Listen to “#661 How Cancelling a Wedding Inspired a New Business” on Spreaker.
On this episode of The Small Business Radio Show…
SEGMENT 1 with Gene Marks, starting at 0:00: Is an employee ownership plan a key to increasing company profits and retention of employees? Gene Marks is here to share more so you can decide if offering an employee ownership plan is right for your business.
SEGMENT 2 with Natasha Pearl Hansen, starting at 18:15: Breaking up with your spouse or your business partner is hard, but Natasha took those lemons and turned them into lemonade by turning her cancelled wedding into a comedy special and a new business venture to help people going through similar situations.
SEGMENT 3 with Bill Reidy, starting at 37:00: Customer referrals are a key revenue generation tool for any small business, but Bill Reidy believes that the traditional referral process – even with hard work and a commitment to managing the process – still yields very little ROI. He is here to share a better way to get referrals.
Sponsored by NiceJob and Plastiq.
More on each segment below.
Segment 1: Gene Marks is a past columnist for both The New York Times and The Washington Post, and now writes regularly for The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, and The Guardian. Gene has written 5 books on business management, specifically geared towards small and medium sized companies. His most recent is “Want More Cash? 100+ Ideas And Strategies For Increasing Your Company’s Cash Flow This Year.”
1:30 – How are small businesses faring through this pandemic?
3:00 – What is Employee Ownership (EO) and how can it help small businesses find and retain workers?
6:15 – How does an Employee Ownership plan work?
8:30 – What are the costs and benefits? What are some different ways to structure the plan?
10:45 – Do employees value EO plans?
12:30 – What is the “Silver Tsunami,” and how is that related to Employee Ownership today?
Visit employeeownershipequals.org to learn more about an employee ownership plan.
Segment 2: Natasha Pearl Hansen is a COMEDIAN, PODCAST HOST and ENTREPRENUER. She used the canceling of her wedding as the impetus to create a brand that would help others. Not wanting to lose all the deposits she made for this special day, she turned the wedding into the back drop to stage and tape her special WHY I CANCELLED MY WEDDING which premiered in April of this year.
18:15 – Why did you cancel your wedding?
21:15 – How did it change your career?
23:00 – Why do people use the Break-Up Registry? What features are you working on?
26:30 – How does the business make money?
27:15 – The entrepreneurial side of doing stand-up.
29:00 – How stand-up comedy prepares you for being an entrepreneur.
32:00 – How did you organize the “Why I Cancelled My Wedding” special?
Segment 3: Bill Reidy is the Founder and President of PWRhouse Consulting and Thumbs Up Referrals Without Asking. Bill has over 25 years of Sales Leadership and Executive Management experience, successfully developing and growing businesses across multiple verticals and industries. Visit getathumbsup.com/barry to automatically get 50% your first 2 months of any Thumbs Up plan. The offer code is applied at checkout.
37:00 – Why your business isn’t getting more referrals.
40:15 – How to design a referral process that helps clients refer you more business.
42:45 – People enjoy making referrals! Why don’t more companies take advantage of this to grow their business?
45:00 – How does Thumbs Up work?
47:15 – What is the bridge of trust and how does it help the connection between the potential referral and your business?
50:15 – When is the best time to ask for a referral?
