This week, in episode 93, Jay Goltz, Liz Picarazzi, and William Vanderbloemen talk about sales, specifically the transition most founders have to make from handling sales themselves to building a sales team. Jay, Liz, and William also discuss the value of going to trade shows, the pros and cons of compensating salespeople based on commission, and the differences between inside sales and outside sales. “The kind of person,” Jay says, “who can go out there and cold call all day long and get the do...
Jan 25, 2022•45 min
This week, Loren Feldman talks to John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, about what most concerns the businesses in his group and how they view their prospects. Plus: what are smaller businesses doing now that the Supreme Court has blocked the vax-or-test mandate? Is there a possibility of more funds being allocated to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund? And what are the chances of legislation passing that would curb anti-competitive practices on Big Tech platforms? And is ...
Jan 24, 2022•16 min
For many, knitting may still conjure an image of a grandmother in a rocking chair, her cats sleeping and her doilies taking shape. In recent years, however, the quiet industry of tiny neighborhood yarn shops scattered across the U.S. has become an unlikely cultural battleground. It’s been divided by charges of racism and cultural appropriation that have erupted in a series of social media firestorms, prompting some owners to close, sell, or rebrand their businesses. It may seem surprising that s...
Jan 21, 2022•1 hr 4 min
This week, in episode 92, we introduce another new member of the 21 Hats Podcast team, Liz Picarazzi, who talks Shawn Busse and Paul Downs through a series of challenges she’s faced at her business, Citibin. Among those challenges: why she outsourced her manufacturing to China, why she’s trying to bring it back, why she’s struggling to find an American fabricator that wants her business, why she thinks she wasted all of the money she spent last year on digital marketing, how she managed to doubl...
Jan 18, 2022•44 min
This week, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks talk about how Hormel is somehow selling more Spam than ever. Plus: What will small businesses do now that there’s no vax-and-test mandate? Why Buy Now Pay Later is a good deal for small retailers (but potentially risky for their customers). And why you shouldn’t use your customer relations platform for email marketing—even though CRM providers say you can.
Jan 17, 2022•19 min
This week, in episode 91, we introduce a new member of the 21 Hats Podcast team, Shawn Busse, who tells Jay Goltz and Laura Zander about an intriguing challenge he faces. Twenty-two years ago, Shawn co-founded a marketing firm called Kinesis, but now he’s trying to convince clients that it takes more than just marketing. Sometimes, it’s not enough just to drive more leads. Sometimes, you have to step back and take a deeper look at your business, which not every client is ready to do. In fact, it...
Jan 11, 2022•44 min
This week, Gene Marks tells Loren Feldman that he expects blockchain technology to spawn an explosion of digital transactions and a whole new economy. Does this mean business owners need to understand what a non-fungible token is? And would you buy an NFT of this podcast episode? Plus: tips for inflation-proofing your business. And is the Qualified Small Business Stock exemption a ridiculous loophole or a boon to small businesses?
Jan 10, 2022•20 min
This week, in a special bonus episode, we talk to Steve Krull and Dan Golden, co-founders of Be Found Online, a digital marketing agency based in Chicago. In the second quarter of 2020, as COVID hit and their clients stopped advertising, Krull and Golden watched helplessly as their agency lost 40 percent of its revenue. And then things got much worse: By the end of the year, both of their wives would be diagnosed with cancer. This is a conversation about how Krull and Golden have coped with matt...
Jan 07, 2022•48 min
This week, in episode 90, we have a special guest, Fred Warmbier, owner of a metal-finishing business he founded in Cincinnati in 1998. About 10 years ago, Warmbier was ready to walk away from that business. “It just never seemed like I could have the type of business that I wanted,” he says, “where things worked properly and our employees were happy and our customers were happy.” That changed when he discovered the Deming Management Method through a consultant, Kelly Allan, who helped him tame ...
Jan 04, 2022•54 min
This week, in episode 89, our last episode of 2021, we take a look back at the conversations we’ve had this year about the rewards and responsibilities of business ownership, including what it’s like to sell your business, to fire an employee, to risk your own home in order to get financing, to have to make a bet-the-company decision, and to deal with mental health issues, even thoughts of suicide. In this bonus episode, we highlight some of our happiest, smartest, funniest, and most difficult e...
Dec 21, 2021•1 hr 24 min
This week, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks talk about the arrival of omicron. With holiday parties getting canceled, sporting events getting canceled, offices either closing or postponing plans to reopen, it’s starting to feel a lot like—well, not Christmas, but more like March of 2020. Are businesses in for another rough patch? Or is that just COVID hysteria? Plus: Gene admits he likes ABBA.
Dec 20, 2021•20 min
This week, in episode 88, Jay Goltz and William Vanderbloemen talk about what it takes—in the throes of an unprecedented labor shortage—to hold on to your best people, the ones whose departures might send you looking for a trash can. They also discuss whether “hire slow” still works, whether it’s a good idea to rehire a former employee, whether it’s still possible to do a meaningful reference check, how to use 360 reviews and personality tests, and finally, whether Jay and William would be ready...
Dec 14, 2021•41 min
This week, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks talk about how some 20 states are giving business owners a special workaround that helps them evade the federal cap on state and local taxes. If you live in one of these states and have a pass-through corporate structure, it could be worth a lot of money. They also talk about reports that businesses are budgeting to give their employees big raises next year and why industrial space in some places is now worth more than office space. Plus: the latest Consum...
Dec 13, 2021•16 min
This week, in episode 87, Paul Downs, Dana White, and Laura Zander talk about the lessons they’ll take from 2021 and what they’re hoping to accomplish in 2022. Paul thinks he’s found an alternative sales channel that will lessen his dependency on Google. Laura, who built Jimmy Beans Wool on ecommerce, is planning a renewed emphasis on brick-and-mortar retail. And Dana White is working on building the team that will help her pursue her remarkable opportunities with franchising and the military. P...
Dec 07, 2021•44 min
This week, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks talk about how businesses that engage in digital marketing are adjusting to the new rules that make it harder to track customers. They also discuss how businesses are replacing employees with chatbots and what businesses should do while the vaccine mandate battle plays out in court. Plus: the SBA has $100 billion in disaster relief funds that are about to expire and it’s not too late to apply. What you need to know.
Dec 06, 2021•16 min
This week, in episode 86, instead of a conversation with our regulars, we talk to two people who walked away from promising careers to buy blue collar businesses. Long before search funds and sweaty startups became all the rage, Bob Schwartz left a Wall Street investment banking career to buy a chain of laundromats, SuperSuds, which operates in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. More recently, Mills Snell left a prominent private equity firm to buy a roofing contractor, Aqua Seal Ma...
Nov 30, 2021•46 min
This week, in episode 85, Paul Downs, Jay Goltz, and Laura Zander talk about the bonuses they plan to pay this year—and how their bonus plans and philosophies have evolved over time: Are the payments a reward for company performance? Are they a reward for personal performance? Are they supposed to motivate? Or are they just a thank you? Then the owners talk management, a discussion inspired by last week’s episode with Dana White about navigating the space between being a pushover and being a jer...
Nov 16, 2021•44 min
This week, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks talk about why robot sales are setting records and how even small businesses are taking advantage of the opportunity. They also talk about the inflation spike and why electric vehicles will help—at least over the long-term. Plus: the government takes action on ransomware, and a fresh approach to paid time off.
Nov 15, 2021•21 min
This week, in episode 84, Dana White takes us along for the ride, sharing the remarkable opportunities and the daunting challenges she’s confronting simultaneously. In a one-on-one conversation, we catch Dana at an emotional moment. After a triumphant trip to Germany, where she expects to open salons on multiple military bases, she’s just returned to Detroit—only to learn that the team she’s counting on is showing serious cracks. Even as she’s signing contracts with the military, getting ready t...
Nov 09, 2021•50 min
This week, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks talk about an entrepreneur who may have cracked the code on TikTok by simply telling the story of her business the way she would tell it to a friend—although Gene’s not really buying it. They also talk about the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate now that the rules have been released, some options for businesses trying to figure out health insurance, and whether—as the Wall Street Journal reported—entrepreneurs really are happier than other people.
Nov 08, 2021•18 min
This week, in episode 83, Paul Downs tells Jay Goltz and Laura Zander why he’s come to view Google as the Volcano God. He’s not sure what it will take to keep the Volcano God happy, but he’s obsessed with doing everything he can, because the consequences of failing would be so great. We also talk about Paul’s content marketing strategy, the pricing lessons that emerged from our recent attempt to monetize 21 Hats, and why Laura—even in the midst of the labor shortage—now has a waiting list of peo...
Nov 02, 2021•44 min
This week, Loren Feldman talks to John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, an advocacy group for entrepreneurs about the seemingly endless negotiations in the senate over what could be the Biden administration’s most important piece of legislation. What’s in the bill that would help business owners? Is there anything that would hurt? Is there anything not in the current version that should be? And will this ever end?
Nov 01, 2021•12 min
Several weeks ago, we had a great conversation about how Jay Goltz, Diana Lee, and Dana White track their financials. It was so good that, this week, in episode 82, we decided to put similar questions to Paul Downs and Laura Zander. “It's funny, I was listening to that episode,” Laura says, “and Diana said she's a freak about the numbers. I'm like, ‘God, does that make me a superfreak?’” Laura walks us through how her labor costs can affect what types of yarn she carries, Paul suggests a quick-a...
Oct 26, 2021•45 min
Every Monday, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks discuss what they learned the previous week that can prepare us for the coming week. We’ve all heard the expression “Fake it until you make it.” But how much faking can a business get away with before it makes it? Plus, Gene has common sense suggestions that can help business owners cope with both the supply chain mess and the labor shortage. And we also talk about where owners can turn when they feel they need a sounding board, and it doesn’t feel righ...
Oct 25, 2021•19 min
This week, in episode 81, we have a celebration. As many of you will recall, when we started this podcast, Karen Clark Cole was coming off months of failed negotiations with a potential investor in Blink, the business she co-founded. Those months she spent focused on the investor took a toll on both Blink and on Karen, who subsequently took a mental health sabbatical. But, as Karen tells Jay Goltz and William Vanderbloemen, she came back, refocused, and has just sold Blink for $94 million in cas...
Oct 19, 2021•48 min
Every Monday, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks discuss issues confronting business owners. This week, Gene makes the case for Facebook being good – at least for small businesses. We also talk about how even now—amidst all of the supply-chain snafus—businesses should be thinking about going global. Plus: is the Great Resignation headed for The Great Boomerang? And is it really time to take TikTok seriously?
Oct 18, 2021•17 min
This week, in episode 80, we talk about open-book management, which its proponents call the only sensible way to run a company. To test that theory, we bring together three skeptics and three believers to discuss what it really means for owners to open their books: Do employees know what the boss makes? Do they flee when the numbers turn red? Do they expect to have a say in big decisions? What emerges is an intimate look at how six smart business owners run their businesses.
Oct 12, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Every Monday, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks discuss the issues business owners should be monitoring. This week, we talk about how car dealers are profiting despite the chip shortage, the dangers of depending on a platform like Facebook, a possible CRM game-changer, and the many questions that remain to be answered about President Biden’s vaccine mandate. For example, are businesses subject to the mandate if they have 100 employees but the employees all work from home?
Oct 11, 2021•21 min
This week, in episode 79, we go one-on-one with William Vanderbloemen. We start off talking about how he saw The Great Resignation coming and what he thinks are the keys to coping with it. Then we step back, and—with the help of many questions suggested by listeners—we discuss his conversion from pastor to CEO, what happened to his company culture when everyone went remote, and why he still reads every single email he gets—even when he’s off on a seven-week sabbatical. Plus: how he hit upon his ...
Oct 05, 2021•50 min
Every Monday, Loren Feldman and Gene Marks discuss the issues business owners should be monitoring. This week, Gene explains why he thinks inflation and rising interest rates are going to end the recent surge in startups. Plus: Why raising prices is such a challenge for business owners—even when everyone is doing it. And what are we to make of a third straight month of falling consumer confidence? Are other metrics flashing warning signs as well?
Oct 04, 2021•26 min
