Find 10K in Your Business in 45 Minutes

Are you looking to make more money in your business? What would you do if I told you that you could possibly uncover $10,000 in the next 45 minutes? Well, that's what my guest and I will be discussing today on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to this episode. This is where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up core skill sets to help them create the jaw-dropping, show-stopping experience that their customers and their employees deserve. I am your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest for this episode is Entrepreneur Coach Rivers Corbett.

Hi Marc!

We will be discussing 8 strategies you can use to have a significant impact on your bottom line. So, stay with us. If this is your first time on this podcast, welcome! Please go ahead and check out the other videos here on this channel. I tell you, I am so blessed to have the scope of experts on this show. We are 2 years in on this show and it's been nothing but huge value. If you've been following me for a while, thank you so much for being a fan. I am so glad that you get the value that we bring you each And every week. So, thank you for being here. It seems like the longer we are in business, the less opportunity we see around us. We really do get to the point where we can't see the forest for the trees. That is of course, unless you are blessed to be able to see your business with fresh eyes or bring somebody on board to help you view your business. with fresh eyes. So that brings us to our Question of the Day. So, what is the last incremental shift or a change that you've made in your business recently that resulted in a positive change to your bottom line? Feel free to put your response in the comments section wherever you are consuming this content. Just make sure that please hashtag Experience leadership. I'd love to be able to follow this conversation with you and have you part of this conversation. As I mentioned, my guest today is the author of The Bootstrapper's Guide to Business Growth. Rivers Corbett is a solution-focused and agile entrepreneur, coach, and thought leader with more than 23 years of success across food and beverage, hospitality, education, and e-commerce. His broad areas of expertise include leadership, team building, coaching, mentoring, sales, marketing, branding, partnerships, customer startups, and business growth. Rivers is the founder of Sheftorial. I know you're impressed that I was able to do that in one breath, aren't you? He is the founder of Sheftorial, a 7-figure talent agency bringing communities together through engaging educational virtual culinary experiences. Rivers, welcome to the show! It's so great to have you.

Marc, you know, thank you, my friend, and congratulations on your journey. I'm just so honored I love when I listen to that bio intro because one, people will read whatever you send them. But here's the other thing, my friend. It's all true.

It's important. Yeah.

Hey, before—

it is.

Thank you.

Before we get into today's topic, could you just dig a little bit deeper what you do for your clients? How do you serve them?

Yeah. So, entrepreneurship is ultimately a journey. And I've been an entrepreneur for over 20 20-plus years, 23, 24, it doesn't matter. I think once you get over the 20-year lane, and one of the key elements that I try to focus in on when working with entrepreneurs, whether they're beginning their journey or whether they're in the midst of their journey, is mindset. And I know that that sounds so freaking obvious that that's an area that people need to know and to apply. But as you said, We forget because we're in the midst of it sometimes. So, I really get people to understand that business is a mindset and it's a mindset centered around the fact that business is a laboratory. And you're always tinkering. You're always testing. You're always trying to be innovative. You're always trying to ultimately have an end result based on creating a formula for success. And so, if I can get people to understand that they're in a laboratory of innovation and servitude, then they're always not complacent. They really are always looking for that next edge of servitude to their customers in a way that's ultimately going to impact the bottom line of the organization. So, I work a lot with mindset in that regard.

Wonderful! We're talking this idea of what you're talking about today, what you just brought up. Why is this so important Especially in today's marketplace?

Yeah, because it's so freaking all over the place. I mean, we've just come through and still continuing to go through one of the— this is our war. This is our war of our generation. And to ultimately come out of this with a strong direction and mindset as to how you approach the new world order, I think is critically important as we try to figure this out. So, it just allows Okay, this is what I'm doing. It may be I have to do it in a different way, but this is where I'm at. I was there before and I'm still at the same location, but now I just need to do it a different way. So it just allows entrepreneurs to breathe and allows them to really sense that I've got to appreciate that this is a journey and it's a journey that is no different than it was before, but it's just in a different environment. So again, it's just a laboratory. So, in this world order, it's the same thing we were doing before just in a different way. So, I think that's the best answer I could give to that particular question.

Yeah, and as you alluded to, this idea of mindset. I mean, if nothing, if COVID showed us nothing else, it showed us that status quo doesn't exist and that change is going to be there all the time. And in fact, in a previous episode, we talked about the percentages of businesses that The stats I think were something like 20% of startups fail in the first 2 years, 45% during the first 5, and 65% in the first 10 years. What do you think the big problem is here?

Yeah, it's ultimately based on being innovative. But more so important, we take the eye off the customer. And the customer is driven by 2 main areas. One is an existing customer. And a future customer. And in my opinion, we forget the fact in business that we're serving a customer. And business is a dating game, Marc. That's all it is. And we need to continue to make sure that we're nurturing a relationship with a customer that solves their problems, addresses their needs. And we only are able to do that through regular connection, relationship building with customers. And if we understand what those needs are and how they're changing, then we're able to adapt accordingly. And why I think most entrepreneurs fail is they come out of the gun, they're excited, they're ready to go, and then things get easy. I got some customers. And they never really— they take the business for granted. Like, that's where most relationships die personally, is you start to take the relationship for granted. And you start to look at yourself in the mirror versus at the customer that you're serving. It really is that simple. And that's why I think 9 out of 10 businesses ultimately fail in 5 Is because they take their eye off the customer.

Yeah, it's interesting. And what you're talking about, this idea of customers, one of the things in my book that I mentioned in chapter 18 is this idea of a journey that the customers go on with us. And I find all too often, to your point, when we open our doors to our customers, we're only viewing the customer through only one lens, through only one perspective. And that is, oh, we have a customer. Oh, we have a customer. Oh, we have a customer. What about, oh, we have a first-time customer. Oh, we have a repeat customer. Oh, we have somebody who's one of our loyal ambassadors. But we don't adjust. Everything has become formulaic to the point where we're treating everybody the same way. It is.

And you know what? That's an interesting point you bring up. And that to me is the big competitive advantage for small business operators, new entrepreneurs coming out of the gate is they have the luxury of having an intimate relationship Larger organizations are really challenged with how to keep an intimate relationship with a customer because there are just so many of them. And that's where they start to lose touch emotionally with their customer. You win the game of business when you emotionally connect with your customer satisfying their needs. It's not just about satisfying their needs because when that happens, a price competitor can come in and do it cheaper. But if you've got an emotional connection with your customer through the programs that you intentionally put in place, new customers, existing customers, then you create what they call loyalty. And loyalty is very, very powerful when the competitor comes along with a cheaper price.

Right, right. The audience for this podcast is all over the place. We have people who are entrepreneurs, solopreneurs. We have people who are in startups. Some people are a part of big massive franchise organizations. When it comes to businesses and business operations, are there any myths that you think we should be busting, that should be busted, that we should uncover and just say, guys, this is not the truth?

Yeah, the first one is that you don't need money. There's always— I see it a ton of times in my journey as an entrepreneur. People saying, I don't have enough money. Well, let me tell you, if you are solving a problem in business with a customer base that is that has a very has a has a morphine need, not an aspirin need, then money will not be a problem for you because you will have lots of customers willing to pay for you. The other thing that is a myth, and I see this again a lot in businesses, is that you they people start to build business with the intent of ultimately getting investors on board. And in my opinion, that's way, way too— well, it's serving the wrong customer. It's serving the investor, not serving the customer themselves. If you go out into the marketplace, create value for the customer, have them buy it, you will get investors lining up to the door for you because you have validated your idea, your business in a way that you've got lots of people wanting to pay for it. So one is it's not about pitching to investors. You gotta pitch to your customers. And the second one is that cash isn't needed to begin a business. There are all kinds of great ideas that can be supported by cash. But they have to be validated with a connection to a customer need that's a major need that people are willing to pay for the remedy for it.

And there are concrete ways of being able to build that feedback before you ever launch your business. I mean, people need to be tapping into it. I find that a lot of entrepreneurs They go, wow, I have this idea and I know it's going to sell. And they fool themselves into believing it and then being undercapitalized, undersupported. And it's no wonder that in 2 years, the majority will just fizzle out.

Well, and they lose their passion, right? It's like any type of, say, business is a dating game. It's all passionate fun in the first 2 or 3 dates. But then, all of a sudden, you got to work at the relationship. You got to work when things aren't good. then people lose the zeal. And so to me, you've got to do what you love to do. Yes, that's, that's critical. And you got to be passionate around it because there's going to be those down days where ultimately say, what the freak am I doing here? Oh, it's because I love to do what I'm doing. I'm willing to go through those dark days because I really love what it is that I do. So yeah, they lose the passion, they lose the interest and give up along the way. And that's, that's why you're in a laboratory, my friend. It takes years to ultimately formulate that success equation for your business. And you got to be able to go into it for the long haul. And most people give up after 2 years. That's another reason why they fail.

Yeah, yeah. Fantastic! This is really good feedback. And I think people can identify with it. And I've seen it time and time again. When I bridged out of hospitality into economic development, I started going out and talking with business owners and entrepreneurs and people who had kind of this— they've lost their love for their business. They're frustrated. They're stressed and so on. But, and when I would see them, I would say, what's going on? And they're like, oh, I don't know. I don't get customers. And so, but the minute I turned around and said, how did you start this business?

Yeah.

All of a sudden, they got animated. Their eyes got big. They got energetic. And it's like, that's what you need to tap into. The reason why you got into this in the first place. And I think all too often as business owners, we're so stuck on that working in the business that we stopped realizing why we did this, right? It's really an interesting dynamic.

It's a, you know, there's a great book called The E-Myth Revisited. And I'm sure that you're very well aware of it. But it talks about a lot of people get into business because they're good tactically on doing an activity. And they forget the fact that business is not just about the engine of the car. It's the fact that you've got to build the other things around the car. And they don't want to do that. And so business is a puzzle piece, and making the business run operationally is only one piece of that puzzle. And so by getting the help ahead of time and understanding that journey— so we talked about mindset— not only do I help people understand the laboratory, but I say, this is the journey you're going to go on, and these are the roadblocks you're going to run up against. These are the opportunities that are going to be in front of you. And once they have that clarity of the roadmap of the journey they're going to go on, then they're not as intimidated because they're able to say, oh yeah, that's right. That's the journey of the entrepreneur. And our school system really does a crappy job, to be quite honest with you, on preparing people for this entrepreneurial journey. And so, people again have these rose-colored glasses. They get in, oh, this is easy stuff. I'll just go do what I do and the world will come to me. Business is a dating game. The dates don't automatically show up. And unless you're focused in on sales as part of delivering value, you will lose You will lose the game 100% of the time. Sales will allow you to sleep well at night. And most entrepreneurs aren't focused in on that environment. They're just focused on how to drive the car versus how to sell the car.

Right. And it's really interesting. The definition that we came up with on this show about the difference between entrepreneurship and business ownership is entrepreneurship is you are running a business. Business ownership, the business is running you. Yeah, brother.

Yeah, bang on.

Yeah, I'd like to delve into your 8 key strategic keys to find more money in one's business. And we'll get to that right after that. Right after this. Okay, man.

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Well, I'm getting that book.

I'm getting that book, man. I'm getting that book.

Well, thank you, Rivers. Thank you. I, I, you know, when you get it, I hope it makes you laugh as much as it I did writing it. I giggled all the way through it. So, it was definitely not only a way to be able to bring forward some real concrete business concepts and look at business from a different lens. But it was a way for me to actually exude my goofiness as we went along. So, I hope you laugh a lot as you read through it.

Thank you.

Welcome back everybody! I am speaking with Sheptorial founder, Rivers Corbett Rivers, the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make. We have been talking about this idea of the myth-busting and so on. Before we get into the 8 keys, you mentioned the fact that dating is really the mindset that we must adapt aside from that. So, we talked about dating. We talked about capitalization. Is there any other big mistakes you think entrepreneurs are making as they're getting into their businesses?

Yeah, and it actually relates back into one of my strategies. And here's, um, when, when I followed this one strategy— and I don't do it always, I am human, I have made mistakes, and the good Lord himself knows that I've made mistakes— but ultimately is when I followed this one piece of advice, I've always won in the game of life, not just in the game of business. And that's, I zag when everybody else zigs. So, you need to have a unique position in the marketplace. You cannot look, feel, act, smell, do all those things like everybody else. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs, they'll say, oh, I can do that. I can do that. I can do that. Well, one of my business journeys was I started a gourmet burger restaurant many years ago. It was called Relish Gourmet Burgers. And it was an amazing journey. We think about it. Have you ever heard of a business selling burgers before? I.e., McDonald's. I.e., Burger King. I.e., the local bar. And so we took a different approach to our business model centered around one what the food offering was and the customer experience was. And we were different in the marketplace in a very competitive marketplace. So the number the next number one thing that undercapitalized etcetera is that they don't zag when. When everybody else zigs. And that's a big mistake. And by the way, here's the thing. It doesn't have to be big. It just has to be one small thing that you're known in the marketplace that nobody else gets known for. And I saw a plumbing organization years ago. And the people there, they wore— the men and the women wore pink overalls. That was their market dominating position. That was their uniqueness in the marketplace. That's what they got known for. Yes, they still did great service. But they were known for marketing themselves differently and being different in the market. So, that's a key thing. So, you should always ask yourself the question, where's my zag in my business? At least you've got one thing. That's what you talk about in the marketplace.

It really is about being a category of one. That was something that Gare Maxwell, one of our previous guests, had talked about.

Yeah, I love Gare.

Yeah. And so, This idea of being a category of one, he recommends going through people's websites and comparing your website to it. And you'll see that people in your industry are all talking the same way about what they do. Everybody is using the same language. So then, you have to, to your point, it's then looking for how can I talk about something different? How can I be different and talk about it differently?

I love using the example of the real estate market. You go and take a look at real estate agents. Commercial, residential real estate. Been in business for 400 years. Free, free, Free assessments. I mean, of course, unless the guy or girl comes along and says, I'll sell your house in 29 days or else I'll buy it myself. Whoa, who's doing that? Same industry, just different way of approaching the value proposition. All day long, you're going to go into, into talking to that client because one, it's unique, but also it really addresses the need of the client, which is selling the freaking house.

As quick as you can.

So, understand what you're offering and do it in a different way.

Yeah, I love it. Rivers, this is— I love your energy. I love your knowledge. If people are watching this and what you're saying is really connecting with them, how can they get into contact with you?

I appreciate that, Marc. So, it's really easy. Just go to askrivers.com. You can download my book for free there. And how you're going to contact me is all right there. So, just askrivers.com and look forward to hanging out.

Love it, love it. And definitely a wealth of knowledge behind you right there.

Thank you.

I believe that most business owners, and we've talked about this before, are incidental entrepreneurs. People kind of fall into their business. They have a passion. They do something. Sometimes, it's out of necessity. But they started their business usually because they had a passion project or a side hustle. What are your thoughts about that?

Yeah, well, You— there's nothing wrong with it. First of all, there's nothing wrong with the, the smell of freedom. And that's really why they started. It's because they want to forge their own way in life. They've got a talent. They feel they've had their aunt, their uncle, their friends say, oh my gosh, you should go into business and sell this and that because you're darn good at it. And, and there's nothing wrong with initiating your journey as an entrepreneur with regards to that. Where people need to really connect with then is to get a guide. You know, and you've heard the business coaching world. Well, you need a business coach, particularly if you're at that beginning stage of entrepreneurship to help guide you through the swamp Of ultimately putting those pieces together where you can have a strong foundation in your business and go forward. And so again, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're going to try to figure out the journey yourself, you will fail. You'll get frustrated, and you'll go back to your old way of life. And that's so. I think that's the when I think about the answer, great stuff. I'm all about. I'm all about Mark. Entrepreneurs are the most important people in society. Just below moms, because when you think about everything in our society today, it's all driven by the activities that entrepreneurs create: employment, contributions, taxes—all those sorts of things come into play. And and so we're very important. So I always encourage people to pursue their entrepreneurial interest with a guide. Get that expertise to help you along the way. I mean, Tom Brady's got a freaking coach, best quarterback in the world, and he's got a coach to coach him on his on his journey.

But what's amazing about that is he has multiple coaches.

Yes, he does.

For different things. And so, it's not just a fact of just get yourself one coach and you're going to be set. Get coaches that specialize in areas that you know you need to develop in. Your 8 key strategies to finding more money in a business. What are they?

Yeah, yeah.

So, the first one's real easy.

And it starts off the premise around finding $10,000 in your business. Is by putting strategies in place that you can very quickly drive revenue of $10,000 more into your business. The first one's really easy. Take a look at your prices. And what you will find if you just increase your prices by 10%, as an example, you will automatically put dollars in your pocket to the bottom line. That goes directly to the bottom line because you don't have to pay— your expenses don't go up because you raise your prices, you're— if you raise it 10%, that money goes right to the bottom line into your pocket. And by the way, most of your customers will not have an issue with you raising it 5%, 10%. They'll understand the conditions, particularly in this day and age. So if you're not raising your prices because you think you're scared about losing business, trust me, you'll put more money in your pocket versus the customers you're going to lose. And those that are going to lose, you're going to lose because of price increases are not the type of clients you want with you long-term anyway. Takes courage to do that. But that's the first area you want to focus in on with regards to that. The second thing is that there's never really options available for customers if they don't want to buy. So, you need to have what they call a downsell strategy as an example. So, a package A, oh, you think that's too, you know, that you can't afford that. There's too much for— well, what about this option? What about this option? So you're still providing value to the customers. It's just that you offer them options. So I'd rather you walk away with 50 cents in your pocket versus nothing in your pocket. The other one is upsells. Take a look at what you're presently offering. You know, McDonald's does this so well. Would you like fries with that? And these are simple strategies I'm talking about, but they're not strategies that are part of the existing sales and marketing DNA within organizations right now. Joint ventures. I love this one because it works so well. So, as I'm talking to you, Marc, with regards to your experience in the hospitality world, I'm thinking, I'm in the hospitality world. Maybe there's a way in which we can join forces. You bring me to your clients with the value that I have to bring. I'll share in the revenue that comes back with it. But I don't have to get these new customers because I'm going to lean on your credibility, into the marketplace. The other way— so, that's 4 of them. I'm gonna pause there because there's some more. But you can see those are really simple ones. The last one actually I'm gonna—

Hold on before you get into that. Brittany has a really interesting comment. And that is she says that this is something that she's been struggling with mindset with is increasing her prices. She's been thinking about this for a while now. And she says, especially in regards to increased cost of living. So, the cost of living is going up but she hasn't really adjusted her prices. She loves the downsell and upsell ideas. But what are some mindset adjustments that Brittany needs to have in order to start saying, am I really ready to increase my pricing?

Yeah, so first of all, I'm going to do a little plug back. Brittany, go to askrivers.com. The book will cover a lot of these strategies that we're talking about. It's a free download, so go there please so you can follow up from there. It, you know, it's really just one of those ones, trust me when I say what I am that I'm saying. You know, part of the business of business is practice what you're being taught. And I'm saying, not that you shouldn't advise your clients that you're raising your prices. I'm talking existing customers. New customers, it's easy. That should be easy right now, Brittany. Raise it 10% right now today. Don't go into a new opportunity without raising your prices because the customer doesn't know any different. The second thing is that you can have a communication with your existing customers in a compassionate way. Remember, business is a dating game. You have to put food on your table and just say, I've been hit by COVID. I've been holding back as long as I can. Where you see most people gas prices going 50% some places, the price of diesel, the diesel.

When you're delivering an important, when the spotlight shines, just a small, small increase to help cover some of my costs.

I know you understand. I love serving you. So communication and just implementing it and just trust me. That's the other thing. You don't, you can borrow on my experience that it's the right thing to do. You're going to be Fine. You're gonna be fine.

Great. I'd like to get into the other 4 points of your 8-point strategy and we'll get to that right after this.

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Welcome back! I'm speaking with entrepreneur coach Rivers Corbett. We're really into it. And I want to thank Brittany for her comments as well. It always is great when people put their own thoughts and processes and questions into the chat box so that we can answer them live. As we go forward. If you're watching the replay for this, please go ahead and put your questions in the comment box. And then, we'll follow it and we will keep an eye out on whatever you're looking at and whatever questions you're asking in the comment box below. As you can tell, Rivers and I are super passionate about this idea of serving customers, of serving audiences, and teaching forward and bringing forward our knowledge and experience. So, if you belong to an association, or an intact team that you think needs to know some of this information, go ahead and reach out to us. Our contact is in the show notes below. We'd love to have a conversation with you on how we can better serve you. Rivers, we've talked about point number 1, point number 2, point number 3, point number 4. What's point number 5?

Well, point number 5 is pretty simple. If you don't have a digital marketing strategy right now for your business, you haven't been paying attention the last 2 years. And so, you need to take a look as to how you're engaging with your customers, prospective customers online. And so, I would really focus in on— when I say that, I'm talking about leads. Leads result into conversations, results into sales. And so, if you don't have a lead strategy online, with your existing social media strategy or your website or any other means by which you are developing conversations with your customer when you're sleeping, then you're missing out on the opportunity. So, gets back to a simple, what's the next step to drive income? You have to have a compelling offer To get the customer to talk to you. Now, I've got, "Hey Brittany, come and get my free book. It'll explain all the things we're talking about today." It's a compelling offer for her to come back and to me and give me her name and her email. So now I've got a lead for future opportunities. And by the way, Brittany, don't worry. I'm going to be. It's it's all. It's no aggressive selling or anything like that. But My point is that I have a lead strategy in place because I'm always thinking about how do I ultimately get the contact information from the customer so I then can do what they call follow-up. And most sales do not happen the first time out, particularly in Canada. We are not the type to be mostly for services unless we're buying gum or milk or whatever, impulsive buyers. And so, So, not only do you have to have a lead generation strategy, but you then have to have a strategy that allows you to follow up with the customer after they have given you their information. And that's called a drip campaign. You've got to put— and you can just Google that. What's a drip campaign? Again, it's in the book. But the point is that most customers take 5 to 12 customer touchpoints before they're ultimately ready to buy from you. So, some of the things I'm talking about you can implement right now to create bottom line revenue. I'm talking about making touch points so you're making money in the 6th month, the 12th month, the 13th month on a contact you made today. That's when it really becomes fun and juicy. So, understand how to build drip campaigns after the customer has made a contact with you. The 3rd one is get other products and services. I'm not suggesting you go and create a great inventory. I'm suggesting take a look at what your customer needs and turn around and say, okay, they they I provide them with this, but they also have a need for this. They have a need for this. So a version of joint ventures is saying, okay, I'm gonna go connect with Rivers because his company, for example, does virtual culinary experiences. I'm an event planner. Doing events for myself, I don't have to go and create a company. I'll just connect with Rivers. So now I can offer culinary experiences as part of my offering. And we just form a relationship that when you buy from me, you get preferential treatment. And so that works out as another, another option. And the third one— or sorry, the fourth one really comes back to I just want to reinforce it. One is that market dominating position that we talked about. But you also take a look at your finances. Now, I'm not a big finance guy. I help people build on top line. But if you want immediate connection to your bottom line, take a look at what you're spending your money on now. Take a look at that expense side of your business because we're bombarded with Buy this, buy this, do this program, do this program. Well, the other day I signed up for a program that was going to teach me whatever it was going to be, and it was for— I had to pay $50 a month over 6 months. That's only $300. But I have trained my mind to say, I don't need that, actually. And I impulse bought it. Then I thought about it. I said, I don't really do it. I just put $300 back in my pocket because now I've got to be more smart with that money going forward. So expense control can put money in your pocket directly today. Fast ones, raise your prices, take a look at your expenses and cut off those things that you don't need. If for example, you've got a Zoom account and most of your account, most of your meetings are 45 minutes or less, you can get a free Zoom account. You don't have to spend $20 on that. So, take a look at those things. So, all of those things put together add up to thousands and thousands of revenue cash opportunity for you over a period of time. Some come faster, but it's all about putting these, these all in place. And, and each one will connect to the other. And so you will incrementally, through compounding, create revenue in your business that will be well more than $10,000. It'll be $100,000. It'll be $200,000 over a period of time. But you're— if you're not focusing on that top-line revenue strategy, You will lose the game all the time and you will compete on price, which will mean that you'll always lose it even more.

It's interesting. The low-hanging fruit and I challenge with that cliché. But the low-hanging fruit that I never even knew existed for brick-and-mortar locations is that even if you're in mid-lease on your business and you're struggling to find some money, get yourself a lease Yeah. Because these guys know. And we have an episode on that. You could probably go back. I think we had him like 18 months ago. But he talked about how he goes to landlords and he creates proposals for them to be able to reduce rents, or lease spaces, or common area charges, and that sort of thing to be able to help businesses launch further. And definitely, definitely, definitely if your lease is coming up for renewal, Get yourself a specialist to help you with that. Don't just go, oh, it's the same as last year. I'll just sign it. Don't. Right, right. And you save yourself thousands of dollars.

Yeah, so it's revenue. Revenue can come from top line. Revenue can come from operations. And I think that's what we're reinforcing here. Most of the conversation is about top line engagement with customers. You don't have any customers. You don't have any business. But you can't forget that golden nugget of how much you're spending to operate your business too. And you can save thousands of dollars that way.

Yes, fantastic!

Well, that's 8 of them. We actually work with many more than that. But those are some of the 8 popular strategies that we use, Marc, to help drive top-line revenue for the customers that we work with.

Okay, so just as a self-serving need, could you just list them quickly one more time so I can create a sound bite out of it?

Okay, so I'm going to try to remember all of them. Have a strong market dominating position. Which is a uniqueness in the market. Raise your prices by 10% immediately. Three, get back to controlling expenses in your business. Take a look at those ledgers. Get rid of those that don't work. Take a look at what your customers need and connect and get them get those services or products from someone else that you can then sell to your customers. Form a joint venture. That you can say, hey, Mark, let's do business together. You bring your service to my customers, I'll bring my service. We'll become a strategic alliance and we'll take advantage of the fact we all have customers now and we don't have to market the heck trying to get new customers because they already exist. Upsell is, is a key thing. Make sure that you are saying, hey, thanks for the service we do with our business. Would you like a sommelier to come with with the culinary experience that we offer. Downsell. Don't let people leave. We have 3 packages that we offer as part of our offering. We typically go for the middle or the high one. Oh, I can't really afford that. No problem. Let's offer you this. And then the third one is put together a digital marketing strategy that drives leads to your, to your business. And that has a follow-up, what they call an autoresponder program that is based on regular emails going out to people that allows you to connect with them when you're sleeping. And don't be afraid of emails going to people. There's nothing wrong with that. Coca-Cola and McDonald's markets every freaking day to their customers. Every day. Why can't we do that? Don't be afraid of email marketing. So, those are, those are 8, the 8 I think that we talked about.

Terrific. So Rivers, for those people who've got their checklist, they're going, okay, I'm going to implement this right away. Are there any cautionaries we should be aware of?

Yeah, you've got to, in my opinion, start with the market dominating position first. Understand how you're unique. And so, start there first always because messaging to the marketplace is what will ultimately cause them to say, tell me more. So, don't start. And you can raise your prices right away. That one's easy. But when you're talking about marketing and then sales, understand that you want to market your value first. So, take the time to understand what your market dominating zag position is in the marketplace and then bring the rest of the stuff in from there. People will give you their name and email all day long as long as they see value, unique value for what it is that you have. have to offer. And if you're just looking like everybody else, it doesn't matter. So, that's the first thing that I would start with is understand your zag position in the marketplace. We are the culinary solution for virtual events. There, pure and simple. That's what we do. And there's not a lot of organizations out there that do that. That's what we lead with.

Love it! This has been such a great topic, Rivers. And This has been mind-blowing. Do you have any last thoughts about what we're talking about today?

Yeah, you know, I want everybody to understand that being an entrepreneur is a great thing. You should be very proud of the journey that you're on, the journey you're trying to bring to you, your family, your community. What you're doing is very, very important. And yes, it's tough. Yes, it's rough. But don't underestimate The importance of what it is that you're doing, not only for your community, but for the legacy of who you are being. And you know, it's I'm going to call it out. It's you know, it's easy to be a government worker and retire forty years later. But what's your freaking legacy with that unless you're really putting some amazing policies in place? Nothing wrong with government workers, by the way. I want to applaud the entrepreneurs that are listening here and say high five for you guys and gals who are doing. Important work. We need it. You need to pat yourself on the back every freaking day and say thank you for the opportunity to do what it is that I'm doing. And to— I mean, we, we applaud. We, we, we do parades all the time and involve the armed forces. I say we need to do entrepreneur parades and to celebrate the entrepreneurs that are in our community. So give yourself some credit. Give yourself some celebration.

I really do love that you used entrepreneurs and community in the same sentence because entrepreneurs are part of their community. They're part of the building blocks of the community. They're the ones who are hiring the local residents to be able to support their families, their mortgages, their rents, and so on. They're part. They're the driver to the economy.

Yeah, 100%.

Rivers, can you just remind everybody one more time how they can get a hold of you?

Yeah, absolutely. So they can get a hold of me by going to askrivers.com. And for your, for your audience, Marc, what I'll do is I typically do an audit and assessment on opportunities to find sales, $10,000 or more, typically charge for that. But if your audience says that they came from watching our conversation, that'll be free as my gift to your audience. We'll take you through a journey on an So, askrivers.com.

That's wonderful, Rivers. I love that offer. Thank you so much. So, make sure if you reach out to Rivers and you'd like to have that quick assessment with him, make sure that you cite Marc Haine Live or the audio podcast, Experience Leadership. Those are the 2 podcasts that we're going to be featuring this broadcast on. Rivers, thank you again. I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge, your passion, and your expertise. This has been This has been absolutely brilliant. It's been a great conversation. I cannot believe that 44 minutes have just flown by. It's amazing when you're talking about passion points how quickly life will go by. Rivers, thank you so much.

Thank you, dude.

Why don't you let me know if this was of value to you? As always, my offer stands. If you'd like to do 30 minutes with me to brainstorm your business with you and your team, absolutely complimentary. Feel free to book yourself on my online calendar. The link is down below. It's the one that is marked with meetwith.marchaine.com. It would be my absolute honor for me to be of service to you. And if you haven't done so yet, why don't you go ahead and subscribe to this show? If you subscribe to it, it'll give you first dibs whenever I bring you fresh new content that will help you work on your business, not just in your business, and help you create the show-stopping, jaw-dropping experiences your customers and your employees My name is Marc Haine. I hope you stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope you dare to be the exception. Thanks for joining me.