The Mark Haney Podcast

This isn't the first big crisis (or even pandemic) that Nora O'Brien and her team at Connect Consulting have helped to navigate companies through.  We are so lucky she joined up to share her knowledge and expertise with you.  Her message: This is a “marathon” not a sprint” and there's a lot to be done in order to not only protect our businesses but to take care of ourselves and our teams. We talke...

Our friends and partners Legion AVS have felt the affects of the COVID crisis first hand. They are an event and live production company and they lost almost half a million dollars in future revenue in a matter of days. What did they do? They did what any good entrepreneur doess when their back is against the wall, they innovated. They've become experts in interactive, multimedia VIRTUAL events.  T...

As business owners we need to put processes/systems into place so as we scale we don’t lose the quality of our product/service while rapidly ramping up the quantity. In order for us to make the best decisions quickly during this time of rapid growth our communication needs to be better than ever. The communication we have with our leadership team, with our employees, and with our customers/supplie...

Barry Broome, President & CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, and Wayen Wiley, the City Planner for the City of Roseville, joined us to share more about resources available in the region to support small businesses through the crisis and get their perspective on how our overall regional economy is doing today and how it’s poised for recovery. 

Without question, small businesses have been gut punched by COVID-19.  Thankfully, the SBA, federal government and other resources have quickly mobilized to provide some meaningful financial support.  We are lucky to have with us Carrie Ellinwood from the SBAs Sacramento office and Mike Rizzo the Chief Banking Officer from Five Star Bank to provide us with the latest updates on resources available...

 What are your rights and obligations when it comes to contracts during this crisis? Stoel Rives shares their knowledge and expertise about Force Majeure and how it might apply to you and your business. 

The landscape is shifting hourly when it comes to potential regulations and resources as they pertain to employers / employees during this crisis. Kim Silvers and Stacey Sommerhauser from the SilversHR team joined us to talk about the new laws that were recently passed due to these extreme circumstances during the COVID-19 crisis. They walk through the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion...

During this time of crisis you and your team may be working from home, revenues may be slashed in half...but if you operate out of a leased office, payments are still due. How can you maintain space, honor your contracts, preserve credit and survive? Greg Aguirre from Capital Rivers Commercial joins us tomorrow with his tenant preparedness plan that offers very specific and effective steps to help...

Craig Hettrich, the President of The Hettrich Group, talks about some very simple concepts that business owners can do now to adapt their strategy in challenging times.  Craig's main message is FOCUS ....on your best customers with your top tier skill and how you can adapt your strategy to help your best customers face their issues and challenges...along with the Leadership style required  In chal...

As business owners, we run into many obstacles.  Adding family to the mix can create a few more obstacles to overcome. I have heard countless horror stories about family businesses that fail because they don’t separate work from the family.  For instance, many hire, or even worse, pass on the company to a family member just because they’re family.   And because family members have different dreams...

 The most important part of keeping our businesses going, and maybe even thriving at some point through this COVID crisis, or any crisis for that matter, is our people. If we don't have the right people really don't have anything, we're building our company. For today's webinar we are joined by the founder of Hire Education Consulting Group Katie McConnell Olsen and her colleague, Natasha Scott. T...

 There's so much noise and so much distraction about what things to do during this crisis. How could you really be laser focused when it comes to financial planning and your accounting solutions?  So we try to make it as easy as possible, literally the ABCs of crisis response. And so today we're going to talk about accuracy. What we mean there are your financials and your Documents building and ho...

Sacramento Metro Chamber CEO, Amanda Blackwood and her team have been integral in a highly coordinated effort between local businesses, elected officials, and state and federal agencies to provide information about and access to emergency resources for our small businesses and non-profits.  The headlines from our conversation with her: SBA Disaster Loan Program -- CA is one of the first states to...

It is becoming very difficult for small businesses to operate with more and more counties and cities moving towards shelter in place. Especially if we don’t have our team prepared to work remotely. Luckily our friends at Executech have a solution they want to share with you. They will be sharing how to setup and manage a remote workforce. They will talk about the tech, tools, people, and security...

Isn’t it frustrating when you pour your heart and soul into content for your customers and all you hear is crickets?? There is so much noise on social media. How are we supposed to grab the attention of our customers? Yell louder and longer than everyone else? Spend thousands of dollars on ads?  To help me answer these questions and more, I invited three time Emmy Award winning journalist, Kellie...

When is the right time to scale and how the heck do I do it? Have you ever seen a company that is scaling rapidly? It looks like they are killin’ it, nothing can stop them, and then all of a sudden they go out of business… It makes me wonder, were they growing too fast? Did they try to go to market too early, or too late? Did they not push fast and hard enough to get over the hump? To help me shed...

How a local utility company is driving global innovation and fueling entrepreneurs… SMUD, the 6th largest community owned utility company in the country, like other large corporations at some point in their life cycle, are facing the innovator's dilemma. Their industry is in the process of being disrupted and if they do nothing they could find themselves out of business. Sound familiar? Think Bloc...

Why do 95% of us run out of gas, air, and time? As entrepreneurs it is way too easy to focus 100% of our time on our business. Who has time to worry about nutrition, fitness, and social connections when we are trying to do everything possible to stay in business, or build something that will change the world?  My good friend Jack Crawford, the Founding General Partner of Impact Venture Capital, sh...

Are you building an ivory tower kind of culture, or a culture where everyone matters? Nobody builds a truly great company alone, especially entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world. So, in order to achieve our big hairy audacious goals we need to surround ourselves with the people that will run through a brick wall with us. In order to attract and retain these rock stars we have to build a...

Raising Capital? Are you prepared for another full time job?  Entrepreneurs, especially those who are raising capital for the first time, often underestimate the time, energy, and commitment required.  In reality, raising money is a second full time job and can be a big distraction to running/growing the business.  In addition to daily operations, you will need to make the time to: create your pit...

How do you know that your clients will pay for the product you’re developing? Entrepreneurs are some of the most ambitious people on the planet. When we have an idea that we think will change the world, or solve a problem for a niche market, it can be easy to press full speed ahead and build what WE think the market needs. But, how do we know that the market will actually pay for what we are build...

How do investors value companies? This is one of the most frequently asked questions I get from entrepreneurs and also one of the toughest. It can be especially challenging for earlier stage companies that do not have a financial history they can use to back up the story they are telling investors. For me, the number one thing I look at when I invest into early stage companies is the CEO. Is the C...

Put Your Money Where Your Town Is! 62% of all new job creation is because of small businesses/entrepreneurs. It’s safe to say that entrepreneurs are catalysts driving economic growth and transforming the communities we live in. So, why aren’t more people looking to invest into the entrepreneurs in their hometown? Local small businesses sponsor our kids little league teams, create jobs, pay taxes a...

There has never been a better time to build a business selling online courses. Scaling a traditional service-based business can be extremely difficult - you trade time for money and can only serve a finite number of clients. Matt Aitchison, 7 figure real estate investor and host of top 25 itunes podcast, Millionaire Mindcast, solved this problem by creating The Rich Life Academy.   The Rich Life A...

Is a business accelerator right for me? Startup Accelerators, like Techstars and Ycombinator, have become very popular in the past 5 years. Being able to tap into the knowledge of those who have been there done that when launching and growing a business can be the difference between success and failure. Chris Peacock is the CEO of Aquaoso, a startup that recently went through the Techstars acceler...