Small Business Show

Shannon and Dave have both run virtual (or semi-virtual) companies for decades and have used all manner of electronic communication tools to keep their various teams in sync. These days they both make use of Slack (among other tools) to organize their lives and make teams feel like teams. Hear them talk about all the tools they use and why “eliminating email” is only one reason you might want to use Slack… there are others, too! Slack articles worth reading: Small Business Trends: What is Slack and how do I use it for my team?  Medium: 11 Tips for getting the most out of Slack LinkedIn: Reduce email by up to 80% with Slack The post Using Slack to manage your Small Business Team and More – SBS 57 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Ever sit on the beach and have a great idea? Paul Goodman and his business partner did, bought 400 bracelets from cart vendors, traveled home and PuraVida bracelets was born! They sold their first batch, ordered more, started and now they sell 50-100 thousand bracelets each week. Paul tells Shannon and Dave about all kinds of things … including the first public announcement of new products (and they’re not bracelets!). The post Paul Goodman & PuraVida Bracelets Execution on an Idea – SBS 56 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Episode 55 means it’s a perfect time to discuss what your two favorite business geeks have learned from watching Sammy Hagar over the years. You might be surprised to hear the revelations that Shannon and Dave have. Then it’s on to reviews. Every business gets reviews, even those that don’t think they do (someday Dave will learn that every episode matters!). Learn from Shannon and Dave their techniques for how to deal with negative reviews… and also how NOT to deal with them! Stuff mentioned: Sammy Hagar Managing by Walking/Wandering Around (MBWA) Yelp’s featured reviews Google Alerts HootSuite The post Small Business Customer Reviews – Managing the positive and negative – SBS 55 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Your two favorite business geeks are about to celebrate their one year anniversary of podcasting together and to celebrate … they interview each other. Hear Dave and Shannon ask one another about their starts, their stops, their transitions and more! The post Dave and Shannon Interview Each Other – Small Business Show 54 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

It’s mailbag day today! Shannon and Dave answer two of your questions this week, the first is about crafting your public persona. No one is better equipped to represent your business than you are, and that means you have to get comfortable putting yourself out there, too. But you don’t have to put everything online — Shannon and Dave talk through how to build that filter and use it. The second question is about pricing your business’s products or services, and that leads to an interesting discussion about the upcoming Small Business Show book! Also… theme music! Stuff mentioned: Annual Corporate Minutes Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and how to take advantage of it) The post Small Business and your personal privacy, how to set prices and more – SBS 53 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Today’s small business show takes us through some of the bigger-picture stuff you can do to grow your small business. What would it take to grow your business to be ten times its size? What would you change if you were running your business like you intended to sell it? If you had to write an executive summary about your business, what would you say? We also spend some time talking about your board of advisors and why the Beer Test matters. Listen as Shannon and Dave discuss these questions and put some perspective on how you can make things work even better for you in this new year. The post Grow Your Small Business, Executive Summaries and the Beer Test! – SBS 52 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Shannon and Dave talk about the impact that small business owners feel when competing for employees with new, well-funded startups (aka those that can hire people their cash flow doesn’t afford!). Shannon found a great article about how on-demand businesses have created a new era of entrepreneurship — and how attractive that is to employees that want to break out of the 9-to-5 workweek. Listen to what your two favorite business geeks have to say! The post How Small Business Competes for Employees with Well Funded Startups – SBS 51 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Rob Gautereaux started JustLuxe.com in 2004 as a site with product articles and classified ads. Within 2 years he realized there was better value to the JustLuxe readers – and JustLuxe themselves – if they were a true publication business. Since then JustLuxe has grown significantly by creating their own great content and partnering with The RGM Group to help them monetize. Rob talks about many things including identifying the right opportunities and, more importantly, walking through the door when you find them. Rob also is involved in his family business, G4 Design House, which has built 350 web sites in the last 2 years for small businesses, spreading his clients’ payments out over months or years to ease the burden on small businesses. He’s a busy guy, and has quite a few lessons to share. We’re happy he took the time to share them with us! The post Luxury Small Business Success Story: Justluxe.com – SBS 50 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Shannon and Dave dig in today, talking about naming your business (and theirs!) as well as reward credit cards. How do you go about picking a good name for a business and what message does it send to your customers? Your favorite business geeks are also rewards credit card geeks that love earning points and perks by using their credits cards for their businesses. They dissect an article Dave found and share their favorite tips and tricks for using their favorite rewards cards. Stuff Mentioned: The Best Credit Cards for 2016 from Bottom Line Personal Moments.com The post Naming Your Business and Credit Card Rewards – Small Business Show 49 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Cash is king. You hear it all the time, but have you ever sat down and thought about what it means for your small business? Your two favorite business geeks have and they share their thoughts about how to manage – and even get – cash the right way. Profits are great, but cash is king. Listen now to hear why! The post The Small Business Cash Flow Show – SBS 48 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

While cash might be king, your employees are queen… and this is one of those cases where the queen needs to win. Shannon and Dave talk about what it takes to not only motivate your employees, but also to keep your team happy. Starting with a discussion about salespeople, the value of quotas is challenged… and other ideas are thrown into the mix, as well. Listen as your two favorite business geeks wrap up their year for you this way. The post Motivating and Pleasing Your Employees – SBS 47 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Bruce Linde is the quintessential service provider, always looking to do whatever he can to support his clients. In fact, he even considers the websites he builds for his clients to serve them after he’s finished; the goal being to have the site “turn interest into a client.” Bruce wryly shares the many stories and lessons he’s learned, including telling us why he believes “mistakes are my education.” Listen today to hear it all The post Small Business Tips from 5 Happiness Webmaster – SBS 46 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

This week on the Small Business Show, we continue the discussion about small business marketing with Shannon and Dave talking about the value of marketing via social media as well as offline marketing. Strategies for authenticity are the core, including specific discussions about Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, offline marketing and more! The post Small Business Marketing Stories – Part 2 – Small Business Show 45 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Shannon and Dave share their own thoughts about marketing as it relates to their businesses. In Part 1 of the Small Business Marketing show, advertising is a focus with discussions about pay per click, display ads, podcasts and reviews. What marketing methods have worked for you? Share your story with us in the comments below or [email protected] The post Small Business Marketing – Our Stories. Part 1 – SBS 44 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Ever had a million-dollar idea? Shannon and Dave discuss what that actually means and the realities behind bringing an idea to fruition. Kickstarter is a big part of that discussion, from both good and bad angles. But first, your two business geeks share a little tax talk about what you should be doing now to be sure you’re ready for the New Year’s ball to drop! The post Kickstarter, the Value of Ideas and Taxes – Small Business Show Episode 43 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

With just a few weeks left before the calendar ticks over to 2016, it’s time to start thinking about a few things: what to do for your employees? What do do for your customers? What to do for yourself? Taxes, health insurance, gifts, bonuses and more are the seeds for today’s topics. Listen to your two favorite business geeks discuss these things and get your questions in before time runs out: [email protected] is the best way to reach Shannon and Dave. We’d be happy to hear from you! The post Small Business end of year tasks and opportunities – SBS 42 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Shannon and Dave dig into the mailbag today to answer a trio of questions from folks dealing with departing employees. Various reasons and scenarios led to the departures, and those each play a huge part in the advice and thoughts shared by your two favorite business geeks. On top of that, Dave spends a little time at the beginning of the show discussing the value of time pressure: sometimes you’re more productive when you have less time to complete your work. Send your thoughts in anytime to [email protected]. The post Losing Employees, Confidential Information and Moral – SBS 41 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Mick Guinn started Mick’s Macs ten years ago and has learned a lot about being a small business owner during that time. He has always made sure to keep a focus on what his employees actually need, being careful not to project his own desires onto others. He also shares some advice on how to foster a healthy business relationship with your team while still allowing an appropriate and healthy personal distance. A favorite quote, “It was such an interesting disaster to learn from!” But don’t worry, all’s well with Mick’s Macs. Listen today to hear the context of that and more, including what other business Mick describes as a “spiky, but low-hanging fruit!” The post A decade of small business experiences with Mick’s Macs – SBS 40 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

David Sparks, long time attorney and long-time geek left the practice he had been with for decades to branch out on his own. Using his geek skills to build the foundation for his nascent practice’s infrastructure, David is able to better service his clients and carve out that valuable time to spend with family and on other projects. “I knew I wanted to go out on my own, but I was terrified of admitting to myself that I wanted to do it.” Listen to David talk small business legal startup tactics with Dave and Shannon on today’s Small Business Show Visit David at MacSparky.com (for the geek stuff) and SparksEsq.com (for the law stuff). The post Small Business Legal – David Sparks advises and starts businesses appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Juan Collao from My Auto Home discusses home automation as a business. His company helps customers dissect and decipher the best way to automate their specific homes, right down to which light switch to use. Juan’s business is new and he’s already a very astute businessperson. Some great insights in this episode – well worth a listen for business owners at every stage! Highlighted quotes (listen for even more!): When considering giving up your employee status, “What you have here is someone putting money in your bank account every two weeks whether you try 100% or not.” “Maintain a sense of urgency,” even when just starting a business. In addition to Juan’s blog, check out the home automation articles that he’s written for The Mac Observer, too. The post Home Automation as a Business with My Auto Home appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.