Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast

As we all enjoy the Political Theatre that is our current Presidential Election, Dave and Shannon decide to focus this week’s topic on Politics and how it can (and will) impact your Small Business. Join us as we discuss Dave’s “crazy theory of politics”, looking at the “why” instead of just the “who” when hearing a political message and how to deal with National vs. State and Local politics that might be messing with your Small Business. Of course,  no Small Business political discussing would be complete without touching on new laws about Exempt and Hourly employees and the minimum wage requirements for both. Finally, we chat about the concept of it being better to “Ask forgiveness instead of permission” and how it is NOT a good idea when it comes to dealing with local, state or federal laws. Join us today on the Small Business Show for these topics and more! If you enjoy the show, click over to give us a quick review on iTunes. We appreciate it! Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #86 September 28th, 2016 00:00:45 Political Theater 00:01:58 Dave’s crazy theory 00:05:34 Who’s sending the message? 00:08:50 National vs. Local 00:09:46 Healthcare, Minimum Wage 00:10:00 “Exempt” employees 00:14:05 No such thing as forgiveness 00:14:41 Zenefits 00:16:08 The wheels of Congress move slowly, but they move! 00:20:10 As it gets closer to home, pay more and more attention 00:25:19 Tinfoil Hat: Unelected Bureaucrats 00:27:44 Customs can be the worst! The post Politics vs. Bureaucracy and how both impact your Small Business – Small Business Show 86 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

  As Small Business owners, when posting to public social media, what are some things you should look out for? What comments could come back (maybe years later) to cause you headaches, legal problems and money? Dave and Shannon discuss some examples of what NOT to post on social media and that leads into a discussion about Mistakes as Opportunities. When a supplier makes a mistake, Shannon explains, there’s an opportunity to leverage that mistake into a closer relationship (if you want one), a better price and more opportunity for future business. When you are the customer, there are several ways to make the most of a mistake with your supplier or service provider. On the flip side, when you or your business make a mistake with a customer, you have a huge opportunity to earn their trust by making things right. Customers that experience just how good you or your employees are at fixing mistakes and solving problems typically become very loyal and very happy to spread the word about just how good you are. Join us today on episode 85 of the Small Business Show to hear about these topics and more! Chapters: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #85 September 21st, 2016 00:01:43 Being overwhelmed … and powering through it. 00:05:36 Publicly discussing hiring and firing specifics 00:17:59 Maximizing Mistakes 00:26:57 Changing contacts 00:29:29 Offer the return first. The post Turning Small Business Mistakes Into Profitable Opportunities –  SBS 85 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Welcome to episode 84 of the Small Business Show! Join us this week as we spend some time following up with our recent interview with Small Business owner, NYTimes.com blogger and author, Paul Downs. Dave and Shannon then jump into a discussion about being “patently unemployable” and how identifying yourself as such can give a boost to the successful launch of your Small Business. Other topics covered on the show today include the tremendous benefit of creating a safe environment for your employees to take risks and experiment. Listen in and then jump over to iTunes to review the Small Business Show! We appreciate your support, the reviews really help!   00:00:00 Small Business Show #84 September 14th, 2016 00:03:14 Paul Downs Recap 00:08:03 Patently unemployable people can be helpful 00:10:08 Creating a safe environment for your employees 00:16:07 “All I had to do was write the book” 00:17:33 Don’t be so suspect about good people with opportunities The post Boss Life Author Follow-up, the benefits of being unemployable appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

How prepared are you for the challenges of running your small business? What energizes you to make it through tough times and just how transparent are you (and should you be) to your employees and everyone else that you discuss your business with?  If you felt like your business was about to shut down, could you imagine reaching out to the New York Times with an offer to share the experience with thousands of people? Paul Downs thought it would make for a good story and he wrote for the NYTimes.com for 4-years before writing a “year in the life of my business” book: Boss Life. You’ve never read a business book like Boss Life. The book quickly joined our list of “must reads” for all current and potential business owners. The work is the most honest and transparent business book that we have ever read and we encourage all of you to read it. Today, Paul Downs joins Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean on the Small Business Show where they dig a bit deeper into Paul’s story, into Boss Life and into the work ethic that has kept Paul in business for over 30-years. Listen in and then help your fellow small business owners out by doing a quick review of the Small Business Show on iTunes.   00:00:00 Small Business Show #83 September 7th, 2016 00:01:05 Boss Life author Paul Downs – “Not suited to working for other people” 00:05:15 2008 Recession – laid off half staff – sure I was about to go out of business. 00:06:00 What would it be like to drive a business into the ground? 00:07:09 Make the offer 00:09:33 (Don’t) Hide until you’re successful 00:11:25 Think through your problems by talking about them and writing them down – this is what the NYT Blog did for Paul 00:13:45 Hang onto your threads. They’re all you’ve got. 00:15:13 Define your own definition(s) of failure 00:16:12 Be a clear thinker 00:16:57 Share your problems – with real small businesses “Real Businesses” – love this. 00:21:23 The genesis of Boss Life – The experience of running a business 00:29:57 Understanding profitability 00:31:55 Being candid won’t kill you. 00:34:04 Find out about Paul Downs Custom Conference Tables The post Paul Downs, author of Boss Life and NYT Small Business Blogger Interview – SBS 83 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

As Small Business owners, we’re always hustling and sleep can often be a casualty of the “up late, up early” workflow. What do you do when your brain just won’t shut down long enough to get some much needed sleep? Listener Elias asks Dave and Shannon for advice about disconnecting enough to fall asleep. Their suggestion might surprise you! You’re an expert in some things and probably need help in other areas. We spend some time discussing why you should create an Expertise List to identify what you do really well and what areas you need to find some tools or people to prop you up a bit. Similar to our Success List exercise, the simple act of writing down what you are good at can help you tremendously to identify areas to get help with. What areas of your business are changing? Yes, we know, all of them. But, if you had to pick revenue streams that you think will be decreasing in the next 12-24 months, could you? And once you identify those revenue streams that are drying up, what are you working on to replace them? We discuss Planned Obsolescence for areas of your business that are headed downward – the art of finding new streams of revenue for your business, before those older streams dry up. We wrap up the Small Business Show this week with a quick mention of our interview with Paul Downs that is scheduled for next week. Paul was the Small Business blogger for the New York Times and is the author of Boss Life, a book you need to get your hands on. Listen in and send us your comments or questions via text at 401-472-4249 or visit our Facebook page. We hope you enjoy the show! Chapters and Timestamps: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #82 August 31st, 2016 00:01:50 Elias – Waking Up in the middle of the night? 00:07:05 The Obstacle Is the Way 00:08:23 Reminders app 00:09:10 Notes app 00:13:42 Make Your Own Expertise List 00:17:35 And One for Your Employees? 00:20:54 Planned Obsolescence – It happens to YOU 00:26:00 Shannon Says “Verticals” 00:28:44 Perseverance – Next week with Paul Downs The post Adjusting Your Sleep Schedule, Recognizing Your Expertise and Planned Obsolescence – Small Business Show 82 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

How to you stay healthy and keep your energy level up while you are hustling to make your Small Business a success? Join Dave and Shannon for episode 81 of the Small Business Show to hear about how these two have managed while starting and growing multiple small businesses. Before we jump into health and energy, we start the show with a quick discussion of encryption and why it’s so important for your Small Business website. Dave discusses a new free option, Let’s Encrypt, that allows you to setup free security certificates for your website. After the exciting topic of encryption (Dave the nerd loves talking tech!), we jump right into bed. To discuss sleep, of course, and why it’s important to set a sleep schedule based on your energy levels, rather than traditional hours – if you have the flexibility to do so. Food then takes center stage as the benefits of grazing vs. big meals is discussed, followed by another favorite: Caffeine! Red Bull or Coffee? You make the call! We then jump into (no pun intended) exercise, the benefits of walks and again, coming up with an exercise plan that works for you. Finally, we point out that your business is not your life and that to keep healthy, you need to often step away and work ON your business, not in it. We recommend the awesome book, Rework from the folks at 37 Signals. Check it out and listen in to hear more! The post Staying Healthy While Running Your Small Business – Small Business Show Episode 81 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Join us today for episode 80 of the Small Business Show where we spend some time discussing our recent interview with Greg Mercer of JungleScout! Dave and Shannon both agree that Greg is a “career escape artist” and has created a unique business to take advantage of missing data and support in the Amazon FBA marketplace. We also talk about the difference between failing often as a Small Business Owner (which we encourage) vs. being flakey (which we don’t). One way to insure your failures are learning lessons that help you to success is to hold yourself accountable, more accountable than anyone else will. Our Success List idea comes up again during the show and we encourage every Small Business owner to start building their list to refer back to when you need to pull yourself up, to recognize that you are making strides and moving in the right direction. Since it’s a mix of topics today, we also get an update on Shannon’s “Can I create a social media business that runs solely on my iPhone” experiment. You’ll hear some revenue and profit numbers and more tips on managing time demands when your business is always in your pocket. Finally, we discuss our favorite new Small Business book, Boss Life by Paul Downs, 2nd only to the E-Myth in our opinion. Which book should you read first and why? Listen in to find out! The post Failure, Success, a Business in Your Pocket and New Books! Small Business Show episode 80 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Today on the Small Business show we are joined by Greg Mercer of JungleScout! Greg shares his story of “escaping employment” to become a small business owner, first by selling wholesale products on Amazon, then developing private labeled goods to distinguish his company with quality products and customer service. Along the way, Greg realized that he could really use some software that would help him figure out what products to sell on Amazon by tracking demand, sell-through and other data. Since no such software existed, Greg decided to create it and JungleScout was born! The company now provides a number of different analytic tools for Amazon sellers along with other products like ReviewKick, Splitly and Fetcher. Listen in and we guarantee you’ll learn as much as Dave and Shannon did during their chat with Greg! The post Escaping Employment – Small Business Interview with Greg Mercer of JungleScout appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Join us for this week’s edition of the Small Business Show! Dave and Shannon spend some time going over their interview with Tim Cote of Commonwealth Foreign Exchange from the last episode and then quickly jump into some of their core beliefs about how to succeed with your Small Business: Convince yourself (lie if you have to!) that you are a rock star, that every small success you have will build a foundation for larger successes down the road Make your own movie: So what if reality tells you otherwise!? You’re in charge of how your life goes, keep a smile on your face, tell yourself all the great stuff your learning, (even if you are failing a lot) and keep moving forward. Keep your Success List up to date: Be sure to recognize those small successes you have every-single-day Like Scott Adams, we’re bigger fans of Systems than Goals Listen in and then let us know what you think! What works for you to keep you headed in the right direction with your Small Business? Stop by our new Facebook Small Business Support Group and share your thoughts. The post Small Business Rock Stars, Wish Lists and Making Your Own Reality – SBS 78 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

How many business ideas have come from a group of people sitting around over a few beers? Must be thousands, maybe millions, right? But when you look beyond the idea stage and see how many of those folks actually executed on one of those ideas, the numbers drop exponentially. This week on the Small Business Show, we get to spend time with one of those guys that has executed and built a wildly successful business. Listen in and learn how Tim Cote took Commonwealth Foreign Exchange from an idea over a few beers to a powerhouse in the currency exchange and payment processing industry. Tim shares some great stories about hustling to pay the bills when Commonwealth was young to hiring their first employee that is still with them today. We had a great time talking to Tim, learning about Commonwealth and sharing stories about moving from idea to execution. Join us and let us know what you think! Send a text or leave a voicemail at 401-472-4249. The post Small Business Show Interview: Tim Cote from Commonwealth Foreign Exchange appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.