February 2021 • Issue 9 • growth
SUCCESS CHAMPIONS
“Quote”
featured article: If You Are Not Doing What You Love You Are Not Doing Anything
- Author
Success Champions
Contents 4 2021: So far so good! 6 attracting top talent for your start up
Katherine McCord reveals the best way to attract employees in todays job market.
10 growing your business with a podcast
Donnie Boivin shares how starting a podcast exploded his business.
12 Feature Article: If you are not doing what you love, you are not doing anything Winemaker Cheramie Law shares her passion for winemaking and where that passion has led her.
16 the spiritual journey of entrepreneurship Laura DiFranco explores the woo side of being an entrepreneur.
20 Growth and scaling in a business of one
24 building a team with 1099 employees
Lorianne Vaughan Speaks shares best practices for utilizing 1099 employees.
26 the beginners’ guide to automating your sales process part 2
Kevin Snow follows up with more advice on that basic sales process and tips to implement it.
30 know your numbers!
Greg Norton reminds us of the importance of making sure the numbers add up.
32 how to gain monthly viewers on pinterest
Sarah Ankney reveals ways to build up your viewership in Pinterest.
36 Book Review: Endless stream of referrals: 10 ways to bring in referrals daily Michelle Thompson reviews Boivin’s latest book on referral strategies.
Donald Dodson shares plans and experiences in scaling a solo business.
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Success Champions
2021: So far so good!
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wo months into ‘21 and it’s already proving to be a good one. We survived the snowpocalypse in Texas and business are thriving.
This issue is full of small business magic from the story of triumph of Cheramie wines, to growing your business with a podcast. We are pulling out all the stops helping you grow and scale your business. I stay impressed with the content and stories each issue we release. The stories come from the hear of small business owners and entrepreneurs who are sharing their knowledge as they build. As you know it takes a lot of patience, grit, and the ability
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to fail forward to find success. these authors are showing us that. As you travel on your journey know you don’t travel alone. The badasses of Success Champion Magazine are cheering you on. If you want more people in your corner come hang out in the Success Champion Facebook Group here
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Success Champions
Attracting Top Talent For Your Start Up
By: Katherine McCord
Put hard and unique skills specific to your position at the top of the list and soft skills and generic criteria, further down.”
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iring, like sales, is all about knowing your audience, how to find them, and how to approach them. Locating talent for a start-up or smaller organization is particularly challenging as the positions often incorporate several roles and the companies rarely offer benefits that can compete with their larger counterparts. The good news is, however, that the right people are out there, and with a little know-how, you can attract top-end talent that will bring innovation and revenue into your business! First things first. Hiring is your priority. Without people, you wouldn’t have a company. Treat this process accordingly. Otherwise, you will miss out. Start with designing a compensation structure.
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“TBD” is unprofessional and unappealing to candidates. Don’t go there. Review your budget, the market rates, and your needs. Put together a package that makes sense and will draw in top tier talent.
Building a compelling and unique job description comes next. Do not copy/paste something that you find online. This is the candidate’s introduction to your organization, your pitch if you will. Be original and creative. They should get a sense of who you are from the role description. Begin by communicating who you are as a company. Describe the environment, services, and company goals in a single paragraph. Before starting into the description of duties, picture a day in the life of this person. Be specific; and place the most important responsibilities at the top of the list. Then come the requirements. Remember, years of experience are irrelevant. What you are looking for is expertise. Put hard and unique skills specific to your position at the top of the list and soft skills and generic criteria, such as background requirements, further down. Don’t forget compensation! Many candidates will skip over a listing that is missing full compensation details such as: salary range, bonus or commission structure, PTO, and benefits. So, now you have your description ready. You will want to post it to a reputable job board, I recommend Indeed, but… that’s not how you find your best candidates! That’s right, posting a job only gets you the attention of about 50% of the available candidates, and none of the hidden talent. Professionals at the top of their game often wait to be poached from their current role. They like being pursued, and this is where it gets fun! For a lower level role, use Facebook Groups and their free job postings, ask around your network, and use the Indeed resume database. For
Growth executives and professional roles, it gets tricky. Start with LinkedIn. Do a simple keyword search, connect, and send a personal message to potential candidates with the job description attached. Search for companies and interests which align with your goals and culture, and never be afraid to ask those in management roles of companies experiencing lay-offs if they have anyone they recommend who may be looking. Finding the hidden gems can be tough without training, but with even just a basic keyword search, you will typically have fantastic results. Then, move to virtual meetups and networking events specific to the industry or profession for which you are seeking. Also, seek out candidates from diverse backgrounds and with different skill sets than your current team members. This will result in a better understanding of your clients and more creativity. Once you get them in the door, move quickly and stay in contact. Nothing irritates candidates more than a process dragging on or being ignored. Remember, this person is going to help you grow your business. That is incredibly valuable. Treat them as such. Keep the interview process to one to three interviews that are twenty to ninety minutes in length. Final interviews should only be longer for executives. Start interviews by thanking them. Tell them about the company history, the goals, and the role details. Then, say, “tell me what’s important to you in your new role”, and take it from there. That question will teach you more than the rest of the interview, and it sets a great tone. Have a conversation. Don’t grill them, and make sure to let them ask questions at the end. Finish up by letting them know next steps, and follow up immediately after the interview with an email providing feedback and thanking them. I should not have to say this, but I will, never cancel an interview. You will lose a quality candidate.
enough time to make a final decision and discuss the offer with whomever they need, but it does not allow them to use it as a negotiating tool or as a back-up. Finally, don’t forget the importance of a quality on-boarding experience. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a candidate quit or immediately re-enter the job market due to a poor welcome. Have their desk and equipment ready, their training arranged, and send out a warm introduction email to anyone with whom they will be working; or introduce them in person. I also recommend taking them to lunch. In a small company, team bonding is paramount. Taking care to locate and prioritize professionals at the top of their game will result in growth, increased revenue, and a better work environment. Your people make your company. Start that journey off right. Katherine has been fascinated with recruiting since childhood. She has strong experience recruiting everything from Customer Service to CFOs, and has a background in process improvement and growing employee satisfaction. She founded Titan in 2014 with the dream of innovating hiring, and to help entrepreneurs realize their visions without breaking the bank. She is also striving to improve the hiring process on a national level by spreading good practices and generating proactive conversations via media. In April 2020, she founded a career show, Career Launch Live.
“Search for companies and interests which align with your goals and culture... “
When it comes to the offer, be prompt, specific, and send it in writing. Offer letters should go out within forty-eight hours of the final interview. Put as many details as possible in the letter; and send it via e-sign for the candidate’s convenience and prompt return. I also recommend requiring that it be returned within twenty-four hours. This is
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Success Champions
Growing Your Business with A Podcast By Donnie Boivin
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odcasts have become one of those things that people either do right or really fuck it up. Its right up there with writing a book, starting a YouTube Channel, and Creating a Clubhouse or Tiktok account.
“Most people start a podcast that is in their industry or is directly related to what they sell. This is why they fail.”
It’s a shiny object that can completely derail everything you have done to grow your business if you don’t go all in and break some things. Let me explain, most people find something new, blogging, vlogging, podcasting, etc. and they think this is going to be really cool - and excited to figure this out. They then jump on Google and YouTube to become educated into becoming an expert at that new shiny thing. They spend hours researching what equipment they need, how to create content and how to produce the shiny thing.
As they go into day 4 they really start to second guess whether this was a great idea. Self-doubt starts to creep in because they haven’t seen a return on their time or financial investments, and they begin to wonder if this is going to work. But they push on because damn it this is going to work. One month in and they’re tired they are exhausted, and they don’t feel like anything’s happening. It’s right at this moment that they decide this is just too hard. This is going to take too long. This is going
First, you’ve gotta start a podcast about something you geek out on. Something that you could be woken up in the middle of the night and give a 60-minute speech on. I mean, totally geek the fuck out.
Then they get all setup to start and have an epiphany. “Holy Shit this is going to be hard.” They start trying to write or record, or to put different things in play to make this work but
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realize there’s a whole lot more to it than just sitting down and starting. As they begin to record or put out content the first time, they do it is a little clunky it’s not perfect. But they tell themselves I’m just starting. So, they commit to doing it for another day. On the second day it’s a little bit easier but it still feels clunky - like it’s not fully operational but they feel like they’re starting to figure a couple things out. On the third day they do it again and although it’s clunky they feel a little bit more comfortable into the process but now they’re starting to think man this is taking up a lot of time.
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Growth to be too much work. I’m just going to go find something else and they throw in the towel and quit. And then they’re off to the next shiny object. This is a funny thing for me because I think this plays out universally for most everyone when they try something new in the cycle that just continues to repeat. Shiny object excited, this is going to be hard, too hard, I quit, new shiny object. And I think this shows up in more people’s lives then just trying something new in the business. I think this is how most people show up in the world in general. So, if you’re really going to make podcasting work for you and to really make it a revenue source for your business then you gotta be in for the long haul. You’ve got to be prepared to do a lot of things and have the patience to let it play out. Like anything you do and like many have said before me it’s not going to happen overnight. Here’s how you build a business with a podcast.
If you’re like most people you probably have no damn clue - or you said something about he has a wine company that he built for his dad. Gary V is the CEO of Vaynermedia which in 2019 grossed $131,000,000 in revenue and has 771 employees according to a Business Insider interview in June of 2019. He also has Vayner Sports, Vayner X and Gallery Media Group. Most people just see Gary V as an influencer and have no clue that he has businesses. I could ask you the same thing about Tony Robbins what is Tony’s business? According to the film “I’m Not Your Guru” a Netflix documentary, Tony Robbins manages 31 companies with a reported annual revenue of over $5 billion. Podcasting is a platform to build your personal brand. Build your personal brand and the business will follow. If you need short term results then go sell but if you are willing to play the long game then launch a show, have fun and be you.
First, you’ve gotta start a podcast about something you geek out on. Something that you could be woken up in the middle of the night and give a 60-minute speech on. I mean, totally geek the fuck out.
“Build your personal brand and the business will follow.”
The reason you got to do that is because otherwise you will run out of content, you will run out of passion and you will run out of the moxie to make it work. Don’t start a podcast about what you do for a living. Unless it is something you totally geek out on. Joe Rogan, the #1 podcast in the world, started his show because he wanted to talk about Mixed martials Arts. At the time he was an up and coming actor. He could have talked about acting but chose to go after something he was passionate about. Most people start a podcast that is in their industry or is directly related to what they sell. This is why they fail. What is Gary V’s business? Go ahead take a second to think about it what does Gary Vaynerchuk does for business?
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Success Champions
If You Are Not Doing What You Love You Are Not Doing Anything “While Cheramie knows all there is to know about winemaking in the Lone Star state, she didn’t become an expert overnight.”
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hat comes to your mind when you think of Texas? Well, there’s Texas barbeque, cowboys, rodeos, farms, ranches. But let’s be honest, most people don’t think of wine when they think of Texas. Now, that’s about to change because Cheramie Law is on a mission to share Texas wine with the world.
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Growth Born and raised in Texas, Cheramie is a former United States Marine who just started her own wine brand, Cheramie Wine, with her life partner, Todd Aho. While Cheramie knows all there is to know about winemaking in the Lone Star state, she didn’t become an expert overnight. Her journey wasn’t a straight line at all, and she had to overcome adversity to get to where she’s at now. After leaving the Marine Corps, Cheramie decided to go to college. However, she didn’t do well in school, and she failed to get a degree. At this point, Cheramie didn’t know what she was going to do with her life. She spent some time working in a military nonprofit, and although she loved it there, she couldn’t stay in that world because there’s no money there. Cheramie did get a job in corporate America, but it didn’t take her long to realize that this career just wasn’t right for her. “I’m not going to lie. When I first sat down in a cubicle, I cried. But I knew that I needed to make money,” she said. Fortunately, this was only temporary because her life was about to change.
permits, and each of those wineries is only really focused on their area. Maybe ten wineries are in distribution, and possibly less than that distribute outside of Texas. So we realized there was this market for us in the wine world. We saw that there was a need to push Texas wine because we are doing awesome stuff in this state when it comes to growing and winemaking and all of that,” Cheramie said. “It’s time to push outside the state.” So they decided to become wine brokers and formed their wine agency, Salt and Pepper Wine, in 2017. Of course, connecting retailers and consumers with Texas Wine was just the beginning. Cheramie and Todd had a vision. They wanted to launch their own Texas wine brand, and they did just that in 2019 when they started Cheramie Wine. But then the Covid pandemic brought the world to a halt, and the release of their first wine – a 100% Riesling from the Texas High Plains American Viticultural Area (AVA) – was delayed.
Of course, connecting retailers and consumers with Texas Wine was just the beginning. Cheramie and Todd had a vision. They wanted to launch their own Texas wine brand, and they did just that in 2019 when they started Cheramie Wine.
During this time, Cheramie was already a wine enthusiast, and she would often visit Texas wineries with Todd. One day, they had dinner with one of Todd’s relatives who happened to sell wine in New York, and they asked her what she thought about Texas wine. Her reaction wasn’t a good one, and Cheramie wanted to know why. So for about two and a half years, Cheramie and Todd traveled around the state of Texas and met with winemakers, growers, and industry leaders to learn all they could about the Texas wine region. That’s when they realized only a few were really selling Texas wine outside the state. “About 95 percent of all Texas wine is drunk within the state. We have about 500 winery
Although doing business during the pandemic was a challenge, there were positives as well. Two to three months after launching, Cheramie and Todd sold 60 percent of the 84 cases they started out with, and they even won a silver ribbon at a wine competition. For a new name in the wine community, that’s a huge accomplishment.
“Maybe ten wineries are in distribution, and possibly less than that distribute outside of Texas. So we realized there was this market for us in the wine world.”
“2020 has been a crazy year for everyone. But there has also been a good side of 2020, which has kind of made everybody sit at the house. Around the world, we are all on the same schedule. We’re all getting bored, so everybody’s attention is online. I sell my wine online. People find me online. We’ve been featured in the global press. Actually, I’ve been reached out from the UK. Obviously, exporting is on our 2021/2022 plans. People are interested.
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Success Champions
“Remember, now is the best time to start a business. All the planning in the world is useless if we never take action.”
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It is kind of hard to say, but you have to acknowledge it. It has been good for Cheramie Wine because as a very, very small brand with a very small marketing budget, we’ve been able to reach the highest levels within the wine industry around the world, which is a really cool thing. And it’s all because everybody’s focus is in one place.” Their second wine, a Montepulciano Rosé, is now available in limited quantities. Only 54 cases were made because it was a tough growing season for Texas. However, having such a limited amount available isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “I think the great thing about how we’re doing it is we don’t have to keep it at a standard, unlike grocery store wine. That’s because when you get to a certain size, that loved is gone in that wine. They have to make it uniformed, so it tastes literally the same every year. No matter what happened that season, they have to make that wine tastes like you know that it should taste. That means they’re adding chemicals and other things to make it that way,” Cheramie said. “Of course, we want to be in a grocery store one day, but we hope to always have that little touch of love within Cheramie Wine.”
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So many people are moving through their lives, and they’re just going through the motions. They’re not discovering themselves. They’re not challenging life, and they’re miserable. They’re playing such a safe game because of all the “what ifs.” Cheramie and Todd didn’t do that. They managed to achieve this because they were willing to take risks. They got in the game, took on adversity, and won. “Todd and I, we looked at each other, and we put out this money down. We could lose it all, but we would have learned so much that we can make it back. The money will come back. But the time, you won’t get that time back. It actually takes a lot longer than you think to grow a business, so you need to start as soon as possible,” Cheramie noted. “Don’t wait for the perfect time. We could have waited until we had a whole portfolio. But I think we would have missed a really awesome opportunity to release where we had people’s attention. So I was like, ‘Hey, let’s release one wine.’” Remember, now is the best time to start a business. All the planning in the world is useless if we never take action.
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Success Champions
The Spiritual Journey of Entrepreneurship
“Ultimately the journey is about becoming who you always were.”
By Laura DiFranco
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f you’re a business owner, you’re on a spiritual growth journey. How do I know? Because there’s nothing like running your own business to give you the opportunity to face just about every possible struggle, obstacle, stress, resistance, or serious problem there is. And with big-ass problems come bigass opportunities, as long as your badass entrepreneurial self is awake enough to practice the ninja-level of mindset mastery it takes to actually learn something, rather than stress the fuck out and run in the other direction. “Hey Laura, I need an article about spiritual growth for the magazine.” I read that Facebook message and thought, oh man, I’m finally rubbing off on him. He’s gone full woo now. “Fantastic,” I replied. “You mean that whole idea that having a business is basically one big spiritual journey?” “Perfect,” he said. Thing is, when I went to go find a definition
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of spiritual growth for you all, you know what happened? The number one Google spot said “There really is no definition of spiritual growth.” And the number two post was very religious, way more than I was comfortable with. And listen, my Italian grandmother made me drive her to mass every week. I’m no stranger to religion. Come to think of it, that’s probably the reason I’m “spiritual.” That, and my step-father always reminding us we’d go to Hell if we didn’t go to church. Listen, the main reason I love spiritual growth is because it stems from one very important and basic idea that there is no right or wrong; that God and The Universe is love, and there are a lot of ways to be, express, and live with and in love. All very worthy, by the way. And no way is the “right” way. “Would you rather be right, or would you rather be happy?” Dr. Phil Phil, dude, my man, I’ll take happy. Spiritual growth is a forward movement toward having faith in a bigger energy than you, and trusting it to drive your bus.
Growth Spiritual growth is achieved by creating and expanding a practice of mindfulness, and mastering the mindset that goes along with that practice. It’s then shaping a discipline of thoughts, beliefs, and actions that are in service to your deepest desires for your life and the people you love. How do you guys like that definition? Feel free to ping me if you’d like to moderate a Clubhouse room together on this one. “I’m really more spiritual than religious,” I said in a recent virtual coffee with a networking friend. “I think you’re going to make people feel uncomfortable if you expect them to talk religion to make a perfect introduction for you.” Do you guys wanna know something? I was nervous about having that conversation! Because while being on a spiritual growth journey I’ve realized not everyone is as open-minded about the topic as I am, kinda like Grandma, and my stepdad. I’m always worried I’ll say the wrong thing, or offend. But you know what happens if you’re afraid to talk about the important things? Nothing. No growth. No evolution. No new opening of doors or possibilities.
So, something else you’re going to have to grow on this journey of spiritual growth is balls. And for all my lady friends, just know I’m thinking of that Betty White quote about balls right now. If you haven’t seen this, you really should go right
now and look it up. Seriously just type “Betty White balls” into Google. I’m groaning about all of you who have no idea who Betty White is right now. You missed a good era. One without cell phones or social media. Oh the rebels we could be back then. Betty was (and still is) a rebel. The reason you have to grow a pair is because this spiritual growth adventure is actually for warriors. People might like to knock us spiritual types as being woo woo, or fluffy, or whatever, but in reality we’ve been through the fire. We’ve been to the dark side. We’ve seen the dark night of our soul and tangoed with it. And we not just survived it, mind you, we survived and are thriving, because we made awareness a priority throughout the battle. Because we knew, from the beginning, that vulnerability is strength. And we weren’t afraid to practice that. We got good at feeling, the hard way. And that gave us ninja-level awareness skills. With awareness we get a choice. Awareness creates the opportunity for any moment of life or business to be one of growth, healing, or evolution. Got awareness? Great, now it’s time to be a ninja. Spiritual growth requires massive, daily, unrelenting amounts of awareness, with a little chocolate sauce on top. It also requires a community of people who talk that talk, walk that walk, and will help you when you forget who you are. Kind of like these Success Champions!
“So, something else you’re going to have to grow on this journey of spiritual growth is balls.”
Ultimately the journey is about becoming who you always were. It’s about peeling the layers and wounds back, one by one, and discovering the biggest, juiciest, happiest, sexiest version of yourself, and then sharing that full-on bodacious badassery with the people around you. And fuck ‘em if they don’t like it (you). Seriously, the further you are along the path, the more you realize you’re not here for everyone. You’re here for the ones that love you just the way you are. The moment you realize you can’t
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Success Champions take anything personally, and you begin to do you, whatever that means, while remaining open, aware, and ready to learn, you will have your golden ticket. Be a badass. Clear your mind of the bullshit. Stay grounded and in your body. That’s where the language of your spirit and intuition expresses itself to you. Learn the messages. Follow the breadcrumbs. Get back on course when you get knocked off. Find people who’ll play in that sandbox with you. You’ll never regret diving deep, becoming the most outstanding and successful version of yourself, and then changing the world with that magic.
“People might like to knock us spiritual types as being woo woo, or fluffy, or whatever, but in reality we’ve been through the fire. “
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Laura Di Franco, MPT won’t let you settle for a mediocre life. Your health, wealth and happiness is one Brave Healing book, poem, workshop, strategy session or moment away. With almost three decades of expertise in holistic physical therapy, six published books and a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Laura’s energy and method are contagious and unlike anything you’ve experienced.
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Check out her newest book, Brave Healing, a Guide for Your Journey, her podcast, her badass programs and free Facebook group for healers. http://YourHighVibeBiz.com or www.BraveHealer.com
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Success Champions
Brain Drippings
Growth and scaling in a Business of One By Donald Dodson Jr.
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ow do you scale when there is only you? Can you even do it? I am writing this from the viewpoint of a sole proprietor who makes a custom hand-crafted product which typically doesn’t allow for much room for scaling. But there IS still room to grow.
“Ok at this point in your business, you are likely wrestling with mindset. You are bouncing between employee, employer, and entrepreneur mindset”.
And, while I don’t expect that many of you are exactly in my situation, enough of you are similar enough (solopreneur, sole producer, hard to scale easily) that you can draw some ideas and benefit from what I am implementing, albeit slowly. The fact of the matter is we all typically start off as a ONE! One person starting the business and trying to make it all work. How do we successfully get passed that point? How do we scale one person without cloning ourselves?
Mindset Ok at this point in your business, you are likely wrestling with mindset. You are bouncing between employee, employer, and entrepreneur mindset. One minute you are in the trenches “earning” revenue producing products or services, the next moment you are attending a webcast on marketing, and the next you are looking over the bookkeeping or sales numbers and trying to decide a strategy. If you are like me, you are very content to do ONE of those things most of the time, maybe two. Me, I could make cool leather stuff all day. This is great for production, not so good for things like sales, marketing, or any of the bazillion other things that need done. You have the Swiss Army Knife mindset. If you have used a Swiss Army knife, you know that some of the tools work well, some are ok, and almost none of them can be used at the same time. Instead, you need to be a more taskspecific tool.
You have the Swiss Army Knife mindset. If you have used a Swiss Army knife, you know that some of the tools work well, some are ok, and almost none of them can be used at the same time. Instead, you need to be a more task-specific tool.
Goals and Mindset Goals What is your goal? Don’t just say I want to scale. That’s what business culture says you are to do. What does success look like for you? Hopefully you’ve already got this in your mind, otherwise the rest is pointless. If its world domination in
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your field – awesome! If its to get paid well to practice your skill, passion or whatever while living comfortably, that’s cool too. The point is you need to have that goal and idea, so you know how to grow properly to achieve those goals.
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Identify what your core competencies are (and those of your business) -- your strengths and your weaknesses. What are you good at and enjoy doing and what do you suck at or dislike doing? Make a chart. We’ll use it later. Remember that chart we made? Now we are going to put that to use. Strengths, which are likely the things you also enjoy doing on one side and weaknesses -- things you don’t like to do and are not that great at on the other. We also need to make yet another distinction on our chart. Are those tasks revenue producing or not? Business development tasks, though “administrative”
Growth ARE revenue producing. They result in sales. Bookkeeping, property maintenance, inventory, etc not so much if at all. This distinction will help us prioritize tasks for the next steps. Put a check mark or circle the revenue producing tasks I’m sure by this point you have figured out what we are going to do. If it’s a weakness, someone else is gonna do that and if it’s a strength I’m gonna do it. Basically, yes? But its not really that simple is it? Maybe some tasks we suck at because we haven’t learned them well enough to do them well, but we should be doing them. Like the higher-level stuff like strategy, determining what products and services are best, etc. They are intrinsic to our business and will still need our attention. Other stuff, like bookkeeping, marketing, sales, anything that is not directly in the sphere of the core of your business needs to be done by someone else with your supervision and input. Furthermore, we prioritize the tasks that are related to production or revenue.
Delegate! Contractors, Gig Workers and VAs Oh My! The first most obvious answer is to pay someone else to do it. We are not likely able to really hire a person full time to do any one task nor is it easy to find a partner with someone who does what we suck at. Virtual Assistants, subcontractors and gig workers are a common solution to these problems. You pay a bookkeeper to maintain your finances, you contract with an IT guy to handle computer stuff, you might hire a designer off Fiverr, Upwork for a one-time design. You pay the neighbor kid to ship your stuff out on Fridays after school. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know here. And they all have strengths and weaknesses. It really comes down to budget, effectiveness, and proficiency. There is plenty of information out there on best practices.
Interns, Apprentices and Barter This is a free or less cash dependent method. I had an apprentice who wanted to learn what I did. His pay was knowledge and he deferred any kind of wages I offered, because he wanted to learn leatherwork. Interns are also a variation of
this. In either of these cases you need to have this as a strength or at reasonable knowledge to guide them. Maybe they need to learn to how to be a social media manager and are hungry enough to want the experience and will work for free. Internships through schools and colleges are decent sources but be warned, there might be some specific requirements to that arrangement. You also need to have appropriate expectations and to realize that you will have to train and provide guidance and it will initially cut into your time. However, the rewards in any of the above situations can pay off more so in later gained efficiency, productivity or services that you’d otherwise have to do yourself. Barter is the “straightforward” exchange of a products and services for products or services you can provide. For example, I made a bag for the person doing my website. Or I occasionally do some design work for a coaching session or whatever. In many ways, this is more “expensive” than the other options because you are still putting in the same effort as if someone had outright paid you and then you used that money to purchase the service. The “casual” nature of the agreement also often means the work might proceed slower and less attention is paid to the costs. In my case, I could “hire” an “A game professional” to do work that I basically just delegated and had to only apply as much input as I needed. Its an important consideration. The better the provider the less work it is for you even beyond the service they are providing. They know their shit better than you ever did and require less input for greater results. This applies to whom anyone you delegate.
Automation can apply to either processes or production (I.e. machinery and tools). The point is to streamline and save labor and time and if possible, create or increase revenue.
Automate! Automation can apply to either processes or production (I.e. machinery and tools). The point is to streamline and save labor and time and if possible, create or increase revenue.
Processes. There are a bunch processes to a business. Customer/client onboarding, sales, CRM, emails, shipping, are all examples. There is a tendency to grab the low-hanging fruit of the thing that is
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Success Champions
“Growth and scaling can be accomplished through any combination of the methods. Some will work better for you now, and as you grow will not be as effective.”
cheapest and or easiest for us to understand and automate. In part, this might be because we can do it ourselves. Its not wrong, but it’s not the best strategy, either. Ideally you need to automate the most time-intensive, cost, or labor-saving process you can identify from your chart of weaknesses. Additionally, you could consider what process, if more effective, would also increase revenue, such as sales or marketing. Automating that process would increase sales (theoretically) giving you more resources to further delegate and automate. For me, “client onboarding” takes a chunk of time. I do custom leather stuff, so its not a simple couple of buttons -clicking e-commerce order. BUT, if I at least had the basics of what they wanted, it would save me some time and they would have better figured out what they may want (Size, function, color, style, budget). You would be surprised how many clients contact me and haven’t though beyond, “I want a cool bag.” The point is this would be an ideal area to automate to some degree. Maybe it’s a for, a messenger bot or something.
Machinery and Tools. If you make a physical product or interact with the physical space, then machinery of some kind may help you automate. This could be anything from better hand tools, another or better computer, to a label printer (as opposed to taping it on…it saves time, believe me), to a professional machine of some sort. Anything that saves time, labor, produces a more quality and consistent product, or just is less physically demanding is a good candidate. (Muscle fatigue is a real thing when hand-stitching for hours). If it helps with revenue even better. Of course, there is a cost-benefit analysis, because these generally require money to obtain. In my case, I opted to purchase a professional leather sewing machine. I still make hand stitched products too, but not all aspects of my market care about that. I can now produce some items faster and in greater quantities which allows me to enter other markets that I couldn’t before. The customer is an important component that we cannot forget, too.
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Does it better serve your customer? This is a critical question. At this point you should KNOW your ideal customers well enough to understand what is important to them. Does faster shipping, create a better customer experience? Yes, likely. Does a machine-made product attract them as much as one crafted entirely by hand and are they benefitting from that difference? Does a messenger bot AI asking onboarding questions lessen the personal buying experience or is it making it better? Or, does paying your sales tax on time impact the client experience – probably not! These are all valid questions you should consider when looking at what and HOW you delegate or automate. For me, the decision to buy a leather sewing machine helped me to serve my clients better. Even the ones that preferred totally handcrafted items. The machine gave me the efficiency to offer other products more quickly and affordably. Increasing my revenue in other product lines allow me to use that revenue to delegate and automate and allow me to focus on creating better designs or being able to take the time needed to craft a hand-made item sustainably. Growth and scaling can be accomplished through any combination of the above-mentioned methods. Some will work better for you now, and as you grow will not be as effective. For now, “something” is better than nothing gets it done for you. Time commitment, skills, specialization, and professional assistance will only increase as you grow. Soon, the neighbor kid doing your website won’t cut it anymore. This is the part of the growth of any business regardless of size. The sooner you can invest in professionals the better your results will likely be long-term. So define your goals, focus on the what makes you a more effective business owner with increased revenue and employ the best solution you can manage with your clients best interest in mind. Donald Dodson, owner of Dodson Designs, has been involved in artistic pursuits for as long as he can remember. Starting at age 16 as a sign painter assistant, and after
Growth high school, he pursued a career in graphic arts, finding his home in graphic design and web design. After an eightyear stint as a teacher, Dodson, a combat veteran, longed to return to his passion for the arts and, at 49, started a full-time leather working business. He crafts handmade, creative custom leather goods and accessories near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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Success Champions
The Outsourcing corner
Building a Team with 1099 employees By Lorianne Vaughan Speaks
M “In this Gig Economy it is easy to bring in 1099 employees. There are benefits to outsourcing administrative responsibilities. “
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ost small business owners start out with a simple plan. Usually, that consists of using their expertise to help others and build a company that meets their own financial needs. What they don’t always realize is that they are not good at everything. Some may be awesome salespeople but hate paperwork. Others love the customer interaction but hate dealing with vendors. We all have our strengths – but how much time do we spend on the areas where our strengths lie? Many small business owners try to be a Jack-ofall trades in order to save money. If negotiating is not your strength, does it make sense to spend hours a day negotiating with vendors? Or, does it make sense for a talented business owner with a certain skillset to spend time booking meetings or organizing the logistics of an event? The start-up mentality many business owners have has manufactured a fear of hiring employees and the costs involved. “Save money, be scrappy” is what many business owners are told. The idea of payroll and hiring scares them into a non-growth mode because, in an attempt to be scrappy, they end up doing administrative tasks that take up a large percentage of their time, and less time focused on what they do best. This leads to them
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being stagnant and not able to take on more clients because they are too busy doing busy work. In this Gig Economy it is easy to bring in 1099 employees. There are benefits to outsourcing administrative responsibilities.
Flexibility: Outsourcing gives a business owner the ability to adjust their outsourcing to support a variety of needs. There is no need to keep someone busy if you don’t have legitimate work. By hiring on a project basis, there is a clear ROI when it comes to your project.
Focus: By outsourcing, you can hire talent to cover a variety of needs starting by focusing on individual skillsets. So, instead of hiring one headcount that may or may not have all the skills you need, you can outsource by the area of focus starting with your highest priority need.
ROI: You get what you pay for. You don’t need to pay a set amount per month or guarantee hours. You can put together a project plan and project fee and go from there. You can start small with 5-10 hours a week or strictly on a project basis. You need to start somewhere because you won’t ever grow your business if you don’t start somewhere.
Savings: You don’t need to offer benefits. There is a large talent pool of freelancers that will work for an hourly fee and don’t require or even want benefits. And, you don’t need to create a space for them. Working under a remote model (especially in our new pandemic environment) you don’t have to pay for the costs associated with having an in-house employee. This results in a win/win for you - by giving you the ability of paying for work without paying benefits, associated employee costs or taxes.
Competitive Advantage:
Growth
Regardless of what business you are in, you most likely have a competitive market you are competing with and the bottom line is, you can’t afford to do nothing. Your competitors are out there grabbing market share on a daily basis. Why focus on administrative tasks that would cost an hourly rate when you can focus on capturing your share of the market? What is your time worth? Figure out what your hourly rate is and then make a list of what you do during the day. You should be able to quickly weed out the lower end tasks that you shouldn’t be spending your valuable time on.
SPEAK! Lorianne has helped spearhead multiple bestselling book campaigns - editing, proofing, through to launch and social media marketing to help authors create buzz and momentum throughout the social media platforms and increasing their message World-Wide. Lorianne and her team have made it their mission to empower speakers to deliver their message by handling the rest of the details!
“This simple message is a strong reminder that no matter how small you are, you should focus on what you do best to grow your business.”
Stephen R. Covey says in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change “do what you do best and hire others to do the rest”. This simple message is a strong reminder that no matter how small you are, you should focus on what you do best to grow your business. Lorianne Speaks is an expert in the area of Speaker/ Author support. She amplifies the visibility of Authors/ Speakers/Messengers while they do what they love -
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Success Champions
technology corner
The Beginner’s Guide to Automating Your Sales Process Part 2 By Kevin Snow
“For a program just getting started with automation of a sales process, there are the 4 metrics you should be tracking.”
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n Part 1 of The Beginner’s Guide to Automating Your Sales Process, we walked through the steps to take your sales process digital, automating repetitive tasks and adding in tools to keep you organized. Now that you have your process documented and have some tools in place to help manage that process you need to start looking at how effective it is and how you can improve it. But you can’t measure improvement if you don’t know where you are starting. Fortunately, the tools you used to automate your sales process provide a wealth of data about your sales process. But how do you know which metrics to focus on? In Part 2 I break down the key metrics you should be tracking. These metrics will reveal valuable information about your prospect’s activity as well as your (or your team’s) performance. By monitoring this data regularly, you will gain the insight to consistently exceed your sales goals.
PART 2: Measuring Your Effectiveness Ok so there are easily 100 or more different
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metrics about your sales program you could be tracking, but unless you have a well-defined process, and multiple teams selling in multiple verticals, that amount of data will only set you down a path of constant analysis. For a program just getting started with automation of a sales process, here are the 4 metrics you should be tracking.
Top Lead Sources The first step in making sales is filling your pipeline with qualified leads. To make the most of your business development activities, you need to regularly assess which sources you are getting your best paying clients from. Tracking where leads come from tends to be one area where salespeople and business owners are less than stellar, but with automation it can be made easier and/or a mandatory part of adding a new lead to your CRM or marketing automation platform. If your numbers show that certain channels consistently bring in the best high value clients, you can re-allocate your business development efforts to focus on those lead sources. Understanding where your leads are coming from also allows you to diversify your business development strategy if you notice that one lead source is driving the bulk of the new prospects entering your pipeline.
Win Rate Your win rate is the percentage of sales opportunities that become paying customers and it is an important sales metrics you should be tracking. Your CRM will have built in reporting tools to help you review what your win rate is and how it changes as you adjust different parts of your process. A low win rate can signal that you have an issue with your approach, or that you are filling your pipeline with unqualified leads or possibly the wrong leads all together. It is important to understand your win rate is impacted by several other factors, including complexity of your product and how many people are involved in the decision, so to identify where you need to make changes and focus your efforts,
Growth
you will need to look at some of the following stats as well.
Key Funnel Conversion Rates Just like you want to track your overall win rate, you also want to track your conversion rates from stage to stage. This will show you specific stages where you are losing prospects. If your conversion rate is low in the early stages of your sales process that could mean you have an issue with qualifying your leads before they enter into a sales conversation with you. Low conversion rates later in your sales process could mean you have an issue with your tactics or your approach. But it is easy to fall prey to paralysis by analysis if you are trying to analyze and tweak every stage in your process. Instead, identify one or two make-or-break stages in your process that have the biggest impact on whether or not a prospect becomes a paying customer, and keep track of how well prospects are moving through them. Those make-or-break stages could be a prospect moving from an initial meeting to a full-on
product demo, or a prospect that signs up for a free trial and then completes specific activities during that trial.
Sales Cycle Length That last important metric to track is your sales cycle length, which represents the average length of your sales process, or the average length of time it takes for a prospect to become a buyer. The shorter the duration, the more effective your sales process is and the more you can close in a given period of time. It’s also worthwhile to look at the time a prospect stays at each stage of your sales process. This is a good way to identify choke points where prospects are getting stuck and not moving to the next stage.
“If your numbers show that certain channels consistently bring in the best high value clients, you can reallocate your business development efforts to focus on those lead sources.”
Understanding the length of your sales cycle and what plays a role in extending your sales cycle can help you figure out how you can win more deals faster. You can identify which nurturing campaigns help move along the sales process, which types of content help influence buying decisions, and which sales tactics result in shorter and more successful
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Success Champions sales cycles.
“by regularly tracking the four metrics above you’ll gain the insights needed to engage with your prospects more effectively and close sales more efficiently.”
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A few key metrics can provide you with a lot of information about how your sales process is performing. As you are looking at your numbers, remember that metrics need to be customized to match your specific business needs and what the numbers mean to you won’t necessarily be the same to another business. But by regularly tracking the four metrics above you’ll gain the insights needed to engage with your prospects more effectively and close sales more efficiently. Kevin Snow is the founder of Time On Target, a digital marketing agency that helps businesses effectively use technology to grow their business. Kevin has helped companies all across the United States shorten their sales cycle and increase their closing rates by utilizing sales automation to increase the time sales teams are in front of prospects selling. You can reach Kevin at kevin.snow@ time-on-target.com.
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Success Champions
Creating Estimates Based On Your Company Cost
know your numbers! By Greg Norton
K “Know your numbers” is now what I use to make every decision to successfully manage the growth of my business.”
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now your numbers”. How many times have you heard that phrase? For me, I have heard it hundreds of times, but honestly, it never really sunk in until I started my video & creative production company. “Know your numbers” is now what I use to make every decision to successfully manage the growth of my business. In this article, I am going to share with you the process I use to make sure I am growing, but more importantly, staying profitable.
How Much Does It Cost To Run My Business? The first step my process was to know how much it costs to run my business. It seems obvious, but if your costs are greater than your revenue, well, we all know what that means…good try though. I simply added up all of my expenses for the year and divided that out based on a 40 hour work week (yes, of course we all work more than that). In other words, let’s say that all my expenses for the year totaled $80,000. That means that it costs me $38.46 per hour to run the company. Be sure to include all of your expenses including rent, salaries, software, equipment, loans, office supplies, etc. It is important to understand that there will be fluctuations to this formula based on unforeseen circumstances. Just adjust accordingly. If you already do budgets each year, this step is simple because you have already done the work. If you don’t do budgets each year, well, this is your expense line so you are are half-way there.
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Now that I know how much it costs to run my company, I needed to make sure that the sale price of my services was profitable. In the above hypothetical example, if it costs me $38.46 to run my business, and I am selling my services at $25 per hour, I am losing money. A lot of money. I need to make sure that I am on the other side of that formula. Of course, creating your sale price is the result of many factors. In my company, my pricing is based on industry standard, local market, competitor pricing and profitability. In addition, I have multiple services that vary in sale price. You need to create your sales price on your appropriate factors and run that against your company cost. Once my sale prices are in line, I created a spreadsheet to assist me in creating my estimates. This spreadsheet allows me to be consistent, monitor profitability out of the gate, and make adjustments to sale prices based on factors that could affect my bottom line. A real world example could be that you offered a discount for a client. In your spreadsheet, you could adjust pricing accordingly while making sure that you did not jeopardize you profitability. Another example may be that you have different pricing scenarios based on your local competition, again making sure you
Growth on projects. Each client project is tracked independently. My timer integrates directly into my account along with any expenses that are associated with the project. Bottom line is it shows me my bottom line (see what I did there?) When a project is done, and I have followed all of the steps in this article, I see a real report on exactly how much money I made on each project. It would take another full article to go over the benefits of this feature. don’t price yourself out of profitability. Want a copy of my spreadsheet? Click here.
Track Your Time My company, Whiplash Film & Creative, is in the creative services industry. That means that most of my services are time/effort based. What that really means…EVERYONE IN MY COMPANY TRACKS THEIR TIME. Yep, now I know that some of you are going to turn the page to another article but hear me out. If you don’t know how much time you are spending on a project, you don’t know how profitable you are. Even as the owner of your company, your time has value. Also, your employees time is key in knowing your profitability. I track all of my time, no exceptions. I have a simple timer program that allows me to start/stop the timer and select what service I am timing, whether it be video editing, shooting or creative services. This information is gold when assessing your service pricing and creating estimates. Based on historic information, I can tell you, within minutes, how long it will take me to perform a task. It may seem like a daunting task, but once you get in the habit, it is easy. Trust me on this one.
The information I have covered in this article works for me. Perfectly. But, it may not work for you without some adjustments. In fact, it may not work for you at all. But the principal is all the same…you need to make money in order to have a business. To say it simply, “I Know My Numbers”. **For information on what specific software Greg is using for Whiplash Film & Creative, please visit www.whiplashfilmcreative.com/projectsoftware . Greg Norton is the founder of Minneapolis based Whiplash Film and Creative with offices in Minneapolis and Dallas. With over 25 years of video content creation experience, Greg has produced videos for some the largest retail and B2B companies and continues to grow through unique, effective and efficient video production.
“If you don’t know how much time you are spending on a project, you don’t know how profitable you are.”
Bringing It All Home The last piece I use in my process is how all of these steps pay off. My accounting software has a great feature called Project Mode. What this means is that it allows me to analyze my accounting based
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Success Champions
Sassy Social media
How to Gain Monthly Viewers on Pinterest By Sarah Ankney
W “More eyes on your content means more traffic to the places you want to have seen whether it is your blog, your You Tube channel, your podcast, and so much more.”
hile Pinterest is a form of social media, it is also a search engine. As a search engine monthly views are more important that followers. Monthly views tell you how many people have gotten eyes on your content and that is what you want. More eyes on your content means more traffic to the places you want to have seen whether it is your blog, your You Tube channel, your podcast, and so much more. There are ways have them visit your Pinterest to increase your monthly viewers so your pins can go viral and you can have more traffic to all your other platforms. Pinterest is content driven. That means that you need to have content that is relevant to your audience. This content such as your blog needs to appeal to your ICA (Ideal Client Avatar). Your ICA is searching for information that you can provide them. Write content that your ICA will search for. Consistency is key for this platform just like other social media platforms. Write or create content on a consistent basis that you can share to Pinterest. Not only is Pinterest content driven but it is a visual platform so the photos you share must be appealing to your audience. It would be useful to use the same photos from where you are driving traffic to. This is where you should have photos that are pinnable from your website and other
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platforms from which you are driving traffic. The main focus is your blog though. Make sure to enable rich pins so that the Pinterest “P” is shown, and it can be pinned directly from your site. You can find out more about rich pins and how to enable them here: https://help.pinterest.com/en/ business/article/rich-pins. Create more than one pin per post you are sharing. Please remember this is for all platforms. Create 2-4 pins per post. This means you are less likely to spam and see what types of pins to promote. Any pins that are doing well are great to promote to get even more eyes on your content. That is the goal after all. Don’t forget you can use these pins which will be “rich pins” to promote. Your promotion budget on Pinterest can be big or small. Not sure what templates or designs to use for Pinterest? Check out Canva and use their templates to create your pins until you are comfortable creating your own. Remember to brand your posts and pick pictures that would attract your ICA. This is key as well to get more views on your page is to use SEO or search engine optimization. Keywords need to be in your description as well as hashtags. This is what people are searching for. You can find more of the keywords for the topic of your content by entering your search term. At the top you will see colored bubbles with other terms your ICA is searching for. Don’t forget to make sure your profile and board descriptions are optimized. This also helps your information to be found on Google. Here are some other aspects to keep in mind: While you often don’t think of it, people are searching for things in the advance especially for holidays. This is when you need to create pins in advance so you can get eyes on your content increasing your monthly views. Create them 45 days in advance for any of the holidays. The 80/20 rule applies to Pinterest as well. You need 80% your business information and topics but also need 20% personal information so not only can the audience get to know you, but you can attract more people to your profile and
Growth change directions in your business and your profile and pins need to address this as well. Your profile and board covers should be branded. Create board covers so that your brand will be shown when your boards are brought up. This is also another spot where consistency is key. Create a design you love that fits in with your branding. It makes your profile look more professional and organized.
information. Great examples of personal boards are recipes, adult drinks, crafts, and so much more. The possibilities are endless with Pinterest. You can also create video pins. People love watching videos and this platform is no different when it comes to videos. You can upload videos, make video pins, and pin You Tube videos. Don’t forget to promote those video pins that are doing well. Join Tailwind to increase your monthly views. It is scheduler so you can schedule pins and repins in advance. Trust me this is less work that trying to manually pin all day long. However, you should manually pin a few pins several days a week so that you can increase monthly viewers as well as let Pinterest know that you are not a bot. Tailwind also has tribes that you can join. In these tribes you can post your content to get more eyes on your content. Don’t forget to share other people’s content.
Pinterest is a powerful tool for your marketing and to drive traffic to all your platforms. These tips are useful to drive traffic to your Pinterest profile as well as your website. You can increase your monthly viewers with these tips if you are consistently doing them. Keep pinning on Pinterest. Sarah Ankney of Sassy Pinterest is a Pinterest Account Manager. She wants to empower your business with a bit of magic to help you get visible. Sassy Pinterest creates graphics and descriptions as well as manages your Pinterest account so that you can do all the things you need to do and drive traffic to your business. If you need assistance in your business to get traffic to all your sites, please contact Sarah Ankney to add another powerful marketing tool.
“Pinterest is a powerful tool for your marketing and to drive traffic to all your platforms.”
Also make sure you to get more eyes on your post by joining groups that have promo threads you can post your pins in. This will give you more followers as well as monthly viewers. This is a way to promote your Pinterest to people who use Pinterest. Make sure your profile and boards are up to date. Your profile is what people look at and if it is out of date then you won’t be attracting your ICA. This is the same with pins that you have pinned that no longer fit your ICA. Sometimes you
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Success Champions
A Review Of Donnie Boivin’s
Endless Stream of Referrals: 10 Ways To Bring In Referrals Daily By Michelle Thompson
T ““Endless Stream of Referrals” is filled with golden nuggets of information, with Boivin weaving in his own experiences to show us how he implements each of the methods he uses. “
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he easiest way to get business is through referrals. After all, people generally do business with people they know and trust. The thing is, getting high-quality referrals isn’t as easy as it may sound. It isn’t always a comfortable process, and it’s a challenge for most of us. Well, there is a reason why you’re not getting the referrals you think you should be getting, and Success Champions founder Donnie Boivin talks about it straightaway at the start of “Endless Stream of Referrals: 10 Ways To Bring In Referrals Daily” – You’re just not asking for them. You can’t wait for good things to happen to you. You have to go out there and make them happen.
Many of us are uncomfortable asking for referrals because we don’t want to come off as salesy or desperate for business. But the fact of the matter is that we’ll get a lot more referrals if we ask our clients if they know anyone who can benefit from our products or services. It’s good to be reminded that we can actively ask for referrals without being pushy because some of our ideal clients will likely remain out of reach unless we pursue them. As you can surmise from the title, Boivin has outlined ten proven ways to boost the quantity and quality of referrals, and one of the things that he talks about is how we should be asking the right questions so we can get the right referrals. Boivin gives an excellent example of how we can get very specific, and guide people through who we need to be introduced to. “When you sit across from somebody, and you’re having a referral conversation never go generic with whom you’re looking for,” Boivin explains in the first chapter of the book. “You want to say things like, ‘I’m looking for a get shit done (female badass the one that walks into the room and everybody gets her attention, not because of how she looks but how she carries herself. Her presence is felt in the room before
“We’ve all heard about how word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways to attract new customers and drive more sales to our businesses, but instead of sitting back and waiting, we can do our part to amplify the effect by asking for referrals.”
“Endless Stream of Referrals” reminds us that we tend to make the mistake of passively waiting for referrals instead of actively asking for them. We’ve all heard about how word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways to attract new customers and drive more sales to our businesses, but instead of
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sitting back and waiting, we can do our part to amplify the effect by asking for referrals.
Growth she gets there. She’s an action taking badass that runs her own company. She used to run or has found success in the past in some executive capacity before she got tired of making money for everyone else and not living her dreams. She’s looking for ways to blow it up and increase revenue and scale her business. She’s got a circle of influence, she’s a badass that attracts other badasses. She’s driven as Hell and is changing the world with her actions.’” Aside from walking us through each step of the process to get the referrals we’re looking for, Boivin also shared a system that can help your referral partner walk away with a list of their ideal clients. That way, both sides are happy with the quality of referrals that they are getting. There’s just so much to unpack here. Don’t know where to look for the ideal referral? “Endless Stream of Referrals” will give you an idea of where you should focus your efforts. Personally, I love the part where Boivin talked about his experience of asking for a referral after getting a “no” because it’s a rather unorthodox way to do it. Here’s an excerpt from the book: “I had a massive deal I thought we were going to partner with the prospect on. Everything seemed like they were going to say yes. We spent a ton of energy and time working out the details. When they told me they weren’t going to move forward, I must admit, I was shocked to the bones, and they could tell. I had no poker face at all, which makes me human. Imagine being human on a sales call, you should try it. I think it took me 30 seconds or longer to grab my wits and words. What I did next was completely reactionary. I said, ‘Thanks for telling me. I have to say I am a little shocked. I thought we were going to partner up. I’m glad we got closure on this. I respect the Hell out of you for saying no right now and not drawing it out. Now that we know we’re not a good fit, who is a similar business that we should be talking to?’ He looked right back at me damn near dumbfounded. I mean, his jaw actually opened up a little bit. He looked at me and he goes, ‘You’re
hired.’ I said, ‘What does that mean?’ He replied, ‘No, we’re starting your program.’ I said, ‘What the hell? What changed?’ He goes, ‘I want my sales team doing what you just did. I want my sales team to have the balls to ask that type of question after I told you we weren’t moving forward. And they don’t have that right now.’” It’s an interesting way to ask for a referral, isn’t it? Of course, Boivin did note that the success rate isn’t that high, but it doesn’t hurt to try. What do you have to lose if that person already turned down your proposal? “Endless Stream of Referrals” is filled with golden nuggets of information, with Boivin weaving in his own experiences to show us how he implements each of the methods he uses. There’s even a section on the importance of tracking down the number of referrals you’re giving out and bringing in. And the reason why we have to do this is simple – it helps us see what’s working and what’s not.
Unleash Your Inner Badass
“It’s good to be reminded that we can actively ask for referrals without being pushy because some of our ideal clients will likely remain out of reach unless we pursue them.”
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Success Champions
“...Boivin also shared a system that can help your referral partner walk away with a list of their ideal clients. That way, both sides are happy...”
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All in all, “Endless Stream of Referrals” is the book you’ll want to read if you’re not getting the referrals you want. The book gives us a muchneeded kick in the hindquarters when we’re starting to doubt our capabilities to bring in referrals, and it includes clear, actionable strategies to set us up for success. The book is pretty straightforward, so you can read it in one sitting and put what you learned into practice. Getting high-quality referrals isn’t easy. But with the right systems in place, your clients and business partners will be happy to refer you to others. Automation and Outsourcing saved my sanity. After a life-altering stroke, at the age of 36, I had to start all over again. From a successful MBA in Finance to a second grade IQ level... overnight. Since my stroke, I’ve had to learn how to automate and outsource as much as humanly
www.DonnieBoivin.com
possible. It touches everything I do. Now, I am on a mission to help free you up from all the unnecessary tasks you do, and I’ll stop at nothing to help you get your freedom back.
