Your Business Is FAILING Because You NEED This! | Biz To Biz Podcast

You are now watching the Biz to Biz Podcast with Allen and Justin. Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the Biz to Biz Podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the Gallagher of payment processing himself, Allen Kopelman. And in today's podcast, we'll be discussing, um, the importance of small businesses having a small social media presence and Yeah, it's important. What's up, you?

I'm being silly today.

I know, man. It's, you know, for those that don't watch and listen, Allen's got on a Dr. Seuss hat.

It's kind of like Uncle Sam's hat too, could be.

No.

Okay, well, whatever. We're impending up on the Fourth of July holiday, so be a little festive today. With the hat.

I don't, I don't, I don't see the correlation, but whatever you say, bucko.

All right, so you ready for Fourth of July? Do you light up fireworks?

I do not. Neither do I. I have— I do not like fireworks.

Yeah, Rocky hates fireworks. I have to—

yeah, we're not talking about Rocky. Okay, talking about me, right?

I know that. I'm just saying he hates them too. I'm not a big fan either of fireworks.

Yeah, no, I mean, I'll go watch the fireworks, like if the kids or if my wife wants to go watch them down, you know, wherever on Los Alamos or whatever they do them at. But yeah, no, I'm not the guy. I used to, I used to, but I don't know, man. I think I got, I got a little older and I, uh, like, just want to stay away from them.

Okay.

Just, just don't like them.

You know what's interesting is in Switzerland they do fireworks but they don't make any noise. They're silent.

Really?

Yeah. So they blast them off to do a big light show, but I would love that without the noise. It's really cool.

Look it up.

Like, you have to, I guess, you find it on YouTube.

Yeah, I have no plans besides doing— I'm gonna paint my daughter's room and possibly the hallway. We'll see how far I get, but yeah. And I have to mow my lawn, so hopefully the weather is decent and then I can get outside for a couple hours this weekend because there's some— I drove past it today and there's some— there's just like this one weed, like whatever it is, it looks like straw almost, like back home, like, you know, you see like the guys, the farmers chewing on a straw with like the little It literally looks like that, but it's on the whole northern side of my house, and it kind of makes it look crappy. Okay, I gotta get to that.

Um, I'll probably make some burgers. That'll be about it.

Oh, for actual Fourth of July? Yeah, zero plans. Yeah, no, I have no idea. Um, we used to go to the beach, but beach is too crowded. It is very, very crowded if you don't get up and out of the house by 7:30, 8 o'clock in the morning, you're kind of setting yourself up for failure. And I don't—

and they close the bridges now because they get very cognizant of like the lack of parking. So they just— at one— at some point they just said nobody else is going over the bridge, right?

Because I mean, it's literally capacity, right?

Yeah, they just don't let it get crazy.

Yeah, for sure. But, uh, Yeah, no, we stopped doing that because of that. And you know, who wants to be at the beach?

I mean, and then you're there all day and night.

I don't want to be there till— I can't. I'm, you know, I feel like an old man when I'm saying—

No, I know that. But you know, you end up getting stuck there until 10, 11 o'clock at night.

And I'm— I will get very grumpy and I will not be a happy camper.

Right.

I'm done with you because I like my house. I like my—

like when I used to live, I call my house my kingdom. Like my mom lives at the beach, so if I would go to my mom's, you'd just be— no, I'm just saying, like you had to wait till late at night to leave.

What the fuck?

Yeah, because the traffic would be crazy.

I would never leave.

Yeah, I moved. I lived on the beach. I left. Too crazy, too much, too many rules in condos for me. No, but it was interesting. I gave— I was given— somebody sent me a business report the other day, and then me and Justin were looking at it, and one of the things we noticed on there is like organized small businesses into 3 categories. So one was called the very— the SMB, very small businesses, remember? So that was businesses with under 20 employees, 0 to 20 employees, so 1 to 20 employees, right? They put them in, they categorized the small businesses into 3 categories. I thought that was interesting.

Yeah, yeah, no, I'd never heard that before either. Very small businesses sounds to me like that report was throwing shade But whatever, because it, you know, there's some really successful businesses with like 5 people running it.

Yeah, of course. But yeah, well, it wasn't basically— it wasn't talking about like their revenue. It was more talking about like how do they do their research for products. So it was just talking about, oh, the people with a smaller business are looking for videos, what they were looking for. It was just, it was an interesting report. Yeah.

But yeah, man. So social media, um, we kind of talked about like social media destroying the, the, the fine fabric of society and destroying the beautiful minds of our youth, right? But you know, it's not just me. Social media, media has a lot to do with that. But for businesses, right, where, you know, we'll keep it on the business side, you know, I think it is absolutely essential for businesses to be online because for one thing You know, there's, there's billions of people using these social media platforms.

Yes, 100%.

And if you're a business, what does that tell you? That means that your customer is on social media, right? So find out where your customer is and use that platform.

Definitely. I think the essential things are, you know, you have like the Google— I don't know, they keep changing the name of it, right? Because it was like Google My Business, now it's just called Google Business, right? Google My Business. That's the— that's one thing. When I see businesses who haven't claimed that page, that's a huge mistake.

I mean, that's not really social media. I get, I get it. But that's more SEO related, Allen.

Okay. Well, I think like if someone's looking for your business and then that pops up, but that would be after them knowing your business.

Okay.

Right.

So social media would bring brand awareness so that someone said, oh, I heard that one company. I seen that company. What was it called? Nationwide Payment Systems. And then they Google it. And then that's when the map pack pops up and that's when Nationwide Payments is involved.

There's no reason not to.

Side note, side note, real quick, real quick.

Yes.

Were you on a conversation this morning and did I overhear you say that you are not on the maps?

Not on maps, no. I wasn't talking about it. I was talking about mapping out a Excel spreadsheet.

Okay. Okay. I was going to have to say, like, I was going to have to correct you very, No, we're on maps. Yes.

If you're a retail store and a restaurant, it's essential to be on the maps. It's essential to have this Google My Business. You got to go where people go. If you have a restaurant, you better be on Yelp. I mean, I know Justin's not a fan of Yelp, but that's where you got to be.

I mean, you got to be on social media. Yelp is a directory.

Yep, I get it. But I'm just saying, based on what type of business you have, that's the type of webs, you know, I think you have social media and you have directories. I think you have to think about both of those when you're, when you're looking at where do you want to be online? Like, you know, because that's important.

For the sake of the podcast, we're going to talk about social media platforms.

Yes. Okay. Right. Okay.

Word. I mean, like, yeah, so when you have— when you set up your social media accounts on whatever platform that you decide, you know, whatever one you think that you're going to connect with your audience the most, you know, you're, you're already like halfway to a lead. Um, because once you figure out what it is your audience likes, wants, and needs, Um, then you can create that content to support that, and then you, you know, eventually it's, it, you know, it's a very difficult thing. It's not something that just happens overnight. Like, uh, just for Nationwide Payment Systems, for instance, like the nature of the beast, the way that the, you know, the big three, um, our competition, you know what I'm saying, it's just It's a hard battle to fight. It ain't for the weak. If you— 'cause I mean, shit, there's times that I feel super defeated, you know what I mean? Like I'm just not doing enough. But I can't— we don't have a trillion-dollar budget to go up against these companies. So we have to be strategic, right? And we have to aim for the low-hanging fruit and it works for the most part. I mean, it's working, it's starting to work more. Um, launched some Facebook ads, so that's, that's a plus, but you know, but back to businesses and having the social media presence, you know, like Beyond, uh, the audience, you know, your audience is there, right? So it's very— it's a very cost-effective marketing tool because any business owner, you know, um, has a smartphone now, right? Yeah. And so they can go and create the content or, you know, maybe their wife is good at it.

Yeah, you could use tools like Canva, right?

Yeah.

And you can— and then it can post, schedule and post for you. It's got some AI in there, which I don't think you should totally rely on because I don't have enough experience to talk about it. No, but I'm just saying, like, sometimes you'll see posts on social media from from different businesses, but they all look similar because— oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, you want to be careful that you have unique content unless you're like a really good dancer, and then you can make dance videos if you're a good dancer. Yeah, what I keep trying to get— Justin says he can breakdance, But he won't make it.

I never ever in my life.

Damn. I'm not joking.

I love hip-hop and I love the culture. I would love to have been able to— I was the graffiti kid. I was tagging on walls and rapping.

Okay, well, Justin said, well, you should do a rap on the podcast before.

Okay, you just want me to do the dumbass School of Rock ass shit. Get out of it. What's going on? School of Rock. Beastie Boys, man.

I was thinking it was funny.

I don't know.

Who wants to see Justin do the Beastie Boys version of, uh, Fight to— you gotta fight for your rights.

We're not talking to you, Mom.

Or you want to do— or you want— yeah, but we're going to call it You Have the Right to Fight for Processing. I think it'd be funny, right?

It is.

Okay.

But yeah, so like with the social media, you know, also, you know, you— after you get your— you choose your platform, I would say for a small business, like, trying to manage every one of them may not be the best decision, depending on like if you got a, you know, someone like Sean or Samantha, right, or myself. Like, you know, you have someone who actually is doing digital marketing stuff for you. You know, I would say probably stick to what you know, or, you know, I think it's by business type.

So you have to look at like, oh, what's my business type and where do I want to be?

I agree and disagree, but I'm the type of guy that's gonna tell you to be everywhere.

No, I get that.

No, there's no right or wrong with that. Um, but to— but like you said, like, if you're good at dancing, right, like, if your product or some shit is good at some— is aimed towards like entertainment or something like that, then obviously you might want to choose a platform more like, uh, Instagram or TikTok, right? Right. You know what I mean? But You're still going to want to be found on every platform because your, your customer is not always on just one. Most likely they're on multiple platforms.

Exactly.

And you have a much higher probability of being found and, you know, a possible new sale, whatever, connection, subscription, service fee.

Yeah, but they also, at the same time, like when you put your business on Facebook, it's all Facebook. While it's social media, is also somewhat of a directory. Absolutely.

So, you know, I mean, it has a— what, fucking directories?

Yeah, whatever people want to do. People want to get, you know, not every bit, you know, not every, not every business You know, some businesses do better with a directory than they do on social media.

I can't take anything you're saying seriously.

Okay, well, I mean, I'm just saying, if you're an air conditioning company, right, you have to be on social media, but you're probably going to get more business out of the being listed on like BBB. Because people are going to go there.

Who's old ass, man? That is some old dinosaur shit right there, buddy.

Well, the—

nobody did— yo, nobody is going to look on BD BBB to find your company, bro. Not— no, bro. Hell no, man.

Like Over 40, they're looking.

Maybe.

Okay.

Maybe. I'm leaning towards the big no.

Okay.

Because I don't, I am not looking up to see if, are you on the BBB? What? Get the hell out of here. No, are you on Facebook? Yes. All right, bet.

Okay.

Can I, can I shame you publicly if I hire you and you do something terribly because nobody is going to BBB to look at a shitty review.

I'll differ with you with that.

I mean, I guess it depends on like the type of business you're in.

If you're in a home service business, home service business is a total—

that's a monster. That's a huge industry.

Yeah, well, even if you're a one—

let's say we're talking about small business people here.

You could be a small business person and have an air conditioning company. A plumbing company. Yeah, but you could have one of Justin's peephole companies.

I'm still not necessarily going to— don't make it sound weird.

I'm not—

peephole companies, that's weird. It's handyman.

Okay, Justin's Handyman Service.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, thank you.

That shit sounded terrible.

This guy over here.

Man, what you call it?

Security, security, uh, viewing, whatever you want to call it.

Okay, but yes, something like that. Okay, but yeah, man, um, I don't even know where I was at. I know I was talking about how, uh, it's cost effective, um, it helps with brand recognition. Um, oh, the number one tool for— I mean, I— the reason why I'm always talking about social media, it drives traffic to your website. Okay, people who are in 2024 who are telling you guys that you don't need a website and all that you need is social media, no, that's not right. You have lost your mind, okay?

Every business, even if you have just a basic— you have a basic company, maybe you're just a tutor or whatever it is that you do, have a minimum. You need like a one-page landing page website at a minimum to go along, to coincide with your social media channels, right? But it's going to help your business look legit more.

Absolutely. You know, when you go open a merchant account, I'm not hiring or talking to, uh, someone who I need to do something for me if they don't have a website. And also, I'm a little— I'll take it a step further— if you don't have a professional email address, like if you're still rocking a Yahoo Right, or a Gmail. What was Microsoft's?

Hotmail, bro.

Sorry, I'm, I'm not— I get it, some business owners are old school and like AOL. I mean, yeah, my pops has one of those.

He does.

He doesn't use it, but he has one. He definitely has one of those. Uh, yeah, I get it, like to communicate through, but as far as business You gotta, you gotta go.

And it really flips me out when I'm doing business with somebody and like they fill out the application, right? And then they don't have— they don't spend, you know, they're not willing to spend $10 or $12 a month to have a professional email address. It's just, you know, it's just weird. Like, we have one product that we deal with for credit card processing And if you don't have a dot com, if you have a website and you don't have the dot com email, they can't link your— the paint— the portal that you need to log into. They won't link it to Gmail or any of that for security reasons. Wow. They want you to have a dot com email address.

Yeah. And, uh, yeah, I mean, as far as the website, I mean, I think that that's essential, but for the sake of the pod, this, you know, so the social media, I think, you know, we've been trying to figure it out and I've been, uh, doing this for a long time and, um, the payment processing thing is, it's, it's a pain in the ass. It really is. It's, it's, it's It's, uh, the competition is so thick. It's a very, very saturated industry.

I wouldn't call the industry saturated. There's a lot of different companies in the industry. A lot of them I've seen companies do a start, be a startup, go out. They think like they're just gonna light it on fire. They go out and they start blowing 5, 10 grand a week on social media ads. To quickly find out that they're not getting any traction, and then they're out of the business. And, you know, people—

because people are— so look, me and Allen, we argue about this shit all the time about like how to market on social media, because we don't argue, we discuss.

We—

well, sure, we have discussions that are very loud and aggressive.

Okay.

Um, but I think that because you don't know your customer, you know what I'm saying? Like, not, not us. I'm just saying, like, we know who our customers are, but, but we— it's hard to— the businesses that we serve aren't necessarily on Facebook.

Or some of them are, not some, right?

But a small— you know what I mean? Like, the ones who we really want to get, yeah, they are not, right? You know what I mean? And their social media, like, the— so the marketing on social media for us is more for brand awareness, right? You know what I mean? To get it out there, to like— and then hopefully to to get some low-hanging fruit, you know what I mean? That's the— that's what we use social media for. But, uh, and when you look at other business, like other business types, you know, when I say drive traffic to your website, someone sees your post on about pressure washing, uh, you know, your, your driveway, right? You know what I mean? And they really liked how it looked on Instagram. And now they click the link in your bio and you now you have, you know, a new customer.

Yeah, there's like a guy that's on like Instagram and the reels and stuff. His company's called like SB Mowing and the guy goes and he'll once a week or something, he goes and mows a lawn for free. So he's like an overgrown house and then I don't know who the, who he does like a time-lapse video. You know, shows how he cleans it all up. I bet he gets a lot of business from that.

And that's, you know, like what you just said, that's just an example of what I was saying earlier of how businesses— how everyone has like the smartphone. You literally have a super high quality camera in your pocket most of the time.

Have you ever seen that movie called, uh, it's called Chef where the guy has a food truck?

I love that show.

That food truck, and he takes his son, and then his son starts making videos and putting them on Vine, which doesn't exist anymore.

That was a great movie.

Yeah. And then they had lines everywhere. Everybody wanted to get the sandwiches from the guy's food truck.

Cuban sandwich.

Cuban sandwich. We made a bunch of different sandwiches.

Yeah, but the Cuban sandwich—

yeah, the Cuban sandwich was like the main thing.

Yeah.

And, uh, Yeah. So, you know, it just shows you—

he was in LA, right?

Yeah.

Because you couldn't get a Cuban— good Cuban sandwich in LA. So that was the whole premise of why—

well, no, he got a food truck. He got fired. So he went to Miami. Beyond that, to get the food truck from his friend, right?

But when he picked it, he picked the Cuban sandwich because you couldn't get a good Cuban sandwich in LA, right?

Apparently. I don't know. And then they—

I don't eat pork. Porco Sucio.

I don't eat that either. But then they trekked across America making sandwiches everywhere. That's pretty awesome. That was a cool movie. I like that movie.

Great movie.

Great movie.

And then that's a great movie and an example of how they utilize social media, because when they would get to the city, yeah, they would post on— it was Twitter, right?

Twitter.

And it would, it would share their location to where they were going to be at. And boom, you know, this is a movie, obviously, you know, it doesn't work every 100% of the time in real life, but it's a great example of how to utilize the, the social media platform for sure.

Yeah, it definitely was a good example of somebody that— I don't know, is there any other movie where somebody used social media to blow up their business? And they made a movie about it?

I have no—

besides the Facebook movie. I don't—

yeah, I'm not big on— I don't know. I have— I don't know.

We'd have to do some research.

Beyond that, you know, just— I mean, we could keep going about how businesses should have— like, if you're a store, right? Like, say you sell t-shirts, right? You can set up a a shop on Facebook and Instagram, right? I'm saying like you can set it up on Google too, but that's a little bit more—

I think if your business is like visual, like let's say you sell clothing, it's easier to create like short videos or visuals of the clothing and get people to come into your business. Or let's say you fix air conditioners, you show a guy fixing the air conditioner. Yeah, I mean, or your power—

easier said than done, right? Like, it's not— obviously, if you can't fix the air conditioner and record a video at the same time unless you have a tripod and you had a whole little setup, you know, I mean, the production of that, you might not want to be doing that because at that point you're, you know, you're ready to, to make money and you got to get the job done. But, um, it could be done. There's a time and a place for everything.

You have a teenager, summertime, you say, oh, come with me on this job and make a time-lapse video of me fixing this guy's air conditioner. Yeah, you gotta think outside the box.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you could definitely sell your product on, on, on, you know, social media. You can literally— you could run your store from home and sell your stuff on online. So like, you know, you can use those. Um, what else do I got here? Yeah, no, that's about it, man. Drive straight.

You just gotta— you gotta pick where, where you want to be. Twitter, TikTok, you know, there's a, you know, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

Don't pick where you want to be, pick all of those. Set up your profiles, try to get some content on each and every one of them. And if there's one that like hits for you, then I would say focus on that. But don't forget, you know, your little babies, you know. You don't want—

yeah, you want to be everywhere because you never know where someone's going to find you.

You want to be everywhere because you're never there.

You're never there. All right, well, happy Fourth of July. Carpe diem, seize the day.

Don't blow your hand off. Yeah, be safe. Don't get too wasted. Enjoy your freedom.

I know most people are going to make a 4-day weekend.

Give thanks.

Yep, give thanks. Be happy and happy Fourth of July. Peace out.