AmiSights: Financing the Future For Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

In today’s podcast, we talk to Michelle Galligan, CEO and co-founder of Keep Financials, a firm providing outsourced accounting and CFO services for small businesses. Michelle’s company provides CFO services, conducting a monthly review of the financials and picking out the five to 10 most important things that help entrepreneurs understand where they are, what's going on in the business, and if they have any risk.

“One of the most satisfying things to me is when our clients say things to us like, ‘You helped me sleep better at night. I finally know what's going on in my business,’” she said. “Nobody gets into business so that they can keep their own books. We really exist to support entrepreneurs.”

The main topics of today's episode will be how to use a line of credit, how Michelle’s company grew from local to national, and when she made the leap from working in her business to working on her business.

Recorded on 05/31/2023

In today’s podcast, we talk to Robin Stanaland, owner of RMS, a company that helps business owners value, market, and sell their businesses. Robin, who is based in Houston, also runs eight Vistage groups, spending more than 1,000 hours a year in one-on-one coaching conversations with CEOs and business owners. While the next six to 12 months are anybody’s guess on the economy, Robin says preparation is key.

"As a CEO, you have a contingency plan already thought through, and you know what the levers are and what your actions are going to be should things start to decline," she said. "As long as you've got a good contingency plan, then you can operate with ease, going towards growth and building your company. And if things don't happen that you don't have to execute on that plan, that's great, but at least you've thought through it, and you have it for the worst case."

The main topics of today's episode will be the impact of higher interest rates on mergers and acquisitions and the value of being approachable and personable to clients. We will also talk about the themes that are resonating throughout all of Robin’s Vistage groups and the changes in SBA guidelines, including partial buyouts and equity requirements.

Recorded on 05/26/2023

In today’s podcast, MultiFunding President Lynn Ozer, aka SBA Queen, and I talk to Fletcher Wimbush, Founder, CEO, and Lead Executive Recruiter for The Hire Talent, a talent assessment company that solves difficult hiring problems primarily for companies with 0-250 employees. Fletcher tells us how he got into the industry and shares how to find the top talent.

“I spent literally my entire life since I was 16 thinking about this,” he said. “My father was a management consultant, like a business coach. And he developed these really cool behavioral aptitude assessments. He was an introvert – like a researcher, scientist kind of guy. And I was like this crazy outgoing extrovert…My dad was chirping at me in the background saying, ‘get the right people on the bus and good things are gonna happen inside of your organization,’ and that just stuck with me for some reason.” 

The main topics of today's episode will be the importance of talking to the right references, the most effective questions in interviewing, and the differences between assessment tests.

Recorded on 05/24/2023

In today’s podcast, MultiFunding President Lynn Ozer, aka SBA Queen, and I talk to Fletcher Wimbush, Founder, CEO, and Lead Executive Recruiter for The Hire Talent, a talent assessment company that solves difficult hiring problems primarily for companies with 0-250 employees. Fletcher tells us how he got into the industry and shares how to find the top talent.

“I spent literally my entire life since I was 16 thinking about this,” he said. “My father was a management consultant, like a business coach. And he developed these really cool behavioral aptitude assessments. He was an introvert – like a researcher, scientist kind of guy. And I was like this crazy outgoing extrovert…My dad was chirping at me in the background saying, ‘get the right people on the bus and good things are gonna happen inside of your organization,’ and that just stuck with me for some reason.” 

The main topics of today's episode will be the importance of talking to the right references, the most effective questions in interviewing, and the differences between assessment tests.

Recorded on 05/24/2023

I am thrilled to have Tom Spadea as our guest on the AmiSights Podcast.  Tom explains that his firm, Spadea Lignana, helps people turn successful businesses into franchises by providing regulatory guidance, franchise agreements, and structural support. They work with companies with a proven track record and high profitability, aiming to help them achieve generational wealth through franchising.

The conversation touches on the importance of having processes that can be duplicated to create consistency and brand awareness. Tom emphasizes the need for a successful and profitable business before considering franchising, highlighting that potential franchisees are attracted to the value and unique aspects of the company. 

"I think those franchisors that have real good emotional intelligence and they've taken the long view when they're building relationships and they're making their franchise successful, even sometimes at their own short-term quarrel, they're the ones who really make it", says Tom. 

We discuss the significance of selecting the right franchisees and the common mistake of selling franchises without proper screening.

Recorded on 06/08/2023

In today’s podcast, MultiFunding President Lynn Ozer, aka SBA Queen, and I talk to Jessica Harrington, owner of Journey to Yourself, a company she started in 2020 that provides a six-month series of interactive corporate workshops focusing on habits and tools for employees as well as 1:1 coaching for employees on stress management. Jessica tells us how keeping the small stuff under control and nipping aggravations in the bud early on can prevent burnout or damaged relationships.

"My mindset on stress is that a lot of it is self-caused on how we perceive it and how we're handling it," she explains. "And so that's what I want to teach people is what stress is, because it is every day, and making sure it doesn't become something chronic or burnout."

Jessica started her career in the drug and alcohol addiction field before going back to school and earning a master’s degree in public health. While she is not a certified therapist, she specializes in implementing actionable steps.

"My main bread and butter would be my corporation workshops. I go into offices once a month for six months, 45 minutes, no meditation, no yoga, no PowerPoints, just super interactive activities of working around what is stress, communication, time management, all those kinds of fun things, and bring that into the office place," she says.

Stress, whether in your personal or professional life, typically builds up from reactions to everyday, mundane occurrences.

"We tend to focus on the big stressors in life. We can talk about the bills, we can talk about relationships, we could talk about the drama at work, but those little things – that there's no creamer when I thought there was supposed to be creamer, the traffic, the Dunkin donut line – those things are what starts to add up and what helps in the blow up when we actually have a bigger stress," she says.

Breakdowns in personal relationships also tend to build up over a series of small things that go unchecked until it is too late.

"Those tiny things add up because that's how life works. A lot of times we all are just having our own racing thoughts that we don't even realize when we hurt or bother somebody else sometimes because we are all in our own little world," she said.

Listen here as she also discusses how to navigate perceived tone in texts and emails and the importance of face-to-face interaction in a remote world. Recorded on 05/09/23

Talk about mixing things up a bit: instead of being the co-host on today's podcast, I am the guest – along with my better half Bethany.

We share our experience visiting South Africa – that I tried to memorialize on this episode. We talk about the experience of going on safari, sitting in my grandfather's seat in the synagogue I grew up in, and visiting the orphanage in Langa township.

It was all driven by the Entrepreneur Organization's Global Leadership Conference, which we were honored to attend.

Recorded on 6/1/23

In today’s podcast, MultiFunding President Lynn Ozer, aka SBA Queen, and I talk to Angela Pointon, Owner and President of 11outof11, a digital marketing agency that offers outsource content marketing services and HubSpot expertise and training. Angela tells us about what makes her tick and the inspiration behind her book, “Stop Blending In: The 7 Steps for Achieving Thought Leader Status and Standing Out in Your Field.”

She explains that when she was working for an agency, she was working 60-70 hours a week, commuting an hour each way and hardly seeing her then-very young children. While she climbed the ranks to COO, she was burnt out and took some time off to freelance before launching 11outof11 in 2017.

“Our business model is comprised of a lot of subcontractors – people who really own their own work-life balance and choose how much they want to work in their life versus spending time traveling or doing other things or spending time with family,” she said. “Being able to empower people to own that themselves and dictate that whatever that means for them is something that really makes me tick and gets me excited.”

She admits she didn’t know much about running a business when she first started, but loved the newness of the first few years.

“With every client that signed, I got really excited, and ‘I can't believe they want to work with us’ was more my attitude going into that, not because I didn't think that we could deliver, I was just kind of a kid in the candy store, just excited that it was taking off and growing and making money and also empowering people to build a life that they wanted,” she said. 

As the business grows, she is trying to spend more time working on her business rather than working in it, and empowering others to take control and do what they do best. 

“Delegation is a lot about trust. It was really about building the team and providing training or coaching in areas that they needed to grow,” she said. “If it's not done the way I want, I swoop back in and do it myself. That's my bad behavior from a delegation perspective. When you have people who actually do things better than you could, you get away from that feeling.”

Listen to learn about what marketing expertise her company provides, how she thinks tools like ChatGPT will affect content creation and how she sets goals.

Recorded 05/08/2023.

In today’s podcast, MultiFunding President Lynn Ozer, aka SBA Queen, and I talk to Jon MacDonald, founder and president of The Good, an ecommerce conversion rate and customer experience optimization advisory that helps brands understand the clicks and movements of their website visitors, and use that data to convert more existing visitors into buyers. Jon also tells us how he spent his extra time during the pandemic writing a step-by-step book, “Opting in to Optimization.”

“I said, ‘If I come out of COVID, what is the one thing that I could really do for the business that is going to move the needle?’” he says. “The more I thought about it, the more I thought, I have time to write a book and share with the world our thought process on how we optimize over the past 15 years for ecommerce brands. I started by interviewing my teammates, my core team members at The Good, and said, ‘if you could tell the world anything, what would it be? And let's figure that out.’”

The book, available at bookstores, thegood.com, and Amazon, where it has been a bestseller the past four or five months, is aimed at ecommerce founders or managers who are at the second or third stage of growth, Jon says.

“The third level is really when they start to dial it up. You are spending money to drive traffic, it's working. Now you want to get a better return on that ad spend. Those are the folks who really will get the most out of that book,” he said. 

While his company primarily works with large companies like Nike, Adobe and Xerox, he started a new wing called The Good Ventures which provides products for small businesses, such as the UserInput tool. 

The Portland, Oregon company’s name, The Good, derived out if its “mission is to remove all of the bad online experiences until only the good remain," Jon says. 

While doing good by its customers, the company also does good by its employees and the community as it is a certified B Corporation. 

“We put a lot of emphasis on culture, making sure that we have the right teammates, who embody and are attracted to that benefit corporation where we're putting people and planet before profits,” he explains. 

Listen here to learn how Jon’s larger-than-average shoe size prompted him to delve into ecommerce optimization, how Obama’s first presidential campaign changed digital optimization, and how The Good was prepared for what was coming when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit China.

Recorded 04/11/2023.

In today’s podcast, MultiFunding President Lynn Ozer, aka SBA Queen, and I talk to Chris Earley, an ex-franchisee, founder and president of Liberty Inspection Group, based in Media, Pennsylvania. Chris tells us how he started his own home inspection company after getting his feet wet with a franchise. He also talks about diversifying his business to make it through the fluctuating real estate market. If your business is or isn’t experiencing shifts because of economic factors, let Chris’ story inspire you on how to navigate economic landmines.  

“The franchise was good for us for a couple years; the business-in-the-box was really, really good – kind of got me going faster than I would have ordinarily,” he explained. “But after a few years, it was just kind of like a waste of my royalties. I'm giving them 11% of everything I make, and I'm not getting any value in return.”

He was one of the first franchisees to leave the company and was only in year eight of a 10-year non-compete agreement. So, he switched the name and kept the number and kept all the same clients. Although the franchisor came after him and he had to pay their attorney fees, it was worth it for him as he made back the money that he would have paid in royalties within a year.

Although the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 took its toll as he didn’t have any income coming in, people began to “buy houses like crazy” and everybody was getting an inspection. But for the past 12-18 months, not only has the volume of sales down, but people are waiving inspections.

To compensate, he decided to start a handyman division, Canopy Building Services, with a separate C corporation and separate employees from the inspection side. Both companies share resources and have the same leadership team. The business model is also similar to Liberty’s as they both incorporate Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and operate on traction.

Listen here as Chris also discusses what people should be aware of before selling their house, how his peer groups helped him through tough times, and the possibility of franchising his business.

Recorded 04/10/2023.