Category Archives: Small Business Owners

SMALL BUSINESS WEEK 2018

WIMS Celebrates National Small Business Week 2018!

In honor of Small Business Week I’ve put together a collection of resources, information, articles, etc. for you to check out whether you’re currently an entrepreneur, if you’re considering becoming one, or if you simply want to support your local crazy roller coaster rider like myself. Also, to celebrate WIMS Consulting is offering a 20% on all services/projects for other small business owners. Just reach out and mention it during your consultation!

What is SBW?

From April 29th to May 5th, 2018, it’s National Small Business Week where the SBA (Small Business Association) recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs and small business owners from all across the 50 states and U.S. territories.

About: “Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners.

More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.

As part of National Small Business Week, the U.S. Small Business Administration takes the opportunity to highlight the impact of outstanding entrepreneurs, small business owners, and others from all 50 states and U.S. territories. Every day, they’re working to grow small businesses, create 21st century jobs, drive innovation, and increase America’s global competitiveness.”

 

For North Carolina Companies:

Charlotte Business Resources – it’s Small Business MONTH for the CBR and the city of Charlotte (thanks Mayor Vi Lyles)! Check out everything going on. They’re using #31DaysofBiz too if you want to follow along.

Check out NC IDEA, they’re expanding the long-standing NC IDEA SEED grant program by introducing a Micro-Grant Pilot Program to award micro-grants to deserving companies not yet positioned for their traditional $50K seed grants. “The NC IDEA SEED Micro-Grant Pilot Program will award project-based, micro-grants in the amount of $1K – $10K to young companies looking to validate and advance their idea; or if further along, validate scalability where a small amount of funding would make a significant impact. Grant recipients will also receive mentorship and assistance from NC IDEA, as well as access to its wide network of advisors, partners and investors.”

 

Other SBW2018 Resources Worth Checking Out:

Entrepreneur Magazine SBW2018 HQ

Amazon Business Small Business Week Page

They also created: The Small Business Office Playbook is a resource endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as part of its commitment to continually support small businesses’ needs and growth opportunities.

Vista Print 33% off entire site with code SMALLBIZ

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program

Top TedTalks for when you want to start a business.

Consider These 9 New Ideas For Small Business Week PR (Forbes)

Why National Small Business Week Matters Now More Than Ever (Business.com)

Small Business Week 2018: Need money to get started? We’ve got you. (USA Today)

43 Reasons You Should Support Small And Independent Businesses (Forbes)

Market Contraction

The Coming Market Contraction & What it Means for Your Business

After a nearly decade long recovery period, it’s starting to look and feel like the time for an economic contraction is on the horizon. It likely won’t come for another year or so yet (if we’re lucky), but based on the history of our country, it’s certainly inevitable at some point.

A lot of the experts, economists, and pundits are starting to sound the alarm already. Things like the student loan debt crisis, 2018 interest rate hikes, the collapse of retail, and the toxic political climate, are all going to come to a head and likely trigger it. Forbes, Inc. Magazine, CNBC, Bloomberg, Seeking Alpha, and Newsmax are just a sampling of publications that have had a relatively recent article about it.

Now I’m very much an optimist, so I don’t want you to interpret my prediction of a market downturn as me being pessimistic. On the contrary, I think recessions can be an incredible opportunity for those who are prepared for them. Historically, a lot of fortunes were made in the years during and shortly after economic recessions. Not to mention, regardless of whether the stock market goes up or down, someone is always making a lot of money.

While I’m no economist, I am fortunate to be able to work with a lot of people with brilliant business minds and insight into the mysterious world of macro market forces. My suggestion (if you made it this far I’m guessing you care enough to read it) is to keep an open mind to start being proactive before it’s too late. I know a lot of you might be a bit too young to really remember 2008, but if you think back to past recessions they always seem to abruptly appear to come out of nowhere and catch people off guard. One day everyone is riding high with exuberance and the next day the bottom falls out. Clearly, it’s possible and likely that it happens this way again.

I’m not saying to run around being worried or dwelling on this. I’m simply recommending that you start tightening your belt a bit now while you can. Rein in those spending habits that may have gotten a little out of control lately. Perhaps consider cashing out on a few things while values are high and take some chips off the table. Otherwise, you could end up falling into the preventable trap of being forced to sell assets at the bottom.

Simultaneously you should also be going all-in on growing your business too. I know that may sound contradictory but investing in revenue/income generating activities is and always will be a wise move. A lot of people will be out of the game when the day comes and being able to perform a land grab because your business is dialed in can be a life changing opportunity.

Start thinking strategically about the next 1-3 years and what they could mean for you and your business. Instead of hiring several full-time employees consider leveraging a consulting firm so you have more flexibility. Make the commitment to increase your emphasis on sales and marketing even more. It’s tax season right now, so it’s a great time to really look at your numbers and analyze your financial data to identify weak spots or areas for improvement.

Hey, perhaps myself and others will end up being wrong about the timing of it. Maybe the next recession doesn’t come for another 3 to 5 years instead. Either way, would your business not be better off be taking those steps sooner rather than later?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject! If you agree with me I’d be interested to hear what steps you’re currently taking. And if you think I’m crazy, I’d still like to hear why you think we have nothing but blue skies ahead.

Santa Tierra Mezcal

WIMS Client Spotlight: Santa Tierra Mezcal

Santa Tierra Mezcal is officially making its debut to sunny South Florida in Q2 2018! After dominating the ultra-competitive Mexican market and emerging as one of the best premium mezcales on the market, it was certainly time to expand to the U.S. The U.S. operation will be based in Miami, FL which will serve as the jump off point of the U.S. takeover.

The popularity of mezcal has exploded recently and the formally mysterious libation is now experiencing it’s time in the sun. Whether sipped on neat, on the rocks, or mixed into a tasty craft cocktail, mezcal always provides a full-on experience.

We’re excited to bring Santa Tierra Mezcal here for the people of South Florida to enjoy followed by several other key markets shortly thereafter. If you’re interested in carrying our brand in your restaurant, bar, club, or hotel, please let us know!

The Story of Santa Tierra Mezcal

Santa Tierra is a 100% Mexican company made by friends and now partners who decided to move forward in the fascinating world of mezcal. They now take this venture very seriously and focus on one sole objective; to make Santa Tierra the best mezcal ever produced, not just because of the flavor, but also for the dedication to premium quality.

Every bottle is made by hand in Oaxaca, Mexico. They chose the location of Sola de Vega in Oaxaca, because it was there where they found the best agave plants to produce their mezcal due to the nutrient-rich soil. Sola de Vega is also home to the masters of the handmade mezcal production, the “mezcaleros.”

Santa Tierra is manufactured from four different species of agave plant; el espadín (angustifolia), the arroqueño (americana var americana), coyote (americana oaxacensis) and Tobalá (potatorum succ), all of which are wild in the heart of the Sola de Vega. The agave grow for a period of 6 to 20 years depending on the variety. Santa Tierra utilizes the waters of local natural flowing rivers to help enrich their magueyes before being cut to provide a smooth and distinct agave flavor unique to the mezcal of Santa Tierra. They have an organic certification, so there are no fillers, added sugars, or worms, their mezcal is pure and ultra-smooth.

Going Streaking Gym Health

We’re Going Streaking! 29 Days Straight in the Gym (and Counting)

Don’t worry, this isn’t a, “you have to go to the gym or else type of post.” I assure you it’s business related. I want to speak more to the journey of becoming a better entrepreneur, the process of leveling up and what is required to make the quantum leap as a business person.

So, I’m currently in the middle of the longest consecutive day streak of going to the gym in my life (my program is below if you’re interested). It’s not like I haven’t been on a solid long-term routine before, there were just always at least one or two rest days each week. This time my whole approach and mindset is different. The actual working out part is important of course, I very much want to get into great physical shape. But it’s equally (or more) about the mental aspect.

As someone hyper focused on continuing to grow and scale multiple businesses, the level of discipline required to do so increases dramatically. For most of my career I’ve been able to get by and thrive with enthusiasm, spontaneity, and shear determination to put in whatever amount of time and effort was required. There comes a time when brute force, a little charm, and some passion doesn’t quite cut it anymore.

To make the jump to the next level you need to be disciplined, thoughtful, proactive, focused, and truly master time management, productivity, and efficiency. Thus, this streak of mine has been more about building up these skill-sets. I wanted to make a substantial commitment to something very difficult and challenging, and yet stick to it nonetheless.

I’m only accountable to myself in this endeavor, so it would be easier to quit, but knowing that and still progressing has been invaluable. Practicing making hard choices over and over again will eventually make them become easier to make, and without even allowing myself to consider the option of not doing it.

It’s not just the gym I’m doing this with either, it’s other subtler things too, like my 21-day streak of taking my Spanish lessons on Duolingo, practicing mindfulness, reading a daily devotional and chapters from books, and even flossing.

These things may appear trivial, but it’s about getting back to the basics and mastering the small things. This will make the bigger, high stakes business decisions of the near future become easier to make. It’s about building more confidence and self-assurance along the way. It’s about focusing more on, being more mindful of, and enjoying the journey along the way.

What kind of daily habits are you building to become a better entrepreneur/professional?

 

My Current Workout Program:

Monday – Chest/Bi Super-set

Tuesday – Back/Tri Super-set

Wednesday – Legs/Abs

Thursday – Shoulders

Friday – Arms/”Guido Pump” Bi/Tri Superset

Saturday – Legs/Abs (All different exercises than Wednesday)

Sunday – Cardio

Daily: Stretch, Push-ups, & Plank. I also do cardio every day as a warm up and cool down too. Yes, I know this hinders my “gainz” a bit all you workout warriors, but personally I find it worth it for the sustainability.

Supplements: Whey Protein, BCAA’s, Creatine (all from MRM), and Topical Magnesium Gel (Absolute Game Changer! Use code: Claire for 15% off).

Charlotte

Doing a Charlotte Deep Dive this February

While I’m fortunate that my business often takes me all over the country, every now and then it’s crucial to do a deep dive into my own HQ city, Charlotte, NC. I’ve made a lot of progress with growing my network here, but it’s still far from where I want and need it to be. And I don’t have nearly the client base that I’d like here yet either, and building it is one of my primary objectives for 2018.

Over the next couple weeks (while simultaneously continuing to run the business) I’m going to be back on the local networking grind with a vengeance. Below is the scheduled itinerary with links if you’re interested in joining me. Also, if there’s any events/organizations I’m missing please let me know!

February 7th; 6:00 pm – StartupGrindCLT

February 8th; 7:30 am – Bisnow’s 8th Annual Charlotte State of the Market (Commercial Real Estate)

February 9th; 8:30 am – Monthly BIG Ideas Exchange: Big Data (BIG – Business Innovation Growth)

February 14th; 8:00 am – PitchBreakfast

February 14th; 11:30am – Charlotte Chamber YP’s (CCYPs) Non-Profit Luncheon (Volunteer Matchmaker)

February 16th; 12:00 pm – Skookum TechTalks: Blockchain Technology: Uses Beyond Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency

February 22nd; 4:00 pm – NextGen Charlotte Business Journal – 2018 Money Management

If you’re in Charlotte, and planning to attend one of these, I hope to see you and to get to know you and your business better!

Entrepreneurs Zoho CRM

Entrepreneurs! Are You Aware of the Latest Offerings from Zoho CRM?

Forget what you think you know about CRM programs. It’s time for you to rethink the entire idea that you’ve been holding onto for years now. You know, that they’re too expensive, too complicated, and not useful enough to justify tackling those challenges. It’s just not true anymore. I understand why you think that way, but until you’ve seen the latest software package that Zoho CRM has been rolling out it’s simply misguided. Allow me to enlighten you a bit.

While I remain a raving Salesforce fan, I’m not going to suggest you take on a CRM program of that magnitude (unless your enterprise fits a certain set of criteria). I still love HubSpot as well but will save that for another post. Right now, I’m here to inform you about the crazy new suite from Zoho that you must at least take a few minutes to check out. If you’re a solo entrepreneur/freelancer, or you have all the way up to 25 employees it will help revolutionize and scale your business like crazy.

Now I was already geeking out a couple months ago when they launched Zoho One. But then they went ahead and added too more applications the other day which literally blew my mind. Zoho Flow “automates business workflows by connecting your apps. You can build smart integrations to break the information silos in your business.” This works for both internal Zoho apps and external ones as well, think Zapier or IFTTT. The other is Zoho PageSense, which is “the Complete A/B Testing and Website Optimization Software. Get ready to increase website conversions and skyrocket your revenue.”

Now, for transparency purposes I must inform you that a large part of my business is built around assisting companies of all sizes and industries to build and implement CRM programs like these. BUT, I legitimately use this one for my own business. It not only has helped me to get better organized with project management and more efficient and streamlined from an operations perspective but leveraging it has tangibly helped me to grow the revenue of my business significantly as well. I’m all about automating as much as possible and these new features allow you to do just that.

If you want to explore what incorporating a CRM program would look like for your business, reach out to me and I’d be thrilled to assist. Whether it’s Zoho or one of the many other incredible programs out there, we can certainly get you on the right track to implementing it correctly to start demonstrating ROI asap.

Before moving forward, to get a better idea of what all they have to offer, take a look at how they articulate it:

Zoho One is a revolutionary all-in-one suite to run your entire business—an unprecedented 35+ integrated applications on one account, with complete administrative control—for a price that will change the way you think about buying software.

Zoho One includes applications with complementary mobile apps so you can run your entire business on one suite. This is the real deal here: You’re getting full-featured, enterprise editions of the entire Zoho suite. That means being able to reach customers, grow sales, balance your books, and work in productive and collaborative ways from any device—all with a single login and password.

Zoho One connects your sales, marketing, customer support, accounting, and more, while also giving you contextual integrations to communicate and collaborate with colleagues, customers, and vendors. With an integrated suite like Zoho One, you’ll always have the right information in the right places, empowering your employees to do great work. Traditionally, this has required an astronomical IT budget and an army of consultants to force everything together. Zoho One makes all that cost and complexity a thing of the past.

Zoho One is enhanced by Zoho’s growing developer ecosystem, marketplace extensions, and global partner network. We’ve made Zoho One extendable so our technology partners can customize our applications to meet your unique needs, across a broad set of industries. These custom apps and extensions of our already powerful applications are made available to you through our Marketplace. Meanwhile, our 1,000+ implementation and training partners are available to help you locally as needs arise.

2018 Call to Action

Happy New Year! I’ll save you the “new year new me/new year new you” talk (even though I’m always a sucker for self-improvement) and get straight to the point. You already know this is going to be your best year yet or you wouldn’t be reading this. And you KNOW it’s going to be my best year yet too. Now for the important part, HOW are we going to do that? This is OUR call to action!

Now I’m not some business guru, I’m still closer to the beginning of my come up, building the foundation of my future empire just like most of you. But I often have people reach out to me beginning with something along the lines of, “I’ve been meaning to reach out to you.” Or “I’ve been following/keeping tabs on you for months now and planning to hit you up.”

The reasons and motivations usually vary, it could be about entrepreneurship, marketing, CRM, augmented reality, blockchain/cryptocurrency, etc. My point in all this is to explicitly say, THIS is your invitation to reach out to me. Don’t wait another 3 months until your life gets less complicated (it won’t) or less busy (it won’t) before doing it. Now is as good a time as any.

It’s obvious we’re all ambitious people grinding our asses off to continue building our businesses and to add more value to our clients and prospects. If there’s a way we can help each other to do just that it’s very much worth at least a conversation.

Further, even if you’re not ready just yet, there’s a good chance I’ll be reaching out to you soon regardless. I will always make sure there’s something valuable tied to it though. But in 2018 I truly want to connect people in a way that helps them grow their businesses and networks. People ask me to make introductions/referrals to professionals in my network often. If it’s a connection that doesn’t make sense to you, you are more than welcome to say no thanks (or ignore it like some do). But keep in mind that on the flip side I’d probably make the intro for you too.

When the dust settles this time next year we’ll all have just got done celebrating the best year of our professional lives and strategizing on how to make 2019 even better. As my boy Tony Robbins says, “If you want to take the island, burn the boats!” I’m ALL IN on 2018 and I know you are too, so let’s get to work already and make it happen!

P.S. I’m always looking for new clients, investors, partners/collaborators, etc. so if there’s someone you think it would make sense for me to talk to please don’t hesitate to answer the call to action!

Judging the YLAI Pitch Competition: A New Entrepreneurial Perspective

Last week I was fortunate enough to be 1 of 6 judges from the Charlotte entrepreneurial community to take part in the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) Charlotte Pitch Competition. In partnership with International House Charlotte, Meridian International Center, and the U.S. Department of State they’ve been hosting 9 incredible startup entrepreneurs (aka “Fellows”) from across Latin America. They started their trip in Atlanta before heading to Charlotte, and are currently finishing up in Washington D.C. before heading home.

We were asked to simply listen to each of them tell us about their business. They had 3 minutes to do so along with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation. We were given a scoring rubric with which to judge them on, and we were also given 3 minutes for follow up questions. After they all went the judges deliberated and had to select the top 3. Afterwards the judges were given a certificate with “The title of Citizen Diplomat, in recognition of outstanding efforts in fostering cross cultural understanding.” Very cool, but the real takeaway was the education I received from this experience.

The creativity and resourcefulness shown by each of them was profoundly inspiring from an entrepreneurial perspective. The fact that they are building businesses with far less resources and infrastructure than we have here was mind blowing. Not to mention, their target markets aren’t as neatly defined or as accessible as they here either. Yet these people relentlessly march on, finding unique ways to monetize and scale their businesses despite the odds being against them. But what stuck out the most was their sheer passion for doing whatever they can to make their communities and countries a better place to live and work.

They knew all the buzz words and latest business trends, what business models work well, how to leverage social media and the internet to promote their business, etc. Even though each country has differing laws, tax structures, governmental support, and macroeconomic circumstances they all seemed to know how to play the game well in their respective countries too. It reinforced the fact that there is simply no excuse or justification for not doing whatever it takes to succeed in business.

I don’t mean to imply that these things are negative, on the contrary I think it presents a tremendous opportunity. The potential for further global growth is seemingly infinite, and the entrepreneurial spirit is spreading to every corner of the globe.

In case you’re interested in looking any of these entrepreneurial people and their businesses up (they would greatly appreciate any support, even if it’s simply offering feedback to help them improve) I’ve provided a list below.

CRM Revisited (Again): It Should be Your #1 2018 Priority

I’ve been harping on the importance of CRM programs for about a decade now (here’s the last time), yet it still hasn’t caught on the way it should. This is the year that changes. Like with most technology, competition, economies of scale, and innovation have driven costs down significantly. Not only are they cheaper, but the functionality and value has simultaneously increased dramatically. Now, you can even get basic versions of a CRM program for free. It’s why acquiring and implementing a CRM program is my #1 recommendation for every business, regardless of industry or target market, if you’re looking to increase revenue.

Whether you work for a large and complex company, or if you’re an independent freelancer, or if you’re a sales mercenary who is compensated by getting to “eat what you kill,” there is a CRM program out there for you. Regardless of your budget (or lack thereof), you can customize the level of sophistication of your CRM program, as they all have various subscription levels. Further, there was recently an absolutely game changing announcement from one of my CRM platform preferences (and the one I personally use for my business).

Zoho One – An Operating System for Business

“Zoho One is a broad and cohesive set of applications that work collectively to run an entire business on the cloud. It includes more than 35 web applications and an equal number of mobile apps—under a single sign-on, with centralized administration and provisioning—making it a true operating system for any business. While each application punches above its weight against the competition, collectively they deliver a knockout punch.

With Zoho One, we’ve put together all the applications a company needs to acquire and serve its customers (marketing, sales, and support apps); run its operations (finance, recruiting, and HR apps); and provide all the tools for its employees to work collaboratively and get their work done (office suite, mail, personal productivity, and collaboration apps). Almost any company has these same needs. With Creator, our drag-and-drop app builder, customers can even build custom apps for unique business needs—like logistics scheduling—and put them under the same umbrella that forms the single operating system for their business.

Zoho One is available at $30 a month—or just about a dollar a day, per employee. ($35 if you pay on a month-to-month basis).”

While WIMS, Inc. is platform agnostic (we work with all of them, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, and Insightly among others) it’s getting more difficult not to refer my clients and prospects straight to Zoho right now. There are of course exceptions, but they’ve built something special, particularly for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Now, back to the more general CRM theme.

They all integrate with your email provider of choice, along with most social media channels, so tracking communications is easy (and automated). There are an incredible number of third-party add-ons you can incorporate depending on how robust your operations processes are to add additional functionality too.

Most importantly however, is that the ROI (return on investment) will more than make up for the expense.

CRMs help you automate your sales process. The more automated your sales cycle and follow up efforts can be, the greater volume of deals your business will be able to close. Further, the more accurate data you have about your sales cycle, the more deeply you can analyze it to gain insight that will not only help increase revenue, but ultimately help you improve:

  • Close rates,
  • Customer service and retention,
  • Length of sales cycle, and
  • Forecasting efforts and projections.

While implementing a CRM program can be a significant commitment initially, if you do it right, the benefit to your business is invaluable. With just over two months left in 2017, now is the perfect time to start planning and conduct your due diligence to start 2018 with yet another New Year’s resolution.

We’re here to help if you need it!