The How of Business - How to start, run & grow a small business.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT Introduction and Fundamentals for Small Business Owners. Henry Lopez, host of The How of Business podcast, has recently been focusing on AI from a business owner’s perspective – learning how it’s currently being used and what the future applications may be. AI will continue to change how we do business.

Show notes page: https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/484-ai-chatgpt-introduction/

Whether on purpose or not, you are like already using AI to help you run your small business.  As a small business owner, you don’t need to know all the technical details of how AI and ChatGPT or Google Bard works, you just need to know how to leverage AI to help you stay competitive and grow your small business.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com  

Henry Lopez answers listener's small business questions. We have gathered some of the great questions our listeners have submitted through the podcast Listener Survey, and Henry answers these questions on this episode of the How of Business podcast.

The questions:

[1:35] - How to estimate overhead cost and operation cost when starting a business with no prior experience.

[7:07] - How do you know when and how to prepare for hiring your first assistant/virtual assistant/employee to support a solopreneur?

[12:25] - How does a startup craft a 3-year P&L that doesn't lead to over estimating sales?

[17:00] - Paths to acquiring small businesses that are not for sale. How to approach an owner and ways to get them to consider your interest in buying their business seriously?

[21:50] - Tips and tricks for staying focused on the most important tasks?

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com  

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Small Business (starting at 17:18) with serial entrepreneur and AI expert Kevin Surace.

Kevin shares his knowledge and experience with Artificial Intelligence and the current and potential future impact of AI on small business. He will also share highlights from his fascinating and incredibly varied background and entrepreneur journey.

Kevin Surace is a Silicon Valley innovator, serial entrepreneur, CEO, and TV personality. Kevin has been featured by various periodicals and TV networks, and has keynoted hundreds of events, from INC5000 to TED to the US Congress.

Small business owners have an opportunity to embrace and leverage the power of AI (Artificial Intelligence) throughout their small businesses to help increase productivity and create a competitive advantage.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com  

Growing a small business, from chaos to calm, with entrepreneur Mike McFall. Mike is back on the show to share insights from his experiences as a successful entrepreneur on how to grow a small business, from common chaos to a calm business that is sustainable long-term. How to evolve from a bootstrapping entrepreneur, to leader and then to irrelevant.

Mike McFall is the co-founder and co-CEO of BIGGBY® COFFEE, one of the fastest-growing coffee franchises in the United States. Despite not having an MBA or being a workaholic, McFall has built his career through hard work and real-world experience.

McFall is the author of “Grind” and his new book “Grow: Take Your Business from Chaos to Calm”, the first two books in a three-book series, which offer practical advice for entrepreneurs looking to turn their small business concepts into successful ventures.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com

How to create your small business LLC or Corporation with host Henry Lopez. 

What is a legal business entity, why do you need one and how do you create it?  Creating and operating your small business under a legal entity, like an LLC or Corporation, can provide you with the best liability protection and tax advantage. On this episode Henry shares information about what is a legal entity, why you need one, and how to create and maintain your small business entity. Visit the show notes page for this episode to download the free Entity Creation Checklist.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com

Amy explains how to build a consulting business (starting at 15:54). Amy Rasdal also shares her interesting entrepreneur journey - she transitioned from a successful corporate career to starting and growing her consulting small business.

Amy Rasdal traded her corporate job for consulting 15 years ago and now makes more money than most executives.  The advantages are freedom, flexibility, control, interesting work and excellent pay.

She has been running her own multiple 6-figure consulting business for more than 15 years.  As the founder of Billable at the Beach®, Amy has helped hundreds of people start their own successful consulting businesses through speaking, workshops and various programs over the past 10 years.

She is the author of “Land a Consulting Project NOW! - Build a life of freedom, flexibility, and inspiring work running your own 6-figure business” a #1 Amazon Best Seller in Business Consulting.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com

Travis Steffen shares highlights from his entrepreneurial journey, his experiences and opinions of the cannabis industry, and tips and insights on growing a business.

Travis Steffen is a serial entrepreneur with 8 successful exits to date. He's an Inc 500 CEO, a growth mentor in most of Silicon Valley's top accelerator programs, a published author, and a doctoral candidate in marketing with a specialization in AI (Artificial Intelligence).

Travis Steffen was the CEO of GrowFlow, a B2B SaaS serving licensed cannabis businesses. GrowFlow is the market leading seed to sale platform in cannabis by nearly every metric and was the fastest growing retail POS product in cannabis in 2020 and 2021.

He is currently the CEO of GrowthTeam - GrowthTeam provides top 1% education, resources, shortcuts, and hands-on help to double the growth rates for subscription-based businesses - guaranteed.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com  

The Self-Storage Business with entrepreneur Scott Krone - shares his expertise and tips on investing in self-storage businesses.

Self storage, or self-service storage, is an industry that rents storage space (such as rooms, lockers, containers, and/or outdoor space), also known as "storage units," to tenants, usually on a short-term basis (often month-to-month).

Scott Krone is a business owner, real estate investor. He is the founder of One Stop Self-Storage, and the founder of Coda Management. Coda Management Group facilitates commercial and real estate investments.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com  

Employee Performance Management for small business owners with Henry Lopez and David Begin. David and Henry share their thoughts, opinions, experiences, and tools to help you with Employee Performance Management for your small business. Why is Employee Performance Management important for small business owners? Small businesses often operate with limited resources, which makes employee performance management crucial to their success. By ensuring that staff members understand their responsibilities and have the necessary skills and support to perform their jobs well, small businesses can drive productivity and increase profitability. This episode explores the importance of clearly defining expectations and standards, providing early feedback and performance evaluation, recognizing outstanding performance, promoting employee engagement in customer service and investing in employee training.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com

How to develop an Experience Mindset, which considers both the customer and the employee experience, to grow our business with Tiffani Bova. The fastest way to get customers to love your brand is to get employees to love their jobs.  Tiffani Bova is the global customer growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce, and the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of “Growth IQ”. Her new book is “THE EXPERIENCE MINDSET: Changing the Way You Think About Growth”. Over the past two decades, she has led large revenue-producing divisions at businesses ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 500. As a Research Fellow at Gartner, her cutting-edge insights helped Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, SAP, AT&T, Dell, Amazon-AWS, and other prominent companies expand their market share and grow their revenues. She has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 twice.

Henry Lopez is the host of The How of Business podcast – helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com