Small Business Show

As regular listeners know, we recently welcomed Mint Mobile on to the show as a sponsor. What they don’t know is before those sponsor spots started, we met with Mint Mobile’s Chief Marketing Officer, Aron North and we were so impressed with the story of Mint and how it began that we have asked Aron to come on the show today to talk about how Mint got started and how he and his team came up with their unique marketing and sales methods. Join your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton today to learn how Aron and his team came up with the concept for Mint Mobile and what tactics they employed to get noticed without a billion-dollar marketing budget. Hear how engagement with customers on forums and social media helped created a customer-first culture, how embracing the “F” word helped Mint to standout and much more on this special episode of the Small Business Show. After listening, join us at the Small Business Support Group to ask questions and to share your own story. Chapters/Timestamp

Join us today as we welcome Garry VonMyhr, Co-Founder of Tech Defenders, Mobile Defenders and Genius iPhone Repair to discuss his journey starting and running multiple businesses in the mobile electronics space. We all know that mobile devices, phones, laptops, and tablets are critically important in the business and educational markets as well as our personal lives. When these devices stop working, business stops and people panic. Garry VonMyhr has spent the last decade creating and building companies to keep our devices up and running as well as managing the reverse cycle when we upgrade or those products become obsolete.  Garry shares the story of how these businesses have evolved to take advantage of new opportunities and to get ahead of changing markets. You’ll learn about the importance of delegating to develop a strong team of employees and how creating and promoting a great culture can help not only with attracting talent but suppliers and partners as well. Join your hosts Sha

Mastering accountability for yourself is critically important for the success of your Small Business. Now it’s time to teach the same skills to your employees and contractors to create a culture of accountability that will lead to your inevitable success. Part 2 in our series on Accountability, today on the Small Business Show your hosts Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean focus on how to transfer that awesome accountability you have embraced to your employees. Join us as we discuss why your examples of accountability are so important to your team and what techniques you can use to inspire accountability throughout your organization. You will learn why and how to use the Systems vs. Goals theory to create a constant focus on iterating and embracing change and hear why it’s important to teach your employees to have an “exit strategy” from their position and how to use the famous Compliment Sandwich technique to manage mistakes. We wrap up the show with another Business Therapy

Have you found the Small Business Show useful? You can give a little love back to the show by leaving a quick review for us. It has a tremendous impact and could be the most powerful thing you do today. Thanks! Being focused on accountability is a powerful way to steer yourself and your Small Business towards success. When you are holding yourself accountable, you are in charge of the actions you can take, however small they may be, to adjust, iterate and correct problems that may be holding you back. Part one of our two-part series on accountability focuses on your own personal accountability and the concept of training yourself to believe that you are at least 85% responsible for your success with just 15% depending on random events. The premise of this idea comes to us from The 85% Solution by Linda Galindo. With this 85/15 concept, your chances of being successful are much higher. People that blame their problems, mistakes, and failures on forces beyond their control are doomed to mediocrity

For Small Businesses, making the sale is only half the battle. How we handle things after the sale is crucial to developing customer loyalty and encouraging repeat buyers. Today on the Small Business Show, your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton discuss four after-sale situations where you have a chance to impress your customer, build that loyalty and earn their repeat business for life. We take a deep dive into each of these four after-sale factors: CommunicationShipping and PackagingReturnsWarranty Claims Join us and hear how you can turn each of these after-sale situations into opportunities to impress your customers by putting a smile on their faces and turning a potential negative situation into a positive experience. We wrap up the show with another installment of Small Business Therapy where it’s Dave’s turn to talk about some of the issues he is having implementing video into his companies workflow. Listen in, then visit the Small Business Support Group to share you

One of the most challenging times when developing a new product or service or when starting a new business is when you are close to being ready to launch. You are at the 80-90% completion point, but you just want to make a few changes, add another feature, run one more test.  This is the point where things can go terribly wrong. That feature you want to add, that change you want to make, that test you want to run, those things can derail the entire process and stop you from succeeding.  On this episode of the Small Business Show, your hosts Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean share tips and techniques for powering through this “last mile” to deliver an MVP by not letting yourself get derailed by perfection. Join us and discover what has worked for us, then come share what has worked for you on the Small Business Support Group! Chapters/Timestamp: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #232 for Wednesday, July 17, 2019 00:01:03 Beware Customer Tunnel-Vision SaneBox 00:06:44 SPONSOR:

Are you maxing out rewards programs for hotels, airlines and credit card companies for your Small Business? You should be and today on the Small Business Show we share a few examples of why you’re missing out on some big benefits if you ignore these programs. Join your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton for another episode of tips, advice, and strategies to help your Small Business. After our discussion of rewards programs, we share a concept of using an independent third party to vet potential business partners. This novel concept could save you headaches down the road. We then jump into the topic of creating a sexual harassment policy to protect your employees as well as your business. Listen in to learn about what constitutes sexual harassment, how to implement an anti-harassment policy that includes a clear communication path to report problems and to enforce violations. These topics and much more today on episode 231 of the Small Business Show. Enjoy the show, then visit the Small

Continuing with our series on subscription-based businesses, we’ve been fortunate to meet some very smart folks that have started or transitioned to a subscription model for their product or service. This week, we get to learn from a founder that created a business to help others succeed in the software and subscription market. Paddle was Co-Founded in 2012 by Christian Owens and we’re thrilled to have him with us today to learn about Paddle and his own journey as a Founder. Join your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton as they learn how Christian started his first company at 14 where he learned about connecting with others in the business community for help and how to leverage his youth to get support. Listen in to hear how Christian and his Co-Founder Harrison Rose created Paddle to solve the back-end headaches that subscription services can cause. Everything from licensing and bug reports to payment management can be handled by Paddle. There’s some great tips and advice that you do

Developing positive habits and minimizing negative habits is important for you AND for your employees. By breaking down our larger goals into small tasks and habits, we can shift the focus away from willpower and motivation to small steps, habits that lead us down the path to our ultimate goal of world domination. “Habits​ ​are​ ​the​ ​underlying​ ​driving​ ​force​ ​of​ ​either​ ​success​ ​or​ ​failure—and​ ​greatness or​ ​mediocrity.” On this episode of the Small Business Show your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton use the “Stack” metaphor to see how we can create positive habits, while burying negative ones. And remember, you can use these tactics to help yourself, as well as your employees or contractors. Habits impact your entire organization – think about how customer service issues are resolved at your company. Surely there are good and bad habits involved in that process? We delve into why we fall into habits, why rewards are the key to changing bad habits and promoting positive habits

Are Podcasts a good marketing tool for your Small Business? Can you connect with your customers on a different level by hosting your own Podcast and if so, how do you get started? Join us today on this episode of the Small Business Show to find out about this topic and more. Podcasts are increasingly popular. Over 51% of the US population has listened to a Podcast and 31% of the population have listened to a Podcast in the last month. 62 million people listen to Podcasts each week. One of the key aspects of Podcast success is the niche audience. There are over 750,000 Podcasts out there with most covering very specific topics. You know we believe that the riches are in the niches. A Podcast is a new way to connect with your existing and potential customers – not everyone has time to read your blog posts, and not everyone is following you on social media. Join us today and hear your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton discuss how to get started, what topics to discuss and much more. Listen

We constantly talk about maximizing our time on the Small Business Show and how using our time wisely is one of the key aspects of being successful as a Small Business owner. Automating processes and using tools to manage repetitive actions is part of a system to increase your productivity each day. Today, we get a chance to talk with Greg Scown, Co-Founder of Smile, creators of life-changing and time-saving software applications like PDFpen and TextExpander. You’ll recognize TextExpander as a frequent sponsor of the show and software that both of your hosts use daily.  Join Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton as we try not to geek-out over one of our favorite pieces of software and focus on the business story of Smile and how they have found success by focusing on the productivity niche while transitioning one of their core products to a subscription model. There are some great lessons about communication, customer service and authenticity in Greg and Smiles story. Listen in and then visit the Sma

What’s in a name? Everything when it comes to your company or brand! As founders, owners, and stewards of Small Businesses, we all know how important your company or brand name is. Joining us today on the Small Business Show, Mike Pile, Founder of Uppercase Branding discusses his own business as well as sharing tips and methods for coming up with great names. Mike discusses how prioritizing tasks and projects when you are the boss can be one of the most challenging adjustments after leaving a corporate job, along with being sure to disconnect at the end of the day to keep your creative juices flowing. We then move on to discussing how Uppercase got its start and what marketing methods worked the best for them. You might be surprised to hear what traditional methods produced the best results. Later on the show, we spend time talking about how to come up with a great name for your business or brand with some examples of good and bad. Listen in to your co-hosts Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean and then p

Using persuasion techniques when working with customers and your employees can help everyone get the results they want. Specifically, using Pacing and Leading can help you build empathy and create a connection between people that then allows you to achieve a positive outcome. “Pacing builds trust because people see you as being the same as them. After pacing, a persuader can then lead, and the subject will be comfortable following.” – Scott Adams Join us today on the Small Business Show to hear your hosts Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean discuss using Pacing in a positive fashion to achieve positive results with customers, employees, and vendors. You’ll learn what Pacing and Leading is and why it’s an important tool to add to your Small Business Toolbox. Hear real-world examples to get your negotiations on the same side of the table, how Pacing is part of the Two Tokens method of resolving customer service problems and much more. Listen in to this episode, then share your own sto

Being proactive when communicating with your customers helps to build trust and credibility. What happens when your customers find out about bad news before you tell them? Join your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton for this episode of the Small Business Show to hear a great example of what NOT to do when things go wrong. Dave shares his experience with poor communication that literally stopped a company from being able to do business in his local area. And of course, Shannon adds to the tale with his own experience with this business, but from an entirely different perspective. Oh, and it involves beer, which is always a good thing. We then jump into a discussion about the right and wrong way to try to promote tie-in sales of, let’s just say, somewhat related businesses. You’ll hear why considering your demographic for one service before you try to promote a different product to that audience is critical to success, along with some other tips about growing your customer base. There&#

We all have an inner judge that can help us or hold us back. Our subconscious mind is constantly absorbing information and playing it back to us, sometimes reminding us of our successes, but often replaying our failures and sabotaging our success.  Can we focus the power of our subconscious to help us succeed? Damn right we can. With some practice and consistent exercises, we can tune our inner judge to constantly propel ourselves towards success, instead of holding us back.  Join us today on the Small Business Show where you’ll hear from two experts at programming their subconscious to help them live the Charmed Life off successful Small Business Owners. Your hosts, Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean believe strongly in the power of programming ourselves for success and of creating our own reality each day to attract the “luck” that is so essential to achieving what we want.  First up, we will discuss: Our definition of the subconscious – What is it and why are we talking ab

There’s a procrastinator in all of us. When it comes to Small Business, putting things off can create problems, but it can also create opportunities. Join us today for episode 222 of the Small Business Show to hear how you can overcome this natural tendency and take advantage of the opportunities it creates. Join your hosts Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean – two experts at procrastination and how to turn it into an advantage in your Small Business life as we take a deep dive into why we all put things off and how many of us miss the opportunities it can present. First up, we discuss why we procrastinate: Lack of instant gratificationSeems overwhelmingMay cause a negative outcomeUnpleasant to deal with – firing an employee for exampleEasily distracted: Squirrel! Then we jump into ways to manage procrastination. Mix things up – spend time on the stuff you don’t want to do, interspersed with things that get you excited, motivate you, etc.. – Plan your day around this concep

Marketing your business online, whether on search engines or social media can be challenging. There are so many platforms, where do you focus most of your energy? How do you measure results and what tactics have the biggest impact with a limited marketing budget? Today on the Small Business Show, we’re going to answer those questions and more as we’re joined by Kirk La Sala, digital marketing expert from Tanglefree. Join us today for an in-depth dive on digital marketing, along with insights from Kirk and your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton from their own experiences with marketing Small Businesses online. You’ll hear the story of how Kirk developed his Talent Stack over 15-years by running his own businesses, as well as managing online marketing for other companies. Kirk shares a number of valuable tips that will help any Small Business owner plan and improve their digital marketing. We discuss applications of Pull Marketing using keywords on search engines or Push Marketing using socia

Continuing our series of shows about Coaching and Mentoring, today we’re joined by Chris Prefontaine, Founder of Smart Real Estate Coach. Chris and his family have been in the Real Estate business for over 25 years and after building 100’s homes and buying and selling over 80 million in properties, Chris decided it was time to share his expertise with others.  Join your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton today for this episode of the Small Business Show to hear how a drop in the market caused Chris to expand his Revenue Stack and add the Smart Real Estate Coach services to his business. You’ll hear Chris’ best practices for working with family, and how creating new systems for training and guidance are the next steps for Chris’ business. You’ll also learn why becoming an authority in your niche is critically important for long term success, how managing expectations are key to customer success and much more. Listen in to hear Chris’ journey and how he has created succ

Starting a business, creating revenue streams and building wealth are topics we discuss on the Small Business Show every week. It can often seem like a daunting task: what to start first, where to focus your energy and how to develop a system based approach to achieve what you want. Sometimes having a coach provide you with guidance is just what you need. Today, we’re joined by Monica Shah, founder of Revenue Breakthrough, a coaching and training resource that helps their clients breakthrough many of the obstacles they face to achieve success. Monica shares her own story of powering through bleak times to achieve success, how she learned that finding a good business coach was critical and how it led to her starting Revenue Breakthrough. After 15-years of coaching, mentoring and helping people achieve success, Monica has some powerful tips to share. Don’t miss this episode of the Small Business Show. Listen and then join us at the Small Business Support Group to comment, ask more questions

If you’re a Soloprenuer, there’s no one to delegate to. But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be delegating tasks outside of your core competency. Join us today for this episode of the Small Business Show as we discuss methods to use outsourcing to delegate so you can win the 10/1000 battle. We discuss outsourcing resources, how to be selective when choosing a contractor and much more. Your hosts Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton then jump into a discussion about dispute resolutions with 50/50 partners. Shannon offers us a method of assigning votes and how to find an independent voice that can represent the business’s best interests, vs you or your partners. Then it’s on to the topic of Boomerang Employees. These are employees that leave your business for one reason or another, then want to come back. Should you re-hire? What questions do you need to ask yourself (and the employee) before you consider re-hiring? What message does re-hiring send to your other employees