Ensure Sufficient Funds for a Successful Business Launch and Sustained Growth Beyond the First 3 Months

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hi everyone, I'm Phil Bliss, the ELL and founder of Canada's Podcast.
[00:11] SPEAKER_02: And today I'm coming to you from Toronto.
[00:14] SPEAKER_02: Today we're going to meet Jennifer Lehman,
[00:16] SPEAKER_02: who's worked as a marketing consultant with businesses
[00:19] SPEAKER_02: and entrepreneurial minded organizations
[00:21] SPEAKER_02: since the year 2006.
[00:25] SPEAKER_02: And she'd often found their faith in common issues.
[00:28] SPEAKER_02: This led her to publish her first book,
[00:31] SPEAKER_02: what we're thinking for your business,
[00:34] SPEAKER_02: as a way to reach a broader business audience.
[00:37] SPEAKER_02: As a business owner, she understands the responsibility
[00:40] SPEAKER_02: of running a business and the time constraints that come with it.
[00:44] SPEAKER_02: If marketing advice is going to be impactful,
[00:47] SPEAKER_02: it needs to be succinct and easy to implement
[00:51] SPEAKER_02: without a tremendous requirement of resources and costs.
[00:55] SPEAKER_02: Her book focused on maximizing marketing opportunities
[00:59] SPEAKER_02: that can help scale your business.
[01:03] SPEAKER_02: So today we're going to meet Jennifer, talk about her book
[01:06] SPEAKER_02: and also talk about her own journey.
[01:09] SPEAKER_02: So Jennifer, welcome to Canada's Podcast from Pembroke,
[01:14] SPEAKER_02: I guess, the ones that are dropped in there.
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: It has to be like Pembroke a lot.
[01:20] SPEAKER_02: So before we get too deep in the conversation,
[01:25] SPEAKER_02: why don't you tell us a bit about yourself, what you do,
[01:29] SPEAKER_02: and how you got here, basically.
[01:33] SPEAKER_02: We're not within five minutes.
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: Sure.
[01:39] SPEAKER_01: I can boil it down.
[01:41] SPEAKER_01: So I have been a small business marketing advisor
[01:44] SPEAKER_01: for 18 years now,
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: and that number is significant for me
[01:49] SPEAKER_01: because I'm also a golf pro.
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: So 18 holes on the golf course, 18 years.
[01:54] SPEAKER_01: This is sort of my special anniversary, I would say.
[01:59] SPEAKER_01: But in that time, I have met with a lot of small business owners
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: and sort of small, charitable organizations
[02:06] SPEAKER_01: and different businesses too.
[02:09] SPEAKER_01: And they've often come to me when they've reached
[02:13] SPEAKER_01: a bit of a roadblock where they don't know how to get to the next level
[02:17] SPEAKER_01: or they really feel like they should have more customers,
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: but they don't, and how do they do that?
[02:21] SPEAKER_01: So it's a lot of thinking differently,
[02:24] SPEAKER_01: presenting some different perspectives,
[02:26] SPEAKER_01: coming up with some unique ideas and solutions.
[02:29] SPEAKER_01: So that's really where my focus has been for 18 years.
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: And it feels like it would start at yesterday.
[02:37] SPEAKER_01: It's been an amazing 18 years so far.
[02:40] SPEAKER_02: So, but why move into entrepreneurship?
[02:42] SPEAKER_02: I mean, what made you, because you went straight to it
[02:47] SPEAKER_02: from what I could see from your background,
[02:50] SPEAKER_02: what did you go there?
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: Well, I did try to get a job with a couple of different communications
[02:57] SPEAKER_01: and marketing firms.
[02:59] SPEAKER_01: I applied to over a hundred positions across Canada.
[03:03] SPEAKER_01: And I kept getting turned down because I was overqualified,
[03:07] SPEAKER_01: which at first sounded like a little bit of a complement.
[03:11] SPEAKER_01: And then after a while,
[03:13] SPEAKER_01: wasn't so much of a complement.
[03:15] SPEAKER_01: And I thought to myself, you know,
[03:17] SPEAKER_01: if I was a boss and somebody came to me
[03:20] SPEAKER_01: that had more qualifications and I was looking for,
[03:23] SPEAKER_01: I'd sure take advantage of that if I could.
[03:25] SPEAKER_01: So I thought, well, maybe I'll just start my own consulting firm
[03:29] SPEAKER_01: and all help people with marketing the way I wanted to do
[03:33] SPEAKER_01: with these other companies.
[03:35] SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of how it started.
[03:38] SPEAKER_02: You know, and it's interesting because you've got,
[03:41] SPEAKER_02: you've, you've sort of mentioned golf and golf pro
[03:45] SPEAKER_02: and stuff like that.
[03:46] SPEAKER_02: Have they overlapped it?
[03:48] SPEAKER_02: Is that kind of competitive situation overlapped
[03:53] SPEAKER_02: in your entrepreneurial drive, if you like?
[03:58] SPEAKER_01: Well, I, I have come to realize that my training
[04:01] SPEAKER_01: and professional golf was probably the best preparation
[04:04] SPEAKER_01: I could have to run a small business.
[04:07] SPEAKER_01: Because I think now having a small business
[04:10] SPEAKER_01: is probably the most competitive arena that you can be in.
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: In golf, when you're competing at high levels,
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: you're competing for trophies and prize money
[04:20] SPEAKER_01: and that type of thing.
[04:21] SPEAKER_01: But in a small business, it's your livelihood.
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: And it's often other people's livelihoods
[04:26] SPEAKER_01: if you have employees.
[04:28] SPEAKER_01: And the stakes are a little bit higher.
[04:30] SPEAKER_01: So I use a lot.
[04:32] SPEAKER_01: I still play a lot of golf.
[04:33] SPEAKER_01: So when I'm out on the golf course,
[04:36] SPEAKER_01: I often draw some parallels between situations.
[04:41] SPEAKER_01: And recently I was playing in these two gentlemen
[04:45] SPEAKER_01: let me play through them.
[04:47] SPEAKER_01: And he was talking about having never taken a lesson
[04:50] SPEAKER_01: at any point in his life.
[04:53] SPEAKER_01: And yet he had this struggle.
[04:55] SPEAKER_01: He was struggling with something.
[04:57] SPEAKER_01: And so then I hit and he said,
[04:58] SPEAKER_01: oh, well, what did you do to hit at that far?
[05:01] SPEAKER_01: And I said, well, I took a lot of lessons.
[05:03] SPEAKER_01: So it's just interesting how you can get so far on your own
[05:08] SPEAKER_01: in business.
[05:09] SPEAKER_01: But then if you want to get a little bit further,
[05:11] SPEAKER_01: you might as well use the people who can help you do that.
[05:15] SPEAKER_01: So I'm always thinking about the connections
[05:17] SPEAKER_01: between golf and business.
[05:22] SPEAKER_02: So what's the greatest challenge you face in your business?
[05:26] SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're in Pembro.
[05:28] SPEAKER_02: You know, in the city, you know,
[05:32] SPEAKER_03: how is that challenge or is that
[05:37] SPEAKER_02: something that doesn't matter?
[05:40] SPEAKER_01: There's probably both sides of that are present.
[05:44] SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't matter in the sense that it's easier to make
[05:48] SPEAKER_01: personal connections because you can just drive ten minutes
[05:51] SPEAKER_01: and see the person that you need to see
[05:53] SPEAKER_01: or you can arrange those in-person visits
[05:56] SPEAKER_01: that's a lot easier.
[05:58] SPEAKER_01: It is a bit challenging whenever you have a client
[06:00] SPEAKER_01: who lives in a different province or maybe lives further away
[06:05] SPEAKER_01: in the province where you have to be virtually communicating.
[06:08] SPEAKER_01: But that's changed a little bit now too with the opportunities
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: to do Zoom calls and things like that.
[06:15] SPEAKER_01: So the biggest challenge has probably been learning how to grow.
[06:20] SPEAKER_01: And I work with businesses that grow
[06:23] SPEAKER_01: and I had to learn myself how to grow from a regional business
[06:29] SPEAKER_01: and advisory service to someone who could work internationally.
[06:33] SPEAKER_01: And there wasn't really a roadmap on how to do that.
[06:36] SPEAKER_01: So it took a little bit of understanding that you can work
[06:40] SPEAKER_01: beyond your immediate geographical boundaries and do anything.
[06:45] SPEAKER_01: There are small businesses and entrepreneurs all over the world.
[06:49] SPEAKER_03: Now, in your marketing business, you obviously bump into
[06:54] SPEAKER_03: a lot of entrepreneurs.
[07:04] SPEAKER_03: And what do they feel about marketing?
[07:10] SPEAKER_02: What I'm saying is that some advise that you can pass on to people
[07:17] SPEAKER_03: that maybe, you know, don't underestimate marketing, you know,
[07:27] SPEAKER_02: that kind of thing.
[07:29] SPEAKER_01: Well, the biggest challenge, a few big challenges for small businesses.
[07:34] SPEAKER_01: One is most of them feel they don't have time for marketing.
[07:39] SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes you don't have time for things
[07:41] SPEAKER_01: that you're not really that excited to do or you're not that knowledgeable.
[07:45] SPEAKER_01: The second thing is a lot of people feel overwhelmed.
[07:49] SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a million of one tactics out there today
[07:51] SPEAKER_01: and, you know, do this thing and your business will grow.
[07:55] SPEAKER_01: No, do this thing and your business will grow.
[07:57] SPEAKER_01: And that becomes overwhelming to someone whose entire focus
[08:00] SPEAKER_01: is on marketing.
[08:01] SPEAKER_01: It's on running the business that they have.
[08:04] SPEAKER_01: So one of the challenges is really getting into a conversation
[08:09] SPEAKER_01: with that small business owner and saying, okay, these are the options.
[08:14] SPEAKER_01: Let's go a little bit in the front of the line of all those things.
[08:18] SPEAKER_01: And what is it that you want to do with your business?
[08:21] SPEAKER_01: Where do you want to grow?
[08:22] SPEAKER_01: How do you want your business to move forward in the future?
[08:26] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've worked with small business owners that said,
[08:29] SPEAKER_01: I have a two-year plan and then I want to sell the business.
[08:32] SPEAKER_01: I had someone who said, I'm building this business to pass it on to my kids.
[08:36] SPEAKER_01: Someone else was, this was a retirement after being let go
[08:42] SPEAKER_01: from a corporate job that they had.
[08:44] SPEAKER_01: So it really starts with, what is it that you want the business to do for you?
[08:48] SPEAKER_01: Now let's find the tactics that will support that.
[08:52] SPEAKER_01: So it's a lot of thinking, thinking differently, strategizing,
[08:57] SPEAKER_01: doing some of the work before you choose the items that you're going to pursue with marketing.
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: Canada's podcast is your gateway to success in the world of entrepreneurship.
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: Start listening today.
[09:08] SPEAKER_00: Canada's podcast.com subscribe now.
[09:12] SPEAKER_02: So on that front, the thinking of the business,
[09:17] SPEAKER_03: when things aren't happening as planned,
[09:24] SPEAKER_03: I would do recommend people handle that kind of situation.
[09:30] SPEAKER_01: Well, the first step is really to get a bit of a strategy over a period of time.
[09:35] SPEAKER_01: So a lot of businesses will start something and then it kind of fades off.
[09:41] SPEAKER_01: And it's not consistent the way it continues.
[09:44] SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be, you know, have great big huge celebrations and marketing promos every month.
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: But you have to do something to stay consistent.
[09:54] SPEAKER_01: And that helps you out as the business owner.
[09:56] SPEAKER_01: Because now you see patterns and you see, oh, we did this and this worked.
[10:00] SPEAKER_01: And then we did this part and that didn't work.
[10:02] SPEAKER_01: This wasn't available last year.
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: And you can evaluate and all of that leads to making a better decision.
[10:09] SPEAKER_01: So that's what you really want with marketing is to be able to think your way to a better decision
[10:15] SPEAKER_01: so that you have better results in the end.
[10:17] SPEAKER_01: And that is what's going to propel your business to get to those levels or those growth opportunities that you've been looking for.
[10:25] SPEAKER_03: Okay. You know, is that it is kind of.
[10:33] SPEAKER_03: You know, in your own business, but let sort of they.
[10:39] SPEAKER_03: What have you learned?
[10:42] SPEAKER_03: Sort of operating a business for 18 years.
[10:45] SPEAKER_02: That you wish you'd known when you started the business.
[10:51] SPEAKER_03: I feel that could be a whole episode on so on there.
[10:57] SPEAKER_01: I think a few things have been really important learnings as I've gone along.
[11:06] SPEAKER_01: One of them would be to just have a little bit of a suit of armor on whenever you go and do something and understand that there may be people who are.
[11:17] SPEAKER_01: Sort of critics of what you're putting forward and especially in marketing where you're talking often about change.
[11:24] SPEAKER_01: That's not everybody's favorite topic or thing to do.
[11:28] SPEAKER_01: So you have to be open to accepting that people may be critical of you, not because the idea is bad or it won't work, but that they're not in a position where.
[11:38] SPEAKER_01: That they're able to change enough right now to do something like that.
[11:43] SPEAKER_01: And as those that sort of comes up in different areas, it might be, you know, in a hiring situation, it might be in, you know, supporting causes in a different way.
[11:54] SPEAKER_01: It might be a charity who's approaching donors in a different way.
[11:58] SPEAKER_01: There's every time you make a change, you end up with a bit of a challenge there.
[12:03] SPEAKER_01: The other thing that I would definitely think was a big learning for me was the very important value of cash flow.
[12:13] SPEAKER_01: I think every entrepreneur has a bit of a story where cash flow was tight.
[12:18] SPEAKER_01: I have that story too.
[12:21] SPEAKER_01: And looking back, I would have done it differently so that I could have preserved that cash flow.
[12:27] SPEAKER_01: And when I meet with new businesses, I talk a lot about that.
[12:31] SPEAKER_01: We start at the cash flow, work cash sheet, and we don't move off of that until it makes sense.
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: And sometimes that means we never move to another step because they can't make it work.
[12:41] SPEAKER_01: But if that cash flow statement doesn't work, the business isn't going to work no matter what magical marketing you could possibly come up with.
[12:51] SPEAKER_02: What advice would you give to somebody that was starting a business?
[12:55] SPEAKER_02: That was good advice that you gave.
[12:58] SPEAKER_02: But is there any specific thing that you think, if you don't do this, you won't be successful?
[13:09] SPEAKER_01: Well, I think maybe two things.
[13:12] SPEAKER_01: First, and I read this while I was pursuing a project myself, and the statement was, are you willing to give your life for it?
[13:21] SPEAKER_01: And in the context that I was reading it, it sort of jumped at me and I thought, well, no, I don't know that I'm willing to do that.
[13:28] SPEAKER_01: But the next sentence was, because you're giving your life for what you're doing now.
[13:33] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's important when you're running a small business because it is a lifestyle.
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: It's not just an income generator. It will do that for you.
[13:42] SPEAKER_01: But it becomes a lifestyle.
[13:44] SPEAKER_01: You become known as the person who owns this business.
[13:48] SPEAKER_01: And you have to be all in for that.
[13:51] SPEAKER_01: It can't just be, I'm the business owner, Monday to Friday, from 9 to 5, and then I'm not the rest of the time.
[13:58] SPEAKER_01: It's a lifestyle.
[13:59] SPEAKER_01: It doesn't stop.
[14:00] SPEAKER_01: The other thing would definitely be to make sure that you have enough funds available in order to launch your business and sustain it successfully.
[14:11] SPEAKER_01: Look beyond the first three months.
[14:14] SPEAKER_01: Have enough money to make it if you have zero sales coming in in the first six months.
[14:20] SPEAKER_01: And then you'll be more comfortable in being able to make better decisions and you will be reacting as much.
[14:26] SPEAKER_01: And when we react, that's when we tend to not make the best decisions.
[14:30] SPEAKER_00: Stay ahead of the game with our expert tips and strategies that will help your business thrive in a digital era.
[14:37] SPEAKER_00: Canada's podcast.com subscribe now.
[14:40] SPEAKER_02: You know, think about mentorship.
[14:45] SPEAKER_02: I kind of love to ask people, you know, what's the best piece of advice that you've been given?
[14:53] SPEAKER_02: That you kind of carry around with you that that that's always there in the back room.
[15:00] SPEAKER_02: I feel like.
[15:02] SPEAKER_01: I've had a lot of really great pieces of advice.
[15:06] SPEAKER_01: And recently, and I still work with people who are mentors for me.
[15:11] SPEAKER_01: And one of the most recent pieces of advice I had was, Jennifer, you're not understanding your value.
[15:18] SPEAKER_01: And I went to that person with a specific question and I wanted to know something.
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: And they wouldn't tell me anything.
[15:27] SPEAKER_01: And they came back with this statement.
[15:29] SPEAKER_01: And I tested it with two other people and they said almost the identical thing.
[15:33] SPEAKER_01: And I thought, you know, there's some something there.
[15:37] SPEAKER_01: You need a person who can see you in a way that you can't see yourself.
[15:43] SPEAKER_01: And I often am that person for a client.
[15:46] SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm seeing them the way a customer will see them.
[15:49] SPEAKER_01: But we as the business owner, we need a person who's going to honestly see us in that kind of way as well.
[15:58] SPEAKER_01: And starting out, I actually worked with a mentor for two years.
[16:02] SPEAKER_01: She was a restaurant owner and had lots of really good advice.
[16:06] SPEAKER_01: I tend to be emotional about some things in terms of, I want to be at this level.
[16:13] SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to accept anything less than this level.
[16:16] SPEAKER_01: And she taught me that on some things, good enough is good enough.
[16:21] SPEAKER_01: And there are other ways in order to achieve at the highest standard and blow everyone else out of the water.
[16:27] SPEAKER_01: So it's someone who brings that business experience to the table and can sort of,
[16:34] SPEAKER_01: they're seeing probably themselves a little bit in you and then able to pass on some wisdom from their experience and entrepreneurship.
[16:47] SPEAKER_03: So good advice there. That's really good.
[16:51] SPEAKER_03: Let's have a little bit of fun.
[16:53] SPEAKER_02: If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you be doing instead?
[17:00] SPEAKER_02: You can probably guess golfing, but apart from that.
[17:04] SPEAKER_01: I would say be involved in the golf industry in some capacity still.
[17:11] SPEAKER_01: So when I left the golf industry, the structure there was pretty rigid and there were only certain ways that you could go.
[17:19] SPEAKER_01: It's different now. There are more opportunities.
[17:21] SPEAKER_01: So I think I would have moved my way around professional golf and some other capacities.
[17:29] SPEAKER_02: What book do you currently reading?
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: I'm reading the one thing. I just finished the 80-20 rule.
[17:39] SPEAKER_01: I am a business book addict. So my shelves are full of business books.
[17:46] SPEAKER_02: Well, you could tell me well writing a book yourself.
[17:50] SPEAKER_02: That's great. You've added to the pile for a deal.
[17:59] SPEAKER_03: Are you a morning or a night person?
[18:03] SPEAKER_01: I am a morning person for sure.
[18:06] SPEAKER_01: Until I was about 27, I was a night owl, and now I am morning all the way.
[18:15] SPEAKER_02: You're resting.
[18:17] SPEAKER_02: If you had to pick one word to describe yourself, what would it be and why would you choose that word?
[18:24] SPEAKER_03: I would probably say competitive.
[18:29] SPEAKER_01: I think it is really, I've lived as a competitor for so long, even before professional golf when I play different sports.
[18:41] SPEAKER_01: There's just something about that word for me that I think encompasses who I am.
[18:50] SPEAKER_03: Interesting.
[18:56] SPEAKER_03: Let's keep you up at night.
[19:01] SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I usually sleep fairly well, but when I am up at night, it's ideas.
[19:09] SPEAKER_01: It's ideas of what a client could do, what I could do, and I want to get started on it right away.
[19:16] SPEAKER_01: I know that I can't get up at 2 in the morning and do this because by noon I will be tired, so I have to go back to sleep.
[19:24] SPEAKER_01: Then it becomes an argument in myself, and eventually I pass out from exhaustion of arguing with myself.
[19:32] SPEAKER_01: It's always ideas.
[19:37] SPEAKER_02: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
[19:41] SPEAKER_01: I would like to still be doing what I am doing now in terms of advising small business owners.
[19:46] SPEAKER_01: I would like to have more opportunity to meet more small business owners and do that.
[19:53] SPEAKER_01: That's why I wrote the book and that's why I am embarking on the speaking role as well.
[20:00] SPEAKER_01: One thing I learned in writing the book is that these people that I am dealing with are having these problems.
[20:06] SPEAKER_01: It's not just only in my region or only in the people that have found me.
[20:11] SPEAKER_01: This is existing everywhere.
[20:14] SPEAKER_01: I believe that being an entrepreneur and owning a small business is the very best job in the world, and I want to empower that till my last breath.
[20:25] SPEAKER_01: It's a bigger stage. I can get on to do that and the more people I can reach and the more conversations I can have in places like this fill honestly where you talk to entrepreneurs and you promote entrepreneurs.
[20:38] SPEAKER_03: That is right up my alley.
[20:42] SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
[20:45] SPEAKER_03: Thank you for the interview.
[20:47] SPEAKER_02: We are just about the end of our time here, Jennifer.
[20:52] SPEAKER_02: Where can people get a hold of you online?
[20:55] SPEAKER_02: Is they listen and they want to connect?
[20:59] SPEAKER_01: Sure. The website is www.fznfranc.w as in Walter D. as in David.
[21:07] SPEAKER_01: The word think THINK.ca.
[21:13] SPEAKER_01: And Lillie's year to remember the book is forwardthinkingbook.com.
[21:18] SPEAKER_01: That might be a little easier, but I'm also on LinkedIn and Twitter and Facebook.
[21:23] SPEAKER_01: So happy to connect with anyone there and answer all of my, all of the inquiries personally.
[21:30] SPEAKER_01: So it would love to meet some new entrepreneurs and people invested in entrepreneurship.
[21:35] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Great having you on Canada's podcast.
[21:39] SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Phil.