How to Start, Run, and Grow Your Small Business – In Just 7 Minutes with Henry Lopez

Resources/Links:

• Wanting to learn more about the things you can do to start, run, and grow your small business? Visit https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/

Summary

Are you an existing business owner who wants to grow your business, or maybe, you’re someone who’s on the stage of starting just yet?

Have you been fearing failure so bad that it’s now hindering you from achieving your goal’s heights?

Do you feel like you’re not someone who is capable of making success happen in this lifetime?

It is through taking your time in planning and performing the right plan for your business that you get to be a step closer towards becoming successful in that business of yours. Know the how-to’s through this episode today.

Henry Lopez is a Serial Entrepreneur, Small Business Coach & Consultant, and host of “The How of Business” podcast show.

In this episode, Henry shares his knowledge to help you start, run, and grow your small business today. Here, he talks about the mistakes entrepreneurs make that cause their businesses to fail as he mentions a resource that will surely help you get up to start again.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:00 – Henry’s ideal client: “Either someone who’s looking to start their first small business or an existing small business owner that’s looking to grow their business.”
• 01:13 – Problem Henry helps solve: “For the first time business owner, often it’s about overcoming that fear of failure, the overwhelming paralysis that comes from getting past the idea phase to actually making it happen. For existing business owners, it’s often about just implementing the systems, the processes, and the mentality to step back from the business.”
• 01:57 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Henry: “What I see as the symptoms are paralysis, overwhelm, feeling of failure maybe or the fear of it, burnout, disillusionment, the lack of progress to either getting started or realizing again what you had hoped for when you started your first business.”
• 03:05 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Henry’s solution: “People don’t set realistic expectation or goals. They lack planning. They just get caught up in the day to day, so they lack making progress towards those goals. And then, there’s no testing and proving that business model. We kind of want it to work and we’ll fight through a business model that just isn’t profitable.”
• 04:01 – Henry’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Take the time to plan. For existing business owners, that plan is a strategic action plan for the year and then broken up quarterly so that you can take the right steps in the right direction instead of trying to solve it all at once. The plan that lets you take this a step at a time so that you can make steady and consistent progress towards your goal.”
• 05:28 – Henry’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Visit https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/ to learn more about the things you can do to grow your business.
• 06:22 – Q: “What is the most common reason businesses fail?” A: “The obvious one – or maybe it’s not so obvious – is we ran out of cash. But the reason we run out of cash is that we don’t properly forecast in depth planning, or for an existing business that might be maybe forecasting cash flow, we don’t properly plan, we cut corners, and we’re not willing to start small if that’s what your resources allow.”

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“What’s the most common reason businesses fail? We run out of cash. But the reason we run out of cash is that we don't properly plan.” -Henry Lopez Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:09
Welcome everyone to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, beaming out to you from little Castaways Beach on the white sand here in Queensland, Australia, joined today by Henry Lopez.
Henry, good day, Sir. A very warm welcome. Whereabouts are you hanging out?

Henry Lopez 0:23
I’m close to another beach but in Florida – a place called Port St. Lucie, Florida which is about an hour north of Palm Beach on the East Coast.

Tom Poland 0:32
That’s just a beautiful name. Anyway, we better get off geography and back on to Henry.
Henry is a – for those of you who don’t know, he’s a Serial Entrepreneur. He’s a Small Business Coach and Consultant, and he’s also the host of The How of Business Podcast which brings us, I think, nicely to the title Henry which is “How to Start, Run, and Grow Your Own Business” and the challenge for Henry is to tell us how to do that in just seven minutes.
Henry, our time starts now, Sir. Question number one, who is your ideal client?

Henry Lopez 1:00
Ideal clients either someone who’s looking to start their first small business or an existing small business owner that’s looking to grow their business.

Tom Poland 1:09
Perfect. Thank you. And what’s the problem you solve for them? That’s question number two.

Henry Lopez 1:13
Well, for the first time business owner, often it’s about overcoming that fear of failure, the overwhelming paralysis that comes from, you know, getting past the idea phase to actually making it happen.

Tom Poland 1:23
Right.

Henry Lopez 1:24
For existing business owners, it’s often about just implementing the systems, the processes, and the mentality to step back from the business so that they can build equity in it and actually realize the dreams they set out for themselves when they got started in business ownership to begin with.

Tom Poland 1:41
And just the way you’ve articulated that demonstrates a wealth of experience in this marketplace.
Question number three, six minutes left. What are the typical symptoms that people who need your service that just kind of give them a heads up on “Yeah, I got to find out more about The How of Business.”

Henry Lopez 1:57
Sure. Regardless of whether you’re waiting to start your first business or you’re an existing small business, what I see as the symptoms are paralysis, overwhelm, you know, feeling of failure maybe or the fear of it, burnout, disillusionment, the lack of progress to either getting started or realizing again what you had hoped for when you started your first business.

Tom Poland 2:18
Right. So often, the motivations of wanting more freedom and more money and more choice and more time and more fulfillment very often.

Henry Lopez 2:27
Yeah, which is the reason you started a business. Otherwise, you know, go back and get one of those jobs where you can clock out at five o’clock. Exactly.

Tom Poland 2:33
Okay. So, we’re talking about entrepreneurs essentially – people who have the courage and have the passion to take those sorts of risks and endure those sorts of challenges, and they’re generally smart people who are ambitious.
So, that brings us to question number four with five minutes left. What are some of the common mistakes that you see these small business owners make before they find your solution? They’re going to try stuff – may not always be the right stuff. What I’m asking here is, save folks some years and perhaps some frustration, disappointment, by sharing some of the common mistakes people make that they need not made.

Henry Lopez 3:05
I find that people don’t set realistic expectation or goals. They lack planning – whether it’s getting started with the first business or an existing business owner – they just get caught up in the day to day for that business owner or putting out the fires and there’s no planning, so they lack making progress towards those goals. And then, there’s no testing and proving that business model. We kind of want it to work and we’ll fight through a business model that just isn’t profitable.
So those are some of the common mistakes that I see people make, Tom.

Tom Poland 3:38
Okay, thank you for that. Let’s get on to the flip side of this coin which is where we’ve identified the problem, the people, the symptoms, the mistakes. Let’s go to solutions.
Question number five, four minutes left. One valuable free action that someone could take. Just give them a step down the road if you like. It’s not going to get them to the end of it, but something to start with, what’s the top tip you’ve got for folks?

Henry Lopez 4:01
For me, it’s about taking the time to plan and your plan, you know, initially is what we might traditionally call a business plan, but I don’t like the traditional business plan. A plan that gives you some ability to test the model. For existing business owners, that plan is a strategic action plan for the year and then broken up quarterly so that you can take the right steps in the right direction instead of trying to solve it all at once, but that leads to that planning.
Just taking some time to plan which again, a lot of business owners are resistant because they’re so busy with running the business, putting out the fires as I said. The plan that lets you take this a step at a time so that you can make steady and consistent progress towards your goal.

Tom Poland 4:46
And what sort of things would be included in the plan? I guess things like, what, competitive advantages where we’re going to get leads from? That sort of thing? Anything else?

Henry Lopez 4:53
Sure, absolutely! That’s all part of it, especially when you’re first starting a business, but also, when you’re first starting out, it’s the financial projections; so, proving – at least projecting the proof that this business model is going to be profitable. And then for existing business owners, it’s, you know, how am I going to focus here so that I can begin to step back from the business and build some equity? So, what are those actionable steps to get there?

Tom Poland 5:19
Perfect! Thank you, Sir.
So, let’s go to question number six – a valuable free resource. Do you have something that’s going to help people more with this?

Henry Lopez 5:28
Well, I’ve got a series of episodes on this topic. I just recently did a conversation on business planning, and I’ve got a free download as well on an outline for that business plan. People sometimes get hung up on “what should I put in it?” and I say, “You’re not writing a novel. First and foremost, this is for yourself.” Maybe it’ll have an external audience but that planning… So, there’s some templates too and you can find all of that at https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/.

Tom Poland 5:54
Perfect. So, folks, that’s https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/. Templates, podcast broadcast is going to show you how to put that plan together. Thank you for that, Sir. That’s very generous, Henry.
Question seven and this is the one that gives, folks, this is what gives our guests the free license to tell you what they really want to tell you, whatever that might be, something else.
What’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Henry Lopez 6:22
Well Tom, the question I get a lot is “what is the most common reason businesses fail?” and when I, you know, the obvious one – or maybe it’s not so obvious – is we run out of cash. But the reason we run out of cash is that we don’t properly forecast in depth planning, or for an existing business that might be maybe forecasting cash flow, we don’t properly plan, we cut corners, and we’re not willing–
What I find Tom is people are not willing to start small if that’s what your resources allow, and then grow that business.
So that’s what I see is one of the most common reasons for failure, whether it’s in launching or an existing business owner.

Tom Poland 7:04
I suppose the nature of this is that entrepreneurs tend to be impatient and that can sometimes be a benefit but sometimes it can be an impediment.

Henry Lopez 7:11
Agree.

Tom Poland 7:12
Alright. Henry Lopez, lots of wisdom and insights in there. A great free gift at https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/. Go again folks.
Henry, thanks so much for your time.

Henry Lopez 7:22
My pleasure.

Tom Poland 07:23
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.