Welcome And How We Can Help

SPEAKER_00 0:05

So excited that you're here today. We're talking about how to inflation proof your business. What you're gonna do when everything costs more. I know everyone is talking about this right now. Everything has gone up, right? We know at the gas station everything's gone up, milk's gone up, everything and stuff for our business has gone up. I want you to walk away after listening to today's episode with concrete things that you can start implementing right now. Right when the episode's over, you can start on them. And I'm gonna talk through six things that you can do to help reduce your costs, okay? And inflation proof your business. Okay. If you're new here, I'm so glad that you landed on this episode because I know it's gonna help you along your journey. Whether you're even just in the idea stage, this is gonna get you thinking about business and how to be a really good business owner. If you're starting your business now, this is perfect for you because even when you maybe really started your business, like started getting things together, prices may have gone up since then. And if you have been growing your business, congrats. You're amazing. And today I'm gonna help you save money and all that and inflation proof your business because it's very important for your success. So for everyone listening, make sure, first of all, you are subscribed to this podcast. You can go up, like if you're an Apple Podcaster's like a little check button. It's to follow it. Because then when you open up your podcast app, if I've dropped a new episode, you're gonna get a notification. I don't want you to miss out on anything that I know is going to help you along your business journey, no matter what kind of business you have. If you have a product business, you have a service business, online business, local business, whatever it is. This is for you. I'm sharing my expertise from the last 26 years of being a business owner myself. I've had four businesses. This is my fourth one. And the advice that I'm sharing is free here on this podcast for you. And I'm so thankful that you are taking advantage of this awesome resource that we have called podcasting. It's awesome, right? And I'm so happy for you. And also know, too, that I am a coach and can help you with your business. So if you just need like one hour to go over your long list of things that you've needed help with, we can start working through them. If you're starting your business, you're trying to grow your business, you can always reach out to me and I can let you know based on your situation, whether I can help you or not. But anything having to do with how you start putting yourself out there, how you should start pricing things, what you should name things, all that good stuff, I can help you. So, anyways, make sure you hit subscribe to the podcast or you can go to Kimberleybrock.com for help. All the links are down below as well. I have some freebies for you if you're new. And I'm so excited to help you and I'm so honored to be a part of your journey. So here we go.

Why Inflation Hits Businesses Hard

SPEAKER_00 2:52

On to the episode. Now, today we're talking about inflation proofing your business. Y'all, this is so important. It's affecting us in all ways. Everything in our home, everything that you do, everything is more expensive. I'm going on a girls' trip soon with some friends, and we are so excited. But y'all, the flights were so expensive. Everything is more expensive, right? And for your business, it's all more expensive. You have all the apps that you need to use, all the software, all your supplies. Maybe you need a better camera, microphone. Maybe you need shipping boxes, maybe you're shipping things and you've seen that all the rates for UPS and everything have gone up. And maybe you're just scrambling. You're like, this is getting out of control. How am I going to continue to make money? Right. And you have to make money, or this turns into a hobby, right? And we don't want that. We want this to be your full-fledged business. So I want you to know that it's okay. If you feel like you're struggling with all these prices, know that so many business owners are. Um, and in fact, I read some stats at like 70% of small business owners believe prices will continue to rise. And so everything is pointing to this, right? I believe this too. It's going to rise. But I don't want you to let that get in the way of building your business dream. Y'all, this business means a lot to you. It means income for you and your family. It means your way of building a career that's fulfilling and fun and impactful and allows you to use your gifts. This is an important part of your life. And so you cannot afford to not do the right things that are going to help your business thrive. You can't afford it. So I know a lot of you just kind of want to hide and ignore the fact that costs are going up. And I challenge you today to really pay attention to this episode because you've got to take this seriously. You actually have to do something about the inflation. We cannot hide from our problems. Maybe you try to do that in real life. That's a whole nother episode. But you cannot hide from your problems. Your business may have problems that you don't know of because you may be one of those people right now going, no, I mean, it's fine. It's inflation, but my business is doing fine. But is it really? Is it really? So today let's go through these. I hope they open your eyes. I'm excited that you're listening, listen all the way through because each of these are massively important. And I know that it's going to help you build a more successful business and be able to get through these times of inflation. Okay. So

Get Crystal Clear On Numbers

SPEAKER_00 5:45

number one is you need to get crystal clear on your numbers. Okay. This is the one that everyone hides from. Is the actual numbers. Y'all, are you using Quicken or are you using something? Do you have a bookkeeper? Please say you're doing that. Please say. I have used Simplify. It's like Quicken's easy way of bookkeeping. I love it. It's great. Um, you can use this, right? And there's different versions based on your type of business. I'll put the link down below. But you need to have that. It's awesome. It imports your credit cards, it imports your, you know, um bank account and everything. And you just each month kind of look in there, make sure everything's categorized right and you can see where you stand. But you do have to take time to do this. See, people don't want to take time to do this. You have to sit down, take a Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon or a workday and sit down with a cup of coffee, put some good music on that makes you happy and try to make this fun. Go to a coffee coffee shop if you have to, but don't get on their public Wi-Fi. Okay. Um, use your hotspot from your phone or something. Just don't get on public Wi-Fi. But go through your numbers and make sure that you have everything imported and it's actually organized. Or you need to hire a bookkeeper. There are probably people in your life that can do bookkeeping for you. You can find someone that's in college that's working on it. You can find a bookkeeper that other friends and business owners use. There are plenty. Okay. You can find them. You can also go on Fiverr or Upwork and you can find a bookkeeper. This is so important for you. You have to know your numbers. Please promise me you will start looking at your numbers if you haven't been. Okay. You need to do that. Okay. So that's number one. Before anything else, look at your numbers and know your real profit margins right now. And how is that compared to previous years? Or if you're just getting started, is the profit margin what you expected? Like you thought you had 50% profit margin, you really only have 20. Then you need to look at things. Okay. So that's number one. Get crystal clear on your numbers.

Trim Subscriptions And Costly Extras

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Number two, trim the fat. And what do I mean by this? What are the things in your business that are costing you extra time and money? Okay. Do you have too many subscriptions? I've had to go through, y'all. I found, in fact, I think I mentioned this on a did I mention this on a previous episode? I was getting a dupe perfume and realized that I had ordered like eight months ago and somehow signed up for their monthly like subscription. And I've been paying $39 a month. Now, again, it wasn't on my business credit card, so I wasn't paying as much attention, but don't tell my husband because it was on our home credit card. So I have like $300 and something dollars credit with a dupe perfume company online. Okay. Welcome to my planet. We need to stop doing that. If I was paying closer attention to our credit card bill, I know my husband looks at things each month, but somehow it went by. I don't know. So I have credit. Anybody need a dupe perfume? Because I can get you one and I've got a ton of credit. I'm like, what? Y'all have to trim the fat. So that's again looking at your numbers, you would know that. But also, I want you to think about how you are delivering your product. Are you offering some kind of like personal delivery that's really not making you any money? Are you offering extra services or add-ons that are not making you money? Are you offering products or services that people keep ordering that are not making you money? You have to think about this. I know I had a little bit of trouble with this when I had my online gift boutiques and we would offer personalization. And I would charge seven dollars for monograming. No, I would charge $10 for monogramming like on a towel, on a backpack, on a bag. Sounds like a steal, right? Um, my embroider charged me $7. So I made $3 on embroidery. Now, the thing was, people were buying it because it was embroidery. So I was making profit on the product, right? Maybe like 40% profit. And the monogramming was that sold it. And so I was willing to only charge $10 for it. But I kind of started realizing this, I could be making more money on this. This is not as smart as we could be doing. I eventually had to raise prices, but sometimes I could raise prices on the products and not on the monograming because everyone was buying them, you know, with the monogram or doing like an all-inclusive price where it didn't look as evident, but I was still making a little more money than just the like $3 on the monograming. And so you have to think about things like that. Do you have software that's running in the background or services that you don't need? Do you have too many supplies that you don't actually need? Are you ordering too many products? I've had that happen where I ordered too many of products. I didn't, I wasn't using really good data. And I was having to stock them so I would see the products, right? And knew that I had too many. So you have to make sure that you are trimming the fat. So, what can you do if you were like an outside auditor auditing your business and going, you know what? You doing these hand deliveries with gas prices and all that, it's not really helping. And nobody really orders it that way. Like you have to analyze your business. Every single person's business is totally different. And I know things like gift wrap. I used to charge $350 and I realized that was dumb. It was taking me so much time to gift wrap, and then the supplies for the gift wrapping up the price for gift wrapping. People who need a gift wrapped will pay, right? And maybe certain people won't buy it anymore and you'll have less gift wrapping, but you'll be making more profit on each gift wrap. Y'all see what I'm saying? So this is gonna be up to you to be a smart business owner and look at this kind of stuff, okay? So trim the fat on the stuff that's not selling, the extra services that you're not making money on, the extra mile that you're going for people that is costing you so much time and money. You need to analyze these things, okay? If you have too many cents, too many offerings, too many versions of a product, scale down the amount of choices that people have. That's trimming the fat as well and looking at your inventory. Okay. We could talk about that one, the trimming the fat for hours and hours and hours and hours. But I want you to be cognizant that there's things that are costing you money that you're doing or that you're holding that you need to stop doing. Okay. So trimming the fat. So number one, what was that? Get crystal clear on your numbers. Number two, trim the fat.

Double Down On Marketing That Works

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Number three, focus on marketing that's actually working. I think a lot of business owners, especially new ones, will be doing all sorts of marketing. They're like, I'm on TikTok, I'm on Instagram, I'm here locally, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. What is actually working? Is it your referral program that's actually working? Is it people referring other people? So I want you to think about it because there is marketing that you're probably doing now that's take, that's taking time, that's costing you money, that is not a good ROI. It's not a good return on your investment. It's not a good return on your time and your frustration and your energy. What are you doing every day? Are you like sitting here thinking I have to be on Instagram every day? And I would ask you if you think you have to be on Instagram every day, I would simply do this quick check. Are you getting business through Instagram? Are you getting your business through Instagram? If you are, then keep doing it. But if you're not, stop doing it and do what is actually working. Do an assessment of how people are actually getting to you. Again, another conversation that could go on for hours and hours. But when you get referrals, how are you getting them? Is it because people know you and are referring you? What is it? And can you help further that? Do you have an affiliate program? I don't know. I would be, I would be really cautious about your marketing. Do what is working and double down on it. Whatever is working, double down on that and forget all this other fluff that's vanity metrics. We're like, oh, I've got 10,000 people on TikTok, but no one ever orders from your TikTok. If that's your case, stop doing TikTok and let your ego go. Because a lot of this is ego driven, right? We got to stop that. Focus on what marketing is actually working for you. So again, you're doing an audit. Y'all, this is a lot. This is actually, I could have, I could, I could create a whole program on this, on what you can do to audit your your business. But I think this is really good. Double check your marketing and focus on what's not working. I mean, focus on what's working, right? And stop doing what's not working. Okay. Okay.

Raise Prices With Confidence

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Number four, wait, let's review again. I don't want you to forget because you may be driving or on a walk. You may need to put these in your notes app. Number one, get crystal clear on your numbers. Number two, trim the fat. Number three, double check your marketing and make sure you're doubling down on what's actually working and stop doing what's not. Number four, raise your prices, but communicate it with confidence. You may have to raise your prices, people. I know so many people don't want to raise their prices. You get stuck, you're like, no, we want to be the martyr. We want to be the low-cost leader. We want to be the Walmart. Do you really want to be the Walmart? You do have to be competitive, I think, depending on your industry, right? Unless you're a luxury brand, you're not competitive. You're you're high priced because you have high value and high perceived value, and people see your product as status. Right? But I know, like hairstylists, for example, they have had so many increased costs. I talked with some of them, and it's hard. They've had to raise their prices. And I had to talk to them about doing it with confidence and with also with empathy. Because nobody likes getting told that that the price is going to be more expensive than they're used to paying. But I think if you were clear and confident about it and say the fact is, inflation has gone up. I'm sure you felt it too. And it's something that we've had to do as a business decision. And this is our new pricing. It's effective coming up. And you could have, you know, a gap time where your loyal customers get three more months at the old price. And then maybe you go ahead and throw to everybody else and start announcing the new price, right? For people who haven't bought from you. You have to raise your prices. You have to communicate it clearly and with confidence, also with empathy. Because you don't like getting prices raised on you either. But I'm sure as a business owner, you are now an understanding human being. If you weren't before, and you get it. You get it. And so if the person is telling you with sincerity, but with clarity and confidence, it feels much softer and better. And you're like, okay, this is what this world has come to that we have inflation. Am I right? Okay. So that was number four. Raise your prices and communicate it with confidence. Before I go to five, let's review again because I don't want you to forget what was the first one. This is quiz time. Get crystal clear on your numbers. Number two, trim the fat. Number three, double check your marketing, stop what's not working, and double down on what is. Number four, raise your prices and communicate it with clarity and confidence and empathy. Okay. Or actually it's sympathy because you understand you've had prices raised on you, right?

Lean Into What Makes You Different

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Number five, leverage what's making you different and better. There's something about you, whether it could just be your personality and people like you, right? If you're in a commodity industry, and again, I'm going to talk about my son here because all of this is totally relevant. It's like, I see it, right? My son has this really good outgoing personality and he has traveled around the world and he was learning Spanish and he can talk to a lot of people and you know loves to hear about their country or where they're from. He talks about everything with his clients. So people love him, not because of his power washing and staining, which he does do a great job. Of course, he would have to, but they love him and they keep coming back because they always have interesting conversations with him. So when he does Facebook ads and stuff like that, his personality is infused in it because that's what makes him different, right? That's what makes him different. So you have to think about what makes your brand different? What is different about you? Do you have a personal touch? Uh, are you affiliated with a certain faith? What is it that has made you better or stand out? Do you use gluten-free? Are you all organic? Are you, what are you? What are you standing for? Is it some philanthropy that you donate to that you're a part of? Or something that you strongly believe in? Do you have a great personality? Uh do you take extra care? Is it your follow-up? Like I had to have dental work the other day. And even in my pre-op appointment, the the dentist, uh, I guess she's a dentist. Is she a surgical? I don't even know what she's called, but she's periodontist. She's a periodontist. And she's like, oh, here's my text. You can just text me on my and I was texting her questions. And then after my surgery, I had to get a baby tooth pulled. Y'all, I still had a baby tooth and it never fell out. I'm 53. It never fell out. So it's like a little baby tooth in the back. And she had to pull it and put an implant in. Have any of y'all had this? Bizarre. It's bizarre. I'm like, I have an implant in my mouth. I have to wait four months. So I have a hole in my mouth where this implant is under the gums. I have to wait four months until the bone grows and they put a crown on. It's gonna be a fun summer with a hole in my mouth. Um, anyways, she texted me after surgery. How are you? How are you feeling? And I'm like, well, I look like I have a ping pong ball in my mouth. And it also looks like like it was on my lower, kind of near my jowls. And I'm like, it looks like I have like Juvederm or like, what do you call them? Those injections gone wrong. And it's like, I have no wrinkles on my jowls. And I usually have them. Don't have them on one side of my face. This is what's happening. Aren't we thankful for podcasts that are not on video? I am today. I am. So I digress. But what I'm telling you is there's something that makes you stand out. And now this periodonist, I'm like, she's amazing. She's followed up, she's texted me. Not that I, you know, I'm not giving out her text or anything, but she's just caring, right? That's what makes you stand out. So you should be leveraging that. You should be leveraging that and making sure you're treating each customer like that because this is how people start sharing your brand. Because there's something about you that's different and makes them want to come back. So double down on what makes you different. Okay. That's number five. Okay, here we go. We're about to go to number six. You ready? Number one, get crystal clear on your numbers. Two, trim the fat. Number three, double check your marketing and stop doing what's not working and start doubling down on what is working. Number four, raise your prices and communicate it with confidence and clarity and let's say sympathy this time, because you should be sympathetic. You understand. Um, number five, leverage what makes you different.

Use AI And Automation Wisely

SPEAKER_00 21:57

And number six, use AI and Automation to save yourself time and money. Y'all, AI has saved me so much time, especially like with its podcast. Right? Each week. I speak this podcast, I take the transcription, I put it in AI. I'm like, can you make a blog summary for me? And I'll have it make it in two seconds. I used to have to like totally come up with the blog summary, which would take me time, right? And now it creates it. And then I go through and put my own spin on it. Okay. Stuff like that. The emails that I send y'all, I have AI do some of them for each episode, and then I'll go in and tweak them with my personality, right? I'm not just gonna let AI run everything for me. I'm going to be combing through it and adding my personality and things that I would say, right? But it gives me like an outline. So I do stuff like that. Okay. But in no way am I letting it be the face of my business. I am the face of my business, my personality, my voice. And the same goes for you. Once you learn AI and how to use, like I use Claude, once you do this, you will see how much time it will save you and how amazing it is. But the problem is you can be lazy and just let it do everything for you and never infuse your personality. And as small business owners, we have to infuse what makes us different and unique. We are not AI. You should be using these tools. It saves me so much time. And I love it. And it's amazing. It's only going to get better over the coming months and years. I think it's going to just exponentially keep getting better. So that's the six. Use AI and automation to save time and money. So I'm going to go through them again. Are y'all sick of me reading them? I I want to read them again so you don't forget because I forget. I forget these things when people tell me and we're going to drill them in your head. Number one, get crystal clear on your numbers. Number two, trim the fat. Number three, double check your marketing and double down on what's working. Number four, raise your prices and communicate it with confidence and clarity and sympathy. Number five, leverage what makes you different. And number six, use AI and automation to save you time and money.

Recap The Six Steps

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Y'all, those are the six, those are going to help you today to do this. Okay. The winning strategy is not to hide out while all this inflation is going on. Okay. You cannot hide from the reality of your business. Maybe you can hide from certain things in your personal life, which you shouldn't, but maybe you can. You can't get away from this for long when it comes to your business, right? The businesses that are still standing are the ones who do this audit of themselves and they keep showing up. Okay. And so make sure you're not just surviving all of this, right? That you're being a smart and intelligent and strategic business owner and you're taking control of what is happening with inflation. Y'all, this was so much fun. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you have a wonderful day. Remember that only you can offer what you're offering in the way that you offer it. So get out there, have fun with your business and make a difference in this world. And I'm so excited for you and so honored to be a part of your journey. Have a great day. Until next time. Bye now.

Stay Connected After The Episode

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Now, this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimberlybrock.com, and yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. And you know what? You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.