On this episode of The Small Business Radio Show…

We first talk about courage. It’s a word that is thrown around small business and our society a lot these days – you need to have courage to start a business, you need to have courage to say what you stand for. But what really is courage? What does it take and do any of us really have it?

Then, unemployment is at a record low, which means it becomes increasingly difficult for small business owners to hire and retain the right people. You have to pay them a competitive salary, and you have to offer health insurance, but you also have to have those other ancillary benefits that are going to attract and retain the best people. We show you how your small business can offer these ancillary benefits without breaking the bank.

Finally, for the small business owner, technology is both a blessing and a curse. It can grow your business incredibly fast or it can totally wreck it. It can be a challenge to manage all the technology it takes to run a small business these days but we show you a solution that can simplify it for you.

Listen to The Small Business Radio Show

Listen to “#520 How Courage Can Save Your Company” on Spreaker.

Segment 1: Ryan Berman is the author of RETURN ON COURAGE, the Founder of Courageous, a creative consultancy that develops Courage Brands® and trains organizations through Courage Boot Camp. He has helped brands such as Caesars Entertainment, Major League Baseball, Puma, Qualcomm, and Subway.

1:30 – People often have the wrong idea about courage. How do you define courage? What are the three ingredients of courage?

3:30 – Is fear an essential part of courage? What are the differences between a Courage Brand and a Coward Brand?

6:30 – The myths about courage that must be shattered.

8:00 – The courage it takes to run a small business every single day.

10:15 – Why “return on courage” is the ultimate return on investment in business.

12:15 – How do you encourage people in your organization to practice courage in business?

Segment 2: Jessica Moser is senior vice president and the leader of Small Business Solutions in MetLife’s U.S. Group Benefits business.  She oversees sales, strategy, underwriting, and overall P&L for businesses with fewer than 100 employees, and does the same for Specialty Markets, which includes Professional Employer Organization and Association businesses.

20:15 – What ancillary benefits can you offer in addition to health insurance to attract and retain talent?

22:45 – How do you figure out which benefits are most attractive to your current and future employees?

24:45 – How to determine where you might have gaps in your benefits offer.

26:15 – How do you offer attractive benefits without impacting the profitability of your company?

29:00 – How to provide customizable health plans for your employees.

Segment 3: Bill Furlong is a serial entrepreneur and currently serves as a mentor and investor in a variety of adata and b2b centric companies. He is Founder/CEO of SquareStack. He is also the author of Appify Your Business: Harness the Power of Apps to Save 10 Hours a Week and Reinvent Your Business. Bill was part of the founding team of Bizo, a b2b adtech firm, which was acquired by LinkedIn. Most importantly, he is also in the Chicago 16” Softball Hall of Fame!

38:00 – Why is it so challenging for small business owners to manage their technology needs?

41:30 – Where do you start in putting together a technology strategy for your small business so that everything is cohesive?

43:00 – Should there be certain requirements a software application needs to meet in order for a small business to feel comfortable adopting it?

45:15 – There’s not going to be one software that can give your business all the technology functionality it needs, so it’s important to invest in technologies that will be able to talk to each other.

48:45 – How does SquareStack give you insight into all your software programs and help you manage them?

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