Episode 34- Turning Your Hobby into a Business with Jacqueline Green

In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by guest Jaqueline Green to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover the steps to turn your hobby into a Business.

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Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things  business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses! 

Transcript

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Welcome to Small Business, Big Moves, the podcast where entrepreneurship meets innovation. I'm your host, Tom Bennett, and we'll discuss all things business funding, business tax credits, and conversations with leaders who have grown successful in innovative businesses. Welcome to the show. Today's guest is Jacqueline Green. Jacqueline, I'll let you introduce yourself. Sure. I am I always call a recovering interior designer. I was a marketer for 30 years, spent 15 of those in big corporate and about seven working for myself, and then went into interior design worked for three different architecture firms as a commercial interior designer, and then kind of turned full circle and created Behind the Design, which is a company supporting the design industry. Designers and architects with their marketing needs as well as some education. Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. And then we can jump right into it. I know one of the main areas that you're able to focus on is like you mentioned the power of design and then especially on habits and productivity. So if you could walk us through that a little bit, I think people can definitely get some value out of that. Sure. One of the challenges I found When I was a marketing consultant is I couldn't quite figure out how to scale and so what happened was I was working a ton of hours and working and working and working. But I couldn't figure out, well, okay, how do I grow this beyond myself? And in the process, I ended up becoming completely burned out. And that's why I walked away from marketing. Interior designers do that all the time. And so being part of that community for a number of years and teaching in that community, I realized that we weren't taught how to run businesses. We weren't taught related to how do I grow this? How do I scale this? How do I become more profitable? And so we have a course that we teach called Hobby to Profitability and it's basically taking that love and passion that you have for your business and how do you turn that into a profitable business beyond yourself. And it starts with your mindset. Your mindset impacts everything. And then we go into systems and processes. The systems and processes that you set up in your business actually help establish your business as well as helps you scale that. So whether it's you helping your client or one of your employees, helping your client, you have that option that the experience of your customer is exactly the same, no matter who's doing that work. And so it's really important that we. Bring those processes and systems into the business part and think of the business as its own entity outside of ourselves. Now that still means you need personal branding as well as company branding, but there's that. And then the last part of that whole course is habits. If you don't have the right habits, You're not going to be successful, and so how do you build the habits not only with yourself, but also within your business itself and all your employees so that we follow those systems and processes so we keep the business moving forward? Love everything you just mentioned, right? It's a powerful thing when someone can take a hobby or passion and Turn it into a successful business, I'll say, right? Because I think everything you just mentioned is spot on, right? You're going to start with making sure you have that right mindset, making sure you have the systems and processes in place, and then making sure you have the habits to go along with that, right? If you can get all those lined up, then I think you're on your way to a successful business. I'm sure, unfortunately, what you probably see as much as we see it is A lot of people and small business owners or entrepreneurs that might start a business based on a hobby or passion. That's pretty much where it ends. So I'm sure that going through your course and hearing about everything you just mentioned probably helps them definitely get to that next level. Exactly. It's laying that out and what is that you're looking for. And so, so often what happens, we go into our passion business and end up hating it. Because it overruns our lives. Instead of us running the business, the business runs us. And that's a really sad thing to do, that you go into something that you love so much, just like I went into marketing years ago after my corporate career, and I hated it. I ended up absolutely hating it for a period of time because It was exhausting. If I wasn't working, then I wasn't making money. And I couldn't figure out how to scale that. And so now, fast forward a number of years, I've learned Scale it. You have to run that business as a business, not as your passion. And so it's just really important to continue that. It really is. And it's spot on. I mean, it's like you said, it's sad, but there's that large difference between a business and a hobby. We see it all the time in the business lending spaces. A lot of people that start that. Business or obby they're normally not able to, oftentimes not able to scale it to that revenue where it becomes more of a business. And I think, like you said, just being able to implement all that to I mean, that's the dream, right? If you can actually have a successful business based on something that you love and have a passion for, then it goes back to that old cliche that you never work a day in your life. And I think that's what what everyone would like to do. Yeah, unfortunately, the statistics around small businesses are horrible. And I think a big part of that is that we don't end up adjusting our thinking and adjusting how we build that. And that goes to, you know, building strategic partnerships. One of the big challenges I see with a lot of my clients is that, you know, they don't, they think they have to do it all. That it's all on their shoulders, and that's not the case at all. You can find other people to partner with and build out a great experience for your customer. You don't actually have to do every single thing. Asking for help is a huge part of that, of finding those resources that can help you grow the business, so that it's not all on your shoulders. It really is. No, and I mean that, that's true, that, that's one thing that I think a lot of businesses don't realize is like you said that. Strategic partnerships are being able to partner up is only going to help you grow the business. Obviously, assuming you you make the right partnerships, which can take time, but definitely worth it. And yeah, I think that that does go back to that mindset. You mentioned a lot of people think this is my this is my baby, right? It's my passion. It's my business. It's just me. I'm going to do everything on my own. And I think that's that's not the best way to go through it at all. Yeah. No, you just burn, you'll burn yourself out and it's exhausting, and then you feel like a failure because you burned out, where by asking for help or finding those resources within your community to help you and build that business, it's actually going to build a stronger business. And then what we touched on earlier, right? Once, let's say a business does, whether they go through your course or they magically have it all figured out and they, they have that mindset, they have the systems and processes, they have the habits there, they're on their way to a successful business. I think another key component of that is branding, right? How can a business improve that or really understand that impact of brand creation on the success of the business? It's crucial. It is absolutely your foundation. And if you look at businesses out there right now and their brand and how that impacts when you build a business and whether you're selling it, whether it's a legacy, whether you're handing it off to your children, what makes that business valuable is that brand. How does that brand feel in the community? And so I look at it as. You know, since I work with a lot of interior designers and architects in that creative field, I look at HGTV. Now interior designers aren't real happy with HGTV by any means, but every single person that has a show, they started out, it's not talent necessarily, not that they're not talented, it's their brand. They established and created a brand and exploded that brand. And that brand is what makes them popular. You know, get HGTV's attention, or anyone else's, whether it's Netflix or anywhere else. That brand is the basis of how you build that. So when someone goes to buy your company, they're not buying you. They're buying the business and the brand within that business. Now, you still have a personal brand. You are part of that brand, but how you make people feel that is your brand so many times we think it's logos and colors and fonts and it's so not it is how your clients perceive you, their perception of what you have to offer how they feel when they work with you, that is actually the brand that you have, it's everything. I mean, I think like you just said that you Differentiator between your personal brand in the business brand. Obviously, like you said, they can tie together but two completely different things, especially when you're thinking down the road of scaling and eventually selling or exiting the business, like you said, they're buying the business, they're not buying Jacqueline green, they're buying that kind of design or whatever someone's business may be. So that's a critical point right there for sure. It absolutely is. Now your personal brain can definitely strengthen that, but at the end of the day, It's the brand that the company is and how you build that. So it's really important that you really distinguish between the two and grow them accordingly. Absolutely. And then another area I kind of wanted to branch off and focus on too, was mentorship and kind of the power behind that and how it can really open doors for a strong community for a business. Yeah, for years, I, I just didn't think I mean mentorship is one thing, but then there's also the whole coaching thing, and if you go to any networking events, you're going to meet at least three coaches in different areas, and it's kind of comical. For a long time, I didn't think I needed a coach. And then it dawned on me one day. So if I'm doing it on my own and been doing it on my own for so long and I'm not getting past this one point, then obviously I need some help and it's time to set my ego aside and ask for that help. And so coaching or mentorship, finding those people that are 10 steps ahead of you. is a great opportunity for you to learn from other people who've already been there and maybe avoid some of the mistakes that you've had, that they've had. And so that's when it dawned on me, like, it's, I don't need to know every single thing. I really don't. And when I finally started putting my pride aside and realizing that my clients weren't even expecting me to know everything and relied on other people and started asking questions like how did you do this? How did you do that? It saved me so much more time. So whether you're getting a mentor, somebody you're connecting with, or whether you're hiring a coach, they can both be equally important to, to impact your business and move your business forward because no one expects you to know all the answers. And sometimes having that knowledge from other people really can help. It definitely can, no, and I think that's one of the biggest things that I found in business is just being able to, I love it's unfortunate how a lot of people have failed in business, but being able to look up to them with what they've done now and learn from them and, Not make the same mistakes that they've done. I've been been doing that for probably 10 years now, and it's definitely streamlined things and try to find out what the top people have done and what they're doing now. So I think that's critical. And then to your point too, it's I think no one really wakes up or gets into business and says, wait, I need a coach or I need a mentor. Some people may have someone like that when they're starting the business. Obviously that helps. But I think it's one of those things where like, we look at the leaders are like that top 1 percent in any business industry athletes, whatever, whoever that may be, they all have coaches. So I think that Should be eye opening to a lot of business owners as well that there's probably at least something in your business that you could Benefit from having a coach or mentor on. Well, you can't see everything that you're doing It's it's not just like if you're an athlete and you're on the field and maybe something has changed within the way you're passing a ball or My son was a pitcher all through college and the way If he just tweaked one tiny little thing, he could throw faster or he could hit his corners better. It was just the one little thing, but he couldn't see it when he's on the mount. But as a coach could stand on the sideline and be like, okay, we need to change this momentum that you have, this movement that you're going through with your hand and really throw the ball this way. And that's what the, Somebody really look at that with, without the rose color glasses on and sit there and say this is where you're making some mistakes and not in a mean way by any means, but hey, if you just, you know, tweak this little thing, you might be able to, you know, bring in 10 percent more sales, or you might be able to increase your pricing by this amount. And so I think it's really important to not. You know, discount that what other people are saying in that regards. Now, I would not be listening to necessarily your you know, cousin on your mother's side who's never owned a business by any means, but I would definitely listen to those who are ahead of you in business and see what you can learn from them. Absolutely. And piggybacking off that too, it's such a strong point, like you mentioned about your son or oftentimes it really is such a small tweak that makes all the difference that I think we're, we're all probably overlooking in some area. So that's very powerful. And I know we've talked a lot about the kind of areas of success and how businesses can improve. Another interesting point that that I know you mentioned is really the role of business acumen and how that can be important for each and every employee, not just the the leader at the top. I want you to touch on that a little more as well. Sure. When your staff, your employees, your team know what's going on the business, they're much more likely to have a positive impact on the business. And so I've worked for different organizations throughout my career where the top knew what was going on, but nobody else knew what was going on. And that's a really horrible place from an employee standpoint where That lowers engagement, that lowers their success, and so when we start teaching and sharing with our team, why some of the decisions are made, why we're doing this direction, what is our strategic decision, so often in a, as a business, it's hard to make certain decisions, so you could go route A or route B, Both of them have cons, both of them have pros, but if you're not communicating and sharing that knowledge with your team, they might be like, well, why did you go down B? B, A was, you know, they won't understand. But when we include them in, and it's not that you have to tell them every single little tidbit, but when you actually train them and help educate them on, okay, this is where the business is going. This is why we go this way, this is how you can impact it. You're actually engaging them as well as improving the outcomes. Because they want to be a part of that. People want to be a part of something. They want to do a good job. The vast majority of people do not wake up every morning and go, Eh, I don't feel like working today. I don't really care. They want to care. They want to be a part of something bigger. And so when you make that part of your day. environment and say, Hey, here's, you know, things to help you do your business better. Here's things that can help build the business better. This is where the business is going. Everybody is in alignment. You're helping your customers in a much larger way and impacting growth and for your client as well as yourself. And so it's just really important. And so often. For a long time in interior design, there were a lot of people like I'm not going to share my knowledge, my secret sauce, because that person might go out and start their own business and compete against me. Well, yeah, you're right, or a better way of looking at that is that you train them and they continue to work really hard for you because not everybody wants to own a business. And so you have to look at it. Yeah, that is a risk if you train someone else, but on the other hand, it's actually can be a really good thing because then you can grow your business and make an impact on more people. So powerful. And I think to that point is like, everyone talks about culture, core values and then when you really break it down and look at those best places to work, whether that's small business, medium business, enterprise businesses, I think that main thing they're doing is like you mentioned, just having that alignment, right? These employees that go to work They're typically just going to work, they're getting the job done, going home and then going back the next day to do it. But when they're actually involved in the growth of the business or what direction the business is going and they're not caught off guard every week, I think that just makes them more excited and more passionate about What they're doing. So like you said, it doesn't have to be every little detail, but when you are involving them and actually feel like they're part of a culture, a team, I think that makes a huge difference for probably just about anyone out there. Yeah. I mean, if you think of the established, like a, a sports team, since we talked about that earlier, it's. With a sports team, everybody has to be doing their part, right? Everyone has to understand how things work on a team to move it forward, whether it be basketball or football or baseball, any team sport. You're, you have a mission, you're trying to accomplish that mission, and you're all working towards that common goal. And so understanding other positions and understanding how we all move together and work together is really powerful when you think about it. It really is. Absolutely. And then another area I wanted to go into a little bit as well as kind of some extra value for the listeners here, but some of those five simple marketing strategies that you mentioned and really how that can help a business drive revenue, elevate the business and even get them more needs in the business. Sure, we look at it as we start with your foundation, we start with your branding and your website. So if the stats are like 85 to 92 percent, depending on what you're looking at, are going to look at your website before they purchase from you, especially in the B2B world or the larger purchase areas. They want to know a little bit more about you. So having that foundation to your marketing is key, and that is really important. The next thing we talk about is, is Is building out your content for those, for website, for social, what does that look like across the board? Right now, video is huge. Doing video is just, it doesn't matter if it's Instagram, if it's LinkedIn, if it's on your website, YouTube, video is really important right now. And so putting that out there, sharing your knowledge outside of, you know, your internal life, just getting out there and sharing that really The second thing is that it really brings out the authenticity and authenticity is key right now. Another thing I always encourage people to do is network and develop those strategic partnerships. It is really important to kind of network and look at, you know, what other people are doing that might be able to apply to your business. This is a It doesn't have to be hard. And so when we build out those strategic partnerships, they can bring in a lot of relation, or they can bring in a lot of business for you. Those take a lot of time. And so there has to be a good balance in everything. And then the last thing that I really encourage my My clients to do is speaking or being on podcast. It's that visibility part. And just like this, for instance, we're on this podcast, and this is going to release. And then what am I going to do with that visibility? So oftentimes guests will go on podcast and they'll be like, Oh, you know, the podcaster will go ahead and provide No, you have to take control of your visibility. And so what we do here is we take this clip or this podcast and then we promote it across all of our channels. We put it on our website. We talk about it. We put little clips out there. We continue to promote it to increase that visibility. And that's where people sometimes fall short on the visibility. They're scared to be visible. They're scared to get out there and do things. And it's like, no, you have to be visible. You can't be the best kept secret. You need to be out there. And so those are kind of our marketing things that we talk about. It's okay. Where are you going? And what are these things that can really help propel you forward as quickly as possible? So, you know, I agree with all that, right? I mean, like you said, from. Being able to really build up a brand being able to build those partnerships, being able to get yourself out there and just because everyone these days consumes content in a different way at the end of the day, I think, like you said, just video. trumps everything. I think we're all taught at a young age that you look up to the person on video or at least they might be doing something right, but most people are just scared to even get out there and get on video. I think they always say what the first hundred videos are gonna suck, but eventually you're gonna find one and someone will get value out of it. Exactly. And that's the thing when I talk about, I go around speaking about visibility and the one thing, you know, I talk a lot about storytelling and the stories that you tell. At any given moment, somebody out there needs to hear something you're saying. And so it's selfish to kind of keep that away from people. You have value and you can tell your value and there's somebody out there, whether it's one person, whether it's, you know, a hundred people that need to hear something that you have to say at this very moment. Absolutely spot on. And I know we, I know we threw a lot of value at them today. Anything we didn't touch on or that you want to leave the listeners with today? I think one of the biggest things is, we talked about asking for help. I mean, that is critical, building those relationships. But the other thing also is asking for help, building those relationships, and really getting out there. And, I think it's really important that you're visible and that you're sharing your message and that you're trying. That it doesn't have to be, just like you said on the video, 100 videos, first 100 are going to suck. I'm sorry, they are. But once you start getting it, it gets a lot easier. And you start putting yourself out there, it will be easier and people will recognize you. And it's being authentic. The key is authentic. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to, you know, look. Whatever part you think within your head, just get out there. 100%. Yeah. I think that that authentic piece you, you've mentioned a few times. I think that's such a critical point in personal and business branding. I mean, people want to do business with someone that they can relate to and that they can actually trust. And I think it goes back to a whole thing that. A lot of people, we all see the wins on social media and see all the successes, but people want to do business with someone that relates to them or someone that's the same online as they are on a zoom meeting or in person meeting. Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. Well, I appreciate the time that's going to be a wrap on this episode of small business big moves. If you know someone that could get value out of this, what we ask is that you share that with them and like and review the podcast and you can find me on all social media at Thomas Bennett and we look forward to seeing you on the next episode.