Small business

How to Avoid Risk in Starting a Business

There is always a risk when you start a new business, but there are also many rewards to being a business owner and controlling your own destiny. Many people avoid starting their own businesses because of the risk. But you can start minimizing risk in small business by being prepared and knowing where the landmines are. You don’t have to be overly cautious, just know that a certain amount of risk is to be expected with a new venture. So, how do you avoid risk in starting a business?

Look into the future and try to predict what could possibly happen. You can’t predict everything, but cover as much as possible. There are a few things to consider before you open your doors for business.

How to avoid risk in starting a business

Get everything in writing

Even if you are working with your family or best friend, you need to have it in writing. This isn’t to say that they will turn on you, but it will help everyone sleep at night knowing it’s formal. Just the act of writing a contract and putting down on paper what you expect from the arrangement is helpful to clarify who does what. It avoids misunderstandings later. If you stand to lose a large amount of money in the future, then a contract is necessary.

Make sure you are properly insured

Anticipate what could go wrong and prepare accordingly. You at least need to have general liability insurance and product liability insurance if you sell a product. Disability insurance will cover part of your income should you lose the ability to work.

Set up the correct business entity from the beginning

Get the advice of a qualified attorney and accountant and do it right to start with. Use separate entities to protect your assets.

Manage cash flow

It’s easy to underestimate how much you will need. It seems like it will always keep coming in when times are good, but you need to prepare for downturns in the economy, the loss of a key customer, changes in technology or your industry or any other event that could cause your cash flow to dry up. Figure out how much money you have now and how much you would need to have coming in if anything changed. Have a backup plan and make sure to keep at least three to six months of money in the bank just in case you need it.

You can’t eliminate all risk, but if these things are in order you will at least have a good chance of minimizing risk in small business.

Cause Marketing for Small Business

Aligning your business with a social cause and cause marketing builds goodwill and improves your image. Corporate philanthropy isn’t a new idea. It’s been going on since the late 1880s when titans of business such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller gave large donations to charity. And some of our terminology isn’t new, either. The term ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ was officially first used in 1953 in the book “Social Responsibilities of the Businessman” by Howard Bowen.

Cause marketing for small business

Being a good corporate citizen (or a caring small business) is a smart move. Because a significant number of consumers will choose to do business with a company over a similarly priced competitor largely because of their involvement in certain social causes.

Cause marketing as competitive advantage

In fact, 70 percent of consumers say they’re willing to pay more for products and services from businesses that support worthwhile social causes, according to research from the PR firm Edelman. And more than half would even help promote them through social media. You can also use a social cause as your company’s competitive advantage. Ideally, you want customers to think about your brand whenever they think about the social cause. And if that cause is something they strongly support and believe in. Provide them good value, and you may have a loyal customer for life.

Competing with causes

Here are some companies who are using causes as a competitive advantage:

Duracell

It makes sense that a company that makes reliable batteries would support areas hit by floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Their social program is called Duracell PowerForward, which has trucks that can reach any U.S. destination within 24 hours. Duracell builds trust within communities by providing assistance in the face of events. Like the recent devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico. Now, when customers think of the Duracell, brand they think of them in a positive light. And they think of them as a durable battery.

Warby Parker

Warby Parker isn’t just known as a company that sells fashionable glasses in an innovative way. They’re also known as a company that gives back, thanks to their buy-a-pair / give-a-pair program. Working with their non-profit partner, Vision Spring, they give away glasses to people in developing countries.

Wells Fargo

Up to 1.5% of Wells Fargo’s revenue each year goes to charitable causes such as food banks and startup incubators. They also give 2 paid days each year for their employees to volunteer for charities.

TOMS

Like Warby Parker, TOMS shoe company is well known for their buy-a-pair / give-a-pair program. They also provide safe drinking water and medical treatments for people in third world countries.

Ben and Jerry’s

They’ve always incorporated a social cause into the culture of their business model. According to Ben Cohen, “Business has the responsibility to give back to its community”. He’s also used the phrase “caring capitalism” since the 1980’s. Like many companies today, Ben and Jerry’s started their own foundation which began with a commitment to give 7.5% of its annual pre-tax profits to community organizations across the US. Today, the foundation typically awards about 2.5 million dollars a year in grants. Do people buy Ben and Jerry’s because of their social causes? Or because they make really delicious ice cream? I’d imagine it’s both.

Seattle Kitchen

Seattle Kitchen is committed to giving something back to the community. And not just a little. According to owner Tom Douglas’s Seattle Kitchen website: “Tom has long maintained that, as food people, we need to feed people whether they can afford to eat in our restaurants or not. This principle has inspired his long-term leadership with organizations such as Share Our Strength and Food Lifeline, where Tom has dedicated over 30 years and millions of dollars towards ending hunger. Along with Tom, our family of coworkers also share in the priority towards giving back.

Volunteering

They do this by volunteering time and skillset to organizations such as Teen Feed, FareStart, Midsound Fisheries Enchancement Group, Mary’s Place and more. “We believe that a community is made richer by supporting the arts. We work closely with the Seattle Theater Group to help fund the programming at the Paramount and Moore theaters as well as music epicenters like KEXP and Seattle Opera. Our environmental work is focused on local wild salmon habitat preservation and raising awareness around the threat of Pebble Mine in Alaska.

The PCC Farmland Trust is another important beneficiary since without farmland, there is no food. Lastly, education and nutrition programs for K-12 public schools receive support from our teams. We continue to work closely with the Seattle Public School’s culinary programs and Career and Technical Education classes to inspire potential job paths within the restaurant industry.”

Charitable Agents

Charitable Agents is changing the real estate industry by donating a fixed commission to a charity of the pre-or-existing homeowner’s choice. Brothers David and Avi Tal founded MyAgentFinder.com back in 2011. It’s an online platform connecting home sellers with vetted real estate agents. Then they created “Charitable Agents” – something that sets those who participate apart from other realtors.

According to their online press release: “After three years of growing its database of REALTORS and reaching over $100 million in real estate transactions, the two designed the Charitable Agents model to extend their tried-and-tested system into the realm of social responsibility. In a typical real estate transaction, real estate agents are paid a commission for representing either the buyer or the seller.

Charitable Agents’ network of more than 20,000 top-rated REALTORS, from all major domestic brokerages, have pledged to give 10% of their commission on a transaction to non-profit organizations affiliated with the site, as part of the agreement. With Charitable Agents, REALTORS go through the same process as they would with any lead-generation system. But with the added benefit of offering their clients the opportunity to donate funds to a specific charitable organization, following the close of any deal.”

Pride, Inc.

Businesses in Bismarck, North Dakota have gathered together for a charitable cause which helps the community and also promotes their businesses in a good light: Pride, Inc. Pride, Inc. provides quality services for adults and children with disabilities, and has helped thousands experience life to its fullest. In 2001 Pride started the Celebration of Trees event.

According to their website: “The trees are sponsored by local businesses and with the help of organizations that can connect us to members in the community. Such as: Burleigh and Morton County Social Services, Abused Adult Resource Center, Pride Youth Mentor Program, Bismarck- Mandan Public Schools, Community Action, Carrie’s Kids, Pride Manchester, and Make-A-Wish Foundation. The trees are donated to families who may not have a tree to decorate their home. All proceeds from the sponsorships of the Celebration of Trees are kept in the community. They’re used to help meet the needs of the individuals receiving services from Pride, Inc.”

Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility can help your business through customer and employee engagement. And by being a brand that your customers trust and remain loyal to. Even in the face of disruption.

Unique Holiday Promotions

christmas promotions — unique holiday promotions

From Black Friday to Christmas small businesses can count on a big percentage of their yearly sales. According to the National Retail Federation “holiday sales in November and December have averaged about 19 percent of annual retail sales over the last five years, but the figure can be higher for some retailers.” This is why it makes sense to try out some unique holiday promotions to boost those sales even more.

Here are some small business owners who created their own unique holiday promotions:

Unique holiday promotions

We created an online Easter Egg hunt on our website. It gave customers who visited our salon a 50% discount on in-store haircare products.

We wanted our store visitors to be aware of our website and encouraged them to visit a landing page with instructions. This page ultimately made them navigate through 4 different pages to find clues. On the last page, it contained a coupon code for them to use in-store.

It helped increase our online awareness and sparked in-store sales.

Shayy Patrese

https://www.hairbyshayypatreseinc.com/

One day only

I can still feel the essence of success with a unique holiday promotion at my clothing business. Last year, a few days before Christmas, I started a promotion for my customers only for one day. I tagged it as “Private sales day” just to make them feel unique. Allowing them to get the products from my store at a better price on a specific day.

To get the most influx, I launched it in the late afternoon by sharing it with the community. And tagged it with a short interval of time to create hype. The most important thing that I did to make it unique was to introduce a complimentary discount card with every purchase valid for the next five visits.

As the promotion started, I ran out of stock within a few hours and had to book orders of several clothing articles with the delivery option. Afterward, the discount card worked for 2 more months, creating a repeat business option. My revenue soared tremendously.

https://realpeoplesearch.com

The most unique holiday promotion that we used at our company was “Spin for Prizes”. We had a wheel that was filled with different prizes. The customer had to spin the wheel to determine their prize. Prizes included hot chocolate, popcorn, candy and some grand gifts like a Gift Certificate and Amazon vouchers.

Get creative with prizes

We had to get creative with the prizes, and we decided to get people involved in the campaign. We would ask them to upload a picture of themselves with their friends, and we would ask them to cover their faces. The spinning wheel contained prizes that cater to different age groups. Candy, popcorn, hot chocolate, bags of chips etc. We would also put different slogans on the wheel which they could spin for. We had phrases like:

“Spin for some extra holiday spirit.” “Spin for the best gifts.” And “Spin for your chance at a Grill and Grill’s Gift Certificate.”

We also came up with some interesting ways to get people spinning. Then we had a few staff members dressed up as Santa Claus. We would ask the people to vote on who would be Santa. It was a great hit, and it got people to spin more.

New Year’s resolution giveaway

New Year’s Resolution Giveaway Reach out to your clients, asking them to provide a quote on how you’ve helped them this past year, and how your product is going to help them meet their 2022 New Year’s resolution. For every client that participates, offer them something in return, like a valuable guide, resource or infographic. Use these testimonials in a social campaign, on your website, or to send to specific leads. Doing so can help boost your credibility and future sales.

Mystery Rebates From Santa The same idea can be used when putting together a promotion for your business. Instead of advertising a traditional rebate (like a $50 gift card after your purchase, for example) opt for a mystery rebate within a certain price range. Explain that one lucky customer will get the largest rebate — which will entice customers to take the chance and make a purchase. Use holiday imagery to advertise and make it seem like Santa is the one handing out the rebates. There’s a lot of options you can take to make the messaging fun and on-theme.

A Surprise Holiday Offer

To encourage more sales during the holiday season, offer a discount on an additional service if customers request a quote or sign up for your platform. Inversely, if your main product or solution is pricey, create an offering that’s significantly less and use it as a marketing tool.

An example of this approach would be to offer a free or low-costing webinar right before the holiday (surprise!) and then during that webinar, promote one of your service lines or product packages. This approach is more attractive because you aren’t asking for anything upfront and deterring people immediately with any overwhelming costs. Instead, you’re getting them engaged by way of an informative, surprise holiday offer (webinar), and using that opportunity to build trust with them, making them more inclined to consider taking you up on the real promotion at the end.

Referral discounts can come in very handy while boosting the number of orders during the holiday season. By providing discounts to customers who refer and arrive through a friend’s referral you can grow your orders exponentially. Leverage marketing channels that aid referrals like Facebook and other social media to help spread the word about your discount.

Give to get. Sharing is caring. Offer a gift certificate or coupon for a dollar-off amount in all orders purchased during a certain period of time, which works best on Thanksgiving we suggest. That way buyers can buy a gift for their loved one, or get themselves a gift with the coupon after the holidays. Or many brands choose a social charity campaign to contribute to the community and give visitors a great cause to shop. A successful charitable giving campaign is not only about raising donations (although that is important), it’s also about building relationships and community ties. It’s the premise for you and your customers to give and to get.

Film an exciting and engaging Christmas video

With video, you may get a lot of exposure and even virality via organic reach or virality if your video is catchy enough. You and your organization deserve to be the subject of a holiday-themed film, but it doesn’t have to be (then you can use the video all year round). Show your customers that you are a caring and trustworthy firm by sharing it on social media, adding it to your “About” page, and including it in your signature line. Gaining customer confidence is an easy way to increase your conversion rate and your revenue.Kylie WiserFounder, Everblossom Co
https://everblossom.co

Christmas themed landing pages

Create Christmas-themed landing pages and seasonal content for your online business, as one suggestion I have for a unique holiday campaign. Getting a new client in today’s competitive retail industry is very challenging. Particularly during the Christmas season when tens of thousands of new businesses open every day. “How do we capture the attention of shoppers?” is the question. Making oneself unique is a terrific strategy to increase interaction by adorning your online business with seasonal themes or providing holiday content. Because most people start buying for the holidays before Thanksgiving, establishing your holiday theme should be planned ahead of time and started by early November. It’s your opportunity to launch all holiday-hot-sales products with fantastic bargains and excite clients, with a customized landing page for festive offerings.

Mike Chappell

Co-Founder & COO, FormsPal

https://formspal.com/

Free Christmas webinar

Developing a unique holiday promotions marketing strategy to attract customers, particularly during the upcoming Christmas season, is a tough challenge. We are occasionally inundated with ideas, yet it is difficult to act on them. What we normally do is create a Christmas free webinar. We give back by providing the opportunity to learn while also motivating them to work hard and achieve their objectives. We will undoubtedly surprise them with more than just a webinar at that time. But also with numerous wonderful offers such as raffles and instant games.

Kevin Joubin

VP Growth Marketing at Branded Research, Inc.

Website: https://gobranded.com/

What kind of unique holiday promotions will you create for your business?

Tips on Running Multiple Businesses

According to a study by the Small Business Administration, multiple business owners are more likely to be classified as high income and high wealth. If you play the stock market you have a diversified portfolio of different types of stocks. So why not have a portfolio of multiple, diversified businesses?

I used to have one business. During a booming economy, that was great! Sales were through the roof and I was flying back and forth to the factory manufacturing orders and traveling ‘cross country on a PR tour. But then the Great Recession hit. This was on top of the fact that I now had counterfeiters stealing my product. It all came to a screeching halt.

Running Multiple Businesses

This is when I learned the value of running multiple businesses. It sounds crazy, I know. It’s hard enough to run one business. Why would anyone take on the herculean task of running multiple businesses? Well, for the same reason you diversify your stock portfolio.

I started reaching out to other business owners and found that the idea isn’t as crazy as I thought.

Hiring for Multiple Businesses

My name is Dave Chesson and I definitely enjoy running multiple businesses. I’m the:

-Creator of Publisher Rocket, a book marketing software

-Founder of Kindlepreneur.com, an advanced book marketing website.

-Part owner of GunUniversity.com a source for learning about guns, reviews, and courses.

-Part owner of a software development company

The biggest leap that helped me to run multiple businesses more effectively and efficiently was when I started hiring people for responsibilities. This was instead of task based work. I used to bring people one with a set of tasks that needed to be managed. However, when I started giving people an area of responsibility, this required less micromanaging on my part. This freed me to take an overall strategic position in my organizations.

Hire Your Kids to Run Multiple Businesses

I’m the director of our Neighborhood Creative Arts Center, Children’s Voices of Southern Maryland, The Thinking Kid. I also run an Airbnb and a backyard breeding business. Why? Because I have a large family with never-ending expenses. With 14 children and a desire to serve my community, it has been a creative experience to create these businesses and programs from scratch.

However, I have enlisted my older children to assist with our social media, web design, marketing, and other services needed to lead us to success. This has proved to help them forward in their own lives. Realizing that their actions can make or break a marketing plan. They are important and essential for success, and provide grounding for them so they have a more tangible plan for their own careers. And helps them develop essential soft skills.

Find Quiet Time to Work When Running Multiple Businesses

Personally, I have found that finding quiet hours to work and organize each businesses’ daily tasks and long-term needs is essential. This is better in the morning or late at night before I go to bed. Once the day starts with a normal stream of interruptions and commitments, smaller tasks can still be completed. But deep thinking is impossible. Organization is key. I am a die-hard organizer. I keep the paperwork for each business in its’ own binder (for longer-term) and folder (for shorter-term).

Each week, I go through the folders and move long-term paperwork to the binder. No one touches my desk or notepads. I keep a post-it notepad and pencil by my bed, my bathroom sink, in my purse, and in my van. At the end of the day, I collect them and add the notes to my daily plan for the next day.

I do sleep, however, I think about my programs, businesses, and family all the time. Raising a large family and running marathons has provided excellent training. One never stops because stopping means falling behind. With so many layers of responsibility, catching up is almost impossible.

Georgia Bonney, Executive Director of The Thinking Kid thethinkingkid.org

Running Multiple Businesses Takes Proper Planning

Tips for running multiple businesses:

1) JW Document Services, a full service paralegal firm located in Deland Florida.

2) J’s cakes a retail bakery located in a busy mall in Sanford Florida.

3)I am also a licensed practicing Florida realtor, and co-owner of a real estate investment firm IAM Holdings.

4) Lastly, I am a published author of The 60 Day Start Up and currently working on another book.

I believe the key to successfully running multiple businesses is proper planning and intense focus. What I do is plan my goal for each business at the beginning of the month. Every night I create my schedule and list of activities that need to be completed the next day. From there whatever business I am currently working on receives my full and undivided attention. For example, when it is time for me to work on Bakery tasks I completely remove myself from the office. I’m not available for phone calls, appointments, or checking emails. I am completely dedicated to my bakery task at that time. It’s called time blocking.

Employees are Essential

Employees, whether they are full-time employees or VA are essential. I believe as business owners you cannot spend your precious time working on tasks that can be delegated to others. Instead our time is best used to oversee the process and put the right people in charge of things. It’s kind of like looking over a chess board instead of being one of the ponds. If you’re a Pawn on the board you can’t see what’s happening or the direction everything is going.

But when you are looking overhead at the pieces you can see everything clearly and know exactly where they need to be. I use a combination of traditional employees and virtual assistants. I have an answering service that handles all my calls at the office and sets my appointments. I have employees who assist with preparation of documents. At the bakery a virtual assistant would not be beneficial and I primarily use traditional employees to fulfill customer orders. You have to find out what works for you and your business needs.

Running Multiple Businesses and Sleep

In the developmental stages of the businesses you will lose sleep. You should be prepared to lose sleep. But you don’t look at it as losing sleep. When you are in that moment you are so focused on completing your goal it doesn’t feel as if you are losing sleep. You would actually prefer to be up working on your plans, your website and your systems that you almost feel guilty for sleeping. But once you have set the system in place and everything is operating you will see that you get to some sort of normal. I have actually gone 72 hours with no sleep!

Janelle Woods

Keeping it in the Same Industry

I run multiple businesses and I do many things. They say if you want something to get done, ask a busy person. I have a DOER mindset and I’m a Capricorn. I started my first company Whitegate PR INC, a PR firm that specializes in the pet industry in 2007. After that I launched “The Pet Lady” a brand that is focused on teaching pet parents tips and tricks about pet care. This is a trademarked brand, www.thepetlady.net.

Eight years ago I started a pet trade show with a business partner, my co-founder Nancy Hassel, for the NYC Retails and Sales Pet Expo. This year, May 2020 was to be our 8th annual business to business trade show, which is now postponed until November 10th 2020. http://www.retailsandsalespetexpo.com/

I started a women’s choir called the Rockaway Resistance Revival Chorus in the Fall. Also teach, I used to teach at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology). More recently have been teaching at Baruch College. I am now launching a Life Coaching business.

Dana Humphrey

www.whitegatepr.com

Create a System for Everything

I’m Rachel Williams. I work full time in corporate marketing. Our family owns Amity Harbor Sports. My husband and I took over The Rinx Pro Shop from the former owners in 2005, and we just launched Long Island Hockey Co.

If popular hobbies were a category on Family Feud, you may hear answers like running, hiking, reading, etc. If you asked me my hobbies, I’d say,
building businesses and supporting our local community. It took me a while to learn how to put my passion into practice, and accept that this
truly was a hobby. But now I’m happier than ever. I love watching people grow, thrive, and support one another. I don’t sleep as much as I
should. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, you only have one life to live. Why not consciously create the life you’ve always dreamed of?

How do you keep everything straight?

I’m very type A, so I create a system for everything, and continue to evolve it until it’s as efficient as possible. I studied Communication
and Education in college. Have a degree in both, which I attribute the majority of my success in this area.

We also try to surround ourselves with people who can push us, make us stronger, and help us grow. If you are the smartest person
in the room, you’re in the wrong room. We place a very big emphasis on feedback. Feedback from one another as partners, feedback from our employees, feedback from our customers, etc. We’re only as good as our weakest link. You constantly need to evolve to ensure success.

Do you have employees?

I pull from what I learned studying communication and education. Leveraging technology, innovation, and some good ‘ol customer service.
We’re able to set multiple companies up for success, as well as our employees. We’re so grateful for our wonderful staff who take immense pride in their work, and help to bring our dreams to life. Especially in the epicenter of COVID. We are thankful to be able to continue to employ our
community members, while unemployment is skyrocketing.

At the end of the day, we are all people, with complex feelings. We are here to support one another, and make sure everyone reaches their highest potential. It’s easy to work towards your dreams when you are surrounded by people working towards theirs. You’re all working to build each other up!

Rachel Williams

Long Island Hockey Co.

Have a Flexible Schedule

I’m Neal Taparia. I founded Imagine Easy Solutions, a software company I grew and sold. Also served as an executive at Chegg, an NYSE public company. I currently am incubating and running a few companies. Including my new, Solitaired, where we tie classic games to brain training, along with past companies.

There are two effective ways to run multiple businesses:

Properly schedule your time among your businesses with flexibility. Every week, I will mark dedicated days to each business where I can focus on them. From 3-6PM though, I will make that a flexible period where I will work on any business based on what the priority might be.

Delegate once processes have been established. I’m hands on during the early stages of the business, as we try to figure out product market fit and how to scale the business. Once that’s been established, I will put a senior person in charge of that business. I rely on that person to run the business. That person will give me daily email updates, and I’ll meet with them once a week, to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Neal Taparia

Solitaired – Bringing brain training and classic games together.

Be a Good Delegator

My name is Larissa Castelluber. I have a Marketing Company and I am in the middle of building a Wine Bar in South Florida.

How do you keep everything straight?

Meditation (good mental health) and staff. Delegation will be the key to your success here. One person can barely run one business. You need a team that agrees with your vision and trusts that you will help them grow along the way.

With your mind right, you can focus on what’s important. You need to prioritize your health to be able to work optimally.

Do you have employees?

I have a few employees, and some contractors to help with jobs not as frequent. Good people take time to hire but make sure you are honest with your expectations and your staff.

Do you ever sleep?

Sleep and meditation is actually recommended. But you will need to wake up earlier than you are used to be able to upkeep the demand and still have time to relax at night.

Larissa Castelluber

dmoves.com

rebelwinebar.com

Surround Yourself With the Best People

I’m Rachel Williams. I work full time in corporate marketing, our family owns Amity Harbor Sports, my husband and I took over The Rinx Pro Shop from the former owners in 2005, and we just launched Long Island Hockey Co.

If “popular hobbies” were a category on Family Feud, you may hear answers like running, hiking, reading, etc. If you asked me my hobbies, I’d say, “building businesses and supporting our local community.” It took me a while to learn how to put my passion into practice, and accept that this truly was a hobby. But now I’m happier than ever. I love watching people grow, thrive, and support one another. I don’t sleep as much as I should. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, you only have one life to live. Why not consciously create the life you’ve always dreamed of.

How do you keep everything straight?
- I’m very type A, so I create a system for everything, and continue to evolve it until it’s as efficient as possible. I studied Communication and Education in college, and have a degree in both, which I attribute the majority of my success to in this area.
- We also try to surround ourselves with people who can push us, make us stronger, and help us grow. “If you are the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” Place a very big emphasis on feedback. Feedback from one another as partners, feedback from our employees, feedback from our customers, etc. We’re only as good as our weakest link. We constantly need to evolve to ensure we are set up for success.
Do you have employees?
- I studied communication and education, and leveraged technology, innovation, and some good ‘ol customer service. We’re able to set multiple companies up for success, as well as our employees. We’re so grateful for our wonderful staff who take immense pride in their work. They help to bring our dreams to life. Especially in the epicenter of COVID. We are thankful to be able to continue to employ our community members, while unemployment is skyrocketing.
- “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou – At the end of the day, we are all people, with complex feelings. We are here to support one another, and make sure everyone reaches their highest potential. It’s easy to work towards your dreams when you are surrounded by people working towards theirs. You’re all working to build each other up.

Tools to Manage Time When Running Multiple Businesses

I run two businesses. Both are similar but also have several differences.

Running multiple businesses is a challenge but can be done. I know because I’m currently doing it.

The first business is an insurance wholesale business. I started AMP Strategies, LLC (www.ampstrategies.com) 10 years ago when I left corporate america. Insurance wholesalers work with the agent or financial advisor instead of the public. We help the advisor source the best insurance or annuity products for their clients. It is very consultative and involves a lot of back and forth.. I have two employees that help me manage the day to day and I normally get involved on the more complicated scenarios.

I started High Income Protection specifically to serve retail customers. We primarily focus on disability and life insurance and operate 100% online. Essentially, we are an independent (which means we represent multiple carriers) online insurance agency. I have a virtual assistant who works with me in this business.

While I split my time between the two, AMP is a much more mature business and since two people besides myself work for the company, it doesn’t require a ton of my time.

High Income Protection requires more work, but a lot of that is marketing focused.

We use Slack, Trello, Asana, and several other tools to manage time and communicate. It can be difficult to keep everything straight but we make it work. One thing that I’ve found helpful is to separate my day into “AMP” or “High Income Protection” time blocks. I will normally work on AMP three separate times per day, fulfilling quote requests, returning calls, and checking in with my team. The rest of the time I devote to marketing and serving the clients of my retail agency.

It’s not easy, but running multiple businesses insulates me when one isn’t performing up to expectations. I do work 10-12 hours a day and have to play catch-up on weekends but it can be very rewarding and I still find time for personal and family activities.

Raymer Malone

Do You Have a Bad Business Partner?

Bad Business Partners

A bad business partner can come in all forms. From the partner who wants you to do all of the work. To the partner who has an ulterior motive, to the partner who makes your life miserable. Running a business takes a lot of time, energy and commitment. It also takes a certain amount of financial investment. Going into business with someone is similar to a marriage.

The business world is littered with stories about bad business partners. I came very close to a couple of those myself. I had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of my own money working 2 jobs to start a business. I was incredibly naive and felt like I needed some help. Running a manufacturing business is very hard for one person to handle on their own.

Don’t Sign a Contract on a Cocktail Napkin

So, when I ran into someone who claimed to be able to finally get my business off the ground in a big way, it sounded promising. I wasn’t an expert in signing contracts. So when we met at a bar over a couple of drinks, a simple partnership agreement written on a cocktail napkin didn’t sound unusual. But when my friend read it the next day, he quickly asked for the guy’s phone number. The contract was very one sided and my friend was none too happy over how he was trying to take advantage of me. Let’s just say my friend has a few connections. I don’t want to know. But that partnership was over before it began and I never heard from the guy again.

Really Bad Business Partner

You would think I would have learned a lesson about contracts, but a year later I was still plodding along with my business and struggling to get it off the ground. So, when a friend of mine mentioned a marketing “guru” she worked with, I really checked it out. He had worked with some very big celebrities on their product lines and it all seemed legit.

I met with the so called “marketing guru” and it looked good on paper. He gave me a 25 page contract which looked like a marketing agreement. I didn’t think he would be a partner as much as a marketing consultant. Hiring an attorney to read the contract was going to cost more than I had at the moment. So I signed it. You can probably guess that it was a deal with the devil.

Right after signing the contract he started demanding that I send all of my inventory to him. His demeanor changed completely and he made my life hell. It turns out that I wasn’t the first person to cross his path. He had defrauded numerous business owners across the country. I finally had to hire an attorney to get out of the contract and it kept my product off the market for months.

Serendipity

I have to say that as bad as this guy was, he turned out to be a serendipitous twist of good luck in the story of my product. I made contact with someone who turned out to be an incredibly ethical guy, and the best patent agent on the planet, who was also scammed by “dirtbag”, as we call him.

To this day, if you hand me a contract, odds are that I won’t ever sign it. I’ve worked with distributors in 25 countries for years and have only signed one contract. That was with a distributor who sold about 100,000 units of my product in one month. And even then, we drew up a very simple one page contract in plain English. When I work as a motivational speaker I also have a very simple one page contract that has been signed by many Fortune 500 companies.

There are usually red flag signs that you shouldn’t go into business with someone. A perfect business partnership isn’t always easy and shouldn’t be rushed into. Here are some bad business partner stories from other business owners:

Business Partner Who Doesn’t Give 100%

I met my first business partner for a digital marketing business through a
Facebook Messenger chat. He was promoting his blog and I told him about my
blog, then we decided to grab lunch and we hit it off, initially. After
deciding we had unique talents that would compliment the other well, we
started the marketing business.

The major difference is when I commit to
something, I’m all in. You’re getting 100% of my energy, focus, and
attention. Whereas he had a 9-5 job and another commitment at night that
caused immediate problems. Not only that, he’d go out to dinners and
parties, plus the week-long vacation he took when he was already behind,
which infuriated me. I was bringing in significantly more business, doing
more fulfillment, and leading the strategy. But the profits were split
50/50. Talk about communism.

Eventually, we both felt the giant elephant in
the room of unfairness, but continued on. That is until one Monday morning
he sent me a 5,000 word email out of the blue explaining why he’s quitting.
He basically said he had some personal problems going on, too much on his
plate, and was tired of being constantly overwhelmed. It worked out for the
best as I bought him out and started my own digital marketing agency. We
now have served clients across the US, Europe, and Asia. It’s been the
biggest blessing!

Brian Robben

Robben Media

www.robbenmedia.com

Business Partner Spouse

This is one for the record book. My bad business partner was my husband. We had separate businesses. Then he thought it would be a good idea to merge them together. In retrospect I see that was a huge mistake. It started out simple enough with him taking small amounts from the business and then it started being larger amounts. Then he started lying to customers about their deliveries to buy time while he waited for the next sale to clear to cover the previous debt he racked up.

Eventually I put my foot down and guess what? He split. Locked me out of the website and bank accounts. We are awaiting our court date to settle the business and our marriage.

Krystal Phillips

Roll Ice Cream

www.rollicecream.com

Get a Business Partner With the Same Passion

I have been a business owner for over 10 years now and have met and made business with different people who have different attitudes and perceptions in life.

I’ve had multiple experiences with people I tried to collaborate with but ended up doing things alone. When I was starting with my business, I met a person through a common friend who was also interested in the business I was trying to establish. We met and had a business meeting and finally agreed on working together to bring our dreams to life. As months passed by, I realized that I was the only one who was actually doing everything. From following up with clients to doing all of the paperwork. I realized that he was not as passionate as I was.

It is important that you share the same values and passion with the person you are trying to build your business with. I gave it a couple of months before I finally decided to let go of the arrangement. I bought his share of the company and I am now working on it alone with the help of my employees, of course. Right now, I can say that my business is thriving. I work with people who are just as passionate as I am.

Matt Scott

Termite Survey

www.termitesurvey.com

Business Partner Mistakes

Like every entrepreneur, I had a couple of…let’s just say unfortunate business ventures before I was able to build my successful one. A friend I met in college and I wanted to go into business together (with an admittedly terrible idea) and as you do, we were going to go in 50-50. Equal partners, equal work, equal shares of the money, all that. A very idealistic arrangement that only two 20 year olds can put together.

To the surprise of no one, he let me put in my share of the money and all the work hours I was humanly able to dedicate, but his money was always “coming”. It was always “on its way”, he was always “closing the deal”. Never seemed too keen on actual work, either. He’d arrive late and leave at 5, and I’d be there until late at night.

Looking back, I should have gotten the heck out way sooner, but I was young and enthusiastic and we were friends. Of course, I ended up taking the loss and losing the money, the hours of work, and the friend. But that’s the kind of stupid mistake you make when you’re at that age. It’s not super obvious to me that he was not at all the entrepreneur “type”, because he wanted none of the work and all of the glory. So I consider it a learning opportunity. Never made that mistake again.

Nelson Sherwin

PEO Compare