Today's Guest

Ivy Walker is a serial entrepreneur, award-winning author, teacher, business coach, and director of documentary films. Ivy is the founder of AskCoda, a risk management and compliance solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Ivy is passionate about leveraging technology as a platform to transform industries and empower individuals to make positive changes in their lives. Ivy talks about her book Twelve-Minute Risk Management and how small businesses can be better prepared.

Episode Transcript

(Please excuse grammatical errors due to transcription)

Gordon Henry:             Hey, this is Gordon Henry at Winning on Main Street, and this week we're fortunate, spent some time with Ivy Walker. Welcome to the show, Ivy.

Ivy Walker:                  Thank you for having me, Gordon. I appreciate it.

Gordon Henry:             Quick intro on Ivy. Ivy Walker is the author of a new book called, 12 Minute Risk Management. It's really a guidebook for small business owners to address the whole issue of risk in their business. And we're going to get into what that means. Ivy's a serial entrepreneur. She has co-founded multiple companies in the training, staffing, and risk management area. She's also an award-winning author, teacher, business coach, and director and executive producer of documentary films. Ivy, wow, I'm exhausted just reading about all the things you've done. You're a busy person.

Ivy Walker:                  I have a lot of interests, a lot of varied interests, and I try to keep my hand in a bunch of them at the same time.

Gordon Henry:             Yeah, that's awesome. Let's delve into it a little bit. Small business owners, I think we'd agree, are sort of optimistic by nature. They want to grow things, they want to focus on marketing their product, generating revenue, all the things small business owners love to do. They don't wake up generally wanting to worry about issues like fraud or security or instituting controls, what you call controls in their business. And yet you suggest that it's very important, right?

Ivy Walker:                  Absolutely. You're right. We as business owners do not have time, nor do we have the expertise to really think about these things that I talk about in the book. But here's the thing, Gordon, whether you think about them or not, they're impacting your business. They're impacting your ability to grow, they're impacting your profitability. And given the environment that we're in now, they're impacting your variability to stay in business. And so we invest our wholesales in our companies, our time, our money. Our relationships suffer as a result of all that we put into our businesses. And so I felt like we need to take that step to at least ensure as much as we can, that we're removing some of these things that could take us out of business.

Gordon Henry:             If you could, we're going to delve into the details, but I wanted to just see if you could provide of an outline of the key areas where small businesses face risk and what they should do about it.

Ivy Walker:                  There are multiple areas, but the top two that small business owners really need to think about, first and foremost, cybersecurity. We are an incredibly active threat environment, and small businesses are soft targets. It's very easy for a hacker to go after a small business and reap a return for doing so, because small businesses are simply not prepared to protect themselves, so that's a key area. 60% of small businesses shut down after a cyber attack within six months of a cyber attack, and that's because the cleanup costs can be substantial.

                                   The second is this area of fraud. And I'm not talking about credit card fraud or things like that, which you should also be worried about if you accept those kinds of things in your business. But in particular, I'm talking about trusted insider fraud. I'm talking about what's called occupational fraud. It's fraud that employees commit against the business. Fraud set accountants commit against their clients or attorneys commit against their clients. This notion of trusted insiders and internal controls is extremely important for small businesses. The National Chamber of Commerce several years ago said in a study that as much as potentially a third of small business failures can be attributed to this occupational fraud.

Gordon Henry:             Is the answer, hire better people, or the answer is we can't guard against people being imperfect and so we have to put controls in the business?

Ivy Walker:                  That's true. Locks keep honest people honest, we are all susceptible to making bad decisions based on a number of factors. There's something called the fraud triangle, and it's basically pressure, opportunity, and rationalization. That's how any good person goes down the wrong path. It's not necessarily hiring better people, it's doing a better job of putting controls around what people are doing. It's segregating duties. I talk about in my book how you can do that with a small staff because it's really hard if you've got one or two people. How do you segregate duties so that you don't have one person doing everything?

                                   But there is another key thing, Gordon, and it's that small business owners need to take the step to understand enough about their own business finances that they know what questions they should be asking. I have found that questions can be your best friend, even if you don't know what the answer is supposed to be, the fact that you're asking someone a question, causes them to pause and think about what you may know. They don't know what you know or don't know. And so I liken questions to the video camera sitting in the corner that it's not even plugged in. Doesn't matter that it's not plugged in. If people think that it's plugged in, they'll behave differently. If people think that you're watching and paying attention to them by asking questions, they will think twice before they take steps that would be bad for your business.

Gordon Henry:             Yeah. We all slow down on the highway when we see the cop car on the side of the road, whether he's sitting in it or not. We get that we need locks for honest people. You talked about cyber crime. Another one you talked about is workplace safety and we're not talking necessarily about something falling off the ceiling and conking you in the head. We're talking about a different type of workplace safely involving people issues, right?

Ivy Walker:                  Yeah. This is one that's very tough for us to think about in general because it's kind of scary. But all we have to do is watch the news and see how gun violence has proliferated throughout our society. And unfortunately, on a weekly basis, there's a story about someone who has shown up at work, they were fired or they were being reprimanded and they brought a gun to work and people were injured or killed. And it was something that I hadn't really thought too much about in my business, although I tell the story of my grandmother and how she was injured at work as a result of an employee situation. But I had kind of a shocking situation in my business where one of my trainees had a situation at home that spilled over into the workplace. And it really got me thinking about this notion of, what do you do and what do your employees know that they should do if there is a situation in the workplace?

                                   And so I wrote a chapter about workplace violence. And again, it's not something any of us ever wants to think about potentially happening, but the reality is that you should at least have a plan so that you can deescalate if something happens. A lot of these situations, there are warning signs and there are points of escalation. And if you are aware, that gives you the opportunity to deescalate so that you can move it off site and you can prevent potentially a situation from happening in the workplace. And so that's what I talk about as it relates to workplace safety.

Gordon Henry:             Another area you talk about is defending your reputation as a small business, including very importantly, your online reputation. What's that all about?

Ivy Walker:                  Well, we live in this 24/7 world where IRL, what you do in real life ends up online. And what you do online comes back to you, IRL. And so it's so interconnected. We have to be thinking, "How do we make sure that we keep that from turning into a virtual pitchfork mob at your doorstep?" Employees have their lives online and you have your own life online. You post, we live in this incredibly politically divisive environment where people feel the need to express themselves at all times, about all subjects. Well, those things can end up hurting your reputation, your business reputation. And so I talk about the need to have a social media policy and to let your workers, your employees know what that entails. You can't squash their free speech. They have a right to say whatever they want to say online, but there are limits to what they can and can't do and what you can do as a result of that impacting your business.

                                   And you should be aware of what those things are. And I talk about free speech and how you can avoid treading into that territory while at the same time, protecting your business. But that's true with employees. It's also true with the business owner. My advice to business owners is don't feel the need to say every thought that pops into your head online. It's really not necessary. Very few people care anyway. And once it blows up, it's really hard to walk that back. And again, you spent so much of your life building your business, keep your business life and your personal life as separate as possible. It's really something to think about and to think carefully about and to have policies in place, so that everybody knows what's expected of them.

Gordon Henry:             You started a whole different company, I believe, designed to help businesses assess and deal with risk and that's the one called Ask Coda, A-S-K C-O-D-A, Ask Coda. As I understand, I want to hear your explanation, but Ask Coda is really a software platform that helps small businesses address all these risks you've been talking about in the book. And so if I'm a small business, tell me what does Ask Coda do for me, how do I use it?

Ivy Walker:                  Yeah, so first let me say, Ask Coda is in beta. We've got a grand vision and we're sort of implementing it a little bit at a time and testing as we go. But the grand vision for Ask Coda is that it will be an AI power chief operating officer for small businesses. I have been a COO of a larger company and I know the value that that role brings in allowing the COO to really focus on vision and customers and things of that nature, but somebody has to be focused on the operations. And so that starts first and foremost with understanding what the risks are in the business across multiple areas of the business. And in fact, we look at across 20 different areas of the business. And so Ask Coda right now, is a risk assessment platform that's focused on telling you where you have weaknesses in your business and giving you access to some immediate resources to start to address it.

                                   And it's on a small scale. We're looking at just four areas right now. The four areas that are mentioned in the book, we're looking at those four areas. You get your risk assessment, you get tools, and these tools are free. This doesn't cost the business owner any money. You get the tools that will help you to address those risks in the business and we'll iterate and grow from there. And it'll be a lot more AI driven as we go along. But right now, we're just testing out what we believe to be the right hypothesis behind the business.

Gordon Henry:             When we come back, we're going to hear about Ivy's thoughts on what she would tell somebody who's a future entrepreneur or an inspiring entrepreneur, so stay with us.

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Gordon Henry:             And we're back with Ivy Walker, the author of, 12 Minute Risk Management. And we just have a few minutes left. But I wanted to ask you, Ivy, as somebody who's been in and around small businesses most or all of your career, what's your recommendation today for somebody who's an entrepreneur or wants to be an entrepreneur, starting a business or joining a franchise, that they're passionate about? What kind of words of wisdom do you have for them, given today's environment?

Ivy Walker:                  The one thing that I would say, this is advice my father gave to me when I was young, and that is learn on somebody else's dime first. I have worked with hundreds of business owners and I will tell you the ones that had a chance to get some training, working in an existing company, are leaps and bounds ahead of those who just started out and created their own businesses. Learn on somebody else's dime and do it intentionally. You always want to be a good employee. I'm a firm believer and you reap what you sow. You're a bad worker, you're going to get bad workers, and you deserve bad workers if you show up at somebody else's business and you collect a paycheck and you don't deliver value for what you do. But be intentional about what it is that you are learning.

                                   It looks on my resume like I job hopped. It wasn't without intention. I worked in different industries, in different roles because I wanted to learn different things about business. And I was very specific and intentional about the roles and the jobs that I took. I didn't have an idea of what kind of business I wanted to start. And so I felt it would be important for me to see a bunch of different things so that I could help formulate what it was that I wanted to do.

                                   There is no shortage of opportunity for somebody who wants to start a business. The better prepared you are to show up and take advantage of that opportunity, the more successful you're going to be. A good entrepreneur can run any business. It doesn't matter the industry, it doesn't matter whether it's a widget or a service. A good entrepreneur can run any business. And the more tools you have in your toolbox from your experience, the more successful you'll be at running whatever kind of business you happen to come across.

Gordon Henry:             Yeah. Excellent advice. We just have a few minutes left. I have a couple of quick of lightning round questions for you just to get to know you better as a person. First of all, I always like to ask, who would be your mentor or person you feel you've learned from? And it could be more than one, but maybe a person or two who you feel has helped you along the way.

Ivy Walker:                  There are four that I would give some serious, serious gratitude to. My parents, my mother and father, both entrepreneurs. My father was an accountant and worked with small businesses his entire career and he did a lot of direct coaching of me. He always had feedback and advice about my career choices, about my academic choices, and all of that helped to shape me. My mother was incredibly instrumental in helping me to build my self view, because it's very challenging for anyone to be an entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging as a woman and as a minority. And so my mother was very instrumental in building my self view. My grandmother was like the quintessential entrepreneur. She owned multiple businesses. She was no nonsense and I knew I wanted to be like her. And then the fourth person is my aunt, also quintessential entrepreneur who took after my grandmother, and who helped me to model and shape my career as well.

Gordon Henry:             As we said at the beginning, so you're a very busy person, very accomplished person. What is your secret to managing your time?

Ivy Walker:                  Two words, little sleep.

Gordon Henry:             Uh oh.

Ivy Walker:                  And I don't recommend it, by the way, its not good. But I tend to be very focused in how I spend my day. I'm up at 4:00 AM, I start my day with meditation because I'd be insane otherwise. And then I get into a very detailed plan of my day. If I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, I can waste time and I don't want to waste time. I have a plan for every day, and that's really important to guiding me. The other thing is I know what I'm good at and I know what I'm not good at and I don't focus a lot of time on those things that I'm not good at. I try to find people who can help me with those things that I'm not good at. And as many as your listeners and viewers will recognize, as business owners, we don't have the resources to pay a bunch of people.

                                   And so I try to create mutually beneficial relationships. Maybe there's a quid pro quo, I do something for you, you do something for me, you help me in this area or I'll help you in that area. I focus on the things that I'm good at and I look for ways to supplement or compliment those things that I'm not good at. And I am not afraid to delegate. I don't need to be in control of everything. And in fact, I tell my employees, "Go figure it out. Come back to me with the solution and I will tell you whether or not I agree with that solution." And I'm also kind of, even though I've used a lot of words here, I like few words. I'm very much, "Tell me the punchline and I'll tell you if I need to hear the joke." And that's how I keep my time organized and managed.

Gordon Henry:             Yeah. Great. Favorite hobby or pastime, do you have one?

Ivy Walker:                  I do. I love to ride my bike the few days a year that we can do that here in Chicago. It's my best way of decompressing. When I can't ride my bike because it's too cold here, I do still walk and I will walk for several miles just to decompress and relax. Those are my two favorite hobbies. And then also, I read a lot. I read everything. I don't read novels anymore. I just don't have the time. But I read everything else I can pretty much get my hands on to learn various different things.

Gordon Henry:             Great. And last of these quick questions, is there a famous person, either celebrity or a politician or a statesman or anything like that, who you particularly are a fan of?

Ivy Walker:                  Oh, that's a hard one. There's not a person that jumps to mind because it kind of shifts around. I am a fan of people who are really good at what they do. I absolutely love to see people who are really, really good at what they do, and I try to study those people. It's been different people at different points in time, but that's my biggest charge.

Gordon Henry:             Great. Well, this has been great, Ivy, and I do want to ask you for those who are listening who want to get in touch with you or learn more about what you're doing, how should people learn more about getting involved with you and this whole area of risk management?

Ivy Walker:                  Feel free to email me, ivy@askcoda.com, askcoda.com. I'm pretty good at getting back to people with responses and they can take a look at any of the websites of my company's either Ask Coda or Purpose Workforce Solutions, which is purposeworkforce.com or my ethics company, heliosdigital.com.

Gordon Henry:             Great. Well, I want to thank you for coming on our show, Ivy, it's been great to have you here and listening to everything you've accomplished and can offer to the small business owners who listened to the show.

Ivy Walker:                  Thank you so much for having me Gordon, I've enjoyed it.

Gordon Henry:             And I want to also thank our producer, Tim Alleman and our coordinators Diete Barnett and Daniel Huddleston. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please tell your colleagues, friends and family to subscribe and please leave us a five star review. We'd really appreciate it. It helps us in the rankings. Until next time, make it a great week.

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