 Proven Success Strategies by Shawn Shewchuk Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber Quotes: "The reality when it comes to building a business, there's always only one outcome, profitability, and growth." — Shawn Shewchuk. "You can't manage time, the clock doesn't stop, but you can manage the activities and the time you're given and blessed with." — Shawn Shewchuk. "You cannot grow, scale, or expand the business without knowing what you should not be doing." — Shawn Shewchuk. "Be aware of who you partner with, because who you partner with can determine your outcome, good or bad." — Shawn Shewchuk. "Always approach a situation this way, no matter who it is or what it is, there is always a solution." — Shawn Shewchuk.

In this episode, Troy interviews Angela Achitei the Founder of ADV Romania based in Yash, Romania. Angela has set up her own business to help people with disabilities and especially youth a chance to have a job. Angela accepted an offer to manage an organization that provides social services, particularly to children and youth with HIV and AIDS, after working for an international organization in the United States. Romania Group was founded in 2002 and has been in operation for over 20 years. Growing from 5 to 100 employees and a monthly revenue of around 4.5 million euros. Angela has stated that growing a small business necessitates preparing for the challenges and opportunities that will arise along the way. "It's not easy to maintain and develop," she says, "but if you are able to see the challenges and opportunities and work with them, I think it's a good way to be sustainable and in the market." This Cast Covers: Managing a group of social enterprises and reinvesting 100% of the profit in their social services. Giving people with disabilities and especially youth a chance to have a job. Producing different types of equipment, for different companies, or archiving services. Starting in 2002 by providing social services, especially for children, and youth with HIV and AIDS. Growing from 5 to 100 employees and around 4.5 million euros a month. Went to different business training, and competence. Worked in the past for an international organization in the United States. The importance of understanding the numbers before writing a business plan. Worked a lot with the Global Fund for HIV and AIDS. Provides good results and defines actually the good of their future to do things carefully. Links: Angela's Linkedin Angela's Facebook Angela's Instagram Additional Resources: ADV Romania Quotes: "If you don't have very good people with high random and inverted war, this makes you not competitive in the market." —Angela Achitei "Success is when the people around you are happy." —Angela Achitei "It's crucial to look at the market and to do research before trying to go to do something in the field." —Angela Achitei "If you will be very transparent as an organization, you will be very clear in your mission." —Angela Achitei The biggest assets for your organization are the people." —Angela Achitei

In this week's QFF episode, Michael interviews Shelley Brooks, a registered liquidator, director, and owner at Rodgers Reidy. She's based in lovely Hobart, Australia. Shelley's a seasoned corporate and personal restructuring veteran; she's been in the industry for about 19 years and counting. During those 19 years, she gained exposure to a variety of industries facing financial difficulties. Small-medium business owners are as fallible as everyone else. They are susceptible to falling into a financial bind, especially when outside factors like COVID are involved, a mean pandemic that struck in 2020 and put financial distress on almost all business owners. It can be hard for them to bravely tread these stormy waters. The good thing is, they don't have to do it alone. For 19 years, Shelley has successfully helped small-medium business owners who are on the brink of bankruptcy through corporate and personal restructuring; designing arrangements to return to a state of commercial viability, and getting the business back on its feet. Throughout Shelley's 19 years worth of experience, as a recommendation based on her knowledge and expertise in her area, she heavily emphasized the importance of small-medium business owners who are stretched thin to be brave and reach out, ask someone for advice sooner rather than later, instead of sticking their heads in the sand. Topping it all off by saying, "A fresh set of eyes can be your saving grace." This Cast Covers: The condition of being in financial difficulty. Shelley's 19 years of experience in corporate and personal restructuring. Financial distress has major implications for business owners' mental health. Taking action on the situation immediately before it's too late. How the ATO (Australian Tax Office) affects small-medium business owners. A formal restructuring process to rehabilitate the business. Possible reasons why a business is under financial distress. The ins and outs of rehabilitating a business under financial distress. Different classifications of corporate restructuring. Ensuring the return of business viability. Links: Shelley's Linkedin Additional Resources: Corporate Debt Restructuring in Emerging Markets: A Practical Post-Pandemic Guide by Richard Marney, Timothy Stubbs Quotes: "If people put their heads in the sand for too long and don't come in and seek any help, they might find that it's too late." — Shelley Brooks. "It doesn't matter what people think, what the public thinks, what your friends think; you're actually doing the right thing." — Shelley Brooks. "For directors of a company in particular, because the idea of a company structure is to try and protect your own assets." — Shelley Brooks. "You might be great at building houses, but it doesn't mean you're great at doing finances." — Shelley Brooks. "A fresh set of eyes can be your saving grace." — Shelley Brooks.

In this episode, Troy interviews Jeff Greenfield, CEO of Provalytics. He's based out of Boston, USA. Jeff's a tech-savvy entrepreneur. He always had a nose for using technology to drive business growth since the early 2000s. He created one of the first SaaS, Position Solutions, a search engine optimization, but he didn't stop there. As he proceeds on his entrepreneurial journey in the tech world, he co-founded, C3 Metrics a leading MTA platform, and his latest achievement, Provalytics, launched with the notion of preparing for, according to him, "the cookie apocalypse." Of course, Jeff's achievements are undoubtedly backed-up by illustrious credentials and degrees, he studied Biochemistry at the University of Maryland, obtained his Doctor of Chiropractic, and BS in Human Biology from Southern California University of Health Sciences, and was a performing member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood. The wide world of the web has dramatically changed since then. Gone are the days when you can track users across the web, as they went from site to site, following the user's interests and behaviors, based on the websites they visit, the content they view, and the ads they click on. It was all possible due to cookies, however, it all changed with the uprise of privacy policy changes and changes in iOS, which sparked this so-called, as Jeff Greenfield coined it, "cookie apocalypse," which has significantly impacted the marketers and advertisers of various organizations. Fortunately, Jeff found a solution, a new way of connecting small-medium business owners' brands to a sale in this new status quo, with Provalytics. It steps back from the old ways of highly depending on user-level data, borrowing from marketing mix modeling, and producing whole new different types of results that allow you to get the answers that you need to drive business results. Despite this daunting task of preparing for the inevitable future by launching Provalytics, Jeff still seems to never forget the important work-life balance. Making sure to sleep right and eat right. Staying mentally healthy by writing down your thoughts, taking power-downs, and relaxing on your nights off before going back at it again the next morning. This Cast Covers: Driving business growth through ad effectiveness. Privacy policy changes, changes in the iOS, and the effects of it on the status quo. The traceability of the users' data back then, as they could be tracked site-to-site. How Provalytics differ from the deprecated user-level data dependence. Organizations wrongly see marketing as a wasteful expense. Marketers justify the expense by being data-driven and the use of measurement. The types of industries Provalytics focuses on. Series of events and decisions that lead Jeff to enter the industry. An upcoming avalanche this July through the launch of Google Analytics 4. Utilization and integration of Artificial Intelligence to ease and improve your business. Links: Jeff's Linkedin Jeff's Twitter Additional Resources: Lemon. How the advertising brain turned sour. By Orlando Wood Provalytics Producthunt.com Fireflies.ai Close.com Quotes: "The other thing is, is that you have to show people, to take a leap and be willing to take a risk." — Jeff Greenfield. "Overall success is growing a business that enables me to also have a healthy life." — Jeff Greenfield. "Make sure what you say about your business is the same across all platforms." — Jeff Greenfield. "It's about maximizing the time in your current gig so that you can go on to your next one. That's what it's about." — Jeff Greenfield. "We all have doubts. Once we can figure that out. We're in great shape." — Jeff Greenfield.