Watch4thehook Business & Entrepreneur Podcast: A Small Business Podcast for Small Business Owners

We hear a lot of times, there is plenty of money out there to help you start a business. The crazy thing is like we talked about in another episode, to get access to money, you have to meet the criteria. Some forms of grants for businesses requires that your business function to a certain standard. Those standards can now become barriers to small black owned businesses who already have limited res...

There are a number of ways to help you learn and grow as a business owner. If you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be involved with some business seminars, cohorts, master classes, then you can consider yourself to be fortunate. Your business being selected means you met their criteria to be asked to be a part of those events. You want to come in with an open mind and check your ego...

How you look on paper will greatly affect how you look in real life. This is very true in the business world and the world of financial services or access to capital. Your credit score is a prediction of your credit behavior, and lenders lean heavily on that when it comes to lending out capital or funds. This why we have advised potential business owners to fix or better your personal credit score...

Who really wants to work from the ages of 15-70 for someone else? This is the message that the Congress of the United States of America is trying to feed its constituents. The fact that Social Security, which is a fund established for all documented American citizens has been exposed for not being what it is supposed to be won't help most of us in our latter years in life. These Congressmen are no...

Every day I am hustling, every day I am hustling!!! Great motivational lingo, but does it come with a catch. You hear the term hustling used a lot when it comes to how some businesses run or operate. The flip side of that is now can your hustling be detrimental to your own hustle. This plays upon the adage of working smarter, not harder. We as business owners can sometimes over think, over analyze...

In this episode we are here to discuss the brand values we have established for the Watch4TheHook Apparel Brand. We were able to define our brand values by going through brand development not too long after we launch our brand. Brand development is a great informational gathering tool for any business. Here are the brand values of the Watch4TheHook Apparel Business: Partner With Minorities Provide...

There is always a lesson to be learned from basically anything in life. Particularly in business there are ways to be inspired by unfavorable events. There have been plenty of businesses that have folded over the years, and other businesses who learned from their mistakes. Other companies have survived hardships (i.e. Covid) and are still thriving. This a prime example of taking inspirations from...

**** This is the Last Episode for 2023*** In the business of sharing news, we would like to hear the Good News as well. Sometimes business owners can be the friends or confidants you can always come to with your problems. We would also request being those you bring the good news to as well. We love to be outlets to help others vent, express, or even dwell on issues about. We would love even more t...

America's History and Black America's History are two totally different histories and told in two totally different ways. My wife graduated from two different predominantly white institutions (PWI) and the way she was taught about how the world works was different from my historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) educational background. PWI's tell you how to prepare for how the world is...

Expansion is the name of the game for 2024. Exploration is basically expanding your knowledge of the world that is unknown to you. We are claiming expansion as our visionary word of the year for 2024. The apparel brand will be launching an extension line in 2024, and we are so happy about that. This line will be to us, our 1st statement-based apparel brand/line. we have prided ourselves on being m...

Most of us read "The Little Engine That Could" while growing up. It is meant to be an inspirational tail that even the "smallest" of us have a chance to achieve something great. As inspiring as the story is, the real-life version is a much harder story to read. The little engine business wise has a much harder time getting things the bigger engine gets and probably at a discount too. The little en...

This episode is about those content creators who will "build" your brand 4 you. There are certain content creators offering "packages" for a certain price to "build your brand" 4 you and then you can take over from there. As we always can say, " no one can love it more than you". How can you as a business owner think someone one besides you can know more about your band, than you? If someone else...

We have talked about earlier how cash is still king, but do we really know how money really moves? Financial institutions can loan money to potential investors or customers with an attached annual percentage rate (apr). APR refers to the yearly interest generated by a sum that's charged to borrowers or paid to investors. This basically means they will get back more money than they lend out. They m...

They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery, not if the imitation steals from the owners of the original. Especially when the perpetrators are not from the same culture. Throughout the years small business owners have been plagued upon by those who seem to take and profit from what they have implemented or created. Those vultures could care less about the harm they cause the businesses they...

We all we got, is more truth than most of us small black business owners want to admit. Supporting one another is something that we as a community have always done. Now that we have become more knowledgeable, we see once again the playing field is not level. Small black owned businesses are as American as apple pie, but we have always struggled to keep our businesses open and flourishing. We have...

******PSA**********This episode will go under the category of an Uncomfortable Conversation. In the new age world of catch phrases and attention grabbers, there may be none more polarizing right now than, "we are creating generational wealth" We ourselves are guilty of this as well, but we have come to think about things differently. Let's look at the phrase and break it down a little bit. What do...

We can all overthink things at times. That can be human nature at its finest. We need to always remember some of the biggest ideas that shaped this planet were simple in nature. Some designs or concepts that were too complex can go right over the head of your targeted customers. Those hidden attributes or little tid bits you think will grab their attention, could go unnoticed. You then feel like y...

They say, "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", so would be the definition of a design. We, as owners of a clothing/apparel line, have come to understand that train of thought even more now. Some people's definition of a design could be an arrangement of letters or symbols aka text. Another could be some form of artwork aka a graphic design. Then there are combinations of text and graphics toge...

There is a ton of analytical data you can look at and decipher as a business owner. You can go from social media post impressions to your profit and lost statement. There are numbers everywhere for you to try to figure out what they mean business wise for you. The more social media channels you have, the more you can help influence those numbers hopefully in your good favor. Sometimes the more int...

One way to help your business to succeed is to be deliberate in the choices you make. These decisions have good and bad consequences attached to them and should not be taken lightly. This where being intentional in your business comes into play. Don't treat your business like a dart board, just throwing things up there just to see what sticks. We constantly preach, do your research. We say that be...

Things may not be as they appear sometimes. You may have a clouded vison of how your business is moving along, compared to how it is actually moving. The old saying goes, "things may not be as they appear to be". You could actually make yourself believe that things are going well when they are not, as a coping mechanism. We talk about thinking about things differently all the time. The reasoning b...

When "lightning" strikes you better be ready for it. The lightning in the business world we are referring to could be a movement that could bring an influx of prosperity to your business. The movement can be brought on by something you did, a worldly event, or something orchestrated by your own external business partners. Whatever the case might be, you want to be able to hopefully monetize on tha...

You will have to believe in yourself when no one else probably will. With you believing in yourself you have stepped out into the realm of being an entrepreneur. This belief in yourself and your work may not be easy to come by, and most will find it hard to do as well. You will have to dig deep into your persona and know what I am doing or trying to do is great. Self-doubt may creep into your thou...

There are some sayings that can translate between the business world and the personal world. When a new business is started, the business owners are riding an emotional or even a financial high. That means their energy could be through the roof and then shit happens. What plenty of onlookers will be looking for is to see if they are keeping that same energy when things are not so well on the busin...

Most business owners have a certain expectation(s) for their business. We all think we have the greatest thing ever created and we want the world to think so as well. Then boom, reality hits. It takes and cost money to run a business. Your business has to bring in money to help offset the money going out to operate your business. This is where understanding of business credits and debits plays a p...