Become a Successful Business Owner with Amy Rose Herrick

Coming out to be an owner can be overwhelming when you suddenly have to be in charge of making all of the decisions from hiring at times, to what about taxes? What about supply chains? What is my profit margin? How do I price this, there are so many other components to being an owner that you weren't exposed to as a W two, that that's sometimes when you need the most help to make sure you don't price your goods incorrectly, and that you are going on the right path and you hit it early on. I don't care if you have a million dollars in sales. I don't care if you have 100,000 in sales. I don't care if you have 5 million, what do you actually have in profit at the end of the day, because you can only run a business at a loss for a very short period of time. Before it all implodes. We've got to build that bottom line.

Hey, it's Chuck here, and I'm so glad that you're listening to this episode. And I just want to take this quick moment right now to let you know about our free collaborators toolkit. And this episode is all about partnership and collaboration. And our guests share many resources, tools, and things that you can use to make collaboration and partnership easier in your business. So if you're looking for better ways to grow, and scale your business, through collaborations, and strategic partnerships, this free collaborators toolkit is going to contain the best resources from our workshops, as well as contributions from our guests. And these tools could be the missing link that you've been looking for. And they're going to help you to solve every day business challenges, and access, highly effective ideas that can help and grow your business exponentially. I know they've helped me and I know they're going to help you as well. And the best part about these tools is that they're completely free. And our gift to you for being a valued member of our community, and a subscriber to the show. So you can get access to all of the resources contained inside the collaborators toolkit today by visiting the website at WWW.collaboratorsunite.com/toolkit. That address again is www.collaboratorsunite.com/toolkit Go ahead and register today get access to all the resources and I'm gonna see you on the inside. Now. Here's the episode.

Hello, everybody. And welcome back to the show. This is a Creative Collaboration Show. And I've got another amazing guest for you today. I'm so honored to have Amy Herrick here with me. And she is America's profit building specialist. And she works with entrepreneurs and their teams to make more money, save them time and money and and really just, you know, get more out of their business and their lives. And I know that she's got so many amazing things to share. So first of all, Amy, welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you, I have been looking forward to this. So I feel privileged already to be here.

Awesome. Well, I am I am so excited that you're here. And so I you know I do the what I call an introduction light, we've got the name, we've got the title, share with everybody you know who you are, what you do. And we'll we'll start from there.

Well, for many of you that are listening, you know I am the wife I am the grandma have had six children and then also have six grandchildren at this point. I've been an entrepreneur for really over three decades. And that is in my adult life. Because folks, my very first entrepreneur job was in grade school, and I sold worms that I picked up in the yard to the local bait store. So we all have a, you know, an unglamorous job that is in our past, but now I have the opportunity to literally impact generations of wealth and families by helping business owners make more money in their business to do whatever it is that they want to do. And I can assist them with either reducing or eliminating capital gains when they go to sell appreciated assets. And I'm also an author and I bring a lot to the table if it touches money or time, those are a couple of things that I work with, that I can make a huge difference for you and your family.

Well and money and time are those two things that none of us can really escape and it's a reality of business. It's a reality of life. And so And from time to time, you know, I've had that have my help with those things as well. So to be a specialist in those areas, I think is incredible and and you know most entrepreneurs at some point or another are going to have some needs in both of those areas, and all of that. So so that's, you know, so who do you find yourself typically working with? So if you were to describe the type of entrepreneurial, business or, or situation, you know, what do you find yourself seeing again, and again with that?

Well, I would say the number one thing is that you've got to be teachable. If a person is so sure that they're right about everything, most of us cannot help them. So if an individual is teachable, I can work with that, if they've got a staff that can be teachable, because you know, the owner doesn't have to do everything. And we need to train our staff to also be the persons who are building that bottom line for us. I work with entrepreneurs on a variety of sizes of business, and we can dig down and find those areas that are really, I would say, sucking the profit away from your bottom line, plug that hole, and then change those into profit centers you don't have. And that's along the business side. Now, on the personal side, I work with how to coordinate some of the asset titling the business transition, whether it's going to be from sale or death or a buyout. And there are several things that integrate between the personal and the business side. But you can't have the personal without the business that's generating the money. So I think both of those pieces really meld very well together.

Yeah, that's incredible. And you know, as a business owner for 30 plus years, I can say that, you know, just because you make a million dollars in sales or revenue does not mean that you necessarily have profit and profitability. And I would say, productivity, huge issues. And, you know, so we've got this money, how do we do that, and still have some leftover? Because ultimately, what did we start the business for? We started the business to be profitable. And so so I can see definitely where companies would definitely need that help. We've needed that help from time to time as in our journey. And so, so that's great that, that that's what you do, how did you find yourself getting into that kind of work? Where What's your origin story with that?

I'd say it's been a progression, I started out in the corporate world and moved my way up there, everything from office manager, worked in an investment company got bored with the office and said, Hey, would you like to work on the trading desk and give it a try, I enjoyed it, and then moved from there, because of my corporate my tax background that I had, and also a very good understanding, I moved down into the individual financial planning side. And it was a natural for me to work with those who have rental properties, or were self employed, because I had the understanding of how you structure things in a business, and then also what you need to do on a personal basis. So it's a little unusual, I have found in my area to have someone who has both. And I've had a thirst for learning. And for those of you who are listening, I want to impart one thing to you. Now, there's one talent I don't think anybody can take away from you. And that's your knowledge base. I don't care if you learned it in kindergarten, or three jobs away four or 20 years back, you have skills that you can pull out at any time, and you can use them now. So don't quit adding to your knowledge base. But realize without a brain injury or death, nobody can take that knowledge away from you. And you take it for granted.

It's really easy to do, especially if you're moving away from something and moving into something new. And there's all the things that you learn and the skills that you've developed in that old thing. And we're always taking that with us into the new thing. And there's a whole other world of learning that's going to happen in that new venture. But, but there's those those skills you bring with you. And those are still very valuable. And they still, they still mean a lot even though you're learning in doing something new. But there's there's always the things that we learned. And there's always more to learn, right? I don't think we ever stop learning as we go.

No. And I think sometimes we stopped doing things that are working really well to try something else. And maybe we need to revisit what we were doing that works so very well why did we quit doing that? And sometimes it was because there was a better innovation. And other times it was because we got bored with it. It wasn't because it wasn't working. But we got bored. And that goes back to that knowledge base. You can't take it away.

Absolutely. I think that's a big point that you just made about getting bored. You know, and there's always the new thing that seems exciting and it seems fresh and all of that and yeah how easy it is to like to forget what our unique abilities are that thing that you're, you know, it's your superpower, it's the thing that you're the best at, it's the thing that was the key to your success. And, and, and to remember that even if you do move to a new thing, but to really make sure that you keep doing the thing that you're the best at and, and is and is really responsible for getting you your results. So that's huge.

And business owners, most of you the word is almost overused at times, but you have to be able to pivot, you've gotten to be able to adjust,

Especially in the last two years, right?

Oh, absolutely. But with some of the business owners if they didn't have some of the knowledge base, but how did I do this before? How did I do this before, they did not have that reservoir to tap into. And some business owners struggled mightily, because they didn't have something else to pull off of, because they really didn't have that, I'll call it seasoning, they hadn't been around enough to see a couple of different seasons to know how to pivot quickly.

Well, and that, and that really speaks to having some experience as well. And when you're first brand new, and depending on where you're at, in your entrepreneurial journey, you might not have that experience yet. But when you do have that experience, you quickly learn things that work, things that don't work, and do more of the things that do.

Absolutely. And don't be afraid to get help. When you're that younger or newer, you know, entrepreneur, it is very hard for some individuals to have been very successful as a W two employee, but they did not manage the entire company, they were managing their segment. And coming out to be an owner can be overwhelming when you suddenly have to be in charge of making all of the decisions from hiring at times, to what about taxes? What about supply chains? What is my profit margin? How do I price this, there are so many other components to being an owner that you weren't exposed to as a W two, that that's sometimes when you need the most help to make sure you don't price your goods incorrectly, and that you are going on the right path and you hit it early on. I don't care if you have a million dollars in sales. I don't care if you have 100,000 in sales, I don't care if you have 5 million, what do you actually have in profit at the end of the day, because you can only run a business at a loss for a very short period of time. Before it all implodes. We've got to build that bottom line.

You know, especially as a privately owned, you know, start from the ground up entrepreneur owned business. Absolutely, profitability is vital. And we don't have those depths of shareholders that are just going to keep funding all of our failed attempts or our day to day operations. The reality is, as an entrepreneur, profit is vital. If we're going to keep the doors open, keep paying the employees and keep growing the way we want.

Absolutely. And I think there's something a lot of w two people as they're starting to transition into ownership that they miss, and I really hit on when you're looking at transitioning, you know, do you have disability at work? Can't? Is it portable? Can you take it with you do we have to get that because you're going to be an entrepreneur. And in many cases, there are going to be credit lines that you can get while you're employed. But you may not be able to get insurances, credit lines and other things until you've been in business to have two full years of tax returns. Well, if they don't look too great, you may not be able to have those safety nets that you really need. So there's some transition work that you need to do before you take the leap that I think also will really contribute to your ability to succeed, you cannot be a beggar. And some individuals don't see that in that transition, and it puts them in a very vulnerable cash position. So I like to avoid that too.

Well, you mentioned that, you know, help is needed from time to time in our business, especially early on. And you mentioned not to be afraid to get help. And I think that's a really good transition into the theme of our show, which is all about, you know, collaborations and partnerships and how they can help us to get the missing pieces that we have in our businesses and from time to time we might need this thing or that thing and, and, you know, how do we get those? And so, you know, I'd love to hear you know, any stories you have about times where collaborating or partnering with with has or partnerships and collaborations have played a role in your business, or even the best In this is of your clients. And, and you know what, you know, what was that?

Oh my there has been a real succession, I will tell you that usually when you start with one collaboration, it enables you to open up to other opportunities because of the network that they have. If I if I drop a few names, Kelly Fowler who helped me in the fall to really write a book really quickly, I'd written books before, but she made it so easy. And that led to writing the book, she helped me launch it. And it was a number one best seller couldn't have done that so fast without Kelly met her because of working with Steve Hoelscher in his icon program, which really helped me shape some of the company in a different way. Steve Harrison helped me with some of what he does, and did some filming of courses that were in Pennsylvania. Ken Carell, Ken crowd does amazing digital events. And that's another area that I want to expand upon. But I'll go back to one you may not expect. Many, many years ago, I realized that one of the people that I enjoyed modeling was Walt Disney. And the reason for that is after I learned a little bit more about Walt, Walt surrounded himself with talented people who could help him implement the vision, Walt didn't build every brick at Disney, Walt didn't release every film and do everything. But Walt had people around him that helped build the vision. So you don't have to do it yourself. But you build people around you that can help you. And then you also help those coming up behind you with some of the things that you have learned. So I'd say those are a few named drops that I would do. And they may not be ones that you know, but they may be ones you need to know.

Well, I love all of the people that you've mentioned there. And yeah, you're right, Walt Disney was not the one that we expected to hear. But I mean, what a great story. And there's other entrepreneurs as well, who were also famous for surrounding themselves with, with talent. But I love that, imagine how empowering that would be, you have an idea, you want to get it implemented. And it's not all on you. It's not all on your shoulders, to make it happen to make it implement. And you're surrounded by that you bring the idea. You're surrounded by an incredible team who can then take that idea and make that into a reality.

Yeah, earlier this year, as a matter of fact, I brought on three vas, they happen to be three very talented individuals, they happen to be in the Philippines, that's all drop another name. That's what the filosofia agency, I met her through, you know, a referral elsewhere, they are really totally revamping my social media and handling all of that I don't have to, this is where their heart lies, and they're so talented. So I will continue to build my team in different ways. Because I can tap into that talent. And they make me better. Huge difference.

Hmm. And well, what I love about what you just said, is that you're able to bring on people who are skilled in certain areas, maybe it's the work that isn't the your precise skill set. Or maybe it's the stuff that you really prefer someone else to do. I know, that's how I approach it. I try to focus on the things I'm uniquely good at, or are the things that are time well spent for me. And then can I put team members or partners in place to help me to, you know, to get those happen? I mean, this podcast is a great example. Right now you and I are here doing an interview. And this is about the beginning and the end of my involvement with the publishing the marketing I am involved in, but I have a team that will take this recording and do amazing things with it and and get it ready for publishing and actually put it out there. So could I do it? Yes. As an entrepreneur, should I be spending my time doing all those things? Probably not.

Probably not. And it doesn't mean that we don't know a little bit about it, in order to, you know, to work through the process. But you don't have to be good at everything. And you've only got so many hours a day. And some of you are struggling because you are doing a job that you could do some of the VAs, you could do some of the other things. And you could tap it out through Fiverr freelancer, you could hire your own. And you could be sending this out for anywhere from you know, five to $25 an hour and free up your time to do something else. Now at some point. Why are some of you doing jobs that are 510 or $20 an hour that somebody else could do way better than you can and they're gonna get it done on time. Yeah, and And we don't always do that enough, because you know, we want to succeed, we want to do it, but you don't have to do it all.

Yeah, I think in the beginning, I mean, there's certain, there's something to be said, for grinding it out, you're setting the foundations, you're coming up with systems, you're coming up with the things you're doing the first time, but you very quickly reach a level where you're gonna max out on your available time, and there just isn't time for you to do everything. And so bringing in either team, or collaborators or partners, is really the only way you're gonna get yourself to the next level.

Oh, and let me throw a little tip out, I think that dictations are severely underused. You can go on your Microsoft, your word word has a dictation mode, you know, have other ways that you can do it, you can give a lot of instructions. And I can talk much faster than I can type. And I don't have to worry about punctuation and spelling or anything else. dictations can really increase that and be able to pass off instructions. The other thing that we're using a zoom right now, folks, and with a zoom, if there's a task that you want somebody to be able to do, why don't we have a company record, here's the task, here's a video, here's the screen, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, so that we can take that skill, and we can have our employees do it too. And if they're unable to come in, they're injured, they're sick, they quit. They know how to do it. Well, we have a library that shows us how to do it going forward. And that really can help on the transition between employees, and then also improving our systems. So you know, use some of these tools that are available, and it will really help you build that business, and keep you from doing some things over and over again, on a training side.

Absolutely. So I'm thinking as well with your own business, or maybe maybe with the clients that you work with? Because obviously, not doing everything yourself is is kind of what we're talking about here. So so how do you do that? How do you go through everything that needs to be done? And determine what should I keep doing? And what should I maybe delegate to a team member, if I don't have a team member, bring them in? Or look for a partner or collaborator or something? So you know, what did that? What are the first steps do you think are needed there to really identify what they should be looking for help with?

Well, I want you to have your phone has notes on it. Most of us have our phone with us all the time, whatever we're doing, you also have paper, you have a spreadsheet, I mean, you have tools, everybody's a little different. But if for one week, you just take take stock, set the alarm to go off every 30 minutes or once an hour, what am I doing now? Can I pass this off? What am I doing now? Can I pass this off? Do I like doing this? Yes or no. Because if you hate doing it, even if you're competent at it, get it off the list. And that can give you a very quick idea, within a week of all of the various tasks that you would be passing off and what can be passed off and what really you need to do yourself. And you will excel at what you like to do. But if you really like to do bookkeeping, and you'd like to balance checkbooks to the penny, and whatever it is that really the best use of your time. And a week usually gives you a pretty good gauge, and it's often eye opening the things that I could pass off that I'm not for some reason. So that'd be one idea I had and you have all these tools with you all the time. And I don't care if it's seven or eight o'clock at night, and you get this I call it a brain flash, you get the brain file. Oh, I had to add that to the list. I don't want to do that anymore. Yeah.

Exactly. And I think that's a great first step, I mean, really take inventory of those things. And just because you're good at something doesn't mean that's the thing that you really need to be doing. Accounting, I think is one of those things, right? Because as, as the leader, as the entrepreneur is the one driving the vision, it's really not accounting that's going to drive the vision, unless maybe you're an accounting firm, and you're innovating in the world of accounting, then maybe, right, but whatever that is, and most entrepreneurs that I know, their, their best role is communicating the vision, the reason why they the reason why they started the company, they oftentimes are their best salesperson, because nobody really understands the business and the reason for the business better than them. And so what's going to free you up to do more of that.

Now, I'm just going to ask now, Chuck, have you ever gone to a an exhibit hall for anything? Surely you have.

Yes, absolutely.

When the exhibit hall, you can tell who are owners of the companies and who are just employees just by the way that booth is being worked?

Absolutely. The employees are usually sitting there chatting amongst each other are laughing having a great time the owner is out in the hall out in front of their booth stopping as you walk by saying hello, and engaging you in a conversation.

Yeah. And so that's why many times when you're coming in about the Rainmaker, it's been many years ago, but I want a couple of awards for the best booth, I was working it for my husband, actually, in his auto repair business, which is not what anybody would expect to have. But we had our little spills, I ended up teaching a couple of classes about why you do not eat a cheeseburger in your booth during show hours, right? You know, all the things that repel people from your booth, versus engaging them. Because the objective when you spend that much time and money is to leave, and to have people reaching out to you or you already have people that you are going to reach out, when you get back to the office. And the very first thing you do Monday, this is the biggest priority we have is re engaging that audience that you have built. So of course, some of that has changed now. Now a lot of it's virtual. But even with the virtual, can you give your message in a minute? So I know what you do, and what kind of a person you're looking for. And I heard a really good thing at the end of the day, and I'll throw this out from someone else. You know, Chuck, you, you've told me what to do. It's real quick. And at the end of the sentence, you say, is this something that you need? Or who do you know that I should call about this service? Bam, top of mine, and you'll get more results than just ending it with. That's what I do blank space.

Both of you staring at each other, and not really knowing where to go next. And so I love that question. And it's something that that we use a lot in our networking in our courses that we wear when we're working with clients is Yeah, ask an engaging question like that. And especially, is this something for you? Or do you know somebody who else who needs this and that, you know, that helps to carry on where it doesn't just have this abrupt end where nobody knows what to do?

No. And if you and I are engaging Well, before we were filming, Chuck and I were engaging a conversation. And immediately there were a couple of things that came to mind that I will be sending him after the show. And when you're engaging at that moment, that's when it's in their mind. So now's the time to harvest that information, because five or 10 minutes from now or tomorrow, not going to happen.

Absolutely. I agree with you. And it needs to be done right away, because your intentions might be good to do it later. But really, when 1000 Other things come across your desk, you're not going to remember next week. And so that same day or with the same hour,

This little thing right here, you're standing there talking to anybody, Oh, could you send me that? Or could you give me their name? You know, who do I look up? dTT, you got notes right here. And most people have it with them all the time. So you've gotten a means to record that information very quickly.

Absolutely. So we talked about I mean, we've talked about a lot of things today, we've talked about, you know, the need for getting help with things, not doing everything yourself and really allowing yourself that that space, especially as an entrepreneur to focus on the things your business needs from you the most, and to either partner with or collaborate or hire out team to do the rest of the things. And so I mean, we could speak all day upon that, but hopefully, we've inspired some people to look at, you know, those areas that they're struggling in their business and and where is it that they perhaps need to get out of their own way, and either delegate or partner with someone to make that a little bit easier for them. So, so I think those are some great takeaways. So any part of our show as well, we like to leave people with things that can really help them to expand and to grow. And and I think we were talking about the show, we're both learners, lifetime long learners, we've learned a lot, we're still learning and we're big, big fans of learning. Who have you learned the most from or been inspired by the most in your journey that you would recommend that other entrepreneurs check out as well.

Won't be what you expect on this either. National Geographic, and when I say National Geographic, I've read it since I was a child. But the innovative, the learning the worldwide because folks, we're a global world now. It isn't just in your backyard. And I think there's a huge amount of information there and I will give a quick plug because of being able to think outside In the box, when they had their National Geographic chasing genius a few years ago, whoo hoo, I was one of the 15 worldwide finalists for an idea that I was able to present in 60 seconds about food preservation in the Caribbean, I did not win, I was thrilled for the person who did who did a solar threshing machine. But it enables you to expand your horizons in so many different ways in different perspectives. And I think we need that global perspective. I also really enjoy reading International Living Magazine, folks, I moved to the Caribbean, and that's where I live now. But there's a big world out there of opportunity and other options. So maybe a little different than you know, and we all read business books, but I think you need to expand your horizons at times. And those are two publications that helped me on innovation and opportunities that you may not have thought of otherwise,

I love the uniqueness of that recommendation. Because, you know, I asked that question of all my guests, and we, we have a growing list of books that that we all recommend. And interestingly, we really haven't had the same guests mentioned the same book. And so and I love the uniqueness of your answer, because that's, you know, a publication Yes, but it's not your, your, your typical goal, go read this book and extract the learning from it and do it but just, you know, to learn from and to model, and, you know, and just a source of inspiration I is what I take from that. And I think that's a great recommendation.

It's a little different, but you can tell I'm already a little different. So that just kind of goes slide along with me.

Well, and I think all entrepreneurs a little bit different in a lot of ways, because, you know, we're not employable. Like it's like, you know, you're not going to pin me down to a desk job somewhere, it's not going to happen.

It would be I'm sure, I could do it with practice. But I think it would be very difficult with our family dynamics and things to actually have me show up at a specific hour and leave at a specific hour. Oh, that that would be tough. That's that's part of the reason we're entrepreneurs is we have a different vision.

And the freedom, the freedom to, to create your schedule in a way that works for you and your family and your life really. So

Yeah, but I do want to hit for some of you, the entrepreneur is not a good fit. And I don't think a W two is better or worse than an entrepreneur because I know some families, it's they've been very, very successful with having that w two because they need that rigid schedule in order to make their world and their dynamics work. So that is the path that some of us have chosen. But for those of you who are very, very content and the W two is working, that's an excellent choice to and we're blessed that you can choose one or the other. And you can change your mind at any time. You don't have to do one or the other. You can choose to do one or the other. And I think that's the huge difference.

Absolutely. So So again, Amy, thank you so much for everything that you've shared here today. And just a couple of things we want to end up end off with, first of all, please share with our audience, where can people find out more information about you and connect with you. And I highly recommend that you do I mean, Amy's amazing, and you can learn a lot. And if you're looking for someone to partner with or at least to have the conversation with, I recommend that you do so Amy, where do they find you?

Well, in the show notes, folks, you'll be able to see a couple of links that you can click on. And one of those got a resource in there that will be you know, a book that you can download really quick, really nice shortlist read 20 pages, you know, seven different ways you could add 10 to $100,000 or more to your bottom line. So check those show notes. And that's where you'll find the the most of the resources,

We'll make sure that all of those links are here and that those go out. And we usually do email those out to our audience. So if you're not already on our distribution list, make sure you get on it and we will email out all of that to you so so again, Amy, thank you. And if you're gonna leave our audience with just one final last word of wisdom or piece of advice, what would you say to them?

Never stop learning. You cannot take knowledge away. And as a kicker binge listen to some check stuff because I know you've missed an episode or two and you've missed a lot if you don't use some of that information.

Well said and as a lifelong learner, I really appreciate you saying that and and using my show as an example. That's very nice as well.

You got good stuff. You know, you've earned that. That's, yeah, you got good stuff.

Thank you. I really appreciate that. And so Amy, thank you for being It was an absolute privilege to interview you today on this show. And I highly recommend to our audience go connect, you check me out, you've got the links below. And, and then continue your journey that way. And in the meantime, keep moving forward, keep learning. And, you know, if you find a roadblock or an obstacle, find someone or something to collaborate or partner with to remove that obstacle and keep growing, keep moving forward. And until then, we'll see you in the next episode. Until then, keep moving forward. Thanks, everybody.