¶ Business Journey
Welcome everybody to another episode of Big Talk About Small Business , and today I have with me a very special guest . By the way , Mr Mark Zwag is not with us today , unfortunately . I don't know really what he's doing , he's just not showing up .
I wanted to meet him .
Yeah , I mean he's one of the best people in the world to meet . He's got , I mean , one of the greatest personalities . He's relentless , all those good things , but anyway . So he won't be joining us , and there's been a couple episodes here lately that the audience has to deal with just me and my attempt at good questions to my guests .
So Mark's not with us , but we do have a very special guest , connie . Will you introduce yourself , tell us a little bit about who you are , what you've been doing , and then we'll go from there about some big talk , about small business type stuff .
Yeah , you know , eric , I'm super excited to be here , like this is not in my wheelhouse at all .
You seem like you're a pro .
Yeah well , I'm a good faker , Fake it till you make it Boom . That's my business .
Number one advice in business . That's right . I agree with that 100% .
Absolutely so . You know , I grew up in Colorado . I moved here in junior high school and really I grew up when out in Colorado .
Where in Colorado did you grow up ?
Castle Rock , south of Denver . Oh nice , Swinged in from Colorado Springs .
Did you go skiing a lot ?
I never skied Really , we snowmobiled . My family was not athletic per se and so we liked to ride in the mountains and not ski Gotcha .
But my dad was a home builder and we had a car wash in this little bitty town that we lived in , a little two bay car wash , and so you know we spent nights and weekends at the car wash picking up trash and cleaning out the pits and fixing motors , and you know counting quarters wow , so car wash and repair business , I'm home builder , home builder business .
So he worked for martin , our melody homes in denver .
Okay , it's the construction manager , you know . So they would just do a project , he would manage it . Homebuilder , homebuilder . So he worked for Martin , our Melody Homes in Denver . Okay . He's the construction manager , you know . So they would just do a project , he would manage it , they'd go do another one .
Well , he eventually went out on his own , and so from a very young age , I watched my parents do small business and all the hard work that it took so fast forward . He got tired of the winters .
Drugs were coming south from Denver into Castle Rock and he wanted my brother and I to be raised on a farm Nice , so we were coming to Arkansas to visit the Stuarts , which was a family friend , family , family friends . It had come like seven years before we did . Yeah , well , our first stop in Springdale was on Emma Avenue and McKamey Real Estate .
Oh , nice , and we had five farms lined up to look at that day and my brother and I did not know this was the plan . So before we left Arkansas we bought 180 acres in Tawny Town . Yeah , and we're moving to Arkansas . Get ready , it's March , we're moving in August .
That's fantastic . Do you know what your dad's vision was ? Why did he want that for you guys ?
So he was 42 and he retired . He basically hung up his hat bought a farm , bought some cows and went around Northwest Arkansas and tapped on people's doors and said how much do you want for that little 1940 John Deere tractor that's sitting in your pasture ? That's rusted Really . Oh , he probably had 30 antique tractors .
Did he work on them ?
Oh yeah , he got them all running .
Wow , that's cool .
Yeah , so he just had a hobby . He was tired of working really hard , he was tired of the winters . He wanted my brother and I to be raised on a farm , like he was just to complete , and he was fortunate enough to be able to do that .
It's awesome . Good for him .
So yeah , my brother and I , just we shake our heads every day . How did he retire at 42 ? Yeah . So he did that for a couple of years , got bored , went to work for Springdale Tractor , then he went to work for Williams Ford .
Are you ?
sure yeah , just a little salesman .
That's awesome , man Love it , man , I love it yeah .
Unfortunately he passed away at 52 .
Really .
At Williams Ford .
At Williams Ford . Really , yeah , wow .
So , anyway , that was how I got here . And then , you know , I was raised in Springdale , basically , and graduated high school , went to the University of Arkansas and then went straight to Tyson Foods .
Okay , so now we enter into your professional career .
Yeah so 30 years there 30 years at Tyson Foods . Great career .
Yeah , I've heard nothing but great things about Tyson .
Yeah , a lot of different hats , a lot of cross-functional roles . They're so good about promoting from within . Really . Yeah , and I took advantage of that . So you know a lot of different roles at Tyson , learned a lot about big business , you know how to navigate the politics and lead from behind , and you know just good preparation .
So what was your journey in there ? As far as like your rise up the rank , so to speak , and like what all did you do ? What departments were you in there ? As far as like your rise up the rank , so to speak , and like what all did you do ? What departments were you in ?
I started as a secretary , okay , making five dollars and 60 cents an hour heck , yeah , I love it yeah and um , I'd been in that job for about a year and one of my bosses came to me and said you don't belong here . I need to get you . You have an interview in the international marketing department with the vice president in an hour . Wow .
There we go .
Okay , so , okay . So I interviewed a degree general business . Okay . I didn't really have a marketing degree , um , so that's really how it started . I bounced over to international , spent three or four years traveling , and mostly Latin America .
Really A lot of travel , or A lot of travel , lots of travel .
Like , how long were you gone throughout the year , you think during those times I've been probably half the time , really . Yeah , I remember on my 25th birthday I stamped my passport in Germany and he's like happy birthday , connie . He was 25 years old . I'm in Germany , you know , and the guys wished me happy birthday , I'm 25 years old .
I'm in Germany , you know , and the guys wished me happy birthday . That's awesome , yeah . So what would you do ? Would you go just tour plants and facilities in those locations ?
We call them brokers .
Okay .
Really just all about trying to market our product . Food shows . Okay , a lot of food shows , you know , and that was back in the day before it was digital , and you'd box up the boxes and boxes of product sheets where it was a picture of the chicken nuggets and they had all the facts and figures and nutritional information .
We'd go , set up the food shows and we'd cook food and just try to generate business .
Wow , and then . So from there , what was the next department ?
Yeah , From there I went to retail marketing . I went over to retail marketing okay managed back then boxed , you know , boxed nuggets , boxed wings , before bags became real big .
We had a line of boxed products okay so I managed those , and then I bounced over to trade marketing and when you said retail like that's the actual , the product at a retailer that consumers are buying .
Yeah , yes , you go to a grocery store , convenience store , and you see the products in the store . Okay , yeah , then trade marketing . Trade marketing is really where you market to the buyers of those retail establishments and so you put the product on sale and there's trade deals and there's allowances , and they only get so many of those per year .
So you can do a high-low program or you could do an everyday low price , and so we would manage those programs that those retailers wanted to use for their business .
Gotcha , gotcha . And so that way , because the manufacturer participates with the retailer in those types of programs , that eventually goes to the end consumer , exactly Gotcha .
And you're managing your margin , and so , as a manufacturer , you're really concerned about the pass-through of that discount . So is the retailer keeping it all and is the shelf price staying the same , or are they really discounting it to move more product ?
Gotcha .
So those would be things that we would monitor . We'd have our brokers go in and say , okay , this item's on deal at this retailer . Go check the price on the shelf .
Gotcha Wow .
Yeah .
That's a lot of details to keep up with .
Yeah .
And then from . There .
From there I went to . Where did I go ? Entree , so I managed our plant in South Fayetteville . So at the time we were making rice bowls for Uncle Ben's as a contract manufacturer so kind of a reverse relationship and so we would make the rice bowls for them .
It was a cost plus program , lots of negotiating , because they felt like tyson didn't have skin in the game . You know , the more it cost to make it , the more money we made , and so yeah I said all let's negotiate this , let's take that off the table , let's fix your price .
So if we do bad , we eat it , if we do good , we pocket that , and then you've got a set price that you can put into your pro forma and you know what your margin is going to be . And so really , the only difference is how good you can buy your cost of goods , because that's on you . The manufacturing part , the conversion part , we'll take ownership of .
You know I'm one of the like what I'm actually hearing as you're kind of going through your trajectory there , this entrepreneurial mindset that you have right I mean because it's not like you had formal training , maybe in negotiation and thinking about these solutions , but it's really just about a business and a business being able to work together and finding creative
ways and taking some risk along the way , right yeah , you know , I've always thought it's best to do win-win , and I'm not a big book reader or um , you know , I only have very few little sense mantras that I do , and you know one of is cubby and it's begin with the end in mind , and so that's really how I attempt to start .
Everything that I do is right . What do I want this to look like a year from now , or three years from now ? What's the exit plan ? Because you know you don't ever , always want to be in something forever .
It's true , you got to get that life cycle and be willing to cut the cord and go okay , enough's , enough , let's let this go and go do something else .
And so , from there , what else
¶ From Career Setback to Success
Did you do ?
anything else at Tyson , yeah , so I did that and then I got over into the food service side of the business and I was put in charge of the McDonald's business , so our largest flagship food service customer and that was definitely .
They sell chicken .
They definitely sell some chicken and that was a learning curve for me . Really . Picked me up really out of my comfort zone and put me in a position to . I had three major plants that were producing mostly nuggets or McDonald's , so operations became a responsibility and that was really a big elephant to swallow .
That was not a successful point in my career , just to be honest . It didn't work out . Mcdonald's did not see the value in my knowledge , rightfully so If I put myself in their shoes . Hey , who is this lady that's been working in retail all her career and now all of a sudden you think that she can run our business ?
So I really struggled through that and ended up kind of finding myself back over in retail on the deli side of the business , so all the products that we sell to the delis in the grocery stores . So you know I survived . I was a survivor . I had a choice you know bail , or you know sink or swim . Yep . And so I climbed my way out of that .
But it was a low point , and so I learned from that .
Yes , yeah , actually , as you're talking about that , I can kind of empathize a little bit about being in that situation right , I mean , like you got to recover from that is surprisingly more challenging than what people teach us about , you know .
I mean like we're , I don't know , there's something interesting about in the professional realm when you don't , you know , you take a risk , you take on a big , a big job . It's not going away , and then then you're in this isolation mode . I mean it's really hard to find your way out of something , and I think , think that that might be .
You know , maybe , what a lot of there's a lot of super smart people that I've met that make that the decision to be an entrepreneur into because , like , as an entrepreneur , you're making a decision to own everything .
Right , there's the glory thought process is really nice , but when you get into a situation , you start up a business and then the next thing I mean that's a hard thing to untangle from , but I think that , in my experience at least , when you get in those positions , like you were in that recovery period , coming out of a situation and rebuilding , basically it's
a process . It's a real one too , and it doesn't happen in a week .
No , I mean , I'd been there 18 years probably At that time . Yeah , and had worked really hard to get to that point , and then I really felt like I'd fallen off the ledge and was starting over from a hey , she's the go-to person , she's the person you can call for this answer . I really did feel like I'd fallen into a hole .
What did you ? What was your if you could do it over again ? I mean , you know you still took the position , but was there something that you would have done differently ? As far as , like , maybe , the timing of letting people know , or how do you exit out of a bad scenario ? I mean , what would you do differently ?
You know , I think I was drowning . Okay . And I was trying to do it all . Yeah . I think I didn't rely enough on my team . Yep . And I didn't get out there and build those relationships , especially at the plant level , for the type , for your associates , for your team .
So there's this disconnect .
Yeah , because they all really thought , because , let's be honest , there was a team that had worked on the McDonald's team for many years . Yeah . And so everybody's thinking , well , why didn't so-and-so get that job ? Why didn't we shuffle the coconuts within the group , like , did we not prepare our people enough to be able to take that role ?
When somebody else got promoted out and left that vacancy ? We've decided to pick her out of retail , for goodness sake , right . And so I didn't . I just dove into the details and was just so worried about making sure the customer knew who I was and I was answering all their questions .
I was just in fight or flight mode , I guess yeah , and just studying the , the numbers and all the mechanics versus going to the plant managers .
Developing relationship trust and let them help me yeah .
Man , that's a good lesson . Actually , I think it's so like that is very applicable to having your own business , as you know because we'll get into that in a minute about your entrepreneurial career but you know , as an owner of a business , you can really alienate yourself from your own team .
You know , because you're just you're not building a relationship with everybody on your team , as many people as you can .
Yeah , and you know we can fast forward and go back , but with my team now at Yum Yos , you know we'll talk about how I got there but , it's teenage kids dishing out ice cream , but they still need to know why they're doing what they're doing . And what they're doing is adding value ? Yep , because it is .
And you know , when I bought the business and took that over , it was kind of the same thing . It was like , well , who is this person ? I don't know who this is , and we don't like you , we don't like the changes that you're making . We're doing fine here , and so it's about teenagers and change and everybody understanding that change is okay .
Change can be good if you embrace it , but yeah , and you know , one of my favorite quotes I heard about a year and a half , two years ago is by the time you get tired of explaining something , people are starting to listen . Yeah , you know , I mean , it is so true . I mean I remember I heard them like my gosh , it isn't just me .
Like I've been living , I've been so frustrated , you know , as we try to express a vision in the business and people just don't get it , like , but they don't live in your brain , right , and they have so many other things going on .
But I think that the repetition of explaining , like to the folks that are , you know , dealing with the customers at YumYos , like what's the vision , why are you doing this , you know , and if that's not driven repeatedly down , you know , from the owner's standpoint , they don't , they forget why they're doing what they're doing , and then that's when a lot of the
chaos starts happening . But back to your point , that relationship . If you're not able to have those conversations , you don't show up , you don't make the intentional effort to express that over and over again , it's lost really quick . Yeah .
And maybe eat a little humble pie , right .
Yes .
Because , let's face it , I mean I was , wow , they want me to run McDonald's , like not that it was an ego thing , but it was it was a big deal and so Not that it was an ego thing , but it was a big deal and so maybe I wasn't humble enough about that with my team to go . You know what ? I don't know what I'm doing , like I need your help .
Can you respect me in that and not be jealous because you're not the person that got this position , but can we all work together as a team ? I learned a lot .
Yeah , I really did so . From there you go over to back to retail .
Back to deli and a little deli marketing , and then the last 10 years I was in supply chain . Good . So I came over to supply chain and my team managed all of the capacity for Tyson , wow .
So we knew all the plants , all the production lines and all the run rates and so we knew how much chicken that line could put out based on the equipment that it had and the run rates and the upgrades and the bottlenecks . And so we worked with engineering and we would every year part of the capital plan for the operations team .
So we'd say , all right , plant X , line two , the bottlenecks pack out . It can only run 3,000 pounds an hour but your oven's running 5,000 pounds an hour . So if we'll make this upgrade to the pack out machine now , you can gain 2,000 pounds an hour and all of your equipment's running the same speed .
And that's more pounds out the door means less cost per pound yeah so we worked on those proposals .
That was really that's pretty cool I enjoyed that .
Yeah , um , you know , working with the equipment manufacturers and have them come into the plants and do their analysis and then come back with their proposal and then negotiate yep , right now we're not going to spend that you . Surely you can do this for less , yeah , yeah , and more business for you , if you can come to the table with a win-win .
Man , that sounds like some fantastic training to your entrepreneurial
¶ Career Transition to Business Ownership
side . So , at Tyson all those years , then do you go out and start your own business . What's happening ? I went to Simmons , okay , I left Tyson .
Well , I left Tyson , and then I went to an insurance company . Okay . Thought I wanted to bounce into the insurance . A friend of a friend put me together with a gentleman that was looking for like an office manager or somebody to get rid of the daily details for him . Yeah . So I did that , and then this job at Simmons came about it was seven months in .
I . And then this job at Simmons came about . It was seven months in . I felt really bad because I didn't give him my commitment . But he understood , it was back in my wheelhouse but my team at Simmons did procurement . So we procured all the materials , all the packaging , all the ingredients for all the Simmons plants .
So again , a lot of negotiating a lot of supplier relationships . That was great .
Really , how long were you there at Simmons ? A year and a half , year and a half , okay .
And then I started . I was ready to get out of corporate world . Okay . And really the big deciding factor is my mother's health is declining a bit , and I just wanted to be able to spend more time with her . And then I have five grandkids now in the last three years , and so I just wanted to be a daughter and a grandma . Okay .
But we had purchased Yumyos right before COVID . Well , so we closed March 19th of 2020 . And that was a Friday , and then , march 22nd , the world shut down .
Sorry , I don't mean to laugh at your situation , but wow , what a I've done a lot and my suitcase is full .
Sorry , I don't mean to laugh at your situation but wow . I've done a lot and my suitcase is full , so we had British Yum Yos in 2020 because I was on the trajectory of wanting out of corporate . Okay , it was time .
And so somewhere in those years of deciding what you want to do next , you know you want to get out of corporate Right . What are you going to do next ? You know you want to get out of corporate .
Right .
What are you going to do next ? You decided you wanted to , so Yum Yolks . Is it a franchise ?
I own the brand so I can sell franchises .
You are the franchisor and that was the plan , yeah .
I'm the franchisor . So I had given my retirement notice at Tyson in March and said I'm out of here . I need to learn this business through December . I want to retire in January . Okay , okay , that's fine .
What year ?
21 . 21 . I wanted to be out of corporate life .
Oh , so you bought . Yumyos , while you were still in corporate .
Yeah . So my plan was to just kind of learn this business , and I didn't know that it was YumYos . I started working with a business broker in Springdale . What do you want to do ? Well , they bring me this checklist . Oh , I like that . Yeah , I like that , I like that he goes . You like a lot of things . I said really , I just want to make money .
I don't really care what it is . I mean , I was looking at a lawn business home and a campground , a hideaway campground . We tried to buy that twice . It didn't really matter . I just need to stay busy and I wanted to make some money .
So Yum Meals came along and , ironically enough , the owners , brad and I , graduated high school with an owner and so we already kind of had that high school relationship . So it was kind of awkward negotiating all that .
We came to a good spot but anyway and you used all your negotiation skills for 30 years . Okay , I got you . Yeah , I feel like I did good . Yeah , I'm sure you did .
I'm sure you did so then the world shuts down and my business plan just went right down the drain . Um , you're making some really big decisions on a business you know nothing about . Wow , so I decided to keep all the employees , like all those teenagers that I'm like , if we've opened back up in a month .
I don't know how to do this , I don't know how to rehire , I don't know what they're doing . I paid them for a whole month for both stores and paid the rent , paid the utility bill and you couldn't do any sales no , not one penny of revenue for at least six weeks .
And then we could do curbside , so that you know the government comes back and says , well , you can do curbside . So we tried to do curbside out of the rogers location .
Well , that's kind of hard with ice cream yeah , and
¶ Small Business Risks and Growth
we don't have a drive-thru .
So I mean , like the team members weren't running out , taking the order by hand , running back in the store , make it , fill in their , their product and they'd come back out .
They were trying to swipe cards and and I'll just have to say , as a yogurt lover , right , especially seltzer , because I love the sample cups you told me you're yeah , I'm a killer I am a sample killer . I'm like I'm , I'm that person that takes full advantage of yum yos .
When I come in there I get I basically get my filling samples and then the door , yeah , but if I pulled like I would , I would have a hard time trusting somebody to make my ice cream bucket for me .
You know oh , but if it's covid and you haven't had ice cream , I mean maybe so , maybe so , and you haven't had ice cream in a while .
I mean maybe so , maybe so .
And you can always go that's not what I wanted , and then we'll go back and fix it .
Okay , well , that's pretty cool . I like that , wow , so that's a pretty terrible scenario .
Yeah , so I mean our sales for the first really two years , not good .
Because people weren't't once . The world opened back up people were still scared to go out .
Yeah , um , it was terrible , but we survived , like we're doing great now that's great but my plan was to start a mobile truck and it was to sell franchises . Okay , by 2022 I wanted to have had a , a truck , a mobile truck , maybe a third location for us personally . Okay . And then start selling franchises . Okay . None of that's happened .
I got you . Okay , that's fair , that's conclusive .
Check yeah .
Has not happened . No Well , so what are your plans going forward with Yum Yells ? Are you trying to pick that original plan back up and start going for it ?
I think I don't know , right you don't know .
Okay , that's fair .
Because I've also , since I left Simmons , I've launched this bookkeeping business .
That's right . Yes , yeah , so now I have . So now you have a bookkeeping business Plus .
Yum Yos Gotcha , I have a bookkeeping business Plus , you know gotcha , I have 10 clients that I'm doing books for Wow . And so really that started because I've done the books for Yum Yos . My husband and I have had two poultry farms . Okay , we grew broilers for George's from 2013 to 2019 . We had two farms , 14 houses .
Okay , so hold on a second .
while you're working in corporate land , you have a agricultural business that your husband and you are also running yeah , we have farm managers yeah but we still , but you're still running , okay we're still going over there on saturday and mowing the yard and , yeah , picking up whatever needs to be picked up .
Making sure things Trouble shooting . Yeah , I mean , that's a lull right there in them itself .
Build a relationship with that farm manager . Pat them on the back and kind of coaching them where we see we need help . You know , but the technology in the poultry industry today is incredible . You know . We can be sitting in at our kitchen table and see what the humidity is and has ate on .
You know the fans and what the air pressure is and what the birds are drinking , and so it's kind of easy to go . Hey , farm manager , I see that it's hot in there Like , go make sure the fans are on .
Yeah , so this is your farms are all in Toggingtown as well .
They were over by the . They were in Highfull .
Okay , gotcha Okay . So different , different lands , so yeah , I'm working full time .
We have yum-yums . Now we have two poultry farms , and so you know if we roll this all back to .
And your bookkeeping and my bookkeeping . Well yeah , Bookkeeping business .
But if we roll all this back to the topic about small business , and it all intertwines and I think , no matter what you're doing , you're making the same decisions , you're making the same business plans , you're fighting the same headaches , you're still building relationships . You're still building relationships .
You're still making a decision and then reeling it back in , although that didn't work . So , but you have to be a risk taker . Okay . And you ? You have to be willing to pivot and be flexible .
So how do you , when you talk about risk , like I mean , how do you vision that ? Because I mean I think that that might be one of the biggest hangups , right to decide if you're going to be an entrepreneur or if you are one . I mean that could be the one thing that plagues somebody . You know they don't realize how much they cannot tolerate risk .
But what's your perspective on risk ? I mean , why do you risk ? I mean , like the yum-yums thing , right , I mean it's risky .
The crazy thing about me is I've never been afraid to take a risk . I think it's just because , again , of my upbringing and seeing my dad break free from corporate Melody Homes and going on his own and then the car wash and I've just seen that really hard work It'll pay off .
It's going to be rough , but I think if I was going to encourage people today that wanted to step out and start a business , there are so many resources to help , like when you and I started our businesses 10 years ago . Whatever , we didn't have these resources . It's true . The University of Arkansas has the Small Business Technology Development Center .
All that's free . Yeah . I mean , they'll give you geographic information , They'll help you with financial planning , they'll help you with business planning . They help with marketing for free , you just have to be willing to ask for it . Yeah . And sometimes that's a hard thing .
Yeah , you don't want to ask for help , as you talked about earlier . Right , I mean like that humility , that humble pie you mentioned yeah , that is actually , you know , I think that it's . I like the risk discussion because it is kind of this . You know it's a cloudy thing , right , I mean there's not like a , it's not math .
Yeah , it's all emotional in all honesty , you know , which is very mysterious , and I mean I liken it to some people have risk tolerance , some people don't , you know . But the reality is is , even if you have risk tolerance , like you can quickly find yourself in a scenario to where you know you have to .
I mean it's not like you make one decision for one risk In business . There's risks every day in about every decision that you're making , you know . But I think that that humility part to it which I've learned I mean I've relied a lot on the team , a lot more than I used to when I started my business Like I'm just constantly .
You know you have to allow that to happen . But getting perspectives from different people and not trying to be Mr Know-it-all or Ms Know-it-all all the time is a big deal .
And it's a big deal and it's hard because you know what you and I are writing the checks . Yes . It's on , it's on our . I don't know what the word is , but it's on our back yeah . Yeah , you know spend it like it's your own . I mean , that was something that was ingrained in us at Tyson . I try to ingrain that in my . I hate the word try .
I ingrained that in my team . Hey , spend it like it's your own . Did you make this decision ? Would you subscribe to that you know software app ? If it was your business , is there really a return on that ?
So what else have you been experiencing , though ? I mean , since you got yum yos , you know that are important . I mean , maybe we could talk a little bit about somebody about to buy a business , right , Like , if you're looking at getting into business , you have options start your own from ground zero , new , new type of thing , or you buy an
¶ Entrepreneurship, Risk, and Discipline
existing business . What was your reasoning for looking at buying an existing business ? I guess ?
I think just the ease of it . Okay , it's easier right . Things are established . You've got financials that you can review . You know , like when we were looking at buying the campground same thing . You know , you're looking at those financials and seeing what their occupancy rate is and what their expenses are .
So for me , with the poultry farms , we built those from the ground up , so there was no hey . Here's what the revenue looks like yeah now , with us being in the industry and my husband is very ingrained on that side of it we had great pro formas and we had , you know , experience that we could kind of back into what it looked like .
But for me , like I don't know that I could do what you just did with podcast and start it from the bottom up , that might be my break even , to be on risk .
Okay , yeah , that's fair , I mean , I think that . But that's the kind of the I mean back to the risk thing is like , you know , if there's , it's like kind of what you , you don't have . Being an entrepreneur comes in many different forms , right . Right , you can buy or build from ground zero .
You know , to me , I , I don feel , I feel that buying an existing business might be a higher risk to me in a way , for some reason like , it doesn't like , it makes me more uncomfortable than starting from ground zero , Because you're not sure that what you're seeing from a financial standpoint is 100% like they might not be accurate .
Might not be accurate . It might be stuck Like where's the growth from here ? You know , do I really know how to you know ? Can I innovate and start ? Because in my brain I think of , like revenue is coming from something brand new that no one else really has . That's just kind of what my immediate thought process .
I don't know necessarily how to come in and even look at our own business and say how do I , how do I make certain things more profitable or how do I grow certain things ? It's not really in my thinking set . It has to be kind of new .
So that's interesting . It's making me think . We talked about life cycles of business . So a business that you're going to buy , that needs to be something that you consider . What stage in that life cycle is that business ? Are you buying in when it's on its way down ?
Or are you buying in when it's just peaking and you're probably going to pay a little bit more for that Because it's a startup and it's looking like it's doing good ? Are you buying it kind of at its high point ?
And so , if I think about what you said , other points of revenue , so if I think think about yum yos , when I bought the business , there was a lot of catering , seemed like they were doing more catering than what I'm doing .
There was more interaction with schools like , um , you know , a little coupon for good grades , yeah they would drop off these coupons and give them , and it was a free five ounces . Well , mom's going to bring her child in with a little coupon , but mom's going to buy the catapult . She's there .
And so time , my time , with all the other things I'm doing , I've just kind of let that fall by the wayside . It's on the list to pick back up . You asked me what the vision is . I have a huge vision . It's just time and discipline . You know , a few weeks back one of your podcasts was really about discipline . Discipline's huge .
So huge .
And it's hard .
Man , I'm constantly trying to learn from that and it's self-checking now , like just how you , you know , I'm really impressed with like folks like Mark , like I mean the , the guy is just relentless . I mean , and you know , and he , he might have been that podcast for us like , what are these Mark's wide steps ?
Yeah , and you know , it's like I do the do the thing I hate the most , first thing in the morning and get that done . Yes , you know , and to me that was just that was really eye-opening , because I see myself , I mean , as an entrepreneur . There's so many things going on . You actually have too much to do . That's true . It's very overwhelming .
You cannot get everything done . So therefore , you need to rely on your team because you can't do everything . But that filtering process is really challenging for me . Like , okay , I have all these things that need to be done , what's taking priority ? But I'm fascinated by folks like Mark that are able to prioritize these things and just chop it off .
One thing I've been practicing lately that has been really helpful is a 90-minute sprint , and I've done it all week . This week I have a pretty big project that I've been working on , you know . It's just basically an opportunity for a new product that could be pretty substantial and but I have to do this presentation . There's just so many .
I mean basically building a business plan out of it in a presentation to sell it . But what I did this last week that I realized was really good for my time right now is I did these 90 minute sprints . I would , you know , first thing in the morning , hit 90 minutes .
So just go night , go for 90 minutes and then straight 90 minutes and then take a break then take a break , and then I would do a 30 minute break , a 30 minute break .
I'd do a 30 minute break of literally just disengagement , and , and then I might take another 15 minutes , check some messages , emails , texts and things like that , which to me is the greatest distraction , right ? But and then , and then I'd set another 90 minutes and I'd just turn the phone off .
I would just just be focused and I and I'd actually one of the biggest tricks to that is setting my alarm for 90 minutes straight and then that way , because then I wouldn't have to check for time yeah , yeah , because then you're picking up your phone , then you got a text and then you got , oh , there's an email .
And then , yeah , before you know it , you've squirreled .
I mean , that's what I'm finding myself doing totally , totally squirreled and I think it's a lot to do with a the business , not too much stuff to do . It's overwhelming . But then it's the technology and all the distractions and notifications and I mean like we don't .
You know , as I've grown in business with all this technology advancement in the last you know 20 years , you know I find myself just like , like there's , if you really think about like how often we're looking at screens , what that's doing , all the notifications , family , 100% access to you , associates , 100% clients Everybody has constant access to you .
You have to have the discipline in order to structure that a little bit or else it will consume you .
And mentally you have to know it's okay . It's okay that they can't get a hold of me for 20 minutes Absolutely . Because that's how we're wired , but it's not healthy , and I'm finding the same thing like this bookkeeping business that I've started . Yeah .
I'll be working on one client's books and then I'll think about something the other one I'm like , so I'll log out of that QuickBooks account , then I'll log into the other one and then , before I know it , 30 minutes have gone by and I really haven't done you haven't got anything accomplished , yeah and so I need to practice that and just , it's okay , just focus
on one client and then you know , yum yos . Another thing about entrepreneurship is you ? got to wear many , many hats , and so when I left corporate America , I was paying somebody to clean the machines every week , break them down fully , sanitize them , change out O-rings , grease the parts make sure the augers are running and the ice cream's coming out .
Well , my time's worth nothing now , so it's not hard , it's just time consuming . So I let him go , and so now it's me , from 7 to 10 every morning cleaning the machines . Let me know where I'm headed with this .
But are you still cleaning the machines ? Yeah , 7 am to 10 am .
Yeah , because we open at 11 .
But that's fantastic .
Where was I headed with this Squirreling ? See , I don't know .
Exactly , but I think that that's a good point , like I mean you , you know something's important in business . You can make it happen . It's actually really good . It's . I mean , if you really look at it . It's good leadership in a sense , because the team will walk in and see that you've been in there yeah getting ready and they see that right .
And then now they're not too , too above doing things , because the owner is doing things like I mean I , I'm not afraid to take out the trash . I mean I'll do it . Like you know , I have certain criteria . That's important absolutely um , and so I think that's like that's what you absolutely have to do as running a business .
Yeah , go clean the machines that the benny keith guy that delivers the supplies and , like on thursday morning , the trucks come and we have to unload it some mornings . I'll be there when he comes and before he got to know me , he's like hi , I'm uh , he goes . How long have you been working here ? And I've got this apron on and I'm like baseball hat on .
Well , I own this , you own this . That's right , yeah .
I sure do .
Yep , sure enough Good to see you . I'll see you next Thursday morning when you're here with the supplies .
You know . I think that that's here's what I like about having you on the show , connie , because you know , my world's really more surrounded by other entrepreneurs that didn't have a very long tenured corporate life before . A lot of my clients are corporate and so I absolutely respect them Some of the smartest people I've ever met .
It's amazing , actually , the intelligence that corporate America provides to people and that people make it through that . But there is a significant difference , right , because you're in corporate a lot of team , a lot of help , a lot of systems and operations in place . There's a safety net . Everybody is kind of the risk is down for everybody , you know .
But then you go to young girls , right , and like you got to go clean machines there's , I know that there's a lot of corporate America top folks out there that have an aspiration to become a business owner .
A business owner , you know , I've seen the majority of them not make that transition because that risk that we've been talking about is like you know , I really want to do this , but that doesn't seem very safe for my family , you know , and they they feel entrapped in a way .
How would you recommend , like , what is the thinking process or the analysis that somebody in a corporate seat because you actually did it Like how did you flip that over that ? Like what was that thinking process ? How long did that take you ? What's some advice that you would give to somebody that's actually maybe in your shoes ?
Back then , I think , find something that you're passionate about that's actually maybe in your shoes back there , I think .
Find something that you're passionate about , figure out how to make it work for you and find your point of difference . Okay
¶ Corporate Experience and Business Success
, you know . So , even if you're buying an existing business , buy something that you're interested in . Don't buy something that or something that you think you can make better .
You know how can you improve what's already there , which you know when we're talking about the different things like where I don't feel comfortable . But I think that a lot of folks that have been in corporate environments and professionally trained and have the ability to buy an existing business and make it better because of all the training that they've had .
Absolutely . There's no doubt in my mind that someone that has a lot of corporate experience , especially in different cross-functional roles , yeah could probably buy any business and make it better that's what you did , because yeah go ahead .
You get complacent , like as we're having this conversation , I'm thinking about things that I could do better right now for yum yos you know , the training manual . haven't reviewed it in over a year . Things have changed . We've done processes different , we've made things better , but it's not in there .
And so how do you make it better and how do you sustain that process ? Yeah . But there's no doubt that corporate America people and you don't even have to be corporate America , I mean you could be someone who's worked at a stay at home . Mom worked really , really hard at home there's a lot of that going on right now , especially with online .
I mean you don't have to have a brick and mortar , you can make a business successful online . My daughter in law and her best friend are doing it right now . They're selling kids clothes . Yeah . They started online . They're thinking about brick and mortar , but they're doing really well online and so test the water .
that way , I think if you're someone that's a little bit risk-averse but you've got that corporate background , or you even don't have corporate background online , I mean to kind of dig into that corporate , because there's something about a confidence area that you had in your thinking process is like , yes , I can leave corporate , I can leave this behind and I can
go start this business or buy a business and run with it and that's going to make me happy , and I have business or buy a business and run with it and that's going to make me happy , and I have the confidence to go ahead and pull that trigger . I mean , that's seemingly might've been a little bit of an easier decision for you , but I'm .
My experience has shown that there's a lot of people that actually struggle with that and they'll spend years . I mean , know , five years , or we get five years goes by really quick , right , and I mean , and they can , you know , still be miserable or not fulfilled , but it's because of that decision , you know . I mean , what , what gate ? What do you ?
What is your confidence in in what you did ? Like , can you retract back then and like , like , what was the ? The confidence measure ? That was like , no , I'm gonna do this because so many people battle with that decision it wasn't hard for me , like I knew I wanted a business .
I knew that I wanted out of corporate America and I knew I wanted to have my own business . Maybe it was because my husband had a really good job and there was still income coming in . Like I'm pretty sure that if we didn't have that , I probably would not have done what I did Okay . That was probably a big and he supported me .
Okay , I mean he doesn't hardly do anything with this business , like right now he's fixing the closet door that came off the hinges in the hallway . I mean , other than that , I mean he helped me get started cleaning the machines , just some . I was doing it right .
He went with me twice yeah it was not a hard decision for me , so I don't know that I have a good answer on people that struggle with that .
Yeah , you know I wonder . There's a you know it's interesting Like there's a calculation I think that I've seen a lot of people make and it's that financial . It's like what , how are we doing ? You know , am I able to take this risk without damaging the family ? Right , you know it should , and and that's that .
But what I've also seen is that there is something about you get into business for yourself if you're professionally trained and this is the way I kind of think about folks like this that you're super intelligent , you have a lot of training , there's a lot of things that you can do to buy an existing business or whatever it might be , and you can fix so much
like actually , you should have a lot of confidence , a very high level of confidence on the mechanics of , of getting into this and figuring things out . Right , you should , you should have that . You know . I wonder if the and with that decision of , will I actually , you know , I wonder if that decision of , well , I actually , you know .
So I guess my thing is you should have the confidence you can get a business and you can make that better and it should be able to sustain you because hard work , right , you do the right things .
You know a lot of those ethical things , those general principles that you learn in corporate America can apply and that should keep you in a sustainable position , right . So I encourage folks to have that business and have it support you in your situation . That checkmark actually is not too risky .
The bigger checkmark that my experience has shown , and I think you've talked about with Yum Yols , is that growth mentality Like how do you get to that second stage growth , that where a business , if it's doing well , should grow and there should be an exit , like you were talking about .
Right , there's a check at the end of a lot of businesses or you're still in it , the margins are doing so well that you're making plenty of money . That's a different thing .
It's a research . Look at your competition . So maybe to help you make that decision is who's your competition ? Is there a lot ? How are they doing ? What are they doing what ? What are they doing differently ? What can you do differently than they're doing to set yourself apart ?
You know , maybe that might help somebody that's on the fence from a corporate stand , corporate life background that wants to buy a business so in your , what do you give us ?
you know we've got a few more minutes . What are your ? Some of the things that you've seen , that corporate America experience that you had being really , really positive impacts for Yum Yums today .
¶ Corporate Experience and Entrepreneurship Insights
Preparation . You know , I think about a lot of what corporate America be prepared Like . You don't come to a meeting that you're not prepared .
So true .
So small business , be prepared . Know what your cash flow is going to look like . Know what your staffing looks like . Where can you cut costs ? Where can you control costs ? That's another big thing is control the controllables .
Dig into your expenses and make sure that you're spending things on the right things that are driving your business that you're spending things on the right things that are driving your business , and especially in your roles in corporate .
I mean , you were zeroed in on those types of things , oh yeah business planning .
I mean , we did business plans every year . Yeah , you know what is your marketing plan , what is your financial plan , what is your ? You know when I had the box business , are you going to do line extensions ? What flavors are you going to do Budget for that ? Budget for that research and development time ? Budget for that consumer research time ?
you know if you're going to test a new flavor . Do they really like it ? Do your consumers like it ? Don't they like it ? You know marketing plans , I think you know . Spin it like it's your own . Really make sure what you're doing is driving that business .
What else from corporate America has really helped you out with the MUS ? I ?
think the relationship part . Okay . Making sure that you've got relationships with all the people in all the different groups . Just doing what you say you're going to do , like build that trust , be the go-to person and have a mentor . We didn't talk about that at all .
No , we didn't .
I think it's great to have a mentor . I think it's even better to be a mentee , because when I was a mentee I really honestly learned more from the person I was mentoring , mostly because they were usually younger and they have different thoughts and different perspectives and so they would challenge , they would push back . Sure Sure .
You know , when you've got a mentor , that's kind of giving you what they know and you have a mentee , that's kind of meeting the middle , and you become a better person by doing both of those .
What does that look like practically , though ? I mean like , are these people that are at Yum Yos working ? That might be mentee , or that might be your mentees .
Yeah , you know , store manager .
Okay .
You know , maybe even the teenagers that are in high school and college talk to them about you know where this can take you . And again we started off . You're not just checking people out Like you're doing customer service . You're learning about the operations of a business . You know the things that it takes to make it run .
You've got a checklist in the morning , you have a checklist at night . I mean , those are the things it takes to make a business run and so maybe , hopefully , when they get out of college , if they don't go work for somebody else , maybe they work for themselves .
They've taken what they've learned at YumYas as a very , very small piece of that pie and they can apply it and grow it is there anything else from the corporate world ?
so we got prep preparation um relationship relationships , marketing , business plans and just doing what you say you're going to do and build that , build that trust you know , I like that preparation thing because that's something that I I not learn .
I mean my entrepreneurial career , I mean I didn't have any kind of really training necessarily . It was just you know very action , just you know click , which is great , you know , it has its benefits .
But you know , I think that the more experience I've gotten , the more I've recognized the value of preparation and I think a lot of folks in corporate America actually have that .
Oh yeah , I mean you're preparing for the meeting , and you're even pre-preparing , like if there's something that's going to happen in a meeting that you think someone doesn't need to get caught off guard . I mean , you're greasing the skids , you're going and meeting with that person Previously . This is what we're going to talk about .
So things don't go sideways or south , or if you're not going to agree , you at least know before you go in that the conversation is probably going to be a little rocky and you know how to manipulate that . So preparation is huge okay , that's good what a great conversation , yeah right .
I mean it always turns out , I mean like there's just so much depth there and , of course , I guess that's why we started the podcast , because we can talk about this . We've been talking about it every week , you know , for over a year now and I mean there's just so much . I mean everybody you know has great guidance .
I mean I love this story just because I especially in our area , I believe a majority of your entrepreneurs are sitting out there , could be in corporate America right now , but they haven't made that switch over . They're highly calculating people that are super intelligent and smart and analyzing everything .
One thing I was trying to lead you to was and you kind of said it but can you really rationalize the decision to go into business for yourself ? Because it's a field of unknown and you're a perfect example of that . I mean you bought a business . You could see how you could help it .
You're going to take all your experience , improve the efficiencies of it , make better margins . You had a plan and then two days later , freaking , a mackerel event happens Like totally out of your control , you know , but the thing is you survived it . Things are going well , I mean .
I think that's just the reality of this whole business thing , but you just work hard , you keep getting at it and take care of people . It always works out .
I think about what if I would have let those 10 kids go and we open back up and not have to be hiring them ? Yeah , so taking care of people up and not have to be hiring them .
Yeah , so taking care of people , I mean , well , it's , it's that , but you also , I would . I would argue that you had your experience , had shown you what a lot of maybe new entrepreneurs that don't have experience .
They just think about the cost of that payroll , like immediately versus the cost to recruit , like immediately versus the cost to recruit , to hire and train . I mean , man , that's .
It would have been a disaster .
It would have been , it could have put you out .
Yeah . It could have put you out , because it's a 90-day process to get that going risk the word how scary it was for parents to have their kids be back out in . Yeah , you know , would would those parents have let their kids come work for me six weeks later , even though the world had opened back ?
I don't know , I mean , but these kids had a job , they had bills to pay , they had paid on cell phone bill or whatever , and yeah , yeah , that was a big decision . It paid off .
It did . But you knew that the alternative decision of having to rehire you knew how expensive and time-consuming that would have been . So it helped you make the decision to keep him on .
That's a big deal because that's a trap that a lot of people could find themselves in . Could find themselves . Yeah , you mean you pull the trigger because it's a knee-jerk reaction .
Oh my gosh , I can't afford to pay these people because you know , payroll is probably 10 grand and so 10 grand that I had not planned for , yeah , so I just had to write a check for but the thing is is like I think a lot like I could see myself in that scenario .
Okay , I'm going to save $10,000 . I'm just going to have to do it , but the hidden cost of the recruiting and all that stuff could be $50,000 , $60,000 .
Yeah , interesting , because now I don't have people to open up when I could possibly open up , so I've delayed revenue and I've cost myself more money . Now I'm training and I'm trying to train and I don't know what to do and I don't have time because I have this full-time job , because I'm still working corporate America .
I've still got to work from seven to midnight every day . Yeah , yeah , yeah . So try to prop that up . But yeah it's been really fun and I , you know , I just would encourage people to reach out to people that are in business and ask all those questions and find your resources , because they're out there to help .
Excellent , Connie . Thank you so much for joining us today . I mean really fun conversation . We need to have it again . How do people get a hold of you if they want to , or do you want anybody to reach out to you in case they have any questions ?
Yeah , I'd love yumyoscom .
Yumyoscom .
Well , I'm sorry , yumyosoutlookcom .
Yumyosoutlookcom is your email and your website for yumyos .
Is yumyoscom .
Just Y-U-M-Y-O-Scom . It's a really cool name . It's a cool brand .
We make it yummy , you make it yo's .
Look at that , get you some . Get you some Good old marketing campaigns , man . Yeah , Connie . Thank you so much . Folks , thanks for listening and joining us today . Make sure you sign up for our e-newsletter on our website so that we can see the new episodes , Because you don't want to miss stuff like we just have with Connie .
And you know , until the next time . This has been another episode of Big Talk About Small Business . Thank you so much , Connie , Appreciate you .
Thank you , eric , I appreciate it very much .
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