Today's Guest

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO and President of GrowBiz Media, a media company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Rieva shares a bit of her story as a writer, covering entrepreneurship and small business. She also discusses how small businesses should think about cloud adoption to win the battle for customers in a competitive marketplace. Plus Rieva shares where you can find help to digitize your business and give consumers the confidence to safely walk in your doors.

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Episode Summary

When I first started writing for Entrepreneur magazine back in 1979, I was conducting research related to small business and at that time the term entrepreneur was not well known or understood. By the late 1980s, the U.S. economy was recovering from the double-dip recession of the early ’80s. Technology was starting to boom but unemployment was still high which was the catalyst behind the shift towards entrepreneurship becoming mainstream. 

One of the biggest mistakes I see small business owners make is they create a business plan, put it in a drawer, and never look at it again. Most businesses fail due to a lack of cash flow and I believe that is most often driven by a failure to plan. We often write about how the business plan should be a living and breathing document. If you plan to invest a certain amount on marketing, with the hope that sales will increase, did that happen and what should you do next. You go back to your business plan and update it based on the results, that way you can choose the best path forward. 

As we come out of COVID, the reports we’re seeing say business formations are booming. This is great because small business ownership can be liberating and help people break through the glass ceilings that exist for many minorities. When it comes to small businesses, the only thing that matters is the product or service you offer, the price you are charging, and if there is demand for what you are offering. 

I was speaking to a group of small business owners and I asked if anyone was using cloud tools in their business today. No one raised their hand, but then I asked how many people use Gmail for their business and hands went up everywhere. So I made the point that Gmail is simply email that is hosted in the cloud. The cloud allows businesses to ramp up quickly with lower costs than you would if you had to have servers on-premise. 

One of the problems COVID highlighted was consumers were more forward-thinking than most small businesses. Consumers have adopted technology far more than most local businesses. If you have a main street business or storefront your number one job is to ensure consumers feel comfortable walking in your doors. Offering contactless payment options or digitalizing other parts of your customer experience are critical to helping consumers feel more comfortable. What you have to realize is other businesses do what you do and those that digitalize will take your customers if you don’t change. 

When it comes to marketing your business, you need to have some knowledge about what is out there and how it will benefit your business but often the best choice is to outsource or hire someone to market your business. The Thryv software not only offers a lot of great features to help you digitalize and market your business but they provide free support to customers to help them use the tools and grow their business. Often the difference between success and failure for a small business today is if they adopt software. 

Resources Shared

• GrowBiz Media 
• Thryv
• Small Business Development Centers
• SCORE
• Barry Moltz
• Small Business Trends
• Inc. Magazine Twitter
  

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