February 29, 2024 • 47 mins
Embarking on a journey to technological enlightenment, Red Star Consulting's very own Ryan Halloran joins us to illuminate the path for small business owners looking for the perfect toolset. He brings years of expertise, steering us away from the seductive maze of tools and toward the ultimate destination: operational efficiency. We tackle the crucial steps needed to align technology with the heartbeat of your business, ensuring your selection process is driven by the actual challenges and goals you face—not just the shiny allure of the latest gadgets.
Together, we'll unlock the potential of web research, YouTube demos, and the wisdom of sales teams and their clients, providing you a map to the treasures of time and money saved. We don't journey alone; the voices of spouses, employees, and close confidants join the chorus, offering their insights to bolster our confidence as we make pivotal decisions for our business's future.
Ryan shares the importance of training your crew—both your team and the valued customers you serve—ensuring that every new tool implemented is as much about enhancing their experience as it is about upgrading your arsenal. Join us for this episode, and transform your small business into a vessel of unmatched efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Click here to download the PDF: https://bbb.org/content/dam/0995-oklahoma-city/podcast/Tech%20Solutions%20for%20Streamlining%20Your%20Small%20Business%20with%20Ryan%20Halloran.pdf
Contact Ryan Halloran:
https://www.bbb.org/us/ok/oklahoma-city/profile/consultant/red-star-consulting-llc-0995-90071038
https://www.redstarconsultingllc.com/
RED STAR CONSULTING, LLC
(312) 818-0811
(405) 625-3559
info@redstarconsultingllc.com
Follow BBB Serving Central Oklahoma on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn @BBBCentralOK
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ryan Halloran (00:00):
My clients will say look, I've got all.
I've got all of these differenttools.
How do I know which one's right?
I don't have time.
Casey Farmer (00:25):
Hey there, welcome back to the build with BBB
podcast.
I'm your host, casey Farmer,here with Ryan Halloran of Red
Star Consulting.
Ryan, welcome to the podcast.
Ryan Halloran (00:33):
Thank you very much for having me.
I appreciate it.
Casey Farmer (00:35):
And I think our viewers probably don't know you,
so let's learn all about you,red Star Consulting and what you
do.
Ryan Halloran (00:41):
Wonderful.
So, as you said, my name isRyan Halloran.
I'm the founder and CEO of RedStar Consulting.
We are a technology andoperations organization that
focuses specifically on smallbusinesses and trying to work
with them to help them find thebest ways to be able to generate
and drive revenue not only fortheir business but also for the
(01:02):
opportunities with their clientsto improve and really drive
that sort of technology andoperations focus into the
community.
Casey Farmer (01:10):
So for anybody who heard that kind of like
overview spiel, what Iunderstand it to be when we
first met in person today, eventhough we've known each other
for some time, you do a lot ofdifferent things.
It's not it's really not justone or the other.
You've got some experience inradio and so you're excited to
be here today and you've workedat what we call corporate
(01:32):
America, so today we're going tobe talking about different
tools for small businesses andhow to evaluate whether that's
worth it not worth it.
Do you want to talk about that?
Ryan Halloran (01:41):
Sure, absolutely so.
Really, the foundationalaspects that we work with when
it comes to our clientele istrying to sort of steer them
away from just the tool and thetooling for their business and
more into what is your operationand how does your business work
and helping them make gooddecisions so that they are not
(02:03):
relying completely on thetechnology to really run their
business.
And this is why this is one ofmy favorite topics is so many of
the customers that we work with, the clientele that we have
they?
They dive down this rabbit holereally quickly into technology
and I need a tool and I saw thisin a commercial and this is
(02:23):
amazing.
And the first question thatwill always come out of my mouth
is great, what does it do foryou?
And they will start to stutterover their own words, they will
not be able to answer thequestion and I will very quickly
say, ok, let's talk about whatit is you're really looking to
(02:44):
accomplish for your business.
Tools are great.
We all have tools every singleday, right, we have tools in our
kitchen, we have tools in ourcar, we have phones and
computers, but those are toolsto help us do other things,
accomplish other goals.
We use those tools because theymake things easier.
But we wouldn't be using thosetools if it wasn't for the job
(03:08):
that we're trying to accomplish.
So until you understand what itis the job that you're trying
to accomplish, it's really hardto pick a tool.
Why would you bring a, asledgehammer, to you?
Know a, a concert, you know aconcert with you know violins
and orchestra and things thatthose two things don't go
(03:30):
together wrong tools.
Understand where you're gettingto first, then choose your
tools.
That makes sense, it does.
Casey Farmer (03:37):
So what criteria should a small business use to
evaluate?
You know where do I even start.
What should I even startlooking at?
What's the first step?
Ryan Halloran (03:45):
So first step is always always has to be looking
at your own business first.
What are the pain points thatI'm having?
Where is it that I'm notspending enough time in the
relationships with my customers?
Or where am I spending too muchtime sitting behind a computer
and not out doing things thatactually have positive impact to
(04:06):
my total revenue, my totalsales?
What is my sales pipeline?
Those types of things.
Looking internally to yourbusiness and saying where are my
pain points?
And being willing and honestenough with yourself as a
business owner or someone whoparticipates in the business
because, let's be fair, there'slots of people who don't like to
look at the dirty laundry inthe back room of their business
(04:29):
Really taking an honest look atwhere those pain points are.
Then, once you look at thosepain points, starting to decide
all right, I've got three, maybefour areas that I need to work
on Genuinely.
They're impacting my customers,they're impacting my ability to
be productive, whatever thatnegative thing is and try to
(04:50):
work through how do I try toresolve those things.
And we're not even to the toolsyet Now.
We're just talking about,operationally speaking, how do I
want to resolve those problems?
So you go from pain point to.
How do I actually want to fixthat problem?
Is it even something thatrequires a tool, or is it
(05:12):
something with people?
Is it something that requiresdollars?
Is it something that justrequires time and trying to
figure out what the rightdirection is for those things?
Casey Farmer (05:22):
So let's say I'm a small business owner and I'm
even overwhelmed trying tofigure out what pain points I
have going to call you how doyou maybe guide a small business
through looking at that?
Ryan Halloran (05:33):
It's excellent question and thanks for stealing
my business model.
So really, the end game of thisis the concept of walking
through your day today.
A lot of people will say, well,focus on your balance sheet
what's my P and L?
And start to look at thedollars and cents.
(05:54):
Tell a lot of stories, but theydon't necessarily tell the
whole story.
I usually will instructorganizations or business
leaders, business owners, tolook at two different things.
One where are you spending themost time on a day to day basis?
Are you spending time in theplaces that give you the most
return into the valuation ofyour business, whether that is
(06:15):
with your people, with yourclients?
Is it creating product?
Whatever?
That is right.
So this part one.
Part two is what about yourclients?
Talk to your clients.
What are the problems that theysee that you have?
Sometimes?
Having that external perspectiveon your organization is huge.
It shows two sides One, thatyou have a desire to understand
(06:39):
what your organization lookslike to the people on the
outside, but it also has theperspective of you as a client.
I value your opinion, I want tohear what you have to say about
what I'm doing, and you'd beamazed how many clients, when
they engage their clientele, getgreat information back from the
(06:59):
people that they're servicing.
Hey, you know, just for anexample, the checkout process is
very slow.
Or you know, what you'reproviding to me in this
particular product is sort ofsubstandard.
It used to be better and nowit's substandard.
I don't feel like I get enoughcontact or information from you
in order for me to be best atwhat I do.
(07:20):
So a lot of times that's whereyou'll find those pain points
too.
So usually when I first engagea client, it's those two sides.
It's looking at yourself andlooking at where the pain points
are that you feel, but thenalso engaging your clients at
the same time.
Casey Farmer (07:35):
So where I take that info is then?
You know, last year, at the endof 2023, might have been a time
that small businesses weresending out surveys or looking
for information from theirclients, so this is a great time
to look at that and implementit.
Ryan Halloran (07:51):
Yes, absolutely it is.
So I guess the question I wouldask, though, is is like, when
you hear those surveys, right,what are people doing with the
information that's there?
So those, those surveys thatcome back, you have to really
take those, and take them with agigantic grain of salt.
Right?
There's that standard bellcurve.
You throw away the top five andthe bottom 5%, and then you
(08:11):
start to look at the trendsinside of that survey
information, and what does itreally tell you?
And so many people tend to getwrapped up in the information or
the huge positives or the hugenegatives that come into the
surveys, and it sort of divertsthem from what the critical
issues are.
Look for the patterns in thatdata.
Look for the information whereyou're seeing people saying the
(08:34):
same thing over and over again,or where what you're seeing in
those surveys matches what youfeel like is one of those pain
points we were talking about amoment ago, and now you sort of
have data to back up thedirection that you should be
taking with your business.
Casey Farmer (08:50):
So I've had a meeting internally.
We've kind of looked at thedata we figured out.
Here are the top three painpoints of my business.
Then I go on a little Googlesearch and I find that there are
a thousand tools that solvesaid problem that I'm facing in
my business.
What do you do from there?
Ryan Halloran (09:07):
You just get all of them.
Casey Farmer (09:08):
You do.
All of them Sign up for everysubscription, every single one
of them.
Ryan Halloran (09:13):
It doesn't matter , you can just try all of them.
So, joking aside, so you'reabsolutely correct.
The next place that we go, allthe time, clients will say look,
I've got all of these differenttools, how do I know which ones
?
Right, I don't have time to gothrough all of these different
things.
I'm running a business, I'm notrunning a technology firm,
(09:37):
absolutely correct.
So you have a couple of options.
First thing is remember theproblem.
Always start with your whyRemember the problem?
Then, when you look at thetools, make sure that you
understand what does that toolactually do?
My dad worked for IBM for 40years, over 40 years, and he'll
(09:59):
probably get mad at me if hefinds out that I shared this
with him.
But when I graduated fromcollege what seems like four
score and seven years ago, heimparted several pieces of
advice.
He was a programmer, and sowhat he would say to me all the
time is Ryan, I can make acomputer do anything, but if you
(10:20):
don't tell me what you want itto do, I can't make it do
anything.
And so for me, it always spursthe thought of yes, there are
tools, but what is that toolactually going to do for you.
So you have to go a layerdeeper.
If you go to a website for anytool, they're gonna tell you
(10:41):
that it can colonize Mars.
It can take you to Tahititomorrow.
If you're looking for it,they'll tell you it can solve
every problem under the sun.
My suggestion to my clients isagain twofold, and usually
there's more to it than justmaybe those two, but the two
primary areas are do yourresearch.
(11:01):
There's plenty of places thatyou can go to look at, evaluate
different tools that are outthere in the marketplace.
Place number one go out to theweb, obviously, google search.
Find reviews where people arewilling to give feedback about
the different tools that arethere.
The second place, and this iswhere I even I go right I'm a
(11:23):
small business owner too.
I pick my own tools Of all theplaces in the world YouTube you
would be shocked how much is outthere and less from a review
perspective, but more from ademonstration perspective, where
people will actually takesoftware that they have and they
will demonstrate to you howthey use it for specific
(11:44):
situations.
So you have an opportunity tosee for yourself, through these
demonstrations, how they maptogether.
Here's my problem that I'mexperiencing, and then here's a
problem that someone else isexperiencing.
That may not be exactly thesame, but let's see how they
decided to address it and let'ssee if there's some I hate to
(12:06):
use this word synergy to putthose things together.
So there's those opportunitiesthat are there as well.
Lastly, which this one is alittle bit, you know, a little
bit harder to run with, a littlebit, but there are so many of
these organizations, thesesoftware providers, that if you
engage their sales organizationit's free to use as a small
(12:28):
business owner.
Ask them a variety of questions, not just hey, I have a problem
with X, how would your softwarehandle this?
But then also ask for areferenceable clients, ask that
business, that tool owner.
I'd like to have a conversationwith one of your clients that
(12:48):
has a similar problem to mineand I'd like to hear how they
use your software to addressthat problem.
And you'd be shocked how manyof those sales organizations are
more than happy to get you onthe phone with someone else
because it helps their case for,frankly, selling you the
software and the solution thatthey have.
So there's a variety ofdifferent places to go.
Casey Farmer (13:12):
So in those conversations let's say that you
have you get to ask the personwho's already using the software
questions.
Do you have recommendations onwhat a small business owner
should ask that person using thesoftware?
Ryan Halloran (13:24):
Be as direct as possible.
Casey Farmer (13:26):
Don't beat around the bush.
Ryan Halloran (13:27):
No, do not.
I mean really, at the end ofthe day, how often do you get to
speak with somebody who's alsoa business owner that probably
is not going to be in the samespace that you are, but is
willing to give you informationabout how they tackled certain
problems about theirorganization?
Most people, especially insmall business, they don't want
to give away the secrets, don'tsay anything.
(13:48):
This is I don't want to giveaway my competitive advantage,
but in reality, a lot of theseother organizations.
They're willing to give thatinformation up, just like we.
As a consultancy, part of whatI do is to take the learnings
from other clients and applythem forward.
Same concept here thesecompanies that you will call on.
They will directly tell youthis is how it should do, this
(14:11):
is how it should work, this isthe problem that we were having.
It saved us this much money,this much time, and they will be
very direct with you.
So be direct with them.
Ask them those specificquestions, give them scenarios,
tell them the pain points thatyou're having and let them try
to give you some direction aswell.
Why not use as much of theresources at your fingertips as
you can?
(14:32):
There's a variety of differentthings that are there.
And so before pulling thetrigger the proverbial trigger
on actually purchasing andimplementing a solution, you
need to be very clear as to whatthe return on that investment
is.
And everybody knows ROI, but itreally is important and it
doesn't necessarily have to bedollars and cents, but it does
(14:52):
need to make sense.
And if you cannot reasonably,rationally articulate what that
return is really, you shouldn'tbe considering that solution at
all.
You'd be shocked how many timesI will tell business owners go
talk to your spouse, go talk toyour employees, do a temperature
(15:13):
check, do a reality check, seewhat they have to say, explain
to someone else yourunderstanding of that tool and
what it does and how it willbenefit your business, and you'd
be surprised how many timesother people may be able to poke
holes in it.
Casey Farmer (15:31):
Do you often see that small business owners have
an array of tools that theymaybe are underutilizing or
maybe don't need at all?
Ryan Halloran (15:38):
Every single day.
It's the old expression deathby a thousand paper cuts.
I see leaking organizationsthat have dollars and cents
going out the door every day,every month, every year, on
tools, subscriptions, otherthings that they don't use or
they underutilize them to apoint where having them really
(15:59):
isn't necessary.
So you need to be able to againgo back to the why.
Why did I purchase this tool?
Let's be fair.
I did this a week and a halfago.
I looked at a subscription thatI had to a particular software
vendor, who I won't talk about.
Absolutely fine, what they do,no problem.
Casey Farmer (16:17):
We're not dragging anybody through the mud.
Ryan Halloran (16:19):
Not at all.
They serve their purpose in thetime that I needed them, and
then, all of a sudden, I'mseeing them pop up on my
financials and I'm going wait aminute, so we're not immune to
it.
all of us get tied up in theoperation of our business, so
make sure that you are regularlyauditing.
What do I have in my technologystack, what are the things that
(16:41):
I have that I use and what do Ineed to keep, what do I need to
get rid of?
And maybe there's something inthere that needs to be adjusted.
So many of these solutions havedifferent levels of
subscriptions, right, talk aboutyour Netflix or your Apple or
whatever.
You can get the basic $5, orhere's the 9.99 a month, and
(17:04):
then here's the 14.
So a lot of these solutionshave that, and that should also
be something not that you justconsidering as a part of an
audit, but also as you'reselecting the solution as well.
Make sure that you're pickingthe right level of solution as
you're going through thatprocess of engaging with
whatever that solution set is.
Casey Farmer (17:23):
How do you and I know we're going a little off
track, but how do you decidewhat level of this like?
Should you just start baseline,or do you start at the highest
here and work your way down?
Do you have a solution for thator an idea for that?
Ryan Halloran (17:35):
So the rule of thumb less is more.
Ciao, let's be fair.
How many people have gone andgotten their cable service or
their satellite TV service andthey sell you on the?
Well, you'll get three freemonths of the movie channels,
(17:56):
but then it's on you to call upsaid provider and to cancel
those things at the end of thethree months.
It's really hard to do andusually it doesn't happen until
they ding you at least once onyour bills.
Casey Farmer (18:10):
And you forget about it and then you think, oh,
I'll call and cancel it, andyou're like man, I don't really
want to call and have to cancel,like I totally understand that.
Ryan Halloran (18:18):
So welcome to the same thing that happens with
software for small business, andeven I should, and I should
qualify.
It's not even necessarily justsoftware, it's the solutions
that are there as well.
Always start basic.
It is very.
Trust me every business, everysolution provider, they'll be
more than happy to take more ofyour money every day.
Oh, you want to upgrade fromthe $25 a month to the 50.
(18:41):
We will.
You'll see, just like that.
You're now our platinum tierindeed, and they will gladly
take your cash and off you go.
If you want to downgrade, havefun hanging on with their
technical support or their salesteam for hours on end, because
they don't want to give up thosedollars or online platform, or
(19:02):
your 10 clicks in and are likeare you sure we'll give you 50%
off for the next six months?
or yeah, the AI chatbots thatare now on all the websites that
promise you everything andyou're like, wait a minute, my
name is not, you know, billy Bob, and you know.
But what?
Who?
Who am I talking?
So, yes, it's important rightto start basic and then, as you
(19:24):
start to see that there isadditional need, then start to
upgrade the software, thesolution.
It's the same thing too.
You'll find a lot of theseproviders, a lot of these
solution providers.
They will also be based off ofthe number of users that you
have using the software itself.
A lot of them will start offwith either one user or two
users, and then, as time goes on, depending upon the size of
(19:44):
your business, you may need toadd additional users to it.
Well, again, a lot easier toadd than subtract.
So, start basic, do the basics,move forward with the basics
and then upgrade as necessary.
Casey Farmer (19:58):
And this is an opportunity for you had
mentioned earlier.
You know, evaluate those tools,software, processes, whatever
it is, on maybe a quarterlybasis and maybe, you know, next
quarter, if you decide I want tobump it up to the gold tier or
whatever it is.
Maybe that's the opportunity todo it, read your business.
Ryan Halloran (20:15):
Read your business and where it's going.
What's your pipeline?
What does it look like?
You know there are someorganizations, retail
organizations.
They ramp up what August,september, because they're
trying to get ready for the endof the year rush.
You may need to make those sortof modifications and, depending
upon the software or thesolution, a lot of times they'll
be prepared for you as well.
They'll know that you're goingto be coming back for them.
(20:36):
Hey, I need to bump this upbecause we're in a situation
where we need to add on, youknow, additional labor for the
end of the year and then we'regoing to pull back off of that.
Those software vendors, theyknow those things, they've seen
those trends.
So don't be afraid to sort oflook out into the future and go
do I really need all of thebells and whistles today, or can
(20:58):
I use those for a little timeand then back off of that when I
no longer need it?
So excellent point.
Casey Farmer (21:05):
I want to go down this line and I think this will
tie nicely into our next point.
I'm a brand new business ownerand I have just purchased 15
subscriptions to 15 differenttools that I think are all worth
it and I want to try out andhow do I go about implementing
those into my business?
Awesome.
Ryan Halloran (21:21):
Yeah, awesome, you're going to have a couple of
sleepless nights.
You are probably going to losesome of your hair.
Your kids will not see you fora few days.
Really, at the end of the day,15 different solutions how do I
(21:41):
phrase this nicely?
Everything goes in buildingblocks.
Life in general, when you stopand you think about life,
happens in building blocks, oneon top of another, on top of
another.
To build a house, to build abuilding, you go one floor at a
time.
Yes, there are always going tobe situations where you know
(22:02):
that you're going to needmultiple tools.
You're going to need a website,you're going to need a CRM of
some sort, you are going to needa financial program to help you
with your dollars and cents,you are going to need a task
tracking or task management andwe're not going to go into, like
I said, brands or specifictools, but you know that you're
going to need those things.
(22:23):
But foundationally, as abusiness owner, you can
reconcile those things in yourbrain.
You know that you're going toneed those things.
If you're going out and buying10 or 15 additional tools on top
of what you already have,really consider what that does
to your business.
Let's back this up and let'sgive a real life example.
(22:45):
You're a business owner whodoes retail.
Are you an individual who wantsto add 10 brand new product
lines to your business overnight?
Is that going to be somethingthat you're going to be able to
purchase for successfully?
Are you going to be able tomarket those products
successfully?
How do you price those things?
(23:06):
How do you know when thoseproducts should be sold or when
you should be putting them onsale?
What is the revenue that you'regenerating off this?
It's really hard to know whenwe do things incrementally and
we add on and build slowly.
That's when things work reallywell.
Now let's go to the actualquestion that you asked, which
(23:28):
is I bought 15 new tools.
How do I integrate them?
The direct answer is one by one, pick the solutions that are
the most important to you, whichones are key to your operations
.
Get those tools workingsmoothly well, so that they are
nice and greased and everythingis working smoothly inside of
(23:50):
your business.
Then tag on another one.
When you get that additionalone on, tag another one on.
Then start to slowly build themout.
Be prepared to pivot.
A lot of these solutions arenot just a one-way street.
There's a lot of differentconfigurations, a lot of
different models to them.
It's very important that youare open-minded about what you
(24:14):
may or may not be able to dowith some of those tools.
As you consider your directionforward, be prepared to pivot,
add on slowly and surely andyou'll see them all start to
come together.
You may also need additionaltools that you don't have in
your 15 tools that you'vealready purchased, because not
every single tool talks to eachother.
(24:35):
Be aware that there are toolson the market that will help
solutions speak with each other.
Just know that you're startingto creep into needing some more.
That isn't as easy asplug-and-play.
Casey Farmer (24:54):
I ask you that question for the reason that
sometimes a small business ownercan be inundated with
information, whether they'veattended different trainings.
They're like, oh, I need to getthis tool, I need to get this
tool, I need to do this to makemy operations better, or I need
to do this to get my marketingup to speed.
But, as you mentioned, a toolis not going to fix every
problem that you have withinyour business overnight.
(25:17):
It truly is that, like youmentioned, there's no silver
bullets.
Ryan Halloran (25:22):
I've been doing this for a long time.
I went to college forever agoand I'm starting to get up there
.
I have yet to find somethingthat is that true silver bullet
that handles everything.
There never will be because,again, a tool is a tool.
It serves a specific purpose.
The only all-purpose tool thatI know of is humans.
(25:44):
We're the only ones that can doit all.
It's more about picking outthose things that make the most
difference for your business.
I want to be customer facingwith the people that I work with
.
I don't want to sit in a backroom and do financial reports,
so I pick for my business robusttools that have large-scale
(26:09):
financial reporting behind it,so that I don't have to worry
about those things.
Same thing with my businessdevelopment pipeline excuse me
trying to get those sort of setin line so that they work very
smoothly, so that I can spendtime with my wife and my
children.
At the end of the day, I don'thave to worry about having to
deal with what would typicallybe referred to as back room type
(26:31):
of tasks that need to becompleted.
So be mindful of what thosetools do for you so that you
know where it's applying to yourbusiness and where you, as a
business owner or an employee ina small business, are really
getting the biggest bang foryour buck.
Casey Farmer (26:50):
So we've now talked about different tools.
You know business owner.
Let's talk about a businessowner who they kind of have
their tools arranged, they haveslowly implemented them, added
them into their business.
Now comes the training andsupport for their team.
Let's go down that line.
Ryan Halloran (27:06):
Yes, so we talk about change management.
So the idea of we have a tool.
We either have and we havechange coming into our
organization either new peopleare entering and so I need to
get them up to speed, or I havea new tool that's entering and I
need to get the people in myorganization up to speed on this
(27:27):
new tool, for whatever it is,and so largely it's referred to
as change management.
So let's talk about the firstone, which is I have a new
person coming in and trainingWell, a couple of different ways
to be able to approach that.
A lot of these organizations,these tool providers, actually
have training sessions that gowith their solutions.
(27:48):
So you have the ability to goout either to their website or
to YouTube or wherever, and youcan find produced videos and
other instructional materialsthat can be used by those
business owners to get thoseemployees on board relatively
quickly.
Now, remember, most software isconfigured and customized in
some form or fashion, so as abusiness owner, you are going to
(28:09):
have to sit with that person atsome point in time.
Now, if you're lucky to havemultiple people, you may also
have the opportunity to takeanother employee and say hey,
you're one of my top performers.
I need you to sit with this newperson and really kind of walk
them through the ins and outs ofhow this may work, but leverage
a lot of what the collateralthat is out there already, that
(28:32):
these solution providers alreadygive to us as consumers of
their tools.
The other side of it, which maybe inputting a new tool into
your existing operation, yourexisting business, you need to
start thinking about what doesthat tool do, not only to my
organization but to my customers, and so very often what I see
(28:54):
is business owners who go myorganization.
I know what it's going to do tomy business, but I'm not
necessarily taking the time tothink through what does this
change do to my customers?
So, as a business owner, youthink about it.
This is the goal and objective.
I know that this is what I needit to do.
(29:15):
I know that I'm going to makethis software change.
I'm going to implement itduring my slow season, which is
and I'm just going to make thisup it's June of the year, so
it's summertime.
People are not really doing awhole bunch of business with me,
so June it is, and then I'mgoing to do it in off hours so
that there's nobody coming intomy business to actually transact
(29:35):
at that time.
So perfect, I've got it allworked out, everything is good,
we're ready to go.
But what is your customerthinking?
Think about your local businessdry cleaner, coffee shop places
of that nature.
How many times have we seen thecash register that used to sit
on the counter All of a suddenis now a square or a stripe
(30:00):
terminal where they're touchscreening and they flip it
around?
And here you are right, and asbusiness owners, sometimes we
don't think about that.
We may have customers thatdon't necessarily know how to
interact with that.
So how are we slowing down ourprocesses and making sure that
we, a are letting our customersknow that there is a change
(30:20):
coming, and then, b, how are weprepared to help people our
customers specifically who mayhave trouble dealing with those
solutions that we put in place?
And not to pick on anyone by anystretch, there was a gentleman
in my local dry cleaner theother day who was struggling
with the touch screen for thecheckout process using and for
(30:45):
this case it was a squareterminal and nothing against
square we use them all the time,but just this individual was
having a tough timeunderstanding how those things
work and that was okay.
But having someone who's ableto help that individual go
through that process Only whatyou do for your clients.
When you have one of youremployees or you as a business
(31:08):
owner who's willing to come tothe other side of that counter
and stand next to someone and go, it's okay, let me help you
with this process, and so nowyou're prepared for that.
So making sure that you areevaluating not just what is good
for you as a business owner, asyou put a tool in, but also
what's good for your clientele,is almost, if not more,
(31:30):
important than what it is foryou.
Casey Farmer (31:32):
And what you just mentioned goes beyond just
training your team or providingsupport.
It has to do with your cultureit does.
What kind of culture are youbuilding within your team to
empower your employees to makethose decisions on the spot and
help a customer when they seethem?
Ryan Halloran (31:47):
Think about the circumstances that you've been
in when you go into retail, aprofessional service, whatever
place that is.
Think about the experiencesthat you have.
We all remember the really badexperiences and we all remember
the really good experiences.
Don't you want to be thatreally good experience for your
customers?
(32:07):
I mean, really, isn't that whatwe're all striving for Now?
Let's be fair, we're not allgoing to have those.
It's not every day, is not goingto be rainbows and unicorns,
but we do know, I know right,but we do know that people
remember those positiveengagements that they have,
especially with those smallbusinesses.
And so many of those smallbusinesses think about the knock
(32:28):
on effect of oh, I have aGoogle business page or I have a
Yelp page or I have a Facebookpage for my business, and
somebody's out there, you know,typing in a review that says,
hey, this really was a difficultexperience with this place
because of X, y or Z type ofengagement that I had with that
business.
(32:48):
It's not what we need as smallbusiness owners.
We need to be doing our verybest and, of course, we're
always going to have thosepeople that have a problem, but
we need to be doing our verybest to try to give whatever we
can.
Casey Farmer (33:02):
So let's talk about why.
Why it could be a detriment toyour business to only have one
person on your team trained on atool or a service.
What kind of harm can that do?
Let's say like I am out of thecountry and I'm the only person
who knows how to do said tooland we have a business owner
(33:22):
that needs help with doing that.
Ryan Halloran (33:23):
I think you hit the nail right on the head
already.
You know, so many times out incorporate America you hear the
hit by the bus rule or the beertruck rule, right, you know,
whoever understands it gets hitby the beer truck.
Or they win the lottery andthey're gone tomorrow, right,
it's exactly that.
It's that knowledge of how thattool operates, how it
integrates the information thatgoes through it, how that
(33:45):
impacts you as a business owner,how it impacts your customers,
and as soon as they walk out thedoor, all that knowledge goes
out the door too.
So cross training is usuallythe term that we hear.
Cross training people ondifferent portions of the tools
that are inside of your business, different elements of the jobs
that they work, not just evenfrom technology, but also from
(34:06):
the business and the operationsthat they do.
Cross training people so thatthey understand how things work.
It is a stop gap or a riskmanagement aspect of how you
implement these solutions andkeep them moving, because, lord
knows if I'm winning, thepowerball happens for me.
Casey Farmer (34:22):
Don't call you.
Ryan Halloran (34:23):
Audio.
Casey Farmer (34:25):
And what I'll mention, what I'll add to that,
what we do here at BBB.
That, I think, is an additionalavenue.
I think cross training is great,but for every process and
procedure that we have hereinternally, we have a standard
operating procedure for said youknow, whatever it is, even with
tools and different things thatwe utilize, though, like I'm
(34:45):
not going to tell somebody, foran example, I'm not going to
tell somebody how to you know,be creative or do a graphic
design, or take show them how totrain through Adobe, because,
like you mentioned, you can findall of that information online,
sure.
But what I can do is say here'sthe steps and processes I go
through to make sure thatthere's checks, that information
is correct as it's going uponline.
(35:06):
Here's all the things that I doto make sure afterward, like
postings up, and here's all thetaggings and different things
that we do internally, and I'mnot just talking marketing, I'm
talking operations, finances.
If I had to go do something inoperations today, I might not be
the expert as the person who'ssitting in that seat, but with
the standard operatingprocedures we have in place, I
can follow it and figure it out.
Ryan Halloran (35:25):
You'd be shocked how many businesses don't have
written down procedures, and Iunderstand that they can be time
consuming to put together.
But it's two pieces.
That is what you've alreadytalked about, which is the idea
of hey, if somebody isn't here,I can still run this aspect of
(35:46):
my business.
But part two is also now.
Let's bring this all the wayback to the beginning of our
conversation.
It also helps you understandhow your business operates and
it helps you understandpotential pain points.
A standard operating procedureis a fantastic document to have
for a variety of differentreasons.
(36:07):
So make sure that, if you dohave either business partners or
you have employees who areresponsible for different
aspects of your business, please, if you know someone who knows
how to write a really goodstandard operating procedure,
wink, wink, nudge, nudge it istantamount keeping your business
up and moving.
(36:28):
If, for some reason, somethinghappens, we always see this,
especially with small businesses.
It comes first and sometimes wehave to duck away from what we
do and we rely on the peoplethat we work with to help keep
that business moving forward.
Do them a favor Take an hour ortwo, turn the ball game on.
(36:52):
You know you're out at soccerpractice for your kids Sit there
with a laptop.
If you have one or a piece ofpaper and a pen and just write
out the things even if it's justwhat you do on a daily basis,
and the steps that go with them,even if they're high level
those things really have abenefit, because now you're
thinking about, well, whathappens if the disaster happens,
(37:15):
but also how does my businesswork?
Casey Farmer (37:18):
And you might find and I think a lot of people can
relate to this when you'rewriting a standard operating
procedure, that you've gotten sointo the routine of doing it.
It's really not that difficultto put it together because
you've already got it in yourmind how that process works.
But then you might also findlike, oh, for the past three
times I've done this, I haven'tdone this one crucial step that
I it just it left my mind and Iwas just, you know, on a roll
(37:41):
and here's all the things.
But now you've got it in youroperating procedure and if you
look back at that I'll be atleast on a quarterly basis and
make sure it's up to date, tomake sure that any changes that
you have in that procedure, itcan really be helpful.
Ryan Halloran (37:55):
Imagine the times that when you don't do those oh
, I missed steps six of eight,right, while you're doing it it
doesn't really make a bigdifference in that moment.
But then go back to hey, let'ssay it was a social media post
or it was an advertisement.
How much business did I loseoff of that?
How much visibility did I notreceive because I forgot that
(38:16):
particular step?
You never know who is, who iswhere and when they may see you.
So it's important to followthose steps regularly, really
from a measurement perspective.
Again, if we hit thatoperations perspective, it
really is necessary for us tomake sure that when we do things
, we do them as close to thesame as possible, so that we
(38:38):
understand what is and isn'tworking for our businesses.
Casey Farmer (38:41):
So it's a great opportunity to lean down a
procedure too.
Ryan Halloran (38:44):
Absolutely.
Casey Farmer (38:45):
Because you might be doing 20 steps when we can
get it done in 10.
And those extra 10 steps reallyaren't needed for whatever
reason.
Ryan Halloran (38:52):
And think about the things that you could be
doing with the time.
Casey Farmer (38:54):
Other way.
So it's like I'm going to do anextra 10 steps and it's amazing
.
Ryan Halloran (38:58):
And again, one of the things that my organization
works on is process improvement, Part as part of operations.
But process improvement If Ihear one more person say to me
well, this is the way we'vealways done it, Okay, I
appreciate that.
However, doesn't mean that wealways go to do it that way.
Casey Farmer (39:17):
Well, since 2020, there should I'll be.
I'm just going to say it, I'mgoing to lay it out.
Nobody should be saying this isthe way we've always done it,
because nothing is the same asit really was before.
Yes, it's not.
Nothing is exactly the same.
There are so many changes thatcame out of that and I think
that there were so manyopportunities for even for BBB,
for us to learn and grow andfigure out how to do things
(39:37):
better and differently.
Ryan Halloran (39:39):
The pivots?
Yes, but but the pivots that wehad as organizations.
I've seen two patterns andthey're very obvious, but it's
two patterns.
We've pivoted for COVID andthen we pivoted right back, or
we pivoted and now we'reembracing those changes and we
see that out in the marketplace,in the models that we see
(40:02):
hybrid working, the businessesthat are getting leaner in what
they do.
Now, I grant you that there arepositives and negatives to
leading those things out.
However, there still is a pointwhere we go.
Well, if I lean out over here onthis particular aspect, do I
have the ability to get strongeron this other side?
Because there's more value inthis portion of our operation or
(40:25):
this portion of our sales orthis portion of our technology?
And those are the things that,as business owners, especially
as we grow and scale, those arethe things that we need to be
thinking about.
Just because dollars don't makesense in your business in
portion A today doesn't meanthat reinvesting those dollars
in portion B doesn't make sensefor tomorrow.
(40:45):
It doesn't necessarily meanthat cutting is always the right
thing to do.
Sometimes you have to look andpivot to where the marketplace
is dictating.
You should be moving.
Casey Farmer (40:58):
And going back to our point on goals, that's an
opportunity for you to shiftyour focus and focus on those
goals Exactly, in developing newdepartments or whatever it is,
new programs, exactly.
Ryan Halloran (41:10):
There's always opportunities that sit there.
It's more a question of howquickly do you want to try to
reach into those things and pullthem forward to today?
I will tell organizations on aregular basis that just because
there's something that's outthere that you can see as a goal
doesn't mean you should betrying to pull it into today.
Sometimes things are meant tobe six months, a year or two
(41:31):
years out, because they give yousort of that northern, that
northern star, that sort ofguiding light to where you're
trying to go.
It's important to have thosethings, and sometimes you just
have to wait for those things toarrive.
So if you've got the secretsauce, don't mess with it, just
let it be.
Casey Farmer (41:49):
I love that.
Yeah, all right, so let's wrapit up in a bow.
We've talked all about tools.
What would be your kind ofthree takeaways for a small
business that are listening tothis podcast today or watching
it on YouTube or listeningwherever?
Ryan Halloran (42:01):
Three.
You really want this in three.
Casey Farmer (42:02):
Three, let's do three, let's do three or five.
Ryan Halloran (42:05):
Let's do shorter.
Casey Farmer (42:07):
Let's try to hit the three.
Okay, let's try to hit thethree, let's three.
Ryan Halloran (42:12):
Number one understand your operation and
your process.
Before you go looking for tools, Always make sure that you
understand that opportunity.
Casey Farmer (42:21):
Don't buy 15 tools .
Ryan Halloran (42:23):
Day one yes, listen to KC.
Casey Farmer (42:25):
No, that's you.
You said that I teed you, Icued you up.
Ryan Halloran (42:30):
I was trying to make it so that you said it, not
me.
So that's number one, know youroperation.
When you choose to purchase atool, make sure you are clear
with the goals and objectivesthat you want that tool to be
able to accomplish for you.
Lastly, make sure that you arealways going back and looking,
(42:53):
auditing, validating that thesolutions that you've chosen are
the right ones for yourbusiness and that they continue
to align to the goals andobjectives you have for your
business.
Casey Farmer (43:05):
So for anybody listening today who wants to
connect with you, wants to seemaybe if you are a good fit.
What kind of businesses do youtypically work with?
Ryan Halloran (43:13):
I run the gamut, as we had talked about.
Casey Farmer (43:16):
Sure.
Ryan Halloran (43:17):
I have organizations that I work with
from the western Europe all theway out to the west coast of the
United States Literallyeverything from a Pilates studio
to a bakery, to a large scalemanufacturing firm, to a we'll
(43:39):
call it a waste managementorganization.
So we run the gamut and it's awonderful thing because it gives
us an opportunity to learn andunderstand how so many different
types of businesses operate.
And it's fun for us.
We love what we do because weget to help so many different
types of people that are in avariety of different situations
(44:02):
and it's sort of like theRubik's Cube of business.
We get to go in and start tolook at how it's laid out and
sort of try to reset it as bestas possible for those business
owners.
So we love what we do.
By all means, if you have aquestion, we're not a nickel and
dime firm.
We want what's best, not onlyhere for our local community
here in Oklahoma City, butobviously across our country.
(44:24):
Whatever we can do to helpothers is where we want to be.
Casey Farmer (44:27):
So where's the best place people can connect
with you?
Ryan Halloran (44:30):
Sure, redstarconsultingllccom will be
the best place to find us, or,as always, you can reach out to
me personally, ryan Halloran, atRedStarConsultingLLCcom or on
my phone number, 405-625-3559.
I would be happy to talk toanyone that would like to speak
about this topic.
Casey Farmer (44:52):
And for anyone listening today, linked down in
the show notes, I will have allthat information so you don't
have to like hurry up and writethat down.
You can also find Ryan onBBBorg Long time BBB accredited
business.
We met probably in 2019 on thephone.
Ryan Halloran (45:07):
This is our first time actually meeting.
Well, COVID had a little.
Casey Farmer (45:10):
We had a phone call at some point I just
remember, yes, yeah, a long timeago.
So we're so excited that inthat time you've stayed
accredited and been a greatchampion for BBB and what great
businesses do.
So thank you for joining ustoday.
Ryan Halloran (45:22):
We're very proud to be a member of the BBB.
It's one of the things that we,when we started our business
you know five years ago that wewere very pointed in making sure
that we did.
I can't tell you how many ofour clients go and look at that
accreditation as they engage us,start to engage us.
So we are very appreciative ofwhat you and your organization
do for our community here inOklahoma City and at large.
(45:43):
So keep up the great work andwe're super, super thrilled to
be here today.
Thank you so much for having us.
Casey Farmer (45:49):
Yeah, also, link down below is an awesome
checklist that you put together.
Yes, so do you want to talk alittle bit about that?
Ryan Halloran (45:56):
Sure, just really quickly.
So the first few points that wetalked about today little more
summarized that help you sort ofgo through those phases of
trying to make good decisions,audit your systems and make sure
that you're moving in the rightdirection with those tools and
systems that you're looking for.
Have a look, use it, print itout, make sure that you refer to
on a regular basis.
By all means, please feel freeto use it.
(46:17):
You know it's one of thosethings that we hold close to our
heart in the work that we do.
So please, you know, use it,and we hope that it is a value
to your organization.
Casey Farmer (46:26):
Super helpful and you're getting some awesome tips
from seasoned business owners,so I appreciate that, ryan,
thank you for listening today,everyone, to the build with BBB
podcast.
You can connect, share, likeall the things.
Make sure to connect with Ryanand BBB at BBB Central.
Okay, we will see you in thenext episode.
Bye, friends.
My clients will say look, I've got all.
I've got all of these differenttools.
How do I know which one's right?
I don't have time.
Casey Farmer (00:25):
Hey there, welcome back to the build with BBB
podcast.
I'm your host, casey Farmer,here with Ryan Halloran of Red
Star Consulting.
Ryan, welcome to the podcast.
Ryan Halloran (00:33):
Thank you very much for having me.
I appreciate it.
Casey Farmer (00:35):
And I think our viewers probably don't know you,
so let's learn all about you,red Star Consulting and what you
do.
Ryan Halloran (00:41):
Wonderful.
So, as you said, my name isRyan Halloran.
I'm the founder and CEO of RedStar Consulting.
We are a technology andoperations organization that
focuses specifically on smallbusinesses and trying to work
with them to help them find thebest ways to be able to generate
and drive revenue not only fortheir business but also for the
(01:02):
opportunities with their clientsto improve and really drive
that sort of technology andoperations focus into the
community.
Casey Farmer (01:10):
So for anybody who heard that kind of like
overview spiel, what Iunderstand it to be when we
first met in person today, eventhough we've known each other
for some time, you do a lot ofdifferent things.
It's not it's really not justone or the other.
You've got some experience inradio and so you're excited to
be here today and you've workedat what we call corporate
(01:32):
America, so today we're going tobe talking about different
tools for small businesses andhow to evaluate whether that's
worth it not worth it.
Do you want to talk about that?
Ryan Halloran (01:41):
Sure, absolutely so.
Really, the foundationalaspects that we work with when
it comes to our clientele istrying to sort of steer them
away from just the tool and thetooling for their business and
more into what is your operationand how does your business work
and helping them make gooddecisions so that they are not
(02:03):
relying completely on thetechnology to really run their
business.
And this is why this is one ofmy favorite topics is so many of
the customers that we work with, the clientele that we have
they?
They dive down this rabbit holereally quickly into technology
and I need a tool and I saw thisin a commercial and this is
(02:23):
amazing.
And the first question thatwill always come out of my mouth
is great, what does it do foryou?
And they will start to stutterover their own words, they will
not be able to answer thequestion and I will very quickly
say, ok, let's talk about whatit is you're really looking to
(02:44):
accomplish for your business.
Tools are great.
We all have tools every singleday, right, we have tools in our
kitchen, we have tools in ourcar, we have phones and
computers, but those are toolsto help us do other things,
accomplish other goals.
We use those tools because theymake things easier.
But we wouldn't be using thosetools if it wasn't for the job
(03:08):
that we're trying to accomplish.
So until you understand what itis the job that you're trying
to accomplish, it's really hardto pick a tool.
Why would you bring a, asledgehammer, to you?
Know a, a concert, you know aconcert with you know violins
and orchestra and things thatthose two things don't go
(03:30):
together wrong tools.
Understand where you're gettingto first, then choose your
tools.
That makes sense, it does.
Casey Farmer (03:37):
So what criteria should a small business use to
evaluate?
You know where do I even start.
What should I even startlooking at?
What's the first step?
Ryan Halloran (03:45):
So first step is always always has to be looking
at your own business first.
What are the pain points thatI'm having?
Where is it that I'm notspending enough time in the
relationships with my customers?
Or where am I spending too muchtime sitting behind a computer
and not out doing things thatactually have positive impact to
(04:06):
my total revenue, my totalsales?
What is my sales pipeline?
Those types of things.
Looking internally to yourbusiness and saying where are my
pain points?
And being willing and honestenough with yourself as a
business owner or someone whoparticipates in the business
because, let's be fair, there'slots of people who don't like to
look at the dirty laundry inthe back room of their business
(04:29):
Really taking an honest look atwhere those pain points are.
Then, once you look at thosepain points, starting to decide
all right, I've got three, maybefour areas that I need to work
on Genuinely.
They're impacting my customers,they're impacting my ability to
be productive, whatever thatnegative thing is and try to
(04:50):
work through how do I try toresolve those things.
And we're not even to the toolsyet Now.
We're just talking about,operationally speaking, how do I
want to resolve those problems?
So you go from pain point to.
How do I actually want to fixthat problem?
Is it even something thatrequires a tool, or is it
(05:12):
something with people?
Is it something that requiresdollars?
Is it something that justrequires time and trying to
figure out what the rightdirection is for those things?
Casey Farmer (05:22):
So let's say I'm a small business owner and I'm
even overwhelmed trying tofigure out what pain points I
have going to call you how doyou maybe guide a small business
through looking at that?
Ryan Halloran (05:33):
It's excellent question and thanks for stealing
my business model.
So really, the end game of thisis the concept of walking
through your day today.
A lot of people will say, well,focus on your balance sheet
what's my P and L?
And start to look at thedollars and cents.
(05:54):
Tell a lot of stories, but theydon't necessarily tell the
whole story.
I usually will instructorganizations or business
leaders, business owners, tolook at two different things.
One where are you spending themost time on a day to day basis?
Are you spending time in theplaces that give you the most
return into the valuation ofyour business, whether that is
(06:15):
with your people, with yourclients?
Is it creating product?
Whatever?
That is right.
So this part one.
Part two is what about yourclients?
Talk to your clients.
What are the problems that theysee that you have?
Sometimes?
Having that external perspectiveon your organization is huge.
It shows two sides One, thatyou have a desire to understand
(06:39):
what your organization lookslike to the people on the
outside, but it also has theperspective of you as a client.
I value your opinion, I want tohear what you have to say about
what I'm doing, and you'd beamazed how many clients, when
they engage their clientele, getgreat information back from the
(06:59):
people that they're servicing.
Hey, you know, just for anexample, the checkout process is
very slow.
Or you know, what you'reproviding to me in this
particular product is sort ofsubstandard.
It used to be better and nowit's substandard.
I don't feel like I get enoughcontact or information from you
in order for me to be best atwhat I do.
(07:20):
So a lot of times that's whereyou'll find those pain points
too.
So usually when I first engagea client, it's those two sides.
It's looking at yourself andlooking at where the pain points
are that you feel, but thenalso engaging your clients at
the same time.
Casey Farmer (07:35):
So where I take that info is then?
You know, last year, at the endof 2023, might have been a time
that small businesses weresending out surveys or looking
for information from theirclients, so this is a great time
to look at that and implementit.
Ryan Halloran (07:51):
Yes, absolutely it is.
So I guess the question I wouldask, though, is is like, when
you hear those surveys, right,what are people doing with the
information that's there?
So those, those surveys thatcome back, you have to really
take those, and take them with agigantic grain of salt.
Right?
There's that standard bellcurve.
You throw away the top five andthe bottom 5%, and then you
(08:11):
start to look at the trendsinside of that survey
information, and what does itreally tell you?
And so many people tend to getwrapped up in the information or
the huge positives or the hugenegatives that come into the
surveys, and it sort of divertsthem from what the critical
issues are.
Look for the patterns in thatdata.
Look for the information whereyou're seeing people saying the
(08:34):
same thing over and over again,or where what you're seeing in
those surveys matches what youfeel like is one of those pain
points we were talking about amoment ago, and now you sort of
have data to back up thedirection that you should be
taking with your business.
Casey Farmer (08:50):
So I've had a meeting internally.
We've kind of looked at thedata we figured out.
Here are the top three painpoints of my business.
Then I go on a little Googlesearch and I find that there are
a thousand tools that solvesaid problem that I'm facing in
my business.
What do you do from there?
Ryan Halloran (09:07):
You just get all of them.
Casey Farmer (09:08):
You do.
All of them Sign up for everysubscription, every single one
of them.
Ryan Halloran (09:13):
It doesn't matter , you can just try all of them.
So, joking aside, so you'reabsolutely correct.
The next place that we go, allthe time, clients will say look,
I've got all of these differenttools, how do I know which ones
?
Right, I don't have time to gothrough all of these different
things.
I'm running a business, I'm notrunning a technology firm,
(09:37):
absolutely correct.
So you have a couple of options.
First thing is remember theproblem.
Always start with your whyRemember the problem?
Then, when you look at thetools, make sure that you
understand what does that toolactually do?
My dad worked for IBM for 40years, over 40 years, and he'll
(09:59):
probably get mad at me if hefinds out that I shared this
with him.
But when I graduated fromcollege what seems like four
score and seven years ago, heimparted several pieces of
advice.
He was a programmer, and sowhat he would say to me all the
time is Ryan, I can make acomputer do anything, but if you
(10:20):
don't tell me what you want itto do, I can't make it do
anything.
And so for me, it always spursthe thought of yes, there are
tools, but what is that toolactually going to do for you.
So you have to go a layerdeeper.
If you go to a website for anytool, they're gonna tell you
(10:41):
that it can colonize Mars.
It can take you to Tahititomorrow.
If you're looking for it,they'll tell you it can solve
every problem under the sun.
My suggestion to my clients isagain twofold, and usually
there's more to it than justmaybe those two, but the two
primary areas are do yourresearch.
(11:01):
There's plenty of places thatyou can go to look at, evaluate
different tools that are outthere in the marketplace.
Place number one go out to theweb, obviously, google search.
Find reviews where people arewilling to give feedback about
the different tools that arethere.
The second place, and this iswhere I even I go right I'm a
(11:23):
small business owner too.
I pick my own tools Of all theplaces in the world YouTube you
would be shocked how much is outthere and less from a review
perspective, but more from ademonstration perspective, where
people will actually takesoftware that they have and they
will demonstrate to you howthey use it for specific
(11:44):
situations.
So you have an opportunity tosee for yourself, through these
demonstrations, how they maptogether.
Here's my problem that I'mexperiencing, and then here's a
problem that someone else isexperiencing.
That may not be exactly thesame, but let's see how they
decided to address it and let'ssee if there's some I hate to
(12:06):
use this word synergy to putthose things together.
So there's those opportunitiesthat are there as well.
Lastly, which this one is alittle bit, you know, a little
bit harder to run with, a littlebit, but there are so many of
these organizations, thesesoftware providers, that if you
engage their sales organizationit's free to use as a small
(12:28):
business owner.
Ask them a variety of questions, not just hey, I have a problem
with X, how would your softwarehandle this?
But then also ask for areferenceable clients, ask that
business, that tool owner.
I'd like to have a conversationwith one of your clients that
(12:48):
has a similar problem to mineand I'd like to hear how they
use your software to addressthat problem.
And you'd be shocked how manyof those sales organizations are
more than happy to get you onthe phone with someone else
because it helps their case for,frankly, selling you the
software and the solution thatthey have.
So there's a variety ofdifferent places to go.
Casey Farmer (13:12):
So in those conversations let's say that you
have you get to ask the personwho's already using the software
questions.
Do you have recommendations onwhat a small business owner
should ask that person using thesoftware?
Ryan Halloran (13:24):
Be as direct as possible.
Casey Farmer (13:26):
Don't beat around the bush.
Ryan Halloran (13:27):
No, do not.
I mean really, at the end ofthe day, how often do you get to
speak with somebody who's alsoa business owner that probably
is not going to be in the samespace that you are, but is
willing to give you informationabout how they tackled certain
problems about theirorganization?
Most people, especially insmall business, they don't want
to give away the secrets, don'tsay anything.
(13:48):
This is I don't want to giveaway my competitive advantage,
but in reality, a lot of theseother organizations.
They're willing to give thatinformation up, just like we.
As a consultancy, part of whatI do is to take the learnings
from other clients and applythem forward.
Same concept here thesecompanies that you will call on.
They will directly tell youthis is how it should do, this
(14:11):
is how it should work, this isthe problem that we were having.
It saved us this much money,this much time, and they will be
very direct with you.
So be direct with them.
Ask them those specificquestions, give them scenarios,
tell them the pain points thatyou're having and let them try
to give you some direction aswell.
Why not use as much of theresources at your fingertips as
you can?
(14:32):
There's a variety of differentthings that are there.
And so before pulling thetrigger the proverbial trigger
on actually purchasing andimplementing a solution, you
need to be very clear as to whatthe return on that investment
is.
And everybody knows ROI, but itreally is important and it
doesn't necessarily have to bedollars and cents, but it does
(14:52):
need to make sense.
And if you cannot reasonably,rationally articulate what that
return is really, you shouldn'tbe considering that solution at
all.
You'd be shocked how many timesI will tell business owners go
talk to your spouse, go talk toyour employees, do a temperature
(15:13):
check, do a reality check, seewhat they have to say, explain
to someone else yourunderstanding of that tool and
what it does and how it willbenefit your business, and you'd
be surprised how many timesother people may be able to poke
holes in it.
Casey Farmer (15:31):
Do you often see that small business owners have
an array of tools that theymaybe are underutilizing or
maybe don't need at all?
Ryan Halloran (15:38):
Every single day.
It's the old expression deathby a thousand paper cuts.
I see leaking organizationsthat have dollars and cents
going out the door every day,every month, every year, on
tools, subscriptions, otherthings that they don't use or
they underutilize them to apoint where having them really
(15:59):
isn't necessary.
So you need to be able to againgo back to the why.
Why did I purchase this tool?
Let's be fair.
I did this a week and a halfago.
I looked at a subscription thatI had to a particular software
vendor, who I won't talk about.
Absolutely fine, what they do,no problem.
Casey Farmer (16:17):
We're not dragging anybody through the mud.
Ryan Halloran (16:19):
Not at all.
They serve their purpose in thetime that I needed them, and
then, all of a sudden, I'mseeing them pop up on my
financials and I'm going wait aminute, so we're not immune to
it.
all of us get tied up in theoperation of our business, so
make sure that you are regularlyauditing.
What do I have in my technologystack, what are the things that
(16:41):
I have that I use and what do Ineed to keep, what do I need to
get rid of?
And maybe there's something inthere that needs to be adjusted.
So many of these solutions havedifferent levels of
subscriptions, right, talk aboutyour Netflix or your Apple or
whatever.
You can get the basic $5, orhere's the 9.99 a month, and
(17:04):
then here's the 14.
So a lot of these solutionshave that, and that should also
be something not that you justconsidering as a part of an
audit, but also as you'reselecting the solution as well.
Make sure that you're pickingthe right level of solution as
you're going through thatprocess of engaging with
whatever that solution set is.
Casey Farmer (17:23):
How do you and I know we're going a little off
track, but how do you decidewhat level of this like?
Should you just start baseline,or do you start at the highest
here and work your way down?
Do you have a solution for thator an idea for that?
Ryan Halloran (17:35):
So the rule of thumb less is more.
Ciao, let's be fair.
How many people have gone andgotten their cable service or
their satellite TV service andthey sell you on the?
Well, you'll get three freemonths of the movie channels,
(17:56):
but then it's on you to call upsaid provider and to cancel
those things at the end of thethree months.
It's really hard to do andusually it doesn't happen until
they ding you at least once onyour bills.
Casey Farmer (18:10):
And you forget about it and then you think, oh,
I'll call and cancel it, andyou're like man, I don't really
want to call and have to cancel,like I totally understand that.
Ryan Halloran (18:18):
So welcome to the same thing that happens with
software for small business, andeven I should, and I should
qualify.
It's not even necessarily justsoftware, it's the solutions
that are there as well.
Always start basic.
It is very.
Trust me every business, everysolution provider, they'll be
more than happy to take more ofyour money every day.
Oh, you want to upgrade fromthe $25 a month to the 50.
(18:41):
We will.
You'll see, just like that.
You're now our platinum tierindeed, and they will gladly
take your cash and off you go.
If you want to downgrade, havefun hanging on with their
technical support or their salesteam for hours on end, because
they don't want to give up thosedollars or online platform, or
(19:02):
your 10 clicks in and are likeare you sure we'll give you 50%
off for the next six months?
or yeah, the AI chatbots thatare now on all the websites that
promise you everything andyou're like, wait a minute, my
name is not, you know, billy Bob, and you know.
But what?
Who?
Who am I talking?
So, yes, it's important rightto start basic and then, as you
(19:24):
start to see that there isadditional need, then start to
upgrade the software, thesolution.
It's the same thing too.
You'll find a lot of theseproviders, a lot of these
solution providers.
They will also be based off ofthe number of users that you
have using the software itself.
A lot of them will start offwith either one user or two
users, and then, as time goes on, depending upon the size of
(19:44):
your business, you may need toadd additional users to it.
Well, again, a lot easier toadd than subtract.
So, start basic, do the basics,move forward with the basics
and then upgrade as necessary.
Casey Farmer (19:58):
And this is an opportunity for you had
mentioned earlier.
You know, evaluate those tools,software, processes, whatever
it is, on maybe a quarterlybasis and maybe, you know, next
quarter, if you decide I want tobump it up to the gold tier or
whatever it is.
Maybe that's the opportunity todo it, read your business.
Ryan Halloran (20:15):
Read your business and where it's going.
What's your pipeline?
What does it look like?
You know there are someorganizations, retail
organizations.
They ramp up what August,september, because they're
trying to get ready for the endof the year rush.
You may need to make those sortof modifications and, depending
upon the software or thesolution, a lot of times they'll
be prepared for you as well.
They'll know that you're goingto be coming back for them.
(20:36):
Hey, I need to bump this upbecause we're in a situation
where we need to add on, youknow, additional labor for the
end of the year and then we'regoing to pull back off of that.
Those software vendors, theyknow those things, they've seen
those trends.
So don't be afraid to sort oflook out into the future and go
do I really need all of thebells and whistles today, or can
(20:58):
I use those for a little timeand then back off of that when I
no longer need it?
So excellent point.
Casey Farmer (21:05):
I want to go down this line and I think this will
tie nicely into our next point.
I'm a brand new business ownerand I have just purchased 15
subscriptions to 15 differenttools that I think are all worth
it and I want to try out andhow do I go about implementing
those into my business?
Awesome.
Ryan Halloran (21:21):
Yeah, awesome, you're going to have a couple of
sleepless nights.
You are probably going to losesome of your hair.
Your kids will not see you fora few days.
Really, at the end of the day,15 different solutions how do I
(21:41):
phrase this nicely?
Everything goes in buildingblocks.
Life in general, when you stopand you think about life,
happens in building blocks, oneon top of another, on top of
another.
To build a house, to build abuilding, you go one floor at a
time.
Yes, there are always going tobe situations where you know
(22:02):
that you're going to needmultiple tools.
You're going to need a website,you're going to need a CRM of
some sort, you are going to needa financial program to help you
with your dollars and cents,you are going to need a task
tracking or task management andwe're not going to go into, like
I said, brands or specifictools, but you know that you're
going to need those things.
(22:23):
But foundationally, as abusiness owner, you can
reconcile those things in yourbrain.
You know that you're going toneed those things.
If you're going out and buying10 or 15 additional tools on top
of what you already have,really consider what that does
to your business.
Let's back this up and let'sgive a real life example.
(22:45):
You're a business owner whodoes retail.
Are you an individual who wantsto add 10 brand new product
lines to your business overnight?
Is that going to be somethingthat you're going to be able to
purchase for successfully?
Are you going to be able tomarket those products
successfully?
How do you price those things?
(23:06):
How do you know when thoseproducts should be sold or when
you should be putting them onsale?
What is the revenue that you'regenerating off this?
It's really hard to know whenwe do things incrementally and
we add on and build slowly.
That's when things work reallywell.
Now let's go to the actualquestion that you asked, which
(23:28):
is I bought 15 new tools.
How do I integrate them?
The direct answer is one by one, pick the solutions that are
the most important to you, whichones are key to your operations
.
Get those tools workingsmoothly well, so that they are
nice and greased and everythingis working smoothly inside of
(23:50):
your business.
Then tag on another one.
When you get that additionalone on, tag another one on.
Then start to slowly build themout.
Be prepared to pivot.
A lot of these solutions arenot just a one-way street.
There's a lot of differentconfigurations, a lot of
different models to them.
It's very important that youare open-minded about what you
(24:14):
may or may not be able to dowith some of those tools.
As you consider your directionforward, be prepared to pivot,
add on slowly and surely andyou'll see them all start to
come together.
You may also need additionaltools that you don't have in
your 15 tools that you'vealready purchased, because not
every single tool talks to eachother.
(24:35):
Be aware that there are toolson the market that will help
solutions speak with each other.
Just know that you're startingto creep into needing some more.
That isn't as easy asplug-and-play.
Casey Farmer (24:54):
I ask you that question for the reason that
sometimes a small business ownercan be inundated with
information, whether they'veattended different trainings.
They're like, oh, I need to getthis tool, I need to get this
tool, I need to do this to makemy operations better, or I need
to do this to get my marketingup to speed.
But, as you mentioned, a toolis not going to fix every
problem that you have withinyour business overnight.
(25:17):
It truly is that, like youmentioned, there's no silver
bullets.
Ryan Halloran (25:22):
I've been doing this for a long time.
I went to college forever agoand I'm starting to get up there
.
I have yet to find somethingthat is that true silver bullet
that handles everything.
There never will be because,again, a tool is a tool.
It serves a specific purpose.
The only all-purpose tool thatI know of is humans.
(25:44):
We're the only ones that can doit all.
It's more about picking outthose things that make the most
difference for your business.
I want to be customer facingwith the people that I work with
.
I don't want to sit in a backroom and do financial reports,
so I pick for my business robusttools that have large-scale
(26:09):
financial reporting behind it,so that I don't have to worry
about those things.
Same thing with my businessdevelopment pipeline excuse me
trying to get those sort of setin line so that they work very
smoothly, so that I can spendtime with my wife and my
children.
At the end of the day, I don'thave to worry about having to
deal with what would typicallybe referred to as back room type
(26:31):
of tasks that need to becompleted.
So be mindful of what thosetools do for you so that you
know where it's applying to yourbusiness and where you, as a
business owner or an employee ina small business, are really
getting the biggest bang foryour buck.
Casey Farmer (26:50):
So we've now talked about different tools.
You know business owner.
Let's talk about a businessowner who they kind of have
their tools arranged, they haveslowly implemented them, added
them into their business.
Now comes the training andsupport for their team.
Let's go down that line.
Ryan Halloran (27:06):
Yes, so we talk about change management.
So the idea of we have a tool.
We either have and we havechange coming into our
organization either new peopleare entering and so I need to
get them up to speed, or I havea new tool that's entering and I
need to get the people in myorganization up to speed on this
(27:27):
new tool, for whatever it is,and so largely it's referred to
as change management.
So let's talk about the firstone, which is I have a new
person coming in and trainingWell, a couple of different ways
to be able to approach that.
A lot of these organizations,these tool providers, actually
have training sessions that gowith their solutions.
(27:48):
So you have the ability to goout either to their website or
to YouTube or wherever, and youcan find produced videos and
other instructional materialsthat can be used by those
business owners to get thoseemployees on board relatively
quickly.
Now, remember, most software isconfigured and customized in
some form or fashion, so as abusiness owner, you are going to
(28:09):
have to sit with that person atsome point in time.
Now, if you're lucky to havemultiple people, you may also
have the opportunity to takeanother employee and say hey,
you're one of my top performers.
I need you to sit with this newperson and really kind of walk
them through the ins and outs ofhow this may work, but leverage
a lot of what the collateralthat is out there already, that
(28:32):
these solution providers alreadygive to us as consumers of
their tools.
The other side of it, which maybe inputting a new tool into
your existing operation, yourexisting business, you need to
start thinking about what doesthat tool do, not only to my
organization but to my customers, and so very often what I see
(28:54):
is business owners who go myorganization.
I know what it's going to do tomy business, but I'm not
necessarily taking the time tothink through what does this
change do to my customers?
So, as a business owner, youthink about it.
This is the goal and objective.
I know that this is what I needit to do.
(29:15):
I know that I'm going to makethis software change.
I'm going to implement itduring my slow season, which is
and I'm just going to make thisup it's June of the year, so
it's summertime.
People are not really doing awhole bunch of business with me,
so June it is, and then I'mgoing to do it in off hours so
that there's nobody coming intomy business to actually transact
(29:35):
at that time.
So perfect, I've got it allworked out, everything is good,
we're ready to go.
But what is your customerthinking?
Think about your local businessdry cleaner, coffee shop places
of that nature.
How many times have we seen thecash register that used to sit
on the counter All of a suddenis now a square or a stripe
(30:00):
terminal where they're touchscreening and they flip it
around?
And here you are right, and asbusiness owners, sometimes we
don't think about that.
We may have customers thatdon't necessarily know how to
interact with that.
So how are we slowing down ourprocesses and making sure that
we, a are letting our customersknow that there is a change
(30:20):
coming, and then, b, how are weprepared to help people our
customers specifically who mayhave trouble dealing with those
solutions that we put in place?
And not to pick on anyone by anystretch, there was a gentleman
in my local dry cleaner theother day who was struggling
with the touch screen for thecheckout process using and for
(30:45):
this case it was a squareterminal and nothing against
square we use them all the time,but just this individual was
having a tough timeunderstanding how those things
work and that was okay.
But having someone who's ableto help that individual go
through that process Only whatyou do for your clients.
When you have one of youremployees or you as a business
(31:08):
owner who's willing to come tothe other side of that counter
and stand next to someone and go, it's okay, let me help you
with this process, and so nowyou're prepared for that.
So making sure that you areevaluating not just what is good
for you as a business owner, asyou put a tool in, but also
what's good for your clientele,is almost, if not more,
(31:30):
important than what it is foryou.
Casey Farmer (31:32):
And what you just mentioned goes beyond just
training your team or providingsupport.
It has to do with your cultureit does.
What kind of culture are youbuilding within your team to
empower your employees to makethose decisions on the spot and
help a customer when they seethem?
Ryan Halloran (31:47):
Think about the circumstances that you've been
in when you go into retail, aprofessional service, whatever
place that is.
Think about the experiencesthat you have.
We all remember the really badexperiences and we all remember
the really good experiences.
Don't you want to be thatreally good experience for your
customers?
(32:07):
I mean, really, isn't that whatwe're all striving for Now?
Let's be fair, we're not allgoing to have those.
It's not every day, is not goingto be rainbows and unicorns,
but we do know, I know right,but we do know that people
remember those positiveengagements that they have,
especially with those smallbusinesses.
And so many of those smallbusinesses think about the knock
(32:28):
on effect of oh, I have aGoogle business page or I have a
Yelp page or I have a Facebookpage for my business, and
somebody's out there, you know,typing in a review that says,
hey, this really was a difficultexperience with this place
because of X, y or Z type ofengagement that I had with that
business.
(32:48):
It's not what we need as smallbusiness owners.
We need to be doing our verybest and, of course, we're
always going to have thosepeople that have a problem, but
we need to be doing our verybest to try to give whatever we
can.
Casey Farmer (33:02):
So let's talk about why.
Why it could be a detriment toyour business to only have one
person on your team trained on atool or a service.
What kind of harm can that do?
Let's say like I am out of thecountry and I'm the only person
who knows how to do said tooland we have a business owner
(33:22):
that needs help with doing that.
Ryan Halloran (33:23):
I think you hit the nail right on the head
already.
You know, so many times out incorporate America you hear the
hit by the bus rule or the beertruck rule, right, you know,
whoever understands it gets hitby the beer truck.
Or they win the lottery andthey're gone tomorrow, right,
it's exactly that.
It's that knowledge of how thattool operates, how it
integrates the information thatgoes through it, how that
(33:45):
impacts you as a business owner,how it impacts your customers,
and as soon as they walk out thedoor, all that knowledge goes
out the door too.
So cross training is usuallythe term that we hear.
Cross training people ondifferent portions of the tools
that are inside of your business, different elements of the jobs
that they work, not just evenfrom technology, but also from
(34:06):
the business and the operationsthat they do.
Cross training people so thatthey understand how things work.
It is a stop gap or a riskmanagement aspect of how you
implement these solutions andkeep them moving, because, lord
knows if I'm winning, thepowerball happens for me.
Casey Farmer (34:22):
Don't call you.
Ryan Halloran (34:23):
Audio.
Casey Farmer (34:25):
And what I'll mention, what I'll add to that,
what we do here at BBB.
That, I think, is an additionalavenue.
I think cross training is great,but for every process and
procedure that we have hereinternally, we have a standard
operating procedure for said youknow, whatever it is, even with
tools and different things thatwe utilize, though, like I'm
(34:45):
not going to tell somebody, foran example, I'm not going to
tell somebody how to you know,be creative or do a graphic
design, or take show them how totrain through Adobe, because,
like you mentioned, you can findall of that information online,
sure.
But what I can do is say here'sthe steps and processes I go
through to make sure thatthere's checks, that information
is correct as it's going uponline.
(35:06):
Here's all the things that I doto make sure afterward, like
postings up, and here's all thetaggings and different things
that we do internally, and I'mnot just talking marketing, I'm
talking operations, finances.
If I had to go do something inoperations today, I might not be
the expert as the person who'ssitting in that seat, but with
the standard operatingprocedures we have in place, I
can follow it and figure it out.
Ryan Halloran (35:25):
You'd be shocked how many businesses don't have
written down procedures, and Iunderstand that they can be time
consuming to put together.
But it's two pieces.
That is what you've alreadytalked about, which is the idea
of hey, if somebody isn't here,I can still run this aspect of
(35:46):
my business.
But part two is also now.
Let's bring this all the wayback to the beginning of our
conversation.
It also helps you understandhow your business operates and
it helps you understandpotential pain points.
A standard operating procedureis a fantastic document to have
for a variety of differentreasons.
(36:07):
So make sure that, if you dohave either business partners or
you have employees who areresponsible for different
aspects of your business, please, if you know someone who knows
how to write a really goodstandard operating procedure,
wink, wink, nudge, nudge it istantamount keeping your business
up and moving.
(36:28):
If, for some reason, somethinghappens, we always see this,
especially with small businesses.
It comes first and sometimes wehave to duck away from what we
do and we rely on the peoplethat we work with to help keep
that business moving forward.
Do them a favor Take an hour ortwo, turn the ball game on.
(36:52):
You know you're out at soccerpractice for your kids Sit there
with a laptop.
If you have one or a piece ofpaper and a pen and just write
out the things even if it's justwhat you do on a daily basis,
and the steps that go with them,even if they're high level
those things really have abenefit, because now you're
thinking about, well, whathappens if the disaster happens,
(37:15):
but also how does my businesswork?
Casey Farmer (37:18):
And you might find and I think a lot of people can
relate to this when you'rewriting a standard operating
procedure, that you've gotten sointo the routine of doing it.
It's really not that difficultto put it together because
you've already got it in yourmind how that process works.
But then you might also findlike, oh, for the past three
times I've done this, I haven'tdone this one crucial step that
I it just it left my mind and Iwas just, you know, on a roll
(37:41):
and here's all the things.
But now you've got it in youroperating procedure and if you
look back at that I'll be atleast on a quarterly basis and
make sure it's up to date, tomake sure that any changes that
you have in that procedure, itcan really be helpful.
Ryan Halloran (37:55):
Imagine the times that when you don't do those oh
, I missed steps six of eight,right, while you're doing it it
doesn't really make a bigdifference in that moment.
But then go back to hey, let'ssay it was a social media post
or it was an advertisement.
How much business did I loseoff of that?
How much visibility did I notreceive because I forgot that
(38:16):
particular step?
You never know who is, who iswhere and when they may see you.
So it's important to followthose steps regularly, really
from a measurement perspective.
Again, if we hit thatoperations perspective, it
really is necessary for us tomake sure that when we do things
, we do them as close to thesame as possible, so that we
(38:38):
understand what is and isn'tworking for our businesses.
Casey Farmer (38:41):
So it's a great opportunity to lean down a
procedure too.
Ryan Halloran (38:44):
Absolutely.
Casey Farmer (38:45):
Because you might be doing 20 steps when we can
get it done in 10.
And those extra 10 steps reallyaren't needed for whatever
reason.
Ryan Halloran (38:52):
And think about the things that you could be
doing with the time.
Casey Farmer (38:54):
Other way.
So it's like I'm going to do anextra 10 steps and it's amazing
.
Ryan Halloran (38:58):
And again, one of the things that my organization
works on is process improvement, Part as part of operations.
But process improvement If Ihear one more person say to me
well, this is the way we'vealways done it, Okay, I
appreciate that.
However, doesn't mean that wealways go to do it that way.
Casey Farmer (39:17):
Well, since 2020, there should I'll be.
I'm just going to say it, I'mgoing to lay it out.
Nobody should be saying this isthe way we've always done it,
because nothing is the same asit really was before.
Yes, it's not.
Nothing is exactly the same.
There are so many changes thatcame out of that and I think
that there were so manyopportunities for even for BBB,
for us to learn and grow andfigure out how to do things
(39:37):
better and differently.
Ryan Halloran (39:39):
The pivots?
Yes, but but the pivots that wehad as organizations.
I've seen two patterns andthey're very obvious, but it's
two patterns.
We've pivoted for COVID andthen we pivoted right back, or
we pivoted and now we'reembracing those changes and we
see that out in the marketplace,in the models that we see
(40:02):
hybrid working, the businessesthat are getting leaner in what
they do.
Now, I grant you that there arepositives and negatives to
leading those things out.
However, there still is a pointwhere we go.
Well, if I lean out over here onthis particular aspect, do I
have the ability to get strongeron this other side?
Because there's more value inthis portion of our operation or
(40:25):
this portion of our sales orthis portion of our technology?
And those are the things that,as business owners, especially
as we grow and scale, those arethe things that we need to be
thinking about.
Just because dollars don't makesense in your business in
portion A today doesn't meanthat reinvesting those dollars
in portion B doesn't make sensefor tomorrow.
(40:45):
It doesn't necessarily meanthat cutting is always the right
thing to do.
Sometimes you have to look andpivot to where the marketplace
is dictating.
You should be moving.
Casey Farmer (40:58):
And going back to our point on goals, that's an
opportunity for you to shiftyour focus and focus on those
goals Exactly, in developing newdepartments or whatever it is,
new programs, exactly.
Ryan Halloran (41:10):
There's always opportunities that sit there.
It's more a question of howquickly do you want to try to
reach into those things and pullthem forward to today?
I will tell organizations on aregular basis that just because
there's something that's outthere that you can see as a goal
doesn't mean you should betrying to pull it into today.
Sometimes things are meant tobe six months, a year or two
(41:31):
years out, because they give yousort of that northern, that
northern star, that sort ofguiding light to where you're
trying to go.
It's important to have thosethings, and sometimes you just
have to wait for those things toarrive.
So if you've got the secretsauce, don't mess with it, just
let it be.
Casey Farmer (41:49):
I love that.
Yeah, all right, so let's wrapit up in a bow.
We've talked all about tools.
What would be your kind ofthree takeaways for a small
business that are listening tothis podcast today or watching
it on YouTube or listeningwherever?
Ryan Halloran (42:01):
Three.
You really want this in three.
Casey Farmer (42:02):
Three, let's do three, let's do three or five.
Ryan Halloran (42:05):
Let's do shorter.
Casey Farmer (42:07):
Let's try to hit the three.
Okay, let's try to hit thethree, let's three.
Ryan Halloran (42:12):
Number one understand your operation and
your process.
Before you go looking for tools, Always make sure that you
understand that opportunity.
Casey Farmer (42:21):
Don't buy 15 tools .
Ryan Halloran (42:23):
Day one yes, listen to KC.
Casey Farmer (42:25):
No, that's you.
You said that I teed you, Icued you up.
Ryan Halloran (42:30):
I was trying to make it so that you said it, not
me.
So that's number one, know youroperation.
When you choose to purchase atool, make sure you are clear
with the goals and objectivesthat you want that tool to be
able to accomplish for you.
Lastly, make sure that you arealways going back and looking,
(42:53):
auditing, validating that thesolutions that you've chosen are
the right ones for yourbusiness and that they continue
to align to the goals andobjectives you have for your
business.
Casey Farmer (43:05):
So for anybody listening today who wants to
connect with you, wants to seemaybe if you are a good fit.
What kind of businesses do youtypically work with?
Ryan Halloran (43:13):
I run the gamut, as we had talked about.
Casey Farmer (43:16):
Sure.
Ryan Halloran (43:17):
I have organizations that I work with
from the western Europe all theway out to the west coast of the
United States Literallyeverything from a Pilates studio
to a bakery, to a large scalemanufacturing firm, to a we'll
(43:39):
call it a waste managementorganization.
So we run the gamut and it's awonderful thing because it gives
us an opportunity to learn andunderstand how so many different
types of businesses operate.
And it's fun for us.
We love what we do because weget to help so many different
types of people that are in avariety of different situations
(44:02):
and it's sort of like theRubik's Cube of business.
We get to go in and start tolook at how it's laid out and
sort of try to reset it as bestas possible for those business
owners.
So we love what we do.
By all means, if you have aquestion, we're not a nickel and
dime firm.
We want what's best, not onlyhere for our local community
here in Oklahoma City, butobviously across our country.
(44:24):
Whatever we can do to helpothers is where we want to be.
Casey Farmer (44:27):
So where's the best place people can connect
with you?
Ryan Halloran (44:30):
Sure, redstarconsultingllccom will be
the best place to find us, or,as always, you can reach out to
me personally, ryan Halloran, atRedStarConsultingLLCcom or on
my phone number, 405-625-3559.
I would be happy to talk toanyone that would like to speak
about this topic.
Casey Farmer (44:52):
And for anyone listening today, linked down in
the show notes, I will have allthat information so you don't
have to like hurry up and writethat down.
You can also find Ryan onBBBorg Long time BBB accredited
business.
We met probably in 2019 on thephone.
Ryan Halloran (45:07):
This is our first time actually meeting.
Well, COVID had a little.
Casey Farmer (45:10):
We had a phone call at some point I just
remember, yes, yeah, a long timeago.
So we're so excited that inthat time you've stayed
accredited and been a greatchampion for BBB and what great
businesses do.
So thank you for joining ustoday.
Ryan Halloran (45:22):
We're very proud to be a member of the BBB.
It's one of the things that we,when we started our business
you know five years ago that wewere very pointed in making sure
that we did.
I can't tell you how many ofour clients go and look at that
accreditation as they engage us,start to engage us.
So we are very appreciative ofwhat you and your organization
do for our community here inOklahoma City and at large.
(45:43):
So keep up the great work andwe're super, super thrilled to
be here today.
Thank you so much for having us.
Casey Farmer (45:49):
Yeah, also, link down below is an awesome
checklist that you put together.
Yes, so do you want to talk alittle bit about that?
Ryan Halloran (45:56):
Sure, just really quickly.
So the first few points that wetalked about today little more
summarized that help you sort ofgo through those phases of
trying to make good decisions,audit your systems and make sure
that you're moving in the rightdirection with those tools and
systems that you're looking for.
Have a look, use it, print itout, make sure that you refer to
on a regular basis.
By all means, please feel freeto use it.
(46:17):
You know it's one of thosethings that we hold close to our
heart in the work that we do.
So please, you know, use it,and we hope that it is a value
to your organization.
Casey Farmer (46:26):
Super helpful and you're getting some awesome tips
from seasoned business owners,so I appreciate that, ryan,
thank you for listening today,everyone, to the build with BBB
podcast.
You can connect, share, likeall the things.
Make sure to connect with Ryanand BBB at BBB Central.
Okay, we will see you in thenext episode.
Bye, friends.
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