Welcome back to the Small Business Summary…Have you ever been so fired up to do something that you felt like you couldn’t rest? I tried to take a few days off late last week and it turned into an inspiration-filled study hall. The next 60 days are going to be FIRE and I’m so excited to share what’s going on with the Small Business Owners Community and how we are helping YOU and small business owners everywhere. Let’s get to the good stuff.

In this week’s episode:

• The SBOC Turns Five and We’re Just Getting Started

• Know. Your. Numbers. Which Numbers and How Do I Compute Them?

• Stuck? I’ve got 4 Ways You Can Pivot* to Get Your Business Growing Again

• We’ve Drawn a Winner for Our $100 Book Shopping Spree

• And, our 80’s Song of the Week (Clue: Texas Trio, Bitchin’ Beards)

OK, on with the show….

Pat

*drink - An old community joke. We talked about pivoting so much in 2020 that any time someone said it, we all had to take a drink.

The “Don’t Grow it Alone®” Mission Turns Five

Time moves fast and when you’re working on a project that you love, time moves at lightspeed. Five years ago last week, the pandemic set in and my personal network collectively freaked out. Businesses were ordered closed, schools where locked up tight, and we looked at one another and thought - “What in the World are We Going to Do?”

On March 18, 2020, I decided to take action in the form of a live stream talk show on LinkedIn that I called “Small Business Rally Point.” The show was designed to bring my network together so we could connect and share what we were seeing in the marketplace. My message was that if we “stay positive and stick together, we’ll get through this.” Little did we know that “this” would be one of the wildest rides we’ve ever seen.

I hosted the show daily for 90 days and the viewers and contributors became an organically formed community. A community, is defined as a group of people on a shared mission and our mission was to not let our businesses fail. Once we realized something was happening, we formalized the community with the launch of the Small Business Owners Community on June 1, 2020.

This past weekend, I rewatched the first Rally Point, my TEDx talk “Life is too short to build other people’s dreams,” and the opening to our 2024 SBOC Conference “Message in a bottle.” The message is the same: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Rewatching all of this reconfirmed what I know: My obsession is helping small business owners survive in a marketplace that isn’t giving them what they need. I see a loneliness epidemic amongst entrepreneurs and it’s being papered over by transactional networking events, sales pitches, and social media noise. What the SBOC is doing to connect small business owners in an environment that puts collaboration over competition is unique. It also delivers the antidote to loneliness: Understanding and Empathy.

You need other small business owners around you to do for you what YOU CAN’T:

• To point you in the right direction when you’re stuck

• To remind you that you’re going to be OK when you fail

• To celebrate with you when something great happens

• To listen when it seems like nobody else understands

• To tell you the truth when you’re off track and need a kick in the pants

• To lighten your load, add a little fun, and remind you why this is so worth it

Community is the answer for small business survival. In the next few weeks we have some ridiculous ways to celebrate the contributions of our members and the SBOC mission as a whole: The SBOC Virtual Summit presented by Horicon Bank on 4/29 starring Seth Godin, The 5th annual SBOC Conference Launch, and one new wrinkle that is deep in the lab at this time that will make our mission more accessible than ever.

If you’re not yet a part of the Small Business Owners Community, I invite you to take our two-week free trial and experience what a real business community feels like. From coworking to collaborative Idea Slams and Clubs to training events, the SBOC is what you’re missing.

It took me 45 years to find my life’s work: Helping small business owners win.
I appreciate you being a part of it and I can’t wait to see where we go in the next 5 years.

4 Ways to Pivot Your Small Business in 2025

WTM: If you’re stuck in a rut with the business, you might benefit from this short video on how you can pivot to generate some revenue. One of these ideas might be just what you need to get on track.

We have a WINNER for the $100 Book Shopping Spree

Congratulations to Scott Brinkerhoff of Brinks Media Company in New Braunfels, Texas! He’s going on a $100 book shopping spree. Fire up your wish list to get some spring business reading done. Thank you to all who entered. We’ll have another giveaway soon!

80’s Song of the Week:
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man

WTM: Do you REMEMBER the car, the beards, the spinning guitars? I’m of the age where this was how I was introduced to ZZ Top and I have no regrets.

The Small Business Summary Newsletter is sponsored by:

We are taking on one new sponsor for the month of April - If you’d like to learn more, reply to the email and let me know! Thanks, Pat

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