Listen to “#754 Build Your Business with Community-Led Growth” on Spreaker.
On this episode of The Small Business Radio Show…
SEGMENT 1 with Lloyed Lobo, starting at 0:00: There are a lot of ways to grow a business. Many people use product-led growth or sales and marketing-led growth. But what about community-led growth? Lloyed Lobo shares how he grew his business using his community.
SEGMENT 2 with Kevin Flynn, starting at 23:15: I’ve been using Zoho One for many years to run my business. I was recently at the annual Zoholics meeting and spoke with some of their customers, including Kevin Flynn of Premier Opthalmic, about how Zoho has revolutionized their businesses.
SEGMENT 3 with Laura Lady, starting at 40:45: Getting a product into retail stores is a particularly difficult challenge. Lara Lady, founder of FryAway, is here to share what has worked for her!
More on each segment below.
Segment 1: Lloyed Lobo is an entrepreneur, podcast host, and community builder. He experienced the Gulf War as a young refugee in Kuwait, witnessing the strength of community in evacuating the population to safety. As the co-founder of Boast.Al, he leveraged the Community-Led Growth model to bootstrap the company to eight-figure revenue and secure over $100m in funding, while also co-founding Traction, a community empowering over 100k innovators through connections, content, and capital. He is the author of a new book titled, “From Grassroots to Greatness – 13 Rules to Build Iconic Brands with Community Led Growth” featuring stories from Harley Davidson, Nike, Peloton, Crossfit, and HubSpot.
- How did your experience as a gulf war refugee shape your journey?
- How did you get started as an entrepreneur?
- Why did it make sense for you to grow your business through community rather than through a product, sales, or marketing?
- A lot of people can build a community. Where they have a problem is really shifting it to try to monetize it without ruining it. How do you do that?
- Three types of communities
- Examples of community monetization strategies that could work for your business
Segment 2: Kevin Flynn is the COO of Premier Opthalmic, a purchaser and supplier of new and used ophthalmic equipment.
- What is Ophthalmic equipment?
- Why Kevin decided to work at his company and what about the job he loves
- How has business been during the COVID pandemic? Did you see less demand for your products?
- You say that the key to your growth is structure. Who did you create structure and what tools did you use?
- How do you use Zoho to run and grow your business?
- Lots of people are talking about recession, supply change issues and inflation. How is your business being affected? Is your biggest challenge inventory?
- You talk about how using Zoho was influential in showing value when selling your business in 2020. Tells us about it.
- What do you see coming out from Zoho that you’re particularly excited about?
Segment 3: Laura Lady is the founder of FryAway. For close to 20 years, Laura Lady worked on some of the world’s most loved consumer goods and kids’ entertainment brands, transforming strategies and ideas into products and experiences which have delighted consumers from ages 0-99. While toys were her joy, food is her nirvana. In the past 2 years, she decided to dream big and forge a new path. Laura set out on an entrepreneurial journey that would meld her professional and personal passions into a range of products that would take the guesswork and mess out of proper cooking oil disposal: FryAway.
- Why did you start this particular business?
- How did you bring FryAway to market?
- What’s one of the biggest keys to getting your product into retail stores?
- FryAway is going to be in 7000 stores nationwide by the end of the year. How much control do you have over where the product goes in the store and how it’s presented?
- Mitigating the challenges of managing inventory as a retail store product
- Why did you feel it was important to put FryAway on Amazon?
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