Tag: Sustainable business

Unleash Your Business Potential: The Path to $1MM in Revenue Awaits

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

Today, I had an epiphany while writing this blog post, realizing that what I had planned to share might not be what you truly need to hear right now. So, allow me to take a different approach that I hope resonates deeply with you.

Let’s set aside the noise and focus on Web2 — the powerful realm of social influence that holds immense potential for your business. As a small business owner, the social aspect may have been unintentionally overlooked. Take a moment to reflect on your website. Does it simply resemble an online business card or, dare I say, an outdated Yellow Pages ad? If so, it’s time to shift gears.

Consider this: the conversations your prospects have with their peers carry more weight than any message you can create, regardless of its brilliance. Recent research confirms that peers have become the most trusted individuals globally, making their trust and endorsement crucial for the success of your product or service. This holds even more significance as we navigate an AI-driven world. Building authentic relationships and cultivating social proof will be the key differentiators that set you apart from the competition.

Now, let’s explore the essence of our discussion: how can this understanding propel you toward achieving $1MM in revenue with a high net profit?

  • Clarity: The first step on this transformative journey is gaining a crystal-clear vision of your desired outcome and truly comprehending your market-dominating position. When you possess unwavering clarity, everything falls into place.
  • Focus: Once your vision is defined, it’s time to narrow your focus. Identify the ONE pivotal task that will make everything else on your plate either easier to tackle or entirely irrelevant. Honing in on this priority will pave the way for significant progress towards your revenue goals.
  • Consistent Action: Success isn’t born out of sporadic bursts of effort but through a steadfast commitment to taking consistent action. Remember the sage advice: “Consistency beats talent every time.” Embrace the power of daily, purposeful actions that align with your vision.
  • Results: Armed with clarity, focus, and consistent action, you hold the keys to building the business of your dreams. The transformation you seek is well within your grasp.

You might think, “This all sounds great, Amanda, but how does this work for real?!”

Imagine you set a goal to lose 20 pounds. You have a crystal-clear vision of wearing a specific dress at the upcoming summer family reunion (clarity). You know precisely what steps to take, such as cooking more meals at home, adding exercise to your daily routine, and creating a schedule (focus). And most importantly, you take consistent action (consistent action). When we set out on a goal, the first days are great! But the middle days, like days 17, 18, and 19, can feel discouraging – they last forever, and you feel like you get nowhere. But, if you persist, you’ll reach days 30, 31, and beyond while watching pounds melt away (and a need to buy new jeans!).

Let’s apply this concept to your business efforts to sort through the chaos. What can you do differently over the next 30 days to test the concept? 

Simply reply with how you’ll test this out, and I’ll hold you accountable for the next 30 days.

I hope these insights resonate with you and offer a fresh perspective.

 

P.S. I’m beta-testing a new program, Flash Coaching— a streamlined system designed to accommodate your busy schedule. It provides a unique blend of self-paced learning through targeted videos and unlimited, high-impact one-on-one 15-minute coaching sessions.

This is a perfect way to dip your toe into what it would be like to have a business coach on your side. Intrigued? Let’s connect >>

The Importance of Having Support Staff in Your Small Business in 2023

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

As a small business owner, you know every detail to keep your business running smoothly. As we hire staff, there’s not only a mindset shift but a skill set upgrade many of us must undergo.

My clients often tell me one of two things when discussing hiring support. Either they jump in and tell me about the sales executive or fractional CFO they want to hire… or they are on the opposite side of the spectrum and say they can’t afford to hire help.

For both of these types of entrepreneurs, I give the same advice. Let’s track your time. Seriously.

It seems so simple, yet no one does it, and here’s why: it’s a lot! When you track your time in 15-minute increments for two weeks, you get the data you need to decide who that next hire is. Group together tasks outside your zone of genius and hire someone else to do it.

With this data, you can assign a budget to your new hire. Things to think about before gathering the job description are:

  • How will this generate revenue for your business? 
  • What is the learning curve? How much training time can you expect to get someone up to speed?
  • Realistically think about the time it will take you to train this new employee. 
  • As you train a new employee, your productivity will decrease for a short time. When will you break even on the new hire?

Once we have our roadmap, we can discover who we need to hire.

 

Hiring a Virtual Assistant

You can hire several types of support staff in your business, and most people start with a VA or virtual assistant. A VA can provide a variety of tasks for your business, depending on the skills of the VA. To find a good VA:

  1. List the skills you need based on your assessment of the time outlined above coupled with your most significant business need right now.
  2. Write up a job description.
  3. Look for someone who can fill that slot and provide quality support in a timely fashion.

 

Finding a Technician

When hiring a technician, you’re looking for a person who is an expert and a “doer.” Consider hiring a technician for your business for several reasons.

A technician is a trained and skilled professional with expertise in a specific field or area of work. Hiring a technician can bring in someone with the knowledge and skills to handle a wide range of tasks and responsibilities related to your business.

In addition, a technician can help improve efficiency and productivity by completing tasks quickly and accurately. This can free up time and resources for you and your team to focus on more critical duties and responsibilities.

They can also help ensure that work is completed to a high standard, improving the quality of your products or services and helping boost customer satisfaction.

A technician may also have access to specialized equipment and tools necessary for specific tasks. Hiring a technician can bring in someone with the equipment and expertise to handle these tasks effectively.

Hiring a technician can sometimes be more cost-effective than completing specific tasks in-house. For example, suppose you need to repair or maintain specialized equipment. Hiring a technician with the necessary skills and experience may be more cost-effective than trying to train someone on your team.

Hiring a technician can benefit your business, including expertise, efficiency, quality, specialized equipment, and cost-effectiveness.

 

Onboarding a Manager for Your Small Business

As you grow, there’s simply a point where you can’t do it all. This person takes over the day-to-day and works to fix problems by learning from past mistakes. They are on the practical side of the business.

Consider hiring this essential position for your small business to build a solid foundation for your business to grow beyond you. Finding the right people for this role takes time and a complete mindset shift as you relinquish some control over the company and instill trust in people to allow them to do their jobs. 

If you’re like me and got the entrepreneurial bug, you know this journey has highs and lows. During the high times (this is what makes entrepreneurship so addicting), it’s like you can do no wrong, everything is smooth, and you’re hitting sales goals. It feels so great!

Then, there are the lows. The less than anticipated revenue, staff doesn’t show up, you made a wrong decision, or you can’t get a day off, so your mental health suffers… you know those times. It feels like nothing will go right. During these times, you need someone in your corner who knows the business from all angles. And hint, this isn’t your life partner (wink). 

Remember, BCC Business Consulting is here to partner with you and help you through processes that will get you to a place where you run your business, not the other way around. 

 

Start with my Profit Jolt workbook, where you can work through eight processes to bring in more revenue and profit into your business >> https://www.chaostocalm.xyz/profitjolt

Five Marketing Pitfalls to Avoid When Planning Your Digital Marketing for 2023

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

Do you feel like marketing is a mystical creature that some people have seen, but every time you try to find it, it doesn’t show up for you?

Many small business owners feel this way because no matter how hard they try, or how much money they spend, marketing doesn’t work for them.

Unfortunately, this is compounded by the availability of not-so-good marketing advice, especially when you’re a newbie or not familiar with how SEO works.

 

Digital Marketing Basics to Know

There are basics of digital marketing you’ll want to understand before you jump into planning your marketing for the year. First, you’ll want to list your digital marketing assets, such as your website, blog, email list, and social media platforms. Next, you’ll want to create a digital marketing planner to map out what you will do for the month and year. Then you need to create content pillars or themes you’re going to talk about for the month ahead.

 

Avoid the Marketing Pitfalls

Especially if you’re new to entrepreneurship or digital marketing, you’ll want to avoid marketing pitfalls to skip wasting time and effort on marketing tactics that won’t work. Here are the five biggest marketing mistakes you’ll want to avoid in 2023.

 

Marketing Pitfall #1: Forgetting Set Goals for Your Business

You’ll want to establish a goal first before you start marketing. Depending on your niche and lane, your goal could be client or product oriented. You may also have a sales goal. Whatever your profession, think of a relatively easy goal to achieve and write it down. Make sure your goal has a due date. If your goal is big, break your bigger goal down into micro-goals, so you have smaller checkpoints along the way to see if you’re on track to reaching your goal. If you’re not, you can scale back or decide to take a different marketing route to achieve your goal.

 

Marketing Pitfall #2: Marketing without a Plan

Many people will randomly post on Instagram, create a blog, or send out email marketing without any type of plan. Without a plan, you’re basically throwing mud against a wall, hoping it will stick. You want to create a plan with a theme for your monthly marketing, even if it’s simple. Make all your digital marketing content around that theme so you can track your data and see what’s working.

 

Marketing Pitfall #3: Assuming the Needs of Your Ideal Client or Customer

You may assume you know what your customer wants, but is it true? The only way to find out for sure is to create a survey asking your potential clients and leads what their biggest pain points are for them in their business. Then you can formulate a plan to help solve what they need.

 

Marketing Pitfall #4: Using Social Media to Sell

While social media platforms are a great way to showcase your products, your team, you, and your company culture, you’ll rarely sell your products on social media unless you’re specifically running an ad. Instead, use social media to familiarize your clients with your products, how they can solve their pain points, and show your brand personality so they make an emotional connection to you and your business.

 

Marketing Pitfall #5: Failing to Use Email Marketing

Email marketing, although it’s been around for a long time, is still the best way to market to your fans and leads. While email marketing is very popular, it’s also one of the few ways you can get your client’s undivided attention. First, showcase your products or services, educate your avatar, and include a freebie to download to show your appreciation. Then, make sure you choose a platform, such as Convertkit, to upload your clients’ emails and start sending them emails regularly.

 

When planning your marketing, and you want to be successful, make sure to avoid these marketing pitfalls. Then, think through your marketing for 2023 and devise a plan that makes your marketing a big success!

 

Business Pitfalls to Avoid When You’re an Entrepreneur

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

When you’re starting a business, especially as a first-time entrepreneur, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of building your business, such as making your new website, your new company branding, and creating business cards. However, many new entrepreneurs fail to plan, which is why 80% of start-ups fail in their first year. To avoid failing in your new business, you’ll want to make a plan after you come up with your new business idea and before you start to make your new logo. This way, you can avoid many of the pitfalls that new businesses make when they start out.

 

Start Your Business with a Business Plan

The first mistake many business owners make is to start a business without a plan. 

Ignore market testing and push on with an inaccurate plan. When you lay out a plan for your business, you have steps to take that will make your business grow more rapidly and run smoothly. 

You can purchase many business planning books if you’re unsure where to start when building a business plan. Start by reading through one to three books. Find takeaways that appeal to you and use those for your personalized business plan. 

 

Make Sure to Recognize the Problem and the Solution for Your New Business

Your new business is exciting, and you’re ready to go! However, do you know the problem you’re solving for your new potential clients? If not, then you need to step back and figure out what the problem is that you’re solving and if this is a problem that people are looking for a solution to. You can find out by surveying people online to see if your services or products offer a solution that people are looking for. If so, does your product or service offer many of the features that consumers or other businesses are looking for? These questions need to be answered before you start investing in a logo or a website.

 

Build Your Own Website with a Domain Name that You Own for Your Business

Many people feel the need to be on social media, even more so than having their own website. This is a huge mistake to make when you’re a business owner! Why? Because a social marketing platform can take down your social media page without warning, leaving you without a site or a place for your clients to contact you. Even if you’re a brick-and-mortar store, this can hurt your business. Think of the many hours of time you’ve spent on your social media page (as your only source of an online website) that’s lost because someone on the social media platform didn’t like your content. That’s not a chance any business owner should take!

Make sure you have your own website with a domain name that you’ve purchased. Gandi is a great site to purchase your domain name from, which you can migrate to any platform on which you’re building your website. Whether you’re using a drop-and-drag website or an online marketplace, you want to own your domain so that you can control your content 24/7.

 

Build Your Email List After You Have Your Website Built

Many people mistake building their social media channels and completely ignoring their email list. Did you know that your email list is the BEST marketing tool out there? Even though it’s one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, sending messages out to your email list regularly is the best way to get in front of your ideal audience.

Make sure to know the basics, who your audience is, and do the legwork of data collecting to find out if your business idea is a needed asset to consumers or businesses. Once you’ve achieved that goal, then start your logo, branding, website, and email list.

McMinnville Business Mastery Lunch & Learn

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

EVER FELT LIKE MARKETING, STAFFING, AND GROWING YOUR BUSINESS WAS LIKE NAVIGATING A DIFFICULT MAZE?

What if you could follow a proven and time-tested roadmap that provides you the EXACT steps to more cash flow and freedom?

At my Business Mastery Lunch & Learn events, join area business owners as we tackle the business challenges of the day. In each session, walk away with no-cost strategies that can be implemented immediately.

Lunch and beverages are provided but registration is required.

To register for an upcoming event, click on the date you want to attend:

January 25 – Topic: Finding & Keeping Employees

(POSTPONED) February 8 – Topic: Position Your Business for a Bank Loan

February 22 – Topic: Exit Your Way – Grow with the Exit In Mind

March 8 – Topic: Pricing Workshop (details coming soon)

March 22 – Topic: No Cost Conversions & Sales Strategies (details coming soon)

Past events included Non-traditional Ways to Find & Keep Superstar Employees, No-cost Lead Generation Strategies, Increase Conversions and Sales With Small Tweaks, and more!

What these events aren’t:

NOT a disguised sales pitch

NOT a boring presentation about buying ads that don’t result in new customers anyways

NOT a place for me to listen to my own voice for a whole 90-minutes 🙂

 

What you will get is:

REAL strategies that you can implement yourself

INSPIRATION that can only come from being in a room with like-minded business owners doing the same work at the same time

The PEACE OF MIND knowing that you’re focusing on the business activities that really make a difference so you can work smarter rather than harder.

Are you ready for the next phase of your business?

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

My business was running me.

If you’re anything like I was, your business is running you. The everyday struggles of a bakery employing 15 people and non-stop production almost killed me. I was beyond exhausted and wasn’t sure where to turn.

When I went searching for support, I was overwhelmed by the amount of tactical “solutions” recommended to get my business to the next phase. It seemed like everything was surface-level. I didn’t want the latest marketing trend, a social media calendar, or prompts for content, or dead-end financial management support.

I say this often, “You don’t know what you don’t know until you know what you didn’t know.” I know now that I needed someone outside my business to help me see beyond the day-to-day. A person with the financial know-how to examine and question current systems — someone that could get us beyond what I already knew. 

Does this resonate with you? Maybe you feel stuck and aren’t sure how to get to the next level. Or your business is growing but relies on you 24/7, and you don’t know how much longer you can take it.

Download my Profit Jolt book and we’ll also share a link to an email training series on how to build a profitable business. We’ll get you off the “hamster wheel” so your passion can fuel the world.

Let’s take care of you and your business.

This is how to Guarantee a rockin’ Q4

This is how to Guarantee a rockin’ Q4

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

Hello fellow rockstars,

I’m jumping in to talk about why this is the perfect time to start the 90-day Jumpstart. Why on earth would you do a program in the middle of the summer as we’re exiting a pandemic?

It’s natural for some businesses to slow down during the summer — pandemic or not. After talking to businesses in a variety of industries, it was clear to us this is the optimal time to embark on the 90-day Jumpstart.

We have one goal: to make Q4, rockin’ for you!

This summer, get everything lined up:

  • Hone in on marketing messaging that directly speaks to your ideal customer and market position systems using the three marketing fundamentals and the marketing equation.
  • Attract employees and onboard them in a way that you can rely on them during your most valuable season
  • Create efficiencies and systems that enable you to take Q4 and run with it.
  • We are exiting a pandemic. Yes! We need you to take care of yourself right now. Get out, enjoy friends and family safely, take a vacation… but, I want to see you participating and working ON your business rather than do it. I have a vision of someone logging in from a beach. Wouldn’t that be so cool?

What is the structure of the 90-day Jumpstart?

The reason why the program is structured the way it is, comes from an experience I had in 2017 when I was a part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses (10KSB) program. It’s kind of like an accelerated MBA where they pair you up with businesses that have at least $150,000 in revenue and four or more employees. To say this program was life-changing for me is an understatement. It was so awesome to be surrounded by entrepreneurs that had the same issues that I did. All of our businesses were in different stages and different industries but experiencing the same things. The camaraderie that developed was amazing.

I made my big life choice of leaving my bakery business based on a relationship that I had with someone in my 10KSB class. They asked me, “why was I hanging on so tight to the business when you have so much more to do?” My point in sharing that is that these deep relationships could stick with you for a lifetime.

As a business owner, I know that it can get really lonely, especially when you’re working day-to-day with managing employees and you — we all — need someone to listen to us, to help us see blind spots, and support us through challenging choices. That’s why 90-day Jumpstart is structured in a very intimate way where we have, at most, eight people in each cohort. So go ahead, click on the 90-day Jumpstart link and fill out the application if this at all interests you at all. The next step is you and I sitting down (virtually) and talking for 30 minutes about your business — and it’s free.

If the summer one doesn’t work for you, still fill out an application if this feels like a fit. We offer the program year-round and can stay in touch when the next cohort is available. There’s nothing more that I love than to hear about what you are doing. The passion fellow business owners have for their businesses, customers, and employees are so cool to me.

I look forward to speaking with you! Thank you for jumping in, considering the possibilities of upgrading your lifestyle by sustainably growing your business, and creating the life you want.

Let’s dig in!

5 strategies you will master by signing up for the 90-Day Jumpstart

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

90-DAY JUMPSTART BEGINS JULY 6

Are you asking yourself, why aren’t more customers buying from me? You invested in social media or a shiny new website but aren’t seeing conversions? Learn why your marketing doesn’t work and, more importantly, how to fix it NOW.

WHAT: 90-day Jumpstart is a structured virtual program where you will learn, practice, and implement a number of strategies that begin to grow your business immediately. Best of all, you’ll continue to see these strategies pay off for years to come.

After taking this course, you will never again ask yourself what you need to do and how to do it to increase sales, increase cash flows, increase efficiencies, or how to grow and attract dedicated staff.

Past participants have experienced 2x, 5x and even 15x growth in the first year these strategies were put in place.

HOW: You might be asking yourself, how is this possible?! You’ve likely been trying to get more customers forever but nothing sticks and you feel like you’re on a hamster wheel creating content with little to no engagement. Or, you’re getting engagement but not seeing sales. At the base of the 90-day Jumpstart, you’ll learn these strategies:

  1. Position your business in a league of its own
  2. Attract your soul-mate customer or client
  3. Attract and retain your ideal employees
  4. Increase your number of transactions
  5. Decrease your costs

WHO: Business owners in business a minimum of 2 years and generate $50,000 – $1.3M in revenue a year.

WHEN: The next cohort starts July 6.

Are you in? If it’s a hell yes! Fill out the application here >>

If you’d like to see more information, learn more here >>