How can I expand my business?

Whenever you're faced with an important business decision, tap into your core values and remember why you started this business before you make a decision. Otherwise, you could take on a deal or opportunity that you'll regret for the rest of your life. Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. I believe that hungry entrepreneurs deserve help, and I got a question from one of my YouTube viewers— thank you, YouTube guys— named Ricky. Who had a question about business expansion. He wrote in to say, "Hi Evan, I have a small produce stand. I sell things like corn, tomatoes, cucumbers. I love this business, but I can't think of any way of expanding it. I'm unsure of how I could possibly make more money and grow this small roadside stand into a bigger business. Thank you for reading, I really appreciate your informative videos." Ricky, thanks for the question, and congrats on what you've done so far and for reaching out. But you didn't tell me anything about what's unique about your business. What makes you special? You start off saying, "I have a small produce stand. I sell things like corn, tomatoes, cucumbers." It's boring. There's tons of those guys. You want to expand your business? You have to know what sets you apart. For me to give you advice, I have to know what's different about you, what you stand for, what makes you unique. There's a lot of ways to grow this business. You could create your own product line. You could try to launch a retail store. You could have multiple stands. On different roads. There's a lot of ways to grow this, but I don't know what makes you special and why you started this business. Whenever you're faced with an important business growth opportunity and there's multiple ways to go and you're confused, the clarity comes from looking at why you started your business and what your core values are. I'll give you a quick example. Companies come to me all the time wanting me to, to represent them, to pitch their products. And most of the time I say no because I don't use your product. And these are companies that you would recognize. I'm not going to name names, but brand name companies that you would recognize call me up and say, "Evan, we love what you're doing. We're trying to reach more entrepreneurs. We want you to say our company is the greatest and pitch our product." This is an easy decision for me. My core value is I love helping entrepreneurs, right? You hear it at the beginning of my videos. I believe that hungry entrepreneurs deserve help. If what I'm doing isn't helping entrepreneurs, I'm not going to feel good about it. Even if it makes me a lot of money, I'm not going to do it because I'm not going to feel good about it and the end result is not going to be great. So no, I will not pitch your product even if you're throwing a ton of cash at me because I don't think it's going to help people. If I can't firmly stand behind it, then I'm not going to pitch it. And so back to this business growth opportunity, there's a lot of ways to grow it. And you should be thinking beyond just one little location. If it's multiple locations, if it's a retail store, if you're starting a home delivery business, whatever it is, lots of ways to grow it. But what makes you special? You cannot just be a little side store on the side of the street selling cucumbers and corn. There has to be something different, and I think there's there. You know, every entrepreneur has that within them, but they don't let it come out. They don't share it, they don't put everything they have into it, they don't communicate that message with people. And as a result, you get lost. You're just another guy doing the same thing as everybody else. Every time you're communicating what you do to anybody— so when Ricky's writing in to me, he should be writing that, right? Anytime you write an email to somebody, you gotta say what makes you special. So Ricky, work on it. Write back to me. I wanna hear your new pitch. I don't wanna hear you just have a small produce stand. Okay, and then from there we can talk about how to grow this business. I believe you have something there, and I think every entrepreneur has that within them. They just don't do a good job of recognizing themselves and putting it into every piece of communication that you do. Good luck. For those of you watching, you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below, and I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment under this video. It makes my morning every time when I see them come in. So thank you guys, and I'll see you on the next episode.