Start Something, Columbia! Show Notes from May 1, 2018
Introductions:
Kasie Whitener, Clemson Road Consulting and Larry Jennings, Capsure Studios
Theme for the day:
It’s Small Business Week! Lots of events to preview, articles to share, and political promises to make.
Agenda review:
What we’re going to do today:
Today we’ve got music from Mark Rapp, Freeway Music instructor and South Carolina’s Jazz Ambassador, as named by the legislature on February 8th, not kidding; learn more about hims at markrapp.com. He’ll be playing at First Thursday this week, we’ll talk more about that later.
We’ll hear from Ashleigh Edwards of Iconic Sports Performance, the Midlands only basketball-focused athletic training facility.
We’ll hear from Tia Bethea, a representative of the Grow with Google event, it’s taking place all day Wednesday at 701 Whaley Street, networking, live demonstrations of Google tools, and workshops all free to the Columbia business community.
Savannah Wilburn of the SC SBA will call in and talk about the importance of the week and preview some of their events.
Segment 1:
This week at 1 MC -- Ashleigh Edwards of Iconic Sports Performance, a basketball-specific training facility here in the Midlands.
Segment 2:
Topic of the week -- It’s Small Business Week in America and here’s why it matters:
More than half of American work for or own a small business
50% of small businesses survive into year 5 and beyond
9:18 -- Tia Bethea from the Grow with Google event calling
Entrepreneur.com has an entire topic dedicated to this with articles like:
How to Overcome Common Challenges and Help Your Small Business Grow
How Billionaire Linda McMahon Hopes to Help Small BUsinesses in her new role leading the SBA
Let’s start with the Common Challenges:
Reacting vs. Looking ahead -- staying engaged in the day-to-day can lead to “short-termism” up to 63% of small business owners plan a year or two or less in advance. The article suggests a monthly, weekly, and daily plan; have three top initiatives, and focus the weekly and daily tasks on work within those initiatives.
Getting it all done -- not enough hours in the day to do it all but you have to, right? So automate what you can. Use tools like Hootsuite to pre-plan social media; other tools or ideas for automation?
Make the most of your marketing -- 64% of small business owners are self-taught and only 46% consider themselves “marketing savvy.” But to build your business, you need hustle. The article suggests taking advantage of free training offered by the SBA, SBDC, and SCORE. I’d say attend the OBO event and hear from me and Deb Mullen and Vanessa Mota of the 1MC Columbia Community.
Maybe take a peek at the Financial Habits:
Regularly review finances -- 69% of Small Business Owners do this; understand the frequency and ebbs and flows of your cash situation
Maintain a budget -- 47% of small business owners do this; set an expectation at the beginning of the month for income and expenses; rinse and repeat -- you’ll get better at it if you continually do it.
Save an appropriate amount for taxes -- 52% of small business owners do this; rule of thumb - 30 cents of every dollar you earn from your clients belongs to the feds. UGH
Proactively reduce debt -- 50% of small business owners do this; short-term debt enables growth but long-term debt is a drain on your business
Pay yourself a salary from business earnings -- 49% of small business owners do this; it doesn’t have to be payroll, but set aside some business earnings as your personal income and keep them separate
Establish an optimal business structure for liability and taxes -- 64% of small business owners do this; get professional advice for what structure is right for your business
Maximize tax write-offs and deductions -- 65% of small business owners do this; write-offs and deductions reduce your taxable income; big companies do it, you should, too.
Segment 3:
Small Business Week is sponsored by the Small Business Administration, a federal operation with local representatives. Some of the SBA national activities include a live-stream of the various awards ceremonies it’s holding to honor entrepreneurs and a live Twitter chat on Friday using the hashtag #SmallBusinessWeek.
Check their Twitter account @SBAgov for all the events -- they have links to the Facebook live streams.
9:35 -- Savannah from the SC SBA calling
Going broke? Don’t give up the ship. This article from talks about six entrepreneurs who went broke and then became millionaires:
Discover your obsession. -- whatever that obsession is, let it feed you, let it fuel you.
Adapt to new realities. -- conditions you cannot change will affect you and your business, what you can change is yourself.
Hustle sounds like the right path, but working smarter will actually get you farther. -- hard work and smart work are not the same thing, though they’re not mutually exclusive, either
Find fulfillment. -- the work you’re doing is valuable to someone and it should be valuable to you. Being fulfilled is the equivalent of being successful, it’s finding the joy and drive to continue on.
Always persist, never, ever quit. -- these stories of hardship help us see that we can overcome failure, we can make better choices and get ourselves back on track.
Don’t go it alone. -- find your tribe, get help, be vulnerable with them and honest about the challenges you face.
Small Business Week is s chance for the federal government to focus on us solo- and mom- and serial-preneurs. It’s a chance for the biggest entities to see the scrappy little nobodies out here marching to the beat of their own drum.
Events of the Week:
Wednesday -- May 2nd Grow with Google event at 701 Whaley Street 9 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.; come for 5 minutes or stay the whole day -- there’s workshops, one-on-one coaching, hands-on demos of Google products, and plenty of networking. Columbia College is a sponsor and we’re excited about being part of the event with a special announcement.
The SBA and the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce present A Salute to Small Business on the same day, May 2nd, at the convention center, 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. with procurement matchmaker sessions and the small business awards luncheon; a good place for government contractors or would-be contractors to make connections.
Thursday -- May 3rd, the City of Columbia and the Office of Business Opportunity will host its annual Small Business Week Conference and the speakers list is like a Usual Suspects from 1MC -- Deb Mullen on social media marketing, Vanessa Mota on crosslinking anglo- and latino businesses, and I’m presenting Creating a Process for Sales Success.
Find the Point -- every Thursday Shane Sweeney and me meeting up for happy hour and to meet Point listeners. This week it’s First Thursday on Main so we’ll be there. Our featured artist of May, Mark Rapp, Ambassador of Jazz, MarkRapp.com, Freeway Music instructor, will be live on First Thursday at Main Street Public House from 6 until 9 p.m. so be sure to check that out.
Segment 4:
Q&A -- be sure to promote the phone number 799-8255; let people call in, tweet us, email them, collect them at 1MC, create a list of questions and answers
Final Sign Offs: Next week we’ll hear from 1 Million Cups guest panelists about this week’s Small Business Week events, including a Grow With Google recap and some other exciting news.