The Ramsey Show - App - What Percent of Small Business Profit Should You Pay Yourself? (Hour 1)
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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio,
this is The Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money.
Sitting in for Dave Ramsey today, I'm Christy Wright, certified business coach and author of the book Business Boutique. We are having a business
boutique theme hour where we are taking your calls about all things business, side business,
small business. Maybe you've just got a dream and an idea and you don't know how to get started.
This is a great time to call in and get your questions answered. You can give us a call at 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. This entire hour
is dedicated to you. Those of you that are starting a thing, you're growing a thing,
maybe you're just burnt out. Maybe you've been in business 5, 10, 15 years and you're wondering how
to get over the hump and to reach a new goal or maybe just rekindle that fire that you had when you got started, I get it.
It happens to the best of us.
I'm here for you.
Give us a call, 888-825-5225.
Our first call is coming in from Kamara in Connecticut.
Hey, Kamara, how are you?
I'm good, and you?
Good.
How can I help?
What's going on?
Okay, so my question is regarding how do you find the right business coach?
Because what I see nowadays on social media is that everyone is offering the same thing
and really is not offering anything different than what I can research on my own.
Right. That's actually a very good point.
Well, let's start by looking at what are you looking for in a business coach?
What are your specific goals or needs that you're hoping a business coach will help you with?
So I'm hoping, like my goal is to get my business out there so that people can notice me,
so that I can stand out different from everybody else in my business.
Because everyone is doing women empowerment, but my business is a little bit different. So I need someone to teach me what I need to do to get out there to make a difference and stand out.
What is your business?
So my business is called Reclaiming Your Life.
It's a women empowerment.
I started off as a podcast to help women overcome their insecurities, self-doubt, and fears within themselves to pursue their dreams.
I've had my own life experiences.
I love it.
Okay.
So let's talk about specifically back to your original question.
You want a business coach and you want them to teach you what you need to do to stand out.
What specifically are you looking for in a coach that you can't get on your own?
Because you started by saying, you know, what's different that I can't research on my own?
Well, that's true.
You've got unlimited resources, free resources available for you to find the information,
teaching tools, steps that you need.
So what exactly are you looking for from that relationship?
The handholding, the accountability, the, you know,
check-ins on a weekly basis.
Like let's kind of unpack what are you,
what are you wanting from a coach specifically that you can't get on your own?
So I'm looking for the accountability, the check-ins,
and also how to build my audience, to gain my true audience.
And I know everyone says, you know, you have to create your avatar and you have to post like you're reaching out to that ideal client.
So that is something that I'm struggling with is to find my audience and to build my tribe.
Okay. Okay.
Okay.
Well, here's the great thing.
If you find a coach that has the competency, they have the skills and the knowledge to
walk with you, they can give you steps, they can give you actions, they can hold you accountable,
all those good things.
Let me give you two specific things I want you to look for in a business coach.
And it's going to be some research and some digging, asking referrals, you know, asking around to find the right person. But you're looking for
two specific things. And this is actually what we look for when we hire people, Kamara. So if
you were hiring a team member, you're really looking for the same two main qualities. One
is their competency. That means that they can do the job. So in your coach's example, you want
someone that has the skills that you need to get you to where you want to go. They have the
knowledge. They have the experience. They can produce the results that they're
promising you. So do they have a portfolio? Do they have testimonials? Do they have past clients
where they can say, hey, I got this person from here to here? So you're looking for competency.
That's the actual ability to do the job of being your coach, to earn the ROI for what you're going
to pay them. The second thing is integrity.
And that's not just how they that's not just that they do the job, but how they do the
job.
So do they have the values that you have?
Because you could get advised with three different brilliant business minds and they all have
different values, which means they're going to take you on a different track to get somewhere
and you want someone that aligns with your values.
So the way that you work, the things that are a priority to you, the things that are
important to you, those are the things specifically that you're looking for.
Now, it's going to take probably some interviewing, some digging, some asking around to find that
right person.
But I think if you look for those two main qualities, then you're going to narrow it
down to a person that not only has the competency that they can produce the results that you're looking for, but they also are going to do
it in the right way.
They're going to get you there in a way that makes you proud of your business, proud of
yourself and proud to be working with them.
But come on, I've got some good news.
So I don't do one-on-one coaching, but I do have my business boutique academy, which is
my online coaching and training group.
It's this unbelievable community of women.
We walk together.
I do live sessions with them every month. And we are actually closed right now. We only open enrollment
twice a year for a short period of time. But I'm going to give you a membership. So if you will
stay on the line, Kelly will give you a membership to the Academy for the next six months. And until
you find your one-on-one personal business coach, we will walk with you in the Academy.
I love this question because what's
so great about Kamara is she's looking for help. So often as entrepreneurs, and even if you're not
an entrepreneur, you're thinking, oh, I can do it. I can do it myself. I'll save myself the money,
pull myself up by my bootstraps. I can do it myself. But you know what? You just need what
anyone needs when you don't know how to do something. You just need help. I remember
hiring a wedding planner for my wedding and thinking, oh, I can do this myself. I can do it myself. That's going to
be a waste of money. And I'll never forget what she said to me in our initial consultation. She
said, I'm going to take care of everything so you can show up as a guest to your own wedding.
And I thought, where do I sign? Where do I pay? Because that sounds fantastic. I immediately
understood the value of her services. And often we just need a little help to get to where we want to be.
All right, our next call is Jill calling in from Hawaii.
Hi, Jill.
How are you?
Hi.
How are you doing?
Great.
What's going on?
I just had a simple question.
I was wondering, as a small business owner, how do I know how much to pay myself?
Well, let's talk a little bit about your margins.
Are you a product-based business or service-based? Service-based. Okay, great. So what are your main
costs? Like what's going into your cost? Do you have actual equipment materials that you're using
to produce your services or is it just your time? No, I have a vacation rental. So I have HOAs, I have taxes, and then just basic supplies for keeping the condo up and running.
Sure.
So do you have market built in right now for what you're charging?
Yes.
Okay.
Well, then what am I missing?
Like, why are you not paying yourself now, I guess is what I'm asking.
Because if you don't have a ton of, yeah, talk me through it.
So I do clean my condo.
I manage my condo.
I do all of it.
And I do pay myself the cleaning.
But I don't know, like, the extra money that I make.
Like, I don't know if there's a percentage that I should take off every month off from, like, the gross income.
That is typical for small businesses.
Yeah, so it's going to vary depending on your industry.
Obviously, if you're in a product-based business, your margin's lower.
If you're in a service-based business, it's a little bit higher.
Here's what I would encourage you to do.
I would encourage you to work on getting your demand up so that you can have more margin to pay yourself. Anything
left over after you've covered your expenses is yours to take home. And you should. Unless you're
saving for a specific goal to make an improvement, all that money is yours. So you don't have to
wait for a certain moment to take it home. You start taking it home now. Get that demand up,
increase your prices, more profit, more paycheck for you. This is The Dave Ramsey Show.
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I'm Christi Wright, sitting in for Dave Ramsey today,
and we are having a business boutique theme hour.
Taking your calls about all things business.
If you've got a question about a side business or small business,
maybe you're just getting started, or maybe you've been in business for years,
I would love to help.
Give us a call, 888-825-5225.
That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. And we are answering all of your
questions about all things business. You know, just a second ago, we were talking about this
issue of paying yourself. And I got a similar question yesterday, actually, from one of my
academy members during our coaching session. She said, I'm ready to hire. I think I'm ready to
hire. Should I hire? However, I've not yet paid myself in business. And so we're kind of talking through this and I've realized this is a really common pain point for people in business, especially those of you starting out. You're waiting in some cases for a permission slip. You're waiting for someone to tell you when's the right time to pay yourself. And more often than not, it's past due. You could have been paying yourself.
You know, what I told my Academy member yesterday was,
if you hire someone and you begin to pay them
and you've not yet taken a paycheck home
from your own business,
then you have an employee that makes more money than you do
in your business.
That's not okay.
Gentleman Chris Hogan here,
that is not okay to have a business
where your team member's making more than you are
for all of your hard work building this thing from the ground up.
So I would just encourage you, look at your numbers.
Look at your profit margin.
Get your demand up.
Get your prices up.
Get your margin up.
What do you need to do to cut expenses or bring in more revenue or get smart or get
scrappy to where you are bringing home a paycheck?
It's not just about the dollars.
It's about the dignity that comes
from earning your own paycheck for the hard work,
for the blood, sweat, and tears
that you are pouring into this business.
You deserve to be paid for the work that you're doing.
And there's no exception when you are in business.
You can make this happen.
It's up to you.
But you can't wait for someone else to do it for you
or give you permission.
You're the business owner. You can do it and you can start today. All right. We've got a call from Jessica
calling in from Tulsa. Hey, Jessica, how's it going? I'm doing good. How are you? Good. How
can I help? I had a question for you. Now, I'm a big, big fan. I'm reading your book as we speak.
But my question to you is, how do you get business
started with no extra money to start it? Okay, let's talk about this. What is your idea?
My idea is I'm planning on starting a business called Fabulously Fragrant. It is a soap and candle business, and what I'm hoping to do is cutting big brands' costs in half.
So hoping to sell my product cheaper than, let's say, Bath & Body Works, Yankee Candles.
But my only problem is I don't know how to start it if I don't have the extra money to get that going.
Sure, I got you.
Okay, so I've got a couple things that I want to give you advice on.
Number one, I want you to think is what is the most baby version of your idea?
Now, I don't know about you, Jessica, but a lot of times I think in these big dreams,
I've got this big vision for the future, and I could have a store, and it could be downtown,
and we could do this and this and this.
The only problem is that big dream is expensive and costly and overwhelming sometimes.
So instead, I want you to think about how you can start small with almost nothing.
So Dave Ramsey's company right now, that is a 800 team member company, started on a
card table in his living room.
Sarah Blakely started Spanx by cutting the pant, the bottoms off of her pantyhose to
look good in white jeans.
You know, for example, the Wubba Nub was started when that mom was in a hotel room and her
child kept dropping their pacifier and she took a hotel sewing kit and sewed his favorite
plush animal to the pacifier and the first Wubba Nub was born.
So what I want you to think in terms of your business idea, what is the most baby version? Maybe it literally is
starting with $10 or $20 to make your first soap and you turn that for a profit and you sell it to
family and friends and use that profit to then buy more soap, more materials, that type of thing.
The iPhone, for example, started with an iPhone 1 and then 2 and then 3. Now we're at the iPhone 10
and it's got a lot of features and it's way fancier, but
you have to start with the 1.0 version.
So that's what I want you to think about.
What's the 1.0 version of your idea that you can start small and grow slow?
And the other option for you that I just want you to think about, and a lot of people don't
think this way, but you can actually structure your business in such a way that you take
advance orders.
And when you take advance orders and advance payment,
that money then funds the fulfillment of those orders.
Melissa Hennant of Grace and Lace,
she is a Shark Tank success story,
is a previous Business Boutique Conference speaker.
She did this.
She didn't want to invest even a dime
into her business of her own money.
And so she took advance orders, advance payment,
and with the $7 to $12 to $15 she received for that order,
she used that money to go buy the materials,
to make the boot socks, to fulfill that order.
Now, of course, as you grow and as you get larger,
you will get more sophisticated than that.
But I just don't want you to think of cost as a barrier.
There are very few industries
where you have to have a ton of money to start.
And even in those industries where you have to have a ton of money to start.
And even in those industries, you can get creative and barter and share space and sublease and rent and all kinds of things.
So don't let money be a barrier.
Start small, grow slow, and then you will control it and own it every step of the way, which is the best kind of business anyway.
All right.
We have got a call from Erica in L.A.
Hey, Erica, how's it going?
It's going well. Thank you so much for taking my call.
Absolutely. How can I help?
Well, actually, I've been looking at the financial coach master training because starting the baby steps has been such a lifesaver for me. And I really want to share that feeling of relief with other people. So I've been looking at
becoming a financial coach and I'm just wondering how I can justify the expense for that training
and if I should take the leap into doing that. Yeah, that's a great question. I'll tell you
what you're asking is really a part value decision, but also a financial decision. So
of course, you know, here at the office we never want
anyone to take out debt so it would be a matter of if you have the savings or can save up in order
to take the class to get the training that you need here's one of the things i would encourage
you though and i'm a big proponent of financial coach master training i'm a big proponent of
getting the education you need to do what you want to do but i would encourage you before
you take that leap,
just get a little bit of experience.
See if there's a financial coach in your area.
Connect with a financial coach from a previous training
and say, hey, can I shadow you?
Or can I learn from you?
Can I intern?
Can I help?
Because what's amazing is sometimes we have an idea
about something and it doesn't really match reality.
Let me give you an example, Erica.
When I graduated college,
I was convinced that I wanted to be a wedding planner. I was like, I love hospitalities. I love parties. I love celebrating. I love hosting. This is just the perfect job for me. And I talked to my mom about it. And she said, yeah, that sounds really nice. However, you know, do you know when wedding planners work? I was like, well, I didn't really think about that. She's like, well, they work nights and weekends and holidays. Do you want to work nights, weekends and holidays? I was like, I don't think I do.
So sometimes our idea about a profession or our idea about a business might be slightly
different than the reality.
So what I would encourage you to do before you even take the class is just to get a little
bit more exposure to it, not just as a consumer, but as someone that would be doing the coaching.
See what those coaching sessions are like.
Get your feet in the water, Start to experience it. Then through that experience, you'll have more clarity of,
yeah, this is the right path for me. Man, I'm ready to take this class. This is the next logical
step in my journey of growing in this area and starting this business. It won't feel so much
like a leap. I'll tell you, in anything, when it comes to money or business or classes,
I don't like leaps, y'all.
When you take a leap, you fall harder, you fall faster, and it hurts more.
And so instead, let's take steps.
Let's take baby steps, just like in finance.
Like we have teaching, you know, Total Money Makeover and Financial Peace University.
Let's take baby steps.
So baby step your way in to get a little bit more exposure,
maybe before you sign up for the class.
And when you're ready and you're like, yeah, this is what I want to do, So let's take baby steps. So baby step your way in to get a little bit more exposure, maybe before you sign up for the class.
And when you're ready and you're like, yeah, this is what I want to do, then you're ready to take the next logical step, which is a step, not a leap, and pursuing that education
to be able to start your business.
Another thing you can do is just start asking friends and family now.
Start asking around, hey, would you need help in this area?
What are some pain points you have?
Do a little research. I'll tell you guys, we started the business boutique when I was in a
season. This was before we even started anything with business boutique when I was in a season of
just it was slow. And so I did a ton of research. I got on the phone. I talked to women at all stages
of business. You know, what are your pain points? What do you struggle with? What do you need help
with? What lights you up? What do you get excited about?
And through those responses, I saw patterns and themes.
I learned a lot.
And then I created what then became the business boutique curriculum for the next business boutique conference.
So you can use this season of learning.
It's not wasted.
It's not in vain.
You're going to do a little bit of research, get a little bit more exposure.
And once you're certain, you're ready to take the next logical step.
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NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. And for Dave Ramsey today, I'm Christy Wright, creator of Business Boutique, author of the Business Boutique book, and host of the, you guessed it, the Business Boutique podcast.
Now, many of you guys know that our Business Boutique conference is now on sale and available, and y'all are showing up like we have never seen before.
This event is almost half sold out, and it's been on sale for a couple weeks.
It is crazy.
Now, let me tell you, this is one of my favorite things we do all year.
This is where we have three jam-packed days full of amazing A-list speakers giving you
the inspiration and the information that you need to build your business, reach your goals,
and win.
Now, we're back in Nashville this October 24th through the 26th. And I'll tell you, we've
got just a few early bird seats left before the price goes up at $129. That's a steal. Y'all three
days, three days of so much fun and all the business teaching you could ever want. You will
take pages and pages of notes. You will go home fired up and having tons of friends with you.
It's amazing this room of 3,000 women and how much fun we have and the energy as we lock arms and say,
you know what, we're doing this together. Business can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be. You've
got the business boutique team and you have this other amazing community of women that are in the
same shoes you are on this journey with you.
Don't miss your chance to get tickets to this event before it sells out because it will sell out.
You can go to businessboutique.com or call 888-22-PEACE.
That's 888-22-PEACE.
Now, we're still focusing on business this hour.
Taking your calls about all things business.
And if you've got a question for me,
I am your host.
I am your coach.
I am here to help.
That phone number is 888-825-5225.
888-825-5225. Any questions you have about getting started
or growing, sales, marketing, hiring, delegating,
fear, time management, how do we do it all?
I am here to help. And I'll tell you guys, one of the common things that I see again and again when it comes to business
is this idea of fear. I actually got a question recently from Sarah. Here's what Sarah asked.
She said, I have an exciting opportunity that came out of nowhere for my business and suddenly I feel
super unqualified. I'm anxious with the
imposter syndrome mixed in and how am I going to do this? How do I get through it? You know,
her question is not that unusual. I get a question around fear or doubt probably every single day.
And so I just want to start by encouraging that this is normal. It's scary because business is
vulnerable because you're putting yourself out there because you're putting yourself out there in the marketplace online in
the public eye to be rejected or accepted. It feels vulnerable because you love it so much.
It feels scary because it's new because you've never done it before, but it doesn't mean you're
not supposed to do it. See, I used to think that I used to think that fear was a bad sign. It meant
turn back now, red flag, you're doing something wrong. If you were supposed to do it. See, I used to think that. I used to think that fear was a bad sign. It meant turn back now,
red flag, you're doing something wrong. If you were supposed to do it, you would be super confident.
You wouldn't have these fears. This must mean you're not supposed to do it. But you know what?
Fear doesn't mean that you're doing something bad. It just means you're doing something bold.
And that's a good thing. You're scared because you've never done this before. Of course you're scared. But I will tell you, nothing will silence the fear of doing the thing like doing the thing.
So go do the thing. The antidote to fear is action. Take steps, even if they are shaking,
scared, nervous steps, take steps in the direction of your dream. And I promise you,
as you do it one baby step at a time,
that fear will lessen.
Your confidence will grow.
And then you look up one day and oh my gosh, I'm doing it.
So I just want to encourage you.
Fear is normal.
It's not a sign you're doing something bad. It's a sign you're doing something bold.
And the good news is, y'all hear me say this all the time,
you don't have to wait.
You don't have to wait until you're not scared
to do the thing you want to do. You just do it scared. Even when you're shaking in your stilettos or
sneakers or slippers, whatever you prefer, even when you're scared, you just do it anyway. You do
it while you're scared. All right, we've got a call coming in from Alex in Dallas, Texas. Hey,
Alex, how's it going? Hey, Christy.
How are you?
Good.
What's going on?
How can I help?
Hi.
So I recently had a calling on my heart to start a business.
And we are still currently in baby steps, too.
We've sold basically everything that we can at debt, but it's still really just kind of sitting on my heart really heavily that we are throwing money at this business to the extent that we are.
And we're still in debt.
I feel like maybe this isn't something I should be doing right now with the debt being the way that it is.
So I'm kind of just struggling with that.
And I was wondering if you had any advice.
Yeah. So tell me a little bit about the business. What is the business and why are you personally funding it right now? So it's a home bakery business. The funding that I'm doing is
just, you know, gathering supplies, getting, you know, marketing material, things to set up at like
fairs and things like that. So it's just the initial getting started
basis, but it's still kind of expensive right now. Yeah. So here's what I would encourage you to do.
The tension you're feeling is not just financial. It's also a value decision because you feel like
our values are to pay off this debt, but instead we're putting money into this business and it
feels perpendicular to your values. And that's where you're feeling that tension and I hear that the great thing is you can fix that pretty easily
what you're going to do is you're going to take the money that you are putting in the business
and just take that off the table as an option if you get scrappy and resourceful and smart
you will find a way to still build this business if you want to without putting all these funds
into it I'll give you an example.
One of my good friends, her name is Mignon Francois.
Very fancy name.
I feel very official just saying it out loud.
She's going to be a speaker at our business boutique conference this fall.
And she has this amazing story of building a cupcake business, by the way, Alex, from her home.
And she started, I kid you not, with like less than $10. She took that $10 to the store,
bought one box of cake mix and one mixing spoon and turned that into a cake that then turned into
a profit that then bought her next mixing spoon and a case of eggs. So you only are putting the
money into this business because you can. And if you take that off the table and say, that's not
an option anymore, we're going to have to make this business stand on its own two feet and we're going to have to use what we have turn a profit
let the profit then go back into the business to build it then i don't think you'll feel such
angst in your spirit about putting money you want to put at your personal debt into your business
you just have to get scrappy and resourceful to do it and i will tell you that mignon's a great
example of that you can follow her on social. Her business is now a multi-million dollar business with a location in Nashville in New Orleans. And she
started, Alex, I kid you not, with less than like $10. But Alex, I would love for you to come to
our business boutique event. I don't know if you're able to make it, but if you will stay on
the line, Kelly will get you tickets. You can come, you can hear from Mignon in person, hear
from me and give you that extra push that you need.
You know, this is very similar to student loans.
If you were to ask a college student, an 18-year-old, well, which would you rather do?
Would you rather spend 20 hours a week looking for scholarships or would you like to sign your name to a piece of paper?
They're probably going to sign their name to a piece of paper, which is a student loan. They'll have to pay off for the next few decades of their
life. Of course, it's easier to sign your name to a loan. But if you take that off the table,
if you say loans are not an option, if you take the money you're putting into your business off
the table, well, then you have other options. You're not painted in a corner. You have other
ways to get resourceful. Sometimes we just do the easier option. What's easier just to take some money out of our personal bank account to
let the business get a little bit of lift. Just take it off the table. Give yourself the self
discipline to say, we're not going to do this. We're not going to put any money into it. I used,
I just used the example of Melissa Hennett from Grace and Lace. She even had the money. She had
some savings and she said, no, we're not
going to do that. We're not going to put any of our personal funds into the business. And if you
do that and take it off the table, it forces you to get really creative, really scrappy,
really resourceful. And then you will find a way to make that work. Maybe it starts smaller.
Maybe it starts less impressive. You don't get the big new fancy computer. You
don't get the big office building or the boutique storefront. You don't get all the nice equipment.
You don't get the cute new laptop bag or your ideal mixer on day one, and that's okay. You're
going to start small. You're going to grow slow. You're going to own it every step of the way,
and then you won't have that anxiety in your spirit of putting personal money you want to put your debt into your business because the business is now supporting
itself and that's something that you can be proud of this is the Dave Ramsey show Thank you. I'm Christy Wright, sitting in for Dave Ramsey today, taking your calls about all things business.
It's a business boutique theme hour, and we have some calls lined up to help you with business.
Any area of business, I'm here to help.
Our next call is from Jada in Houston.
Hey, Jada, how's it going?
Oh, it's going well.
How can I help?
Good, how can I help?
Well, I have a family caregiving consulting business
that I would like to provide as a benefit to corporations.
And I don't know how exactly to contact or break into those corporations. I'm assuming it would
be HR managers or wellness managers. Yeah, so that's a great question. I'll tell you two things
that you can do. First, have you put together your program or your package, like what your proposal would be?
Let's say you get in front of the right person.
Do you have something to present?
Yes.
God gave me the plan last night, and I put it together this morning.
I love it.
Okay.
I love your enthusiasm, Jada.
Let's start with that.
I love it.
What I want you to do is I want you to do a little bit of research and digging and ask a lot of questions to the right people that would be the decision makers.
Because I just want you to cross check what you've prepared and what they're saying they need.
And just make sure that your presentation, your proposal is speaking to their specific pain points, their interests, their needs.
You wouldn't want to walk in and present something and they're going, well, that doesn't speak to me at all.
That's not what we need.
That's not the direction we're going type of thing.
So I do want you to do a little bit of digging and research.
But then when it comes to actually getting in front of the right people, I know this
sounds so simple, but it's really just getting scrappy.
It's calling, asking, hey, I'm trying to get in touch with this division.
Do you have any type of benefits, whether it's HR, maybe it's some type of employee
training, employee enhancement,
culture, different companies and different corporations will call it different things.
They will have different roles.
And even figuring out within that organizational dynamic who the decision maker is and what
the process is.
They may have a formal process that you have to go through with an application or get a
meeting set up.
It might be something where you can just,
if it's a small business,
you can just show up and bring some coffee and donuts
and say, hey, I'd love to talk to someone
about ways we can work together.
But I will tell you, Jada,
what you're trying to speak to
when you do get in front of them.
Let's say you do some digging,
you're writing down phone numbers
and they refer you to someone else.
You're just keeping track of this kind of maze
that you're going through to find the different people, the different corporations that you're trying to get in
touch with.
You always want to speak to the intersection of their interests and your interests.
What do they want for their team members?
What do they want for the employees?
Why can your business help them?
You want to speak to that and, of course, to your business, what you offer, what your
expertise is.
But don't come in and pitch about here's what I can do, me, me, me type of thing.
You want to speak to what's in it for them.
You want to speak to the benefit to them,
to the benefit to their employee,
to the benefit to the bottom line,
the benefit, the ROI they're going to experience.
So just making sure that your proposal and presentation
is speaking to their specific interests
and how you can meet that through your business.
But yeah, another thing I would encourage you to do
is just make a list of who are your dream clients.
There's a bazillion corporations in the United States.
Just start with, what are your top 50?
Man, I would love to work with these top 50 companies.
And just start calling.
Get on the phone, get on Google,
start searching and digging.
And I think that you'll find that once you get
the first one or two, you'll start to get the hang of it and say, oh, this seems to be the process.
This seems to be the division.
This seems to be the title they call it.
This seems to be a key word that they really resonate with.
After you do the first few, it will become like a well-oiled machine, and you'll be able to duplicate that again and again and again.
A lot of it is this learning by doing, which, let's be honest, kind of what we're all doing in business, right?
You're making it up as you go, doing the best you can. And so I just encourage you, Jada,
to get scrappy, but make sure your proposal is speaking to their specific interests and make
your list. Make your list of the corporations, the companies that you want to work with.
All right, we've got a call from Melissa in Ontario. Hey, Melissa, how's it going?
Good, thanks. You?
Great. How can I help?
Well, I currently have two young boys, and I'm working a part-time job.
It's a good job. It's convenient. I work with wonderful people.
But I don't feel like I'm super passionate about what I'm doing.
And both of my parents were self-employed. I love the idea of having my own baby and working at something that I'm passionate about,
but I don't have any great ideas.
And so I'm just wondering if you have any recommendations for resources as to where
to start to help me figure out my strengths and my gifts and just give me some direction
as to where to go next to find something that I can enjoy doing every day.
Sure, absolutely.
Okay, so I will tell you in my book, Business Boutique, when I'm talking about strengths, because I think it's really important you pick your business idea, to find a way to spend
the majority of your time in your strengths. And then for all the things that you still have to do
that are your weakness, you're going to find solutions for. So you're going to automate or
outsource or delegate or hire, whatever you need to do. So we're going to find ways for you to stay
in your strengths. But to your point, you need to know what those are. So in my book, Business
Boutique, I created five e-questions.
So I'm going to give these to you now, Melissa.
These are my five e-questions.
Even if you've never taken a personality assessment like Myers-Briggs or StrengthsFinders or DISC
or Enneagram, whatever, even if you've never done that, if you answer these five questions,
it will give you some great insight into the direction of your strengths.
And then you can start to cultivate business ideas from that.
So here we go. The first one, and then you can start to cultivate business ideas from that. So here we go.
The first one, what do you enjoy?
Now, I don't know about you, Melissa,
but typically the things I enjoy are also my strengths.
I don't like doing stuff I'm not good at.
I'm not good at softball.
I don't like to play.
I don't have good hand-eye coordination.
But things I am good at, I enjoy,
and those are my strengths.
So what do you enjoy?
And if you're making a list,
like when you're actually working through this, Melissa, write out those things. What are the
things you enjoy? The second one, what comes effortless to you? What's just easy? I will tell
you really quickly, this is the area that is the easiest to undervalue because you immediately
assume, well, that's easy for me. It's easy for everyone. Well, that's obvious to me. That's
obvious to everyone.
I have this fear and thought every time
before I sit down to write an article
or a stage talk, like everyone knows this,
but you have to realize what's easy for you
is difficult for someone else.
What's obvious to you is amazing to someone else.
Maybe God made it easy for you
because you're going to help someone else with that thing.
So what is easy for you?
That's your second E question. What's effortless for you? That's your second E question. The third,
what gives you energy? When you're in your strengths, it actually fills you up of energy.
Now, it doesn't mean that you don't get tired, but it's that good kind of tired where you can't
wait to wake up and do the whole thing again. So I'll give you an example, Melissa. I can speak
on stage for three days straight. And at the end of the third day, I can't wait to go to dinner with my husband and tell him all about it.
Like I'm wired.
I'm so excited because speaking gives me energy.
Now, if you ask me to fill out an Excel spreadsheet with data and details, I got about five minutes, Melissa, and then I need a nap.
Like the things that are not your strengths drain you very, very quickly.
So what are the things that give you energy? That's a good insight into your strengths.
The fourth one is what do others encourage in you? What do others encourage in you? Sometimes
identifying our strengths comes to the gift of other people's compliments. So what are people
always saying about you? Oh my gosh, you're so good at that. You're a natural. Wow. You should start
a business doing that. Make a list of those things. What do people say? What are the themes?
And then fifth and lastly, where do you excel? Where do you excel in relation to other people?
And I will tell you, Melissa, people say this to me all the time. They say, oh,
excel. Oh, me? Nothing. I'm just, I'm not good at anything. No. Humility. I just excel in humility.
No, listen.
If God made you good at something, own it.
And this is for all of you listening right now.
If God made you good at something, own it.
You are not doing anyone any favors by dismissing or downplaying your strengths.
We need what you have to offer.
So where do you excel?
Where do you perform above average in relation to other people?
Write those things down.
And Melissa, when you write down your answers
to those five questions,
it will give you incredible insight
into what your strengths are.
And then here's what I want you to do.
I want you to stay on the phone
because I'm going to have Kelly give you
my business idea bootcamp.
This is the four-step course that you need
to figure out
your best business idea. And you go through this course, you take your strengths that we've just
talked about, you go through the curriculum that I'm going to teach you in Business Idea Boot Camp,
and you will walk away with your best business idea and knowing how to stay in your strengths
and how to leverage that. And that should be what you need to get you off on the right path.
I love that call, Melissa.
Thanks so much, and I wish you all the best on your journey on figuring out what you love to do
and, of course, making money doing it.
I'm Christy Wright, this hour, sitting in for Dave Ramsey, creator.
I'm the creator of Business Boutique, and I want to thank producer James Child,
and associate producer Kelly Daniel, you America for tuning in.
This is the Dave Ramsey show.
Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey show.
This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry.
We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section.
Thanks for listening.