Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast

Have you used outsourced talent for specific tasks in your Small Business? Ever run into quality problems? We thought so. Neil Napier ran into so many problems outsourcing that he realized there was a business opportunity to minimize headaches and increase the quality of the talent pool and thus, JobRack was born! Listen in to episode 119 of the Small Business Show and learn about the importance o...

It’s as simple as it is powerful. If we were using clickbait headlines, this one would read: This One Tip Will Make Your Customers Love You! But, since we don’t do that stuff on the Small Business Show, join us this week as we dive in deeper to the Two Tokens concept of Customer Service, as so eloquently described by Jean-Louis Gassée in his Monday Note. Gassée, who has a storied histo...

Can you work from anywhere? Is your dream to create a business that can be managed from Thailand, Europe, Florida and anywhere in-between? If so, you need to meet the folks from Jumpanzee . Join us on episode 117 of the Small Business Show! After spending years working for Ginormous Corp, David Denning and his wife Elle wanted to own a business that would give them the flexibility to live anywhere...

We’re strong proponents of finding something you love to do and creating a business around it. Lance Lewsader had such a great time getting out of an escape room attraction a couple of years ago that he decided to create his own and Bolt NWA was born! Bolt NWA is an Escape Room Experience where customers have one hour to find clues, solve puzzles and work together to escape the room. Bolt ha...

Are you using video to market your Small Business? What problems does it solve and how about problems it can create? Join us today on the Small Business Show where we meet Adam Rahn of Droi Media to find answers to these questions and learn about Adam’s journey from freelancer to Small Business owner. Adam shares his surprise at just how many “hats” he is now wearing to get his b...

Have you been trained in Human Resource management? Things like legal hiring practices, at-will employment, harassment policies and employee manual development? We didn’t think so. HR issues can plague small businesses of all sizes, especially once you hit the magic 50-employee number that activates all kinds of regulations and requirements. You need some help! Today on the Small Business Sh...

In your Small Business, do you value being told when you are wrong? Would you like to have a Revenue Stack that generates cash from multiple sources? Do you know what the Scotty Principle is? Join us on Episode 113 of the Small Business Show for these topics and more! We all love it when we’re right. But as you know, Dave and Shannon love hearing about mistakes, the “wrongs” that...

We often ask our guests on the Small Business Show to tell us about their biggest mistake in business, as well as what advice they would have given themselves if they could go back to when they were just getting started. A very common response: Better accounting, better bookkeeping! On today’s episode, we are thrilled to have Justin Sisley of Digidern Bookkeeping as our guest to discuss the...

Today on the Small Business Show, we discuss the launch of the Apple Market Forum , Dave’s new business venture with longtime colleague, Paul Kent. Shannon gets a chance to quiz Dave about the impetus for starting AMF and some of the juicy details behind the concept for the event that will be held this summer in Silicon Valley. During the course of the show, we discuss some critical aspects...

What’s in a name? Everything when it comes to your company or brand! As founders, owners and stewards of Small Businesses, we all know how important your company or brand name is. Joining us today on the Small Business Show, Mike Pile, Founder of Uppercase Branding discusses his own business as well as sharing tips and methods for coming up with great names. Mike discusses how prioritizing t...

We began episode 109 of the Small Business Show with a plan to chat with Bob LeVitus about his new book, Working Smarter for Mac Users . We talked about the book of course, but we also covered a treasure of information about being a “Solopreneuer” for 20+ years and how creating discipline techniques can be a path to success. Bob considers himself to be “virtually unemployable&#82...

Problems – we all work on solving them every-single-day. Maybe the solution to a problem is the entire reason for your business to exist in the first place? Today on episode 108 of the Small Business Show, join Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean as they focus on problem solving for your Small Business. Here’s some of the good stuff we covered on the show today: Tips to get you and your cus...

What if you were tasked with taking a thriving brick and mortar business with an established clientele and transitioning it to an ecommerce business selling a completely different product line to a new demographic? How would you handle the stress of trying to keep existing customers happy while attracting new customers to grow the business? Sara Beznicki and Isabelle Tan jumped into this situation...

How many tasks are you “managing” at one time? How effective are you while doing those things and how does multitasking impact your creativity? Join us this week on episode 106 of the Small Business Show and find out how your hosts deal with the urge to instantly respond to Slack posts and Messages. Dave brings up the concept of Spotlighting vs. Multitasking after Shannon explains his...

The thought of even pretending to fail is anathema to your hosts on the Small Business Show. However, Dave came across the concept of the Pre-Mortem and the guys go all-in today to see how it works. “A pre-mortem — also known as a premortem — is a managerial strategy in which a manager imagines that a project or organization has failed, and then works backward to determine what potentially c...

If you had the choice, would you continue the traditions of a multi-generational business that provided decades of support for those that came before you? Or would you turn things upside down and commit to growing the business and challenging yourself (and your company) to embrace new technology, new customers and a new workforce? If you are a Small Business Show listener, we think we know what yo...

Jay Gentile has a passion for saving time, his clients as well as his own! What began as a mobile product repair business, led to SEO and web design and finally into application development and the BoosterBots family of marketing apps. Join us today on the Small Business Show and learn how Jay made the transition from his first two businesses to ultimately creating a company that gives him the rew...

When Tyler Merritt noticed that his good friend was running a growing appliance repair business with no software to track accounting, schedules or workers, he did what good friends do: he offered to help build a customized application for the business. The guys spent about a year putting together the app and since they figured that most small service businesses had the same problems, they decided...

What’s more difficult? Starting up a new company or taking over and changing the culture of a 4th generation small business? Join us today on the Small Business Show with our guest Rick Stuart from Listo , a company founded in 1921! How would you handle taking over and managing employees that have known you since you were a kid? What about “updating” the culture of a company almo...

Welcome to the 100th episode of the Small Business Show! As they begin 2017, Dave and Shannon take a look back at some of the highlights from last year in the advice and how-to categories. Your hosts revisit tips and tricks from 8 of their favorite episodes and wrap up the show with a reminder about finding ways for your business to enrich your personal life. Join us today and then share your stor...

As we wrap up 2016 with our last Small Business Show episode of the year, Dave and Shannon take a look back at some of the highlights of their favorite interviews from the past 12-months. Join us today we we revisit some of these moments that stuck with us! Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00:00 Small Business Show #99 December 28, 2016 00:02:06 Year in Review Interviews 00:03:06 Ep79 – Greg Mercer o...

What would happen if a favorite business that you visit often suddenly began introducing political comments in the mix of their marketing or posting political signs in their store. Would you respect their right to do so, even if you disagreed with their politics? Join Dave and Shannon on episode 98 of the Small Business Show as they discuss the pros and cons of mixing politics with your Small Busi...

As Small Business owners, we have a duty to uphold. That duty, to our employees, partners, suppliers and service providers is to communicate in a timely manner and pay our bills on time, among other things. What happens when we fail at this? Well, that depends on how you handle the situation. Join Dave and Shannon on episode 97 of the Small Business Show to discuss a real world example of how NOT...

Think you can do it better? The jobs at your company, that is. Do you remember when you did every job at your business? If it’s been awhile since that time, join us today on the Small Business Show as we discuss how this “job swap” can energize you, allow you to reconnect with employees and provide some valuable insight into what’s really happening behind the scenes each da...

Join us today on the Small Business Show to listen in on our conversation with Steve Baines, Co-Founder of Forcivity, a software development firm focused on simplifying how you access your data in cloud based applications like SalesForce. Steve’s years of experience working with data as both a consultant and previous business owner led him to launch Forcivity with a group of like minded folk...