September 10, 2025 • 40 mins
Thinking about starting a business or turning your side gig into a full-time venture? This episode is your reality check. Ken Carroll breaks down the myths and hard truths of business ownership — from hidden overhead and late nights to accounting headaches, marketing pitfalls, and competing with established players.
If you’re in it for “more free time” or “easy money,” this episode might talk you out of it. But if you’re serious, prepared, and ready for the grind, you’ll walk away with a clearer picture of what it really takes to succeed.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/startup-failure-stats
https://misterindependent.com/risks-and-challenges-of-starting-a-business/
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/startups-failure-rate/
https://hbr.org/2021/05/why-start-ups-fail
https://www.ruby.com/blog/5-common-challenges-facing-small-business-and-how-to-overcome-them/
To learn how Integris Design can support your business with strategic design and marketing, schedule a consultation at IntegrisDesign.com.
Over The Bull is brought to you by IntegrisDesign.com. All rights reserved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
So you're looking to start that brand new business on
this episode of Over the Bull.
Over the last year, year and ahalf, I've run across a lot of
people who have either started abusiness, thinking of starting a
business, or looking to takethat side gig to something
bigger.
And I find myself watching theones that have jumped into it
(00:32):
flounder, or I have seen othersthat are just getting ready to
make a big mistake and I'mtrying to Yes, this is 100%
counterintuitive to a designagency.
Now, the reason I do it is one,because I know what goes into a
business.
I've started a business.
(00:53):
And the other thing is, is thatI understand that we're trying
to build long term relationshipsand we're trying to educate,
teach people and help guidepeople on this thing we call
life.
Now, if all I'm trying to do issell websites or marketing or
branding or whatever may haveyou, I would be inclined to tell
(01:18):
everybody that walks in my doorthat's the greatest thing in the
world for you to do.
However, it's far from it.
I've seen all kinds of horrorstories, and I can see the train
wreck before it happens, butit's really hard to stop certain
people from hitting that trainwreck.
And honestly, some people are sofar away from it.
(01:39):
what the reality is of businessthat they really are just not
ready.
They've not done enough homeworkon it yet.
So this is intended to helpthose who are thinking of going
into a business, but giving youpause and helping you have that
reality check before you do it.
(02:01):
Yeah, it's not fun, but here atOver the Bull, we're not about
fun.
We're about giving you what youneed.
Okay, so The first one I thoughtwas really interesting is the
myth of free time.
There is no such thing as And Iwould just find that the time
(02:50):
that I wanted to spend with mywife and kids was non-existent.
And so it's a big sacrifice whenit comes to it.
Time is not going to be yourfriend when you start a business
and it's going to be consumingto you.
Now, there's a couple of things.
(03:10):
First thing is, is to realize,okay, I'm willing to sacrifice a
lot of time in order to get thisthing on off the ground.
I'm willing to work weekends.
I'm willing to be up late.
I'm willing to get up tired.
I'm willing to live off coffee.
Now, if you have a business, youalready know this is true.
And so the idea is that you alsowant to make sure that the
(03:35):
person that is, you know, like,for example, my wife, you know,
you want to have a serious talkwith your wife and say, OK, I'm
thinking of starting a business,but this is going to be time
consuming.
It's going to eat intoeverything.
It's going to eat into maybe I'mlate for kids' ballgames.
Maybe I'm not going to makethis.
(03:55):
Or maybe I have to skip churchevery once in a while or
whatever may have you.
But the idea is that you'rethinking that somehow you
starting a business just becauseyou're not punching a clock is
going to give you more freetime.
It's a myth.
And if you try to live thatmyth, it's going to give you
(04:17):
more free time.
you're going to not besuccessful at what you do.
The reason being is, is thatthat myth works at the opposite
spectrum of what the reality is.
So your first checkoff whenyou're thinking about starting a
business is, are you and yoursignificant other ready to
(04:41):
absorb that much time, effort,and energy and basically
sacrifice so much?
in order to give you anopportunity to start the
business that you're in?
If the answer is yes, you justpassed the first part.
So now let's talk about overheadand hidden costs.
Okay, if it's not bad enough,you're not going to get a lot of
(05:02):
sleep.
The other problem you're goingto have is that, especially if
you have a side gig.
Okay, so side gigs are funbecause you can do them when you
want to, how you want to do themor whatever.
And And so it's kind of easy towork the side gig in.
But to go to a full-fledgedbusiness requires you to start
(05:25):
looking at things likeinsurance, possibly payroll.
A lot of you are probablythinking you're going to do the
work yourself.
Then, of course, there aretaxes, licensing.
There's going to be marketing,software, and equipment.
And what you're going to see,especially if you have a side
gig, is that that money that youmake that makes you feel like
(05:48):
you want to do something biggeris going to dwindle away in
overhead.
Now, this really never stops,okay?
So if you're in an industry thatrequires you to have a truck, at
some point you're going to needtruck number two.
You would need driver numbertwo.
If you're in a different field,it's the same thing.
(06:08):
Once you hit those points andwhat you find is that you grow
your revenue, you grow yourrevenue, and then you add more
and then all your net incomegoes away because you're having
to hit that next level ofexpansion.
Now, with each one of thoselayers comes new challenges.
So when you first look at it,you may say, well, I want to do
(06:31):
the work myself.
But that doesn't negate the factthat you're going to have these
other challenges.
And, you know, of course, moneycan equal more time.
What you do is you buy otherpeople's time.
And so if you've got a smallnest egg, you're putting into
your business, then you can havesomeone to maybe help you with
(06:51):
accounting or setting up, youknow, whatever software that
you're going to need for yourbusiness.
But if not, it's on you.
You're going to be reading thosemanuals.
You're going to be diggingthrough it.
And the one thing that I foundout is that it's never the way
that they say it's going to gowhen it comes to setting up a
business.
There's always layers ofcomplexity.
(07:13):
Now, if you're willing to takethat on or have those resources,
in order to set your business upand do it that way, then you're
okay.
But you will have thatadditional overhead regardless.
Now, what I've seen some peopledo is they'll have some money
saved up, but it's nowhere nearwhat they need.
And what they think is, okay,I'm going to start a business.
(07:38):
I'm going to hire this person todo X, Y, and Z.
And then once that happens, thenmore is going to come in.
And then I'll use that money todo business.
next thing.
There's an assumption that justbecause you get things set up or
just because you think you'vegot the greatest idea, it's not
necessarily true.
(07:58):
And even if it is the greatestidea, some people may not
understand it.
And so you need to make surethat you've got enough resources
to where you can weather thestorm or guess what?
It falls back on you.
So if you're there, you passquestion number Number two.
(08:19):
Okay, so let's move on to theactual setup of your business.
Now, we're in marketing anddesign.
This part, I'm telling you justbecause I've gone through it.
The question is, what kind ofstructure do you have for your
business?
Do you want to be a DBA, an LLC?
(08:39):
Do you want to be a corporationout of the gate?
And how are you going to do yourquarterly filings and all the
stuff that goes along with itand make sure that you're
playing by the rules?
based upon how you set yourcompany up.
What's the most beneficial toyou and which gives you the most
protection?
These are questions that areanswered by professionals and
(08:59):
you want to get more than oneidea from a person.
I've talked to many people aboutsetting up business structures
and I found that some people,frankly, don't give very good
advice.
They give advice based upontheir experience and sometimes
their experience is sandboxedinto one solution or sometimes
(09:20):
it's the solution that they dothe most or make the most money
at.
And so they try to push you intodoing that, even though it's not
best for what you.
So you do want to set yourbusiness up in the right way
before you get started.
And you want to make sure thatyour structure is set up and
that you are ready to abide bywhatever regulations as you move
(09:44):
forward.
Now, as a side gig, that's mucheasier.
Now, side gig It doesn't giveyou much protection, and it's
much easier to kind of navigatethose waters.
But when you move to afull-fledged business, you're
going to find out that thecomplexities just get worse, and
(10:04):
you're going to be on a road oflearning for the rest of your
business life.
So do you check off on thatlist?
And if you do, let's move on.
So we talked about late nights.
Okay.
Late nights is just part of thegame.
Now, a lot of times when peoplestart a business, at least from
(10:27):
my experience, they have an ideaor they're really good at
something.
And then what they do is theystart seeing that people want
that.
And then they go, I want to domore of that.
So they get a fulfillment out ofit.
They enjoy it.
They start to grow from it.
And then they start toexperience some freedom.
And then they start to moveforward with it.
(10:49):
And then what they find out isthat, you know, maybe the people
that are in your inner circlelike what you do.
But once you get beyond thatcircle, then you don't sell that
thing so good.
You don't compete so well in themarket.
And so the idea is that yourmarketing efforts, your setup,
(11:11):
your infrastructure andeverything works.
is going to require some trialand error from marketing.
But before we get to themarketing, there's this whole
idea of brand identity andsetup.
And there is a lot of psychologythat goes into the brand name.
And so your brand name needs toresonate with what you're trying
(11:32):
to do and make sense.
And you also need to make surethat you're picking the colors,
choosing the right demographics,building everything toward an
audience, and making sure thatit resonates and works for that
audience.
Now, why that's important isbecause when you get beyond your
(11:52):
inner circle, they don't knowyou.
Now you're moving into thewaters of trying to talk to
someone who doesn't know you.
Just like, you know, if you weretalking to a friend about a
personal issue, it would go overa lot different than if you were
talking to a stranger about thatpersonal issue.
Well, it's the same thing inbusiness, only it's a little
more complicated.
You have to convey a message setup a value proposition and you
(12:18):
need to present yourself in aprofessional fashion in a way
that people will want to engagewith you and trust you.
Now, this is complicated and theidea that you're going to do
this yourself or choose a namerandomly and then be successful
is really stacking the cardsagainst you.
(12:41):
Yes, of course, you're going tofind that example of Apple
computers and some of theseothers.
The problem is that yourimagination is going to be your
enemy because you're going tothink, oh, if these
do-it-yourself situations, if Ican just come up with a name or
my family likes this name orwhatever, and then you find out
(13:04):
you get out of that inner circleand then you drown through those
decisions, well, now you've gotto reform things and redo things
and set things up And so it'sgoing to be very time consuming
to turn the car around and startback on step number one when you
thought you're on step numberfive.
(13:24):
This is where your marketing andbranding comes into play.
And the thing about marketingand branding, there's a lot to
it.
But part of this, too, is it'snot even that part is not going
to be something that you'renecessarily going to enjoy.
So what I mean by that is thecolors that your business needs
(13:50):
to be, the logo that yourbusiness needs, the web address,
the content, how it's framed,your price structure.
All those things are builttoward your customer.
So the idea that you're going tobuild even your branding to meet
(14:12):
what you want it to look likeversus what your customer needs
to see to engage with you couldbe night and day.
And in order to have the bestopportunity, you're going to
need to rely on professionals.
So this will take me to anothersituation.
And man, some of these are hard.
(14:36):
I can like see them in my mindas I'm talking here.
But we had a person that neededsome help with some branding.
And, you know, not a lot ofmoney.
And I have this thing where Ijust love to help out startups
sometimes.
And it's bitten me.
I mean, it's just there's noother word for it.
And so in this one situation,what happened was, was that this
(15:00):
person, through the initialconsultation, we had an
agreement as to the way that thebranding should go that would
make the most sense for what'strying to be accomplished.
Now, where I realize this personprobably couldn't be helped was
when I jumped into aninteractive Zoom design session
(15:22):
and we're sitting there andwe're working on things and at
one point she starts taking herphone, screen grabbing the
monitor and sharing it out withher family and asking their
opinions about colors, logo,positioning and worrying about
(15:43):
the most mundane, irrelevantstuff when it came to her
branding.
And I realized it was notpossible given where this person
was at to be able to stop andsay, it's really not about what
your mom likes.
(16:04):
This is really more about whatyour customers need to see to
have confidence in you.
And even though I tried tonavigate those water and make it
happen.
It simply did not.
And so ultimately, I ended upjust refunding and giving her
everything that we had donebecause there was no helping
(16:24):
this person.
Now, of course we want our wivesand our kids and our dads and
our moms and our uncles andeveryone to look at what we did
and go, well, that's reallygood.
But the minute that you starttrying to serve your family's
expectation, your friend'sexpectation, and not your
customer's expectation is apivotal moment of where you need
(16:49):
to make a decision to what'smore important.
And in business, it's yourcustomers.
It's not friends and loved ones.
So you can imagine theconversations around the table
where, you know, the people thatyou love and trust and share
life with, they start tellingyou that they think that the
designer's out of their mind.
(17:11):
It's not going to work.
Uh, It's not the right way toset things up.
And it'll get you secondguessing.
And a lot of times you'll findyourself, and I've seen like
engineers, some guy, he came tome, this was years ago, he came
to me and said, you know, he wasan analytical guy and he didn't
care, but he wanted to make surethat it worked.
(17:33):
And you found out that he wasthe most subjective person
influenced by his secretary atthe office than he was about
what his customers needed.
And I even went so far in hiscase because I really trusted
the idea he was a type A.
And I ran a case study on ourmoney.
(17:53):
And I wanted to find out whichbranding elements were the most
effective for his industry, whathe was suggesting, or some of
the options that we werecreating.
And overwhelmingly, the one thathe wanted to use failed in
virtually every category.
(18:13):
But he stuck with it.
And he stuck with it because itmet something subjective.
He was appealing to somethingbeyond what business requires
because he needed to scratchthat itch.
And so as you see, when youstart a business, it's not about
you.
The branding is not about you.
(18:34):
The game is about providingservices to people and meeting
their needs.
So trial and error.
So this is the other big thing.
Unless you live in thisindustry, you know, AI is not
going to get you over the goal.
Choosing templates is not goingto get you over the goal.
Going to a cheap freelance siteand have them build you a logo
(18:57):
is not going to get you over thegoal.
There are no shortcuts.
And the worst part is, is evenif you go out and hire somebody
and you think they know whatthey're doing, there are a lot
of people in my industry whosimply do not know what they're
doing they don't have enoughbackground they've not put
(19:18):
enough into it and so you couldhave the best intentions but you
could still find yourself havingto go backwards and reinvent
something and then go throughthe stress of looking at one the
person that you're working withtelling you one thing someone
(19:38):
else telling you somethingdifferent and then you not
knowing which one is righttrying to figure out who's
telling you the truth or who isgiving you the best advice to
set you up for success the mostand so that puts you in a
precarious situation and the sadpart is is that the person
(19:59):
that's talking to you has theirown motivations it's either to
try to take the business fromthe previous person and of
course they're not going to tellyou they're doing a great job if
they're doing that and then yourprevious may not be doing the
right job, and the second personmay be telling you the absolute
truth.
And so having that gut instinctand even making the decision and
(20:21):
having to go backwards, you canimagine the pain that there is
involved in trying to figurethat out, going backwards,
having to stay the courseregardless of what's going on.
You can imagine the toughnessthat goes into that And that's
real.
(20:43):
I can't tell you how many times.
I mean, the whole reason that inour podcast that I decided to
start citating third partysources was because I would find
that some people would come out,basically as one situation, came
out and said that, you know, itwas more of a subjective
(21:04):
decision on something thatunequivocally was objective.
There was a right But becausethis person used certain words
in certain context, it confusedthe person we were consulting
with and it made it difficultfor them to make a decision.
So when I'm giving youinformation on this podcast, I'm
(21:26):
trying to give you reputableresources where it's not Ken
telling you something.
It's something that's known inthe industry.
Now, if you've run into oryou've been in business, one
thing that you're absolutelygoing to know is what I'm
telling you is true.
I'm sure you've had it where theperson comes and says, this
(21:46):
software is going to work magic.
This design is going to workmagic.
And it doesn't.
I guess one of the more recentones I had, so check this out,
was somebody who's doing emailmarketing.
And what happened was, was aperson that does nothing but
email marketing designs,template designs, approached
(22:09):
this person and said, hey, youneed to spend another$1,200
revamping this.
And I looked at it and therewasn't even clarity into what
was going on, but she had thisperson thinking, the designer
had this person thinking that ifshe redesigned her emails that
(22:29):
were sent out, that somehowthat's the problem that needed
to be solved.
It wasn't.
She was trying to sell$1,200worth of email rebranding just
so she could make$1,200.
I mean, there was no logicbehind it.
But as you can see, that makesthings kind of tough when you're
trying to figure out what to dobecause she had a relationship
(22:54):
with this email person.
She liked this person.
And I'm sure there was a rapportthat in some ways was probably
merited.
But it was leading her down thewrong path and cost her another
$1,200 to do it.
So, if you pass that test andyou're to go through that.
Let's move on to the next.
(23:15):
Competing with establishedplayers.
Okay, the thing is, is when youstart out with a fresh new
business, it's not in a vacuum.
You're not going to have thesecompetitors and people are not
going to look at that newwebsite you have, even if it is
aesthetically more pleasing thanpeople that have been around.
(23:37):
That doesn't mean they're goingto use you.
As a matter of fact, if If theother company's been around
longer, they're going to have amuch better shot at getting that
business and keeping thatbusiness than you.
And the reason being is, is theyknow that company.
They work with that company andthey trust that company.
And so even offering things likedeep discounts or whatever may
(24:00):
not help you pull those peopleaway from the gravity of those
established businesses.
And so then what you have to dois you have to start getting
into building your reputationbuilding brand awareness, being
consistent, and spending moneyat it.
So yeah, you're going to spendmoney on marketing just to try
to gain visibility andcredibility.
(24:22):
This requires a significantplan.
This is not going to Google Ads,spinning up an account and
letting it run.
That's not what happens here.
You'll just spend a lot ofmoney.
It requires a lot of thoughtthat goes into it to make sure
that when you're done, thatyou're gaining that visibility,
(24:45):
you're showing your ads to theright market, you're showing
your stuff to the right market,and you're building a
reputation.
Also, let's get real.
Reviews are a big deal.
You start up a brand new Googlebusiness profile and you have
zero reviews, and then yourcompetitor has 75 reviews, 175
reviews or whatever, and he'sgot a 4.9 and you've got a zero,
(25:09):
you also are going to have towork hard at getting reviews.
Your marketing people are notgoing to get you reviews.
And so there's strategies toeven get that ball moving to
begin with.
And so part of that is, is youneed to understand that those
people who you're competingagainst, even if they have a bad
(25:29):
reputation, there's still acertain thing that those
businesses carry with theiraudience to where they still
trust them because it'scomfortable.
It's what they've It's thingsthey've learned to deal with.
And so to work yourself aroundthose things is going to require
a significant marketing plan.
(25:51):
Plus, they may be alsomarketing.
Now, a lot of these olderbusinesses I found, they
actually don't do a lot ofonline marketing in some
business sectors.
This is good because whatthey're doing is resting on what
they've already accomplished.
But it also shows how groundedthey are in the community, too.
And so what we help do is try tohelp navigate through those
(26:15):
processes to build those plansto make sure we're showing up in
the right place.
But you can imagine that if youstart with a website and you
start with just some freelanceor clip art or whatever, you're
going to find yourself justrunning in circles, getting
frustrated, thinking thingsdon't work and not willing to to
(26:39):
go through that.
So can Competing withestablished players is something
else that you're going to haveto deal with if you start a
business.
Are you willing to do that?
Are you willing to be patient,create awareness campaigns, and
slowly start to gain tractionover a period of time?
Because more than likely, that'swhat it is.
Okay, so let's move on.
(27:02):
So if you're there, then great.
You check off on that one.
Now let's talk about the ideathat marketing is
non-negotiable.
Okay, so use whatever analogyyou want, but marketing is
essentially the lifeblood ofyour business.
Good marketing is.
I mean, you can, again, you hirethe wrong person, you're going
(27:23):
to go through a ton of money andget no momentum, no data, no
nothing.
But it's non-negotiable.
You're going to run out offriends and family and people.
And if you're trying to makethat next big step forward,
you're going to need to have aserious effort.
This means no weekendfreelancers.
(27:43):
And this means no big agenciesthat cut corners and they just
give you a lot of shine.
This means finding someonethat's going to really work with
you, talk to you, help you buildthose data points, change
direction, learn and grow.
Now, they may do this all thetime.
(28:05):
Every client that we helpmarketing with, we sit down at
multiple points and we look atthe data.
We look at what we're targetingand we simply say, this is not
working.
This is working.
This is what I think we need tochange.
This is what I think we need tomassage.
This is what competitors aredoing that seems to be working.
(28:25):
We need to adjust this.
And then we get feedback.
And then we bat that back andforth with That's where the
magic is, folks.
Of course, we do all of ourhomework in the beginning.
Of course, we analyze a bunch ofstuff ranging from, well, don't
want to get into the nerd speak,everything from keywords to what
(28:45):
call to actions that they use towhat language they use on their
ads.
Of course, we do all that.
But see, your business is uniqueand you have to carve out that
special uniqueness and presentit in a certain way to where
people will engage.
engage with you and boils downto things even like inconsistent
branding can kill that.
(29:07):
So the idea is that a lot ofbusinesses, they'll start up and
they'll be underfunded or theywill work with people that
doesn't do a good job,basically, or they'll find
themselves lacking patience.
And so then they start and stop.
(29:28):
They do different things, whichkills the machine learning on
online marketing platforms andthey find themselves in this
loop and this is a loop of ofdestruction and so then what
they do is they they cut off thelifeblood of their business or
they cut back on the amount thatthey want to spend on that
lifeblood of their business andas you can imagine less blood
(29:52):
goes to the brain less oxygenand then you know the writings
on the wall for a lot of theseguys and I'm not saying I don't
understand it because I havetalked to so many businesses
who've stepped in this store andthey have been burned, reburned,
(30:12):
promised, whatever may have you,just so that an agency or a
freelancer can build them awebsite and charge them money
and walk away from it.
And so they fall for the salespitch and re-fall for the sales
pitch.
And then they get to a pointwhere like, well, this just
isn't working.
I'm shutting it down.
Now, I can tell you, I looked atan account today and it's a
(30:35):
brand new division within acompany we work with.
When I say that, it's onethey're seriously going after.
And it's doing the same thing.
We're having to build astrategic positioning, even
though they are established inother areas, they're not
established as a true competitorin this one thing.
And so we're going through thepain of trying to figure out how
(30:55):
to stand out from thecompetition in that arena.
And it is painful.
I mean, it is painful to sitdown and having to go through it
and look at the data and say,okay, the data points in this
direction.
Let's go down that direction.
But it's also good to be able tocommunicate and talk and go
through those steps.
(31:18):
So finding someone that'swilling to work with you and
then being able to fund it arereally important aspects.
Because as you can imagine, ifyou come to our agency, for
example, and you want to work onmarket You've got to have an ad
budget and then you've got to beable to pay for that engagement
time because, you know, anagency is time for money just
(31:38):
like anyone else.
And so you find yourself if youstart shopping by price, what
you're going to find is, yeah,that agency may charge you less
money, but realistically,they're putting less effort into
it.
And so essentially, you'rereally not getting a deal by
doing that because there areways to really seriously do
(32:00):
things.
And there are ways to topicallydo things.
And in order for your businessto succeed, you're going to have
to get below the surface andunderstand your competitors as
much as you understand whatyou're trying to do.
So do you check off on thatpart?
Now, if you check off on thosethings and let's go ahead and
(32:22):
put one more in here.
I never like stopping at six.
So let's make seven here.
Patience, man, patience.
is the absolute secret weaponfor any new business.
Now this is hard becausepatience is going to require
both resources and trust in thepeople you're working with that
(32:44):
they're really building towardssomething.
Now that patience means you'regoing to be spending money.
You're going to have to adjust.
You're going to have to talk.
You're going to have to workwith those people to help build
what you need to build.
You're going to need to trustthe system, but it's going to
take time.
There's not a magic button.
(33:05):
There's not a dollar figure.
There's not anything you canthrow at it to where, especially
if you're a small startup withlimited resources, to where
you're going to be able tospring and just make things
magically start happening.
Yes, and I've said this manytimes, we've had cases where
we're great right out of thegate.
(33:28):
We've also had cases where we'remiserable right out of the gate.
That's part of it.
It's part of the situation.
Sorry, I think you might haveheard my coffee pot ringing.
Sorry about that.
But patience is big.
And if you're not willing to bepatient or you don't have the
resources to be patient, thenthere could be a real problem
there.
(33:49):
Let me shout out to Alex here.
We have a client, and he had asmall budget.
And he's patient, but he stillneeded to make things happen.
And what was great about him washe coupled where he couldn't
spend money and he couldn'tafford necessarily the patience.
(34:13):
He spent more time knocking ondoors and getting into places
that I– was really surprised hewas able to get into.
And so Alex is doing very well,but he really rolled his sleeves
up and he compensated by takingon some of the just getting in
(34:34):
front of people and presentinghis product and staying diligent
at it.
So there's that aspect too.
But it's definitely not a set itand forget it or just trust one
thing or you can unplug fromsomething.
Whatever it Those thingstypically don't work for
(35:08):
startups.
side gig that's bringing in thatextra income, and that by going
full out business, that yourprofits are going to likely be
(35:29):
in the red for a while, and thatyou're going to see money go
out, and you're going to bestressed.
If you're willing to do thesethings and follow this, then you
are ready to start a business.
But if you're not, and any ofthis is a misconception in your
mind as to how things are goingto go, then you need to maybe
(35:53):
hit pause for a second andreally think through these
things.
You know, there is nodo-it-yourself in this world
anymore online.
That is an absolute 100% myththat you can pick a template,
throw in some content, andyou're going to be successful.
Do not fall for that pitch anddo not talk yourself into it by
(36:18):
thinking, well, if other peopledo it it's going to work for me
other people are doing it but Iguarantee you when you watch
these big do-it-yourselfcompanies you'll see their own
nationwide TV buying bigadvertisements you're going to
see their advertising on majorsporting events you're going to
(36:39):
see their selling the illusionto you day in and day out that
you can do it yourself butnotice it's not their customers
who are advertising Because itdoesn't work.
And when it does, you know, asI've been told, even a blind
squirrel can find a nut.
(37:00):
And so being prepared and beingdiligent is the only way to
success.
As mentioned, when we kickedoff, I started a business.
I know what goes into it.
I can appreciate you wanting toget into a business.
So let me speak to you.
those who are thinking aboutthis.
(37:23):
It can be one of the mostgratifying things that you could
ever start as a business.
It can be one of the most toughthings you've ever done.
It can be challenging.
It can be a fight.
It can require a certainmentality to want to do it.
It's going to take dedicationand sacrifice and all those
(37:45):
things.
There's a really interesting...
Even with people who you thinkare like madly successful.
Go check out that Cowboysdocumentary on Netflix.
And just listen to what theowner had to go through in order
(38:07):
to get where he was.
And just listen to the stress.
Don't breeze over the stress.
Because, you know, we watchthings and we tend to go, yeah,
but this person's successful.
You know, we have the, as oneperson said, the Yabbits, right?
So you've got these Yabbits thatare going around in your mind
(38:29):
and thinking that they, but no,no, these people had real
stress, real problems, and theyfought through it.
And it wasn't the most fun thingon the planet for them to fight
through, but they fought throughit.
And that's really what you needto look at.
So if we go back to the twofriends, and I'll leave you with
this analogy.
(38:49):
If I can stop rambling.
But if you take the two guys Itold you about, guy number one
who was physically fit went intothe Marines thinking he had it
under control.
Guy number two realized it wasgoing to be tough, did
everything he could to prepareand expected the worst, hoped
(39:09):
for the best.
Guy number one washed out.
Guy number two made it.
So by you taking all this intoconsideration, let's say that
you've got the greatest thing inthe world.
You start a business and youcome in prepared with this,
prepared with thatunderstanding.
And let's say that you're onlyworking 70 hours a week to start
(39:30):
your new business.
And you go, wow, I can handle 70or 60, maybe even 50.
I can handle these things.
And then you get into it andthen you go, well, but I was
prepared.
I was prepared for the worst.
Okay, so your mind, yourimagination and your fantasy are
(39:50):
going to be absolutely yourworst enemies as you do this.
And they're going to be thesefreelancer digital marketing
agencies, all these peopletrying to sell you junk.
It's blood in the water to them,and that's exactly what they
want to sell you, this fantasythat does not exist.
And that could be the one thingthat crushes your dreams of
starting a business.
(40:12):
Okay, that's all I've got fortoday.
Thank you so much for listeningto Over the Bull.
I know this was a hard lessontoday.
But sometimes hard lessons helpus get where we need to go.
Until we meet again, God bless.
This is Ken with Over the Bull.
SPEAKER_00 (40:28):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bull, brought to you
by Integris Design, afull-service design and
marketing agency out ofAsheville, North Carolina.
Until next time.
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
So you're looking to start that brand new business on
this episode of Over the Bull.
Over the last year, year and ahalf, I've run across a lot of
people who have either started abusiness, thinking of starting a
business, or looking to takethat side gig to something
bigger.
And I find myself watching theones that have jumped into it
(00:32):
flounder, or I have seen othersthat are just getting ready to
make a big mistake and I'mtrying to Yes, this is 100%
counterintuitive to a designagency.
Now, the reason I do it is one,because I know what goes into a
business.
I've started a business.
(00:53):
And the other thing is, is thatI understand that we're trying
to build long term relationshipsand we're trying to educate,
teach people and help guidepeople on this thing we call
life.
Now, if all I'm trying to do issell websites or marketing or
branding or whatever may haveyou, I would be inclined to tell
(01:18):
everybody that walks in my doorthat's the greatest thing in the
world for you to do.
However, it's far from it.
I've seen all kinds of horrorstories, and I can see the train
wreck before it happens, butit's really hard to stop certain
people from hitting that trainwreck.
And honestly, some people are sofar away from it.
(01:39):
what the reality is of businessthat they really are just not
ready.
They've not done enough homeworkon it yet.
So this is intended to helpthose who are thinking of going
into a business, but giving youpause and helping you have that
reality check before you do it.
(02:01):
Yeah, it's not fun, but here atOver the Bull, we're not about
fun.
We're about giving you what youneed.
Okay, so The first one I thoughtwas really interesting is the
myth of free time.
There is no such thing as And Iwould just find that the time
(02:50):
that I wanted to spend with mywife and kids was non-existent.
And so it's a big sacrifice whenit comes to it.
Time is not going to be yourfriend when you start a business
and it's going to be consumingto you.
Now, there's a couple of things.
(03:10):
First thing is, is to realize,okay, I'm willing to sacrifice a
lot of time in order to get thisthing on off the ground.
I'm willing to work weekends.
I'm willing to be up late.
I'm willing to get up tired.
I'm willing to live off coffee.
Now, if you have a business, youalready know this is true.
And so the idea is that you alsowant to make sure that the
(03:35):
person that is, you know, like,for example, my wife, you know,
you want to have a serious talkwith your wife and say, OK, I'm
thinking of starting a business,but this is going to be time
consuming.
It's going to eat intoeverything.
It's going to eat into maybe I'mlate for kids' ballgames.
Maybe I'm not going to makethis.
(03:55):
Or maybe I have to skip churchevery once in a while or
whatever may have you.
But the idea is that you'rethinking that somehow you
starting a business just becauseyou're not punching a clock is
going to give you more freetime.
It's a myth.
And if you try to live thatmyth, it's going to give you
(04:17):
more free time.
you're going to not besuccessful at what you do.
The reason being is, is thatthat myth works at the opposite
spectrum of what the reality is.
So your first checkoff whenyou're thinking about starting a
business is, are you and yoursignificant other ready to
(04:41):
absorb that much time, effort,and energy and basically
sacrifice so much?
in order to give you anopportunity to start the
business that you're in?
If the answer is yes, you justpassed the first part.
So now let's talk about overheadand hidden costs.
Okay, if it's not bad enough,you're not going to get a lot of
(05:02):
sleep.
The other problem you're goingto have is that, especially if
you have a side gig.
Okay, so side gigs are funbecause you can do them when you
want to, how you want to do themor whatever.
And And so it's kind of easy towork the side gig in.
But to go to a full-fledgedbusiness requires you to start
(05:25):
looking at things likeinsurance, possibly payroll.
A lot of you are probablythinking you're going to do the
work yourself.
Then, of course, there aretaxes, licensing.
There's going to be marketing,software, and equipment.
And what you're going to see,especially if you have a side
gig, is that that money that youmake that makes you feel like
(05:48):
you want to do something biggeris going to dwindle away in
overhead.
Now, this really never stops,okay?
So if you're in an industry thatrequires you to have a truck, at
some point you're going to needtruck number two.
You would need driver numbertwo.
If you're in a different field,it's the same thing.
(06:08):
Once you hit those points andwhat you find is that you grow
your revenue, you grow yourrevenue, and then you add more
and then all your net incomegoes away because you're having
to hit that next level ofexpansion.
Now, with each one of thoselayers comes new challenges.
So when you first look at it,you may say, well, I want to do
(06:31):
the work myself.
But that doesn't negate the factthat you're going to have these
other challenges.
And, you know, of course, moneycan equal more time.
What you do is you buy otherpeople's time.
And so if you've got a smallnest egg, you're putting into
your business, then you can havesomeone to maybe help you with
(06:51):
accounting or setting up, youknow, whatever software that
you're going to need for yourbusiness.
But if not, it's on you.
You're going to be reading thosemanuals.
You're going to be diggingthrough it.
And the one thing that I foundout is that it's never the way
that they say it's going to gowhen it comes to setting up a
business.
There's always layers ofcomplexity.
(07:13):
Now, if you're willing to takethat on or have those resources,
in order to set your business upand do it that way, then you're
okay.
But you will have thatadditional overhead regardless.
Now, what I've seen some peopledo is they'll have some money
saved up, but it's nowhere nearwhat they need.
And what they think is, okay,I'm going to start a business.
(07:38):
I'm going to hire this person todo X, Y, and Z.
And then once that happens, thenmore is going to come in.
And then I'll use that money todo business.
next thing.
There's an assumption that justbecause you get things set up or
just because you think you'vegot the greatest idea, it's not
necessarily true.
(07:58):
And even if it is the greatestidea, some people may not
understand it.
And so you need to make surethat you've got enough resources
to where you can weather thestorm or guess what?
It falls back on you.
So if you're there, you passquestion number Number two.
(08:19):
Okay, so let's move on to theactual setup of your business.
Now, we're in marketing anddesign.
This part, I'm telling you justbecause I've gone through it.
The question is, what kind ofstructure do you have for your
business?
Do you want to be a DBA, an LLC?
(08:39):
Do you want to be a corporationout of the gate?
And how are you going to do yourquarterly filings and all the
stuff that goes along with itand make sure that you're
playing by the rules?
based upon how you set yourcompany up.
What's the most beneficial toyou and which gives you the most
protection?
These are questions that areanswered by professionals and
(08:59):
you want to get more than oneidea from a person.
I've talked to many people aboutsetting up business structures
and I found that some people,frankly, don't give very good
advice.
They give advice based upontheir experience and sometimes
their experience is sandboxedinto one solution or sometimes
(09:20):
it's the solution that they dothe most or make the most money
at.
And so they try to push you intodoing that, even though it's not
best for what you.
So you do want to set yourbusiness up in the right way
before you get started.
And you want to make sure thatyour structure is set up and
that you are ready to abide bywhatever regulations as you move
(09:44):
forward.
Now, as a side gig, that's mucheasier.
Now, side gig It doesn't giveyou much protection, and it's
much easier to kind of navigatethose waters.
But when you move to afull-fledged business, you're
going to find out that thecomplexities just get worse, and
(10:04):
you're going to be on a road oflearning for the rest of your
business life.
So do you check off on thatlist?
And if you do, let's move on.
So we talked about late nights.
Okay.
Late nights is just part of thegame.
Now, a lot of times when peoplestart a business, at least from
(10:27):
my experience, they have an ideaor they're really good at
something.
And then what they do is theystart seeing that people want
that.
And then they go, I want to domore of that.
So they get a fulfillment out ofit.
They enjoy it.
They start to grow from it.
And then they start toexperience some freedom.
And then they start to moveforward with it.
(10:49):
And then what they find out isthat, you know, maybe the people
that are in your inner circlelike what you do.
But once you get beyond thatcircle, then you don't sell that
thing so good.
You don't compete so well in themarket.
And so the idea is that yourmarketing efforts, your setup,
(11:11):
your infrastructure andeverything works.
is going to require some trialand error from marketing.
But before we get to themarketing, there's this whole
idea of brand identity andsetup.
And there is a lot of psychologythat goes into the brand name.
And so your brand name needs toresonate with what you're trying
(11:32):
to do and make sense.
And you also need to make surethat you're picking the colors,
choosing the right demographics,building everything toward an
audience, and making sure thatit resonates and works for that
audience.
Now, why that's important isbecause when you get beyond your
(11:52):
inner circle, they don't knowyou.
Now you're moving into thewaters of trying to talk to
someone who doesn't know you.
Just like, you know, if you weretalking to a friend about a
personal issue, it would go overa lot different than if you were
talking to a stranger about thatpersonal issue.
Well, it's the same thing inbusiness, only it's a little
more complicated.
You have to convey a message setup a value proposition and you
(12:18):
need to present yourself in aprofessional fashion in a way
that people will want to engagewith you and trust you.
Now, this is complicated and theidea that you're going to do
this yourself or choose a namerandomly and then be successful
is really stacking the cardsagainst you.
(12:41):
Yes, of course, you're going tofind that example of Apple
computers and some of theseothers.
The problem is that yourimagination is going to be your
enemy because you're going tothink, oh, if these
do-it-yourself situations, if Ican just come up with a name or
my family likes this name orwhatever, and then you find out
(13:04):
you get out of that inner circleand then you drown through those
decisions, well, now you've gotto reform things and redo things
and set things up And so it'sgoing to be very time consuming
to turn the car around and startback on step number one when you
thought you're on step numberfive.
(13:24):
This is where your marketing andbranding comes into play.
And the thing about marketingand branding, there's a lot to
it.
But part of this, too, is it'snot even that part is not going
to be something that you'renecessarily going to enjoy.
So what I mean by that is thecolors that your business needs
(13:50):
to be, the logo that yourbusiness needs, the web address,
the content, how it's framed,your price structure.
All those things are builttoward your customer.
So the idea that you're going tobuild even your branding to meet
(14:12):
what you want it to look likeversus what your customer needs
to see to engage with you couldbe night and day.
And in order to have the bestopportunity, you're going to
need to rely on professionals.
So this will take me to anothersituation.
And man, some of these are hard.
(14:36):
I can like see them in my mindas I'm talking here.
But we had a person that neededsome help with some branding.
And, you know, not a lot ofmoney.
And I have this thing where Ijust love to help out startups
sometimes.
And it's bitten me.
I mean, it's just there's noother word for it.
And so in this one situation,what happened was, was that this
(15:00):
person, through the initialconsultation, we had an
agreement as to the way that thebranding should go that would
make the most sense for what'strying to be accomplished.
Now, where I realize this personprobably couldn't be helped was
when I jumped into aninteractive Zoom design session
(15:22):
and we're sitting there andwe're working on things and at
one point she starts taking herphone, screen grabbing the
monitor and sharing it out withher family and asking their
opinions about colors, logo,positioning and worrying about
(15:43):
the most mundane, irrelevantstuff when it came to her
branding.
And I realized it was notpossible given where this person
was at to be able to stop andsay, it's really not about what
your mom likes.
(16:04):
This is really more about whatyour customers need to see to
have confidence in you.
And even though I tried tonavigate those water and make it
happen.
It simply did not.
And so ultimately, I ended upjust refunding and giving her
everything that we had donebecause there was no helping
(16:24):
this person.
Now, of course we want our wivesand our kids and our dads and
our moms and our uncles andeveryone to look at what we did
and go, well, that's reallygood.
But the minute that you starttrying to serve your family's
expectation, your friend'sexpectation, and not your
customer's expectation is apivotal moment of where you need
(16:49):
to make a decision to what'smore important.
And in business, it's yourcustomers.
It's not friends and loved ones.
So you can imagine theconversations around the table
where, you know, the people thatyou love and trust and share
life with, they start tellingyou that they think that the
designer's out of their mind.
(17:11):
It's not going to work.
Uh, It's not the right way toset things up.
And it'll get you secondguessing.
And a lot of times you'll findyourself, and I've seen like
engineers, some guy, he came tome, this was years ago, he came
to me and said, you know, he wasan analytical guy and he didn't
care, but he wanted to make surethat it worked.
(17:33):
And you found out that he wasthe most subjective person
influenced by his secretary atthe office than he was about
what his customers needed.
And I even went so far in hiscase because I really trusted
the idea he was a type A.
And I ran a case study on ourmoney.
(17:53):
And I wanted to find out whichbranding elements were the most
effective for his industry, whathe was suggesting, or some of
the options that we werecreating.
And overwhelmingly, the one thathe wanted to use failed in
virtually every category.
(18:13):
But he stuck with it.
And he stuck with it because itmet something subjective.
He was appealing to somethingbeyond what business requires
because he needed to scratchthat itch.
And so as you see, when youstart a business, it's not about
you.
The branding is not about you.
(18:34):
The game is about providingservices to people and meeting
their needs.
So trial and error.
So this is the other big thing.
Unless you live in thisindustry, you know, AI is not
going to get you over the goal.
Choosing templates is not goingto get you over the goal.
Going to a cheap freelance siteand have them build you a logo
(18:57):
is not going to get you over thegoal.
There are no shortcuts.
And the worst part is, is evenif you go out and hire somebody
and you think they know whatthey're doing, there are a lot
of people in my industry whosimply do not know what they're
doing they don't have enoughbackground they've not put
(19:18):
enough into it and so you couldhave the best intentions but you
could still find yourself havingto go backwards and reinvent
something and then go throughthe stress of looking at one the
person that you're working withtelling you one thing someone
(19:38):
else telling you somethingdifferent and then you not
knowing which one is righttrying to figure out who's
telling you the truth or who isgiving you the best advice to
set you up for success the mostand so that puts you in a
precarious situation and the sadpart is is that the person
(19:59):
that's talking to you has theirown motivations it's either to
try to take the business fromthe previous person and of
course they're not going to tellyou they're doing a great job if
they're doing that and then yourprevious may not be doing the
right job, and the second personmay be telling you the absolute
truth.
And so having that gut instinctand even making the decision and
(20:21):
having to go backwards, you canimagine the pain that there is
involved in trying to figurethat out, going backwards,
having to stay the courseregardless of what's going on.
You can imagine the toughnessthat goes into that And that's
real.
(20:43):
I can't tell you how many times.
I mean, the whole reason that inour podcast that I decided to
start citating third partysources was because I would find
that some people would come out,basically as one situation, came
out and said that, you know, itwas more of a subjective
(21:04):
decision on something thatunequivocally was objective.
There was a right But becausethis person used certain words
in certain context, it confusedthe person we were consulting
with and it made it difficultfor them to make a decision.
So when I'm giving youinformation on this podcast, I'm
(21:26):
trying to give you reputableresources where it's not Ken
telling you something.
It's something that's known inthe industry.
Now, if you've run into oryou've been in business, one
thing that you're absolutelygoing to know is what I'm
telling you is true.
I'm sure you've had it where theperson comes and says, this
(21:46):
software is going to work magic.
This design is going to workmagic.
And it doesn't.
I guess one of the more recentones I had, so check this out,
was somebody who's doing emailmarketing.
And what happened was, was aperson that does nothing but
email marketing designs,template designs, approached
(22:09):
this person and said, hey, youneed to spend another$1,200
revamping this.
And I looked at it and therewasn't even clarity into what
was going on, but she had thisperson thinking, the designer
had this person thinking that ifshe redesigned her emails that
(22:29):
were sent out, that somehowthat's the problem that needed
to be solved.
It wasn't.
She was trying to sell$1,200worth of email rebranding just
so she could make$1,200.
I mean, there was no logicbehind it.
But as you can see, that makesthings kind of tough when you're
trying to figure out what to dobecause she had a relationship
(22:54):
with this email person.
She liked this person.
And I'm sure there was a rapportthat in some ways was probably
merited.
But it was leading her down thewrong path and cost her another
$1,200 to do it.
So, if you pass that test andyou're to go through that.
Let's move on to the next.
(23:15):
Competing with establishedplayers.
Okay, the thing is, is when youstart out with a fresh new
business, it's not in a vacuum.
You're not going to have thesecompetitors and people are not
going to look at that newwebsite you have, even if it is
aesthetically more pleasing thanpeople that have been around.
(23:37):
That doesn't mean they're goingto use you.
As a matter of fact, if If theother company's been around
longer, they're going to have amuch better shot at getting that
business and keeping thatbusiness than you.
And the reason being is, is theyknow that company.
They work with that company andthey trust that company.
And so even offering things likedeep discounts or whatever may
(24:00):
not help you pull those peopleaway from the gravity of those
established businesses.
And so then what you have to dois you have to start getting
into building your reputationbuilding brand awareness, being
consistent, and spending moneyat it.
So yeah, you're going to spendmoney on marketing just to try
to gain visibility andcredibility.
(24:22):
This requires a significantplan.
This is not going to Google Ads,spinning up an account and
letting it run.
That's not what happens here.
You'll just spend a lot ofmoney.
It requires a lot of thoughtthat goes into it to make sure
that when you're done, thatyou're gaining that visibility,
(24:45):
you're showing your ads to theright market, you're showing
your stuff to the right market,and you're building a
reputation.
Also, let's get real.
Reviews are a big deal.
You start up a brand new Googlebusiness profile and you have
zero reviews, and then yourcompetitor has 75 reviews, 175
reviews or whatever, and he'sgot a 4.9 and you've got a zero,
(25:09):
you also are going to have towork hard at getting reviews.
Your marketing people are notgoing to get you reviews.
And so there's strategies toeven get that ball moving to
begin with.
And so part of that is, is youneed to understand that those
people who you're competingagainst, even if they have a bad
(25:29):
reputation, there's still acertain thing that those
businesses carry with theiraudience to where they still
trust them because it'scomfortable.
It's what they've It's thingsthey've learned to deal with.
And so to work yourself aroundthose things is going to require
a significant marketing plan.
(25:51):
Plus, they may be alsomarketing.
Now, a lot of these olderbusinesses I found, they
actually don't do a lot ofonline marketing in some
business sectors.
This is good because whatthey're doing is resting on what
they've already accomplished.
But it also shows how groundedthey are in the community, too.
And so what we help do is try tohelp navigate through those
(26:15):
processes to build those plansto make sure we're showing up in
the right place.
But you can imagine that if youstart with a website and you
start with just some freelanceor clip art or whatever, you're
going to find yourself justrunning in circles, getting
frustrated, thinking thingsdon't work and not willing to to
(26:39):
go through that.
So can Competing withestablished players is something
else that you're going to haveto deal with if you start a
business.
Are you willing to do that?
Are you willing to be patient,create awareness campaigns, and
slowly start to gain tractionover a period of time?
Because more than likely, that'swhat it is.
Okay, so let's move on.
(27:02):
So if you're there, then great.
You check off on that one.
Now let's talk about the ideathat marketing is
non-negotiable.
Okay, so use whatever analogyyou want, but marketing is
essentially the lifeblood ofyour business.
Good marketing is.
I mean, you can, again, you hirethe wrong person, you're going
(27:23):
to go through a ton of money andget no momentum, no data, no
nothing.
But it's non-negotiable.
You're going to run out offriends and family and people.
And if you're trying to makethat next big step forward,
you're going to need to have aserious effort.
This means no weekendfreelancers.
(27:43):
And this means no big agenciesthat cut corners and they just
give you a lot of shine.
This means finding someonethat's going to really work with
you, talk to you, help you buildthose data points, change
direction, learn and grow.
Now, they may do this all thetime.
(28:05):
Every client that we helpmarketing with, we sit down at
multiple points and we look atthe data.
We look at what we're targetingand we simply say, this is not
working.
This is working.
This is what I think we need tochange.
This is what I think we need tomassage.
This is what competitors aredoing that seems to be working.
(28:25):
We need to adjust this.
And then we get feedback.
And then we bat that back andforth with That's where the
magic is, folks.
Of course, we do all of ourhomework in the beginning.
Of course, we analyze a bunch ofstuff ranging from, well, don't
want to get into the nerd speak,everything from keywords to what
(28:45):
call to actions that they use towhat language they use on their
ads.
Of course, we do all that.
But see, your business is uniqueand you have to carve out that
special uniqueness and presentit in a certain way to where
people will engage.
engage with you and boils downto things even like inconsistent
branding can kill that.
(29:07):
So the idea is that a lot ofbusinesses, they'll start up and
they'll be underfunded or theywill work with people that
doesn't do a good job,basically, or they'll find
themselves lacking patience.
And so then they start and stop.
(29:28):
They do different things, whichkills the machine learning on
online marketing platforms andthey find themselves in this
loop and this is a loop of ofdestruction and so then what
they do is they they cut off thelifeblood of their business or
they cut back on the amount thatthey want to spend on that
lifeblood of their business andas you can imagine less blood
(29:52):
goes to the brain less oxygenand then you know the writings
on the wall for a lot of theseguys and I'm not saying I don't
understand it because I havetalked to so many businesses
who've stepped in this store andthey have been burned, reburned,
(30:12):
promised, whatever may have you,just so that an agency or a
freelancer can build them awebsite and charge them money
and walk away from it.
And so they fall for the salespitch and re-fall for the sales
pitch.
And then they get to a pointwhere like, well, this just
isn't working.
I'm shutting it down.
Now, I can tell you, I looked atan account today and it's a
(30:35):
brand new division within acompany we work with.
When I say that, it's onethey're seriously going after.
And it's doing the same thing.
We're having to build astrategic positioning, even
though they are established inother areas, they're not
established as a true competitorin this one thing.
And so we're going through thepain of trying to figure out how
(30:55):
to stand out from thecompetition in that arena.
And it is painful.
I mean, it is painful to sitdown and having to go through it
and look at the data and say,okay, the data points in this
direction.
Let's go down that direction.
But it's also good to be able tocommunicate and talk and go
through those steps.
(31:18):
So finding someone that'swilling to work with you and
then being able to fund it arereally important aspects.
Because as you can imagine, ifyou come to our agency, for
example, and you want to work onmarket You've got to have an ad
budget and then you've got to beable to pay for that engagement
time because, you know, anagency is time for money just
(31:38):
like anyone else.
And so you find yourself if youstart shopping by price, what
you're going to find is, yeah,that agency may charge you less
money, but realistically,they're putting less effort into
it.
And so essentially, you'rereally not getting a deal by
doing that because there areways to really seriously do
(32:00):
things.
And there are ways to topicallydo things.
And in order for your businessto succeed, you're going to have
to get below the surface andunderstand your competitors as
much as you understand whatyou're trying to do.
So do you check off on thatpart?
Now, if you check off on thosethings and let's go ahead and
(32:22):
put one more in here.
I never like stopping at six.
So let's make seven here.
Patience, man, patience.
is the absolute secret weaponfor any new business.
Now this is hard becausepatience is going to require
both resources and trust in thepeople you're working with that
(32:44):
they're really building towardssomething.
Now that patience means you'regoing to be spending money.
You're going to have to adjust.
You're going to have to talk.
You're going to have to workwith those people to help build
what you need to build.
You're going to need to trustthe system, but it's going to
take time.
There's not a magic button.
(33:05):
There's not a dollar figure.
There's not anything you canthrow at it to where, especially
if you're a small startup withlimited resources, to where
you're going to be able tospring and just make things
magically start happening.
Yes, and I've said this manytimes, we've had cases where
we're great right out of thegate.
(33:28):
We've also had cases where we'remiserable right out of the gate.
That's part of it.
It's part of the situation.
Sorry, I think you might haveheard my coffee pot ringing.
Sorry about that.
But patience is big.
And if you're not willing to bepatient or you don't have the
resources to be patient, thenthere could be a real problem
there.
(33:49):
Let me shout out to Alex here.
We have a client, and he had asmall budget.
And he's patient, but he stillneeded to make things happen.
And what was great about him washe coupled where he couldn't
spend money and he couldn'tafford necessarily the patience.
(34:13):
He spent more time knocking ondoors and getting into places
that I– was really surprised hewas able to get into.
And so Alex is doing very well,but he really rolled his sleeves
up and he compensated by takingon some of the just getting in
(34:34):
front of people and presentinghis product and staying diligent
at it.
So there's that aspect too.
But it's definitely not a set itand forget it or just trust one
thing or you can unplug fromsomething.
Whatever it Those thingstypically don't work for
(35:08):
startups.
side gig that's bringing in thatextra income, and that by going
full out business, that yourprofits are going to likely be
(35:29):
in the red for a while, and thatyou're going to see money go
out, and you're going to bestressed.
If you're willing to do thesethings and follow this, then you
are ready to start a business.
But if you're not, and any ofthis is a misconception in your
mind as to how things are goingto go, then you need to maybe
(35:53):
hit pause for a second andreally think through these
things.
You know, there is nodo-it-yourself in this world
anymore online.
That is an absolute 100% myththat you can pick a template,
throw in some content, andyou're going to be successful.
Do not fall for that pitch anddo not talk yourself into it by
(36:18):
thinking, well, if other peopledo it it's going to work for me
other people are doing it but Iguarantee you when you watch
these big do-it-yourselfcompanies you'll see their own
nationwide TV buying bigadvertisements you're going to
see their advertising on majorsporting events you're going to
(36:39):
see their selling the illusionto you day in and day out that
you can do it yourself butnotice it's not their customers
who are advertising Because itdoesn't work.
And when it does, you know, asI've been told, even a blind
squirrel can find a nut.
(37:00):
And so being prepared and beingdiligent is the only way to
success.
As mentioned, when we kickedoff, I started a business.
I know what goes into it.
I can appreciate you wanting toget into a business.
So let me speak to you.
those who are thinking aboutthis.
(37:23):
It can be one of the mostgratifying things that you could
ever start as a business.
It can be one of the most toughthings you've ever done.
It can be challenging.
It can be a fight.
It can require a certainmentality to want to do it.
It's going to take dedicationand sacrifice and all those
(37:45):
things.
There's a really interesting...
Even with people who you thinkare like madly successful.
Go check out that Cowboysdocumentary on Netflix.
And just listen to what theowner had to go through in order
(38:07):
to get where he was.
And just listen to the stress.
Don't breeze over the stress.
Because, you know, we watchthings and we tend to go, yeah,
but this person's successful.
You know, we have the, as oneperson said, the Yabbits, right?
So you've got these Yabbits thatare going around in your mind
(38:29):
and thinking that they, but no,no, these people had real
stress, real problems, and theyfought through it.
And it wasn't the most fun thingon the planet for them to fight
through, but they fought throughit.
And that's really what you needto look at.
So if we go back to the twofriends, and I'll leave you with
this analogy.
(38:49):
If I can stop rambling.
But if you take the two guys Itold you about, guy number one
who was physically fit went intothe Marines thinking he had it
under control.
Guy number two realized it wasgoing to be tough, did
everything he could to prepareand expected the worst, hoped
(39:09):
for the best.
Guy number one washed out.
Guy number two made it.
So by you taking all this intoconsideration, let's say that
you've got the greatest thing inthe world.
You start a business and youcome in prepared with this,
prepared with thatunderstanding.
And let's say that you're onlyworking 70 hours a week to start
(39:30):
your new business.
And you go, wow, I can handle 70or 60, maybe even 50.
I can handle these things.
And then you get into it andthen you go, well, but I was
prepared.
I was prepared for the worst.
Okay, so your mind, yourimagination and your fantasy are
(39:50):
going to be absolutely yourworst enemies as you do this.
And they're going to be thesefreelancer digital marketing
agencies, all these peopletrying to sell you junk.
It's blood in the water to them,and that's exactly what they
want to sell you, this fantasythat does not exist.
And that could be the one thingthat crushes your dreams of
starting a business.
(40:12):
Okay, that's all I've got fortoday.
Thank you so much for listeningto Over the Bull.
I know this was a hard lessontoday.
But sometimes hard lessons helpus get where we need to go.
Until we meet again, God bless.
This is Ken with Over the Bull.
SPEAKER_00 (40:28):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bull, brought to you
by Integris Design, afull-service design and
marketing agency out ofAsheville, North Carolina.
Until next time.
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