SA057 | Top Tools that Every Small Business Owner Needs to Save Time & Make More Money With
Sylvia Inks

Sylvia Inks

Sylvia Inks is a business coach, finance expert, and speaker who teaches small business owners how to make sense of their numbers (so they know what to do differently) and build multiple profitable income streams.  She’s helped coaches, consultants, and service providers find hidden opportunities to make more money without having to chase down more leads. 

Sylvia is the author of the #1 Amazon best-selling book, “Small Business Finance for the Busy Entrepreneur – Blueprint for Building a Solid, Profitable Business.”  Sylvia has been a guest on podcasts like Side Hustle Nation, Influencers Radio, His & Her Money, The Military Money Show, Paychecks and Balances, and Couple Money.

  •  6+ years as financial & business coach, author of #1 Amazon bestseller, Small Business Finance for the Busy Entrepreneur – Blueprint for Building a Solid, Profitable Business
  • Help coaches, consultants, and service providers find hidden opportunities to make more money (doing what they’re already doing) and build multiple income streams to recession-proof their businesses. 
  • Have over 7 streams of income in small business, including coaching, sub-contracting, speaking events, online course, membership, book, affiliate marketing, and referral commissions.

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Episode Transcript

Aileen (00:01):

Thank you, everyone for joining today’s episode of the, how did they do it? Real estate podcasts. We are your hosts Seyla and Aileen and today’s guests. We have Sylvia inks. Sylvia is a business coach, finance expert and speaker who teaches small business owners, how to grow profitable businesses by focusing on systems pricing and diversification with five-plus income streams. She is also the author of the number one, Amazon bestselling book, small business finance for the busy entrepreneur blueprint for building a solid profitable business. So he has been a guest on podcasts, like side hustle, nation influencers, radio, his and her money, the military money show pay checks and bounces and couple money. So we’re really happy to have you on the show. Sophia. Welcome. How are you doing today?

Sylvia (00:41):

Great. Thank you so much for having me today. I’m so super excited.

Aileen (00:44):

Thank you. So can you give the listeners a little bit more about your background and just what your current focus is?

Sylvia (00:51):

Sure. So my background is business and finances. I worked in it consulting for about 10 years, learned a lot about systems, about finance, about corporate America, just seeing how just big corporate miracle work. And there’s a lot of efficiency when you get to that level. Right. And working at 14 five fortune 500 companies. But I left that. I left that raised my kids stayed home for a couple of years, but then I, there was kind of, I’ve always wanted to start my own business. I was always like, I want to start my own business, but I was that classic. I don’t know what I want to do. So really just during that time where I was out of corporate America was when it was really clear to me that what my goals in life, where I saw a lot of small a lot of my friends who are six figure business owners or business owners, but six earn six figures in their corporate America jobs who had a hard time just holding onto my, it was like, yeah, they made money.

Sylvia (01:41):

But then it was always leaking out the door. Right. Or they had all these student loans and they never were paying it off. So I got into the financial coaching space, just being like, hey, let me teach you the money management practices that I know. Because I grew up in a family that loved talking about money. Like loved it. Like we, my parents used to talk about at the dinner table at the car going to school, like in the shopping mall, like there was never like a taboo time or it was never taboo to talk about money. And what I quickly realized, like, you know, being around like a lot of my friends and colleagues is that money was so taboo that they didn’t learn good money practices. So even though they were good at making money, they just didn’t have any net worth.

Sylvia (02:18):

It was actually negative a lot of times because they just didn’t grow up in the same family environment where it was safe to talk about money. You know, where the guy, my parents were always sharing their money lessons. Like, you know, they would share about their money, mistakes and be like, hey, don’t, and don’t make the same mistakes as me. So it was always just very open. And I think that when you come from an environment where money is open, it’s safe to talk about and you can ask questions. Like it’s just easier to build better money practices. And so that’s what I saw was missing in, just in the world right now is just more people that can help people get comfortable talking about money, especially if they came from backgrounds that were it wasn’t safe, or it was taboo to talk about.

Sylvia (02:54):

I was very secretive. And then to now so I was in my business for about a year. And what I really found that I was passionate about was helping small business owners. I saw a lot of small business owners who are really good at what they were doing, right. They were, they have a great product, they have great service, but then they were at risk for shutting down their businesses again, because they didn’t have the good money management. So even though they were making, you know, I mean, I had some six figure business owners I’ve worked with that. Like, couldn’t pay themselves. Like, what do you mean? And again, it was because they didn’t come from that background of like managing their money. Well, so even though they were making a hundred, 120,000 in their business, all of they were spending every single penny of it and they were never bringing home a pay check to their family. So that’s my goal. That’s my passion. That’s what I do. I really want to help small business owners be able to stay in business, keep, you know, grow their dreams, have a profitable business so that they can do what they love and you know, still maintain a family and, you know, be able to take care of themselves and their families with while owning a business.

Aileen (03:52):

Thank you. And so you mentioned a little bit about like how your family has been really open about talking about finances and so for your clients and the people that you teach to these tools to how do you get them to feel more comfortable about talking about finances?

Sylvia (04:09):

Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, you know, I do start with trying to figure out like where, what some of their money mind-sets were growing up. Right. It was, you know, Hey, tell me about what you heard about money or saw about money when you were growing up and, you know, how do you think some of that’s been holding you back? I was actually just on a call with my online course students and a lot of them were telling me about just the scarcity mind set about like, Oh, we were, we grew up in the, you know, came from very core backgrounds. So it was like, always feel like money is never enough. And it’s like, Oh, it has affected their ability to run their business. And it’s had, it’s affected their ability to price because they’re like, Oh, I, you know, I don’t want to be too greedy or maybe it’s not worth it. And so it’s affected them. So I do try to find out where they came from, like what their background was and then let’s just have them acknowledge it. I think just acknowledging it, you know, kind of hearing them like, realize that, Oh, well maybe the things that I’ve heard or seen growing up, isn’t true. Like I’ve now I do see other people that can do it differently. And so it’s just kind of taking that first step and figuring out what, what did you hear or see about money growing up?

Seyla (05:16):

That makes sense. Excuse me. Sylvia, you also mentioned that you love helping the business owners and you also mentioned that some of the business owners work hard and make a lot of money, how I would David unable to behave themselves. So what are some of the strategy or some of the things that you can have the business owner to save time and also saving more money?

Sylvia (05:39):

Yes. My favourite topic saving time because a lot of small business owners, I feel like they start their businesses thinking like, Oh, I’ll have all this flexibility. I’ll be able to work my own hours. Then all of a sudden they’re working like till midnight, because you know, a lot of them are starting out and they’re bootstrapping their business. Right. Like they’re trying to not to hire or do anything. So would say number one, really identifying the key tools and systems that can really help you run your business more efficiently from the beginning. It’s like budget for that from the get-go. And you know, my favourite number, one tool that I tell every small business owner to have is a scheduling tool. Right. It’s the, you know, how many of us have ever tried to schedule meetings with someone that when they didn’t have a scheduling tool, all of a sudden it was like emails back and forth.

Sylvia (06:21):

It was like three, four or five emails. Right. It’s like, it’s a lot of wasted time. Like we all have really full inboxes or like, we don’t like, it’s just unnecessary hassle. Right. Because I’ve actually lost a deal once. I did have a scheduling tool, but the times it worked for this person. And so then we did end up trading emails back and forth trying to find like a date and time that worked right for both of us. And by the time it was like a third or fourth email when I was like, oh, okay, well I’ll be willing to work outside my normal hours. Let me, you know, can you work on this timeframe? And I remember that day, I got an email back and was like, thank you so much. But I’ve already found somebody that could meet with me sooner, you know, thanks for your time.

Sylvia (06:59):

And so I’m like, Oh, I just lost a $1,200 deal right there because I couldn’t accommodate her time schedule. So my lesson learned from that was even though I had a scheduling tool, if there’s somebody that you think is like a warm lead or what have you may be having a special VIP, you know, kind of like a VIP link where you show them some, you know, exceptional exception hours that you’re willing to go above and beyond. But yeah, my, my favourite tool is called book like a boss. That’s my favourite Stanford scheduling tool, because that allows you to create different types of meeting types. So you can have like prospect meeting versus client meeting versus Collie meetings. You could send in it, depending on what the purpose of the meeting is. You can send them different links. So different timeframes. So maybe a prospect, you only meet for 30 minutes, but your client even meet for one hour.

Sylvia (07:41):

Right. So having that ability and you can also collect payments upfront. So a lot of times, like maybe you want to make sure you avoid no shows uncertain. You can have somebody paid deposit in order to actually confirm a time on your calendar. So yes, that’s my number of number one tool I tell every small business are, do not try to skimp on this. Like you don’t want to potentially lose out again on a 1200 plus deal just because you, you know, took too long to email back and forth and you know, the person got annoyed and found somebody else.

Aileen (08:12):

So how do you help them identify what are the time-saving activities that they should be sourcing out and utilizing these different tools and how do you help them like justify you know, spending the money to invest in order to get further to where they need to be?

Sylvia (08:32):

Yeah. I mean, like I said, I have my kind of standard list of depending on their type of business, it might fluctuate a little bit, but really it’s, you know, I asked them what are you spending your time on? And you know, what are all the tasks that you’re spending time on? And then tell me how much it costs to outsource that. Right. So then that way they can see, are you doing the $10 tasks that somebody else could do? And then I have them calculate their per hour. So I’m like, okay, tell me if you spent one hour on your business or you were like on a sales call meeting with clients, like how much could you be earning? And so they could spend 150 if they could earn $150 plus, right. Like spending one hour on their business and really focusing on a money generating side of the business. But it’s clear that, you know, these tasks that are maybe say $10 an hour, they could hire somebody for that’s a clear ROI on their time. Right. That’s, you know, the opportunity cost us spending in one hour, they could hire somebody for $10 an hour versus they just lost the opportunity to make 150 bucks. Right. So

Seyla (09:30):

That makes sense. And so you also mentioned about finance so for, for people to talking about finance and they usually like working as a W2 job and such as an active income do you recommend any strategy of how they can manage that or it should be looking into additional way to make more money or different types of streams to make more money?

Sylvia (09:56):

I’m not quite sure. I understand the question. Can you repeat that?

Seyla (10:00):

So how do you recommend, like as, what is the efficient way of managing the different streams of income,

Sylvia (10:08):

Different like efficient ways? Okay. So if, I mean, most people probably have their primary source of product or service that they’re really great at that people are coming to them for, but like again, you know, as you’ve probably seen for just the crazy year that we’ve had so far, it’s good to diversify your income and have different income streams coming in. And probably the number one person that every small business owner should plan for to hire sooner than they think is a virtual assistant. That’s actually how I’ve been able to grow. Two additional income streams this year alone was because I had a virtual assistant who was able to take those $10 tasks. And do you know whether it’s social media or admin task or adding people to my contacts, CRM, like those tasks allowed me to focus on the income generating side of my business.

Sylvia (10:52):

And I was able to add two income streams this year. So how do you suggest finding these virtual assistants and making sure that they’re the right fit for you? Yeah. Great question. I have a colleague she is a productivity expert and so she does her biggest thing is productivity, helping people find efficient ways to utilize their time and get more done. And she is my contact go-to for outsourcing. So she knows both VAs virtual assistants, both in the us as well as overseas. And so she, you know, she does discovery sessions to help you figure out based on your business and your needs and your personality, you know, in terms of how you want to work. She may offer different solutions. But yes, her name is Marcy Raider. So you can go to our website, Marcy raider.com and she’s, you know, again, fantastic. And she’s hands down. The one that helped me find my VA and has already helped me buy back. I think I calculated almost $1,500 or 1500 hours back this year. Wow. Finding a BA is

Seyla (11:54):

A really help out a lot. Yeah. So, and Sylvia you also having your coaching programs on the website will you be able to provide some detailed to Aliza?

Sylvia (12:07):

Yes. Coaching programs? I’ve got several, but I mean, I offer a one. My current program that are really encouraged people to do is my online course program. It’s called master the money in your small business. And it’s kind of my signature program of, Hey, you know, similar to what we talked about earlier, if you didn’t come from a background that really talked about money, if you don’t know where your money’s going and coming there where it’s coming in or going or you don’t have systems are constantly in the weeds of your business then math, that’s my program, master the money in your small business. It’s a combination of a self-paced program plus live group coaching calls. So then you can get the coaching for me, but it’s a group format. So you can hear feedback from other students and hear kind of their questions. And I’m also here me coaching them. So it’s a group coaching format. So that’s part one. And then part two is my private one-on-one coaching. And so that’s really for tailoring based off of the specific needs of that business owner and where their industry and just figuring out what, where they are and tailor what they need to grow to save time and grow their business.

Seyla (13:09):

So what would you say is one of the most effective tool that the small business owners should be utilizing starting out?

Sylvia (13:19):

So we already talked about scheduling to toll. The second one I must have must have is an email marketing tool. It’s like, that is hands down the way that I’ve been able to grow my audience, build that know like, and trust factor and be able to just basically announce what I have new offerings, be able to tap into my email list and say, Hey, I’ve got a new program that just opened up, sign up here, or launched a new product, a membership in June. And I just said to my membership to my email list, I said, Hey, I’ve, I’m thinking about offering this product here. I don’t know if there’s a need for it. You know, I’m going to put a beta price here to see if any of you guys are interested in, and I got 20 people that signed up, right.

Sylvia (13:59):

And this was for something that I hadn’t even built yet. So it’s, again, you know, that email, you need to be able to get into your ideal customer’s inbox on a weekly basis, make sure that they remember who you are, you know, give value by giving them content that’s going to help them. And you know, that way you are, you’ve built that relationship. So when you’ve got products and services that you want to sell then when you announce it to them, they’ve already gotten to know you and then they trust you and they end up purchasing from you if you’re their solution to their problems.

Seyla (14:30):

And so do you have any advice on how you can expand your current network?

Sylvia (14:37):

I mean, definitely goes just going to networking events. I mean, finding out who are, who’s going to be in the same room as your ideal customer, but may not be, not isn’t necessarily a competitor. Right. But it’s like you guys solve problems, the same type of type of customer. And so that’s who I’ve really found, like I’ve got referral partners who, you know, they have, they offer different service. Like for example, my colleague, that productivity coach she’s in the same room as lots of the people that I can also help in their finances where she helps with their on productivity and time management side. But so we don’t, so we’re not clashing, we’re not competitors, but we’re, she’s basically in the same room. She’s talking to the same types of people that also would need my service.

Aileen (15:22):

That makes sense. And as a small business owner, you know, sometimes you’re kind of in the weeds of everything, you’re not really seeing the full picture. How have you been able to help the business owners identify hidden opportunities to improve their businesses and the efficiency of their business?

Sylvia (15:42):

I mean, a lot of times, what I see though, is all a lot of small businesses that are, as they started their business either accidentally or, you know, they left corporate America thinking that they’ve got the skills, so they can just transfer that into a small business. And so a lot of them didn’t create a business plan. And so really that’s where I see the gap, like, to be able to understand like where opportunities are, is for you to like, right, just even a basic business plan and just say, you know, what’s your company’s mission statement? What are your values? What, who’s your ideal customer? And then what are your current products and services? And then that’s where I can see the gaps of like, Hey, here’s other things that people in your market, you know, other competitors of yours have already been doing to be able to solve these problems and start adding income streams from there.

Sylvia (16:25):

But there’s definitely passive income streams that I see people leaving money on the table all the time. Right. Biggest one is affiliate marketing. So if you’re already using tools and you know, from a company and you love it and you recommend it. So again, book like a boss, I’ll give you know, from our early, except the scheduling tool. I love that tool, right? Like I’ve been able to manage my time better. I’ve been able to secure clients because I’ve had this tool. And so what I talk about it when people ask me like, oh, what a scheduling tool is. Do you use, I give them my affiliate link for book like a boss. And, you know, I always give the affiliate links for things that I already personally use in my business. And then if somebody decides to sign up, I earn a commission off of it. It’s like easy money. Like I didn’t cost me anything other than, you know, my time, maybe if I’m on the phone with someone, otherwise I have a resource page on my website that says, Hey, here are all the recommended tools that I love and use. Here’s why you should use it. If somebody goes to my website, reads that page and likes it and decides to sign up, I just, I earn money. So it was, I think that’s one where that’s always an easy one for small business owners.

Aileen (17:26):

Sylvia, you mentioned about your marketing tools. Will you be able to share what tools are you using?

Sylvia (17:31):

Yes. I use convert kit. I love convert kit. It’s super easy. I used to use Mail Chimp, which I think a lot of people have heard about and it’s cheaper. It used to be way cheaper than convert kit. So I always had a mind. Oh, okay. Well, I’ll start with the cheap one. And then when it, when I’m making more money, then I’ll justify move. The more expensive one. I would just say from day one star, I mean, email marketing is such an important tool. You don’t want to have to mess up and like have to like basically transfer information from one tool. The other, like you’re just going to waste time. It’s, you know, something’s always inevitably going to go wrong. I’ve had some, I was at one colleague who was like missing a thousand something subscribers moving from Mail Chimp to convert kit.

Sylvia (18:09):

So I would just say don’t, don’t cheap out on the on the email tool get the right one from day one. And yeah, like I said, I’ve been able to stay in touch with my clients and I’ve been able to earn money from people who’ve been on my email list for maybe say a year, like even just recently two weeks ago. Somebody who’s been on my email list for a year has he’s got my weekly emails, gotten value from me. And then two weeks ago when I opened the doors to my online course, he saw it and purchased immediately. Right. So it was like, boom, like it was just easy. So yeah, its convert kit is my favourite tool.

Seyla (18:42):

So what is the most efficient way to starting up the marketing campaign using convert chip

Sylvia (18:49):

Convert kit? Sorry. Yeah. That’s okay. Easiest way, honestly, just think about what are the questions that your ideal audience is asking? What kind of value can you provide and write the email like you’re writing to your friend, like, or, you know, the customer that you have in your mind where you don’t, don’t try to sound super corporate, like, because when you sound too corporate, like you’re not going to connect with your people, but if you think about the one friend or the one colleague that you met at a networking event, that’s really struggling that you could help with. Well, like write the email, like you would to a friend and be like, Hey, I’ve got some tips. I saw that you’re struggling with this. Let me give you three quick tips to help you in your business today. And if you think in that mind set of constantly having a more like down to earth, like, you know, kind of just not non-corporate speak and just letting your own voice come out and being that helpful, you know, trying to provide helpful content. I think that’s the easiest way to get started. So do you,

Seyla (19:43):

I have a new recommendation of how often we should be touching base with our clients, you know, like you don’t want to we don’t want to come off as like, Oh, this is now become a junk email marketing emails.

Sylvia (19:54):

Yeah. At least once a week, it’s got to be at least once a week. Because of its if you go longer than once a week, people forget about you. I mean, people get hundreds of emails on a daily basis. So if you are doing it once a month, it’s almost like don’t bother because they’re not going to remember who you are. And honestly, if people have signed up for your list, like if they, if you had some sort of freebie or they heard about you at a speaking event and they’re like, yes, please add me to your email list. They asked to be emailed, right? Like they’re asking for information there. They saw something in you that they got some great advice from. Right. And they’re like, please, I want to hear more from you. So as long as you guys come from the mind set of like being helpful in your emails and not trying to sell every single time, but like in between always making sure you’re providing value, there’s not going to meet any danger of you emailing them and feel like bothering them because they’re asking to hear from you.

Seyla (20:50):

Got it. Okay. Thank you so much. So Sylvia, you’re also the author of the Amazon popular book. Will you be able to provide a data, a little bit of a summary of your book and what would our investors, if they were to purchase your book, what would they get from the book?

Sylvia (21:06):

Yeah. So my book is called small business finance for the busy entrepreneur it’s available on Amazon. It’s also available in the local bookstores in North Carolina, where I’m from, and it’s really a step-by-step guide up here are the 21 mistakes that I saw. I see small business owners make over and over and over again that cost them their business, you know, costing them a lot of time. And it’s cross industry. It is not industry specific. I’ve had any coaches, I’ve had real estate investors and agents that have read my book. I mean, across the gamut, it’s all about the business and financial tips that everyone says that they wish they had heard or learned about sooner. Instead of learning the hard way of doing it on their own. So really my goal for that book was just to have some kind of textbook guide where it was like, be able to share relevant stories.

Sylvia (22:00):

And you know, a lot of times finance again, we talked about its not super fund or it’s scary. So I have a lot of case stories in there that show you why I’m telling you to do things this way. It’s like, Hey, by the way, here’s an example of what a small business owner didn’t do this correctly. And this was what happened to their business as a result. So I’ve actually had a lot of readers tell me that you know, the things that they read in my book, maybe nothing necessarily wasn’t the first time they heard about it, but when they read the case stories and see, Oh my gosh, this real entrepreneur experienced this as a result of not doing it correctly, then it almost like hits home for them. They’re like, now I know why it’s important. Oh yeah, let me go do this. Right. So I think it’s, you know, that was my goal was to make sure I had a book that was easy to read. You can you don’t have to read it from chapter one all the way to, you know, the last chapter you can pick and choose based off of what you’re dealing with at that time based, then you can just check the table of contents and go straight to the chapter that, with the issue that you’re dealing with,

Seyla (22:55):

That’s really awesome. So thank you for buying that book and providing the value to all the, to, to all the listeners and readers about a 21. So common mistakes to start up a business will you be able to five, like to share partly by top common mistakes?

Sylvia (23:15):

I mean, common mistake, the first chapter is commingling your personal and business finances, right? That’s the one there. You need to treat your business if you’re a business and you’re a real estate investor, what have you, you need to make sure that you have a separate LLC for your business so that you can protect your personal assets separate from the business. So that’s definitely number one. Number two, just really making sure that again, you are clear on what your tax deductions are. A lot of times people think, Oh, well I have a CPA. They’ll tell me what to do, but you still have to be proactive. Like I always tell people, I just got off a call today. And I said, you know, just on IRS form, that’s all free. Right? You can look up the IRS form for schedule C and see all the different deductions you’re allowed to take for the business and, you know, make yourself educated to see what the different categories are so that you know, that another mistake that I see small business owners make is saving all their files on their desktop.

Sylvia (24:14):

Do you not like, has anybody, I mean, either one of you ever gotten that blue screen, like cause of death on your laptop, right? You never want to like be in a situation where all your critical client files, financial files, receipts, everything is all in your desktop. And so you have to, everybody has to have a cloud system. That’s the other tool that you absolutely have to have. It’s a no brainer. You know, I use Microsoft three 65, 13 bucks a month. Like its super cheap to be able to store everything in the cloud. And so that if your laptop crashes, if somebody pours water over it, like if you lose its screen, you know, like you could just hop on another laptop, but as long as you’ve got internet connection, you can access your cloud and have all your files. Because again, you don’t want to look as a one.

Sylvia (24:55):

You can’t, you don’t want to look unprofessional if going back to your client and be like, oops, I left lost every single one of your files. I don’t have any debt on you anymore. And too, if you ever get audited by the IRS I will tell you for a fact, my I’ve had colleagues who have said, Oh, oops, I lost, you know, all these files. It was, you know, we had a fire in the basement. Iris does not care. They were like, you still have to give us the proof. Like you can get on the phone and start calling all the merchants. Like we want proof of these transactions. And if you can’t prove you can’t provide that proof, you have to back out those, those deductions. And then you end up paying penalties, interest fees, and total nightmare. Yes. And yeah, I had a friend who said, I bought the fire and flood thing was going to work.

Sylvia (25:37):

And they were like, nope, literally had to go and get three years with her dad. And she had the worst time of her life. And so yes. So cloud definitely, definitely do get a cloud. Another mistake. I mean, just what we talked about, just a budget, like small business owners, just do not understand how much it costs to run their business. Like what, what does it take to keep the lights on and the business every day? Because even if you don’t have customers coming in or clients coming in, there’s still a lot of things that, you know, again, like software tools or subscriptions, or maybe your insurance business liability, there’s still things that you’re on the hook to pay, right. That your business you’ve already signed up for. So you need to make sure that you know, what that their minimum amount is that you have to make every single month to keep the lights on, which goes to my next kind of thing that people will make a mistake is that they don’t have an emergency fund is super important to have a business emergency fund does not matter if you think that money’s coming in this is good and you’ll save money for later.

Sylvia (26:39):

You’ve got to save at least bare minimum one to three months ideally three to six months of emergency fund. Again, it’s the, you never know what’s going to happen. You know you never know if it’s not, you know, even if you’ve got a great product or service, you don’t know if, you know, if there’s shutdowns that happen, if that’s going to affect whether or not you can operate your business at full capacity, you want to make sure that you’ve got enough cash cushion to get you through some of those tougher months so that you’re not forced to close your business. You know, as a result of not planning ahead you know, it’s one thing to close your business if you’ve got a bad product or service, but it’s another thing if it’s just like, you just had poor planning and you didn’t save for a rainy day,

Aileen (27:18):

That makes sense. Oh, sorry. Good.

Sylvia (27:23):

Oh, I don’t know. I think that was four. So I think you asked me for five. So I think the foot thing, a lot of people will get into these networking events that, and they’ll say they think that network joining these networking groups is like going to be the saviour for their business. They’re like, Oh, well, if I sign up for this, it’s going to be guaranteed business. I would just say, just be careful about that. Like again, it’s the you know, networking groups. I almost, I wrote this in my book where I’m like treat networking, like dating, like try it out a couple of times, make sure these are your people, are these the right people? Is this the right room that you want to be in on a consistent basis? Like, are they going to be really be the people that are going to support you and have, you know, have basically be able to refer business to you authentically? And so just really think through that and don’t feel like these networking groups is the w you know, save all, be all to like help you get steady flow of income.

Aileen (28:15):

So for the networking piece of it, what is the most efficient way to actually network with the people, to making sure that this is the right group for you? And if it’s a good investment of your time

Sylvia (28:30):

I think it’s just, I mean, it’s got to use intuition, right? And like, you got to just go a couple of times and just evaluate and see schedule meetings, you know, try to schedule one-on-one meetings with some of the people that you meet at these networking events offline outside of the networking group. And before you make that decision,

Aileen (28:47):

That makes sense. Good. So what, what is the one thing that set the successful people apart in the, in the small business?

Sylvia (29:01):

The number one thing is having, being able to ask for help investing in their business and being able to find the right whether it’s a course, whether it’s a coach to help them basically understand their gaps and build the skills that they’re missing to grow their business.

Aileen (29:20):

And so Sylvia what’s next for you?

Sylvia (29:24):

So I just launched my online course this week. I’m on the, my group right now. So really it’s continuing to focus on my online course, getting the word out there so that I can help more small business owners save money, save time, and make more money.

 

 

Aileen (29:38):

Awesome. So if our listeners wanted to find out more you and your coaching program and, you know, just find out more tools and techniques on how they can save money and build up their business, where can they go to find out more?

Sylvia (29:50):

Yeah, I have a free, I’ll have a free e-course for your listeners so they can and it’s my five ways to make more money in your small business. So they can go to SMI financial coaching.com forward slash make more money.

Aileen (30:03):

Awesome. Thank you so much, Sylvia. I really enjoyed our conversation today.

Sylvia (30:07):

Great. Thank you so much for having me.

 

 

 

 

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