The Business Guide
Just a regular guy that decided to quit his stable job and start a business. After successfully being in business I've learned a thing or two, unfortunately the hard way. I've created this podcast to share my successes & failures and to talk about the "real" ins & outs of business. I'll be personally sharing my stories along with guests.
As Business Owners we wear so many different hats and we have so many different struggles, we will breakdown those struggles together and talk about how we've overcome them and how it's shaped us to be better. If your a business owner currently going through a struggle, I hope this content helps!
The Business Guide
Small Beginnings: Start Small and Think Big
Ready to transform your entrepreneurial journey? Join me, Jonathan Wagoner, as I share my own experiences of starting small and thinking big in the latest episode of our podcast. Discover the benefits of testing services on a smaller scale before committing to hefty marketing investments, and how this method can lead to sustainable growth and smart business pivots. From taking those first steps to managing your expectations, this episode is packed with actionable insights for both budding and seasoned entrepreneurs.
Ever wondered how to maintain momentum in your business journey? Tune in as I recount the grind of building a business from scratch and the power of keeping a big picture mindset. Hear about my intense networking efforts and how quarterly check-ins with trusted peers have been crucial for goal-setting and accountability. This episode also encourages you to share your thoughts and feedback, as your input is key to shaping future content. Let's build a supportive and engaging community together—subscribe now and don't miss out on this invaluable conversation!
Hey everyone, it's Jonathan Wagner and this is the Business Guide Podcast. Really excited to have you tuning in today and thank you for joining us on our second episode, small Beginnings, where you need to start small and think big. Again, jonathan Wagner, super excited to have you a part of this today and really want to dive into some really some deep issues on what it's like to start a business and you know sometimes your aspirations where maybe you've got some bigger goals than you can actually execute at the time, and what I mean by that is, as I've started my business, I have to continuously remind myself, as I get into maybe a new business venture, that I've really got to tone it down and I've got to start small. But I also have that clear picture of thinking big and sometimes when you forget that you need to start small and you start going big, that's where maybe you'll have some issues. So this episode is for entrepreneurs out there that are maybe aspiring to be a business owner or start their first business and, on the flip side of that, also talking to the entrepreneurs and business owners out there that are currently in the trenches right now and just encouraging you as you go through different points in your business you've got to always remember to start off small. If that's a marketing campaign or maybe a new workforce or whatever it may be, you really should start small and always have that aspiration and think big. So just a recap of who I am Again, as mentioned, I'm Jonathan Wagoner.
Speaker 1:I am a small business owner in beautiful California, southern California Excuse me, I always slip that up. It is beautiful Southern California, specifically Ventura County. I have a few different businesses, but my main business is a water damage restoration business. I've been in business a little bit over 12 years and my goal of these podcasts are really to connect with entrepreneurs, get them maybe some answers to maybe a struggle that they're going through or maybe they haven't yet been through that struggle. But I can tell you my time in business. I have seen my fair shares of ups and downs and if I can help you navigate through that then I would consider this podcast a success. And again, a reminder I am not a professional podcaster. I might have a camera pointed at me and a microphone, but yeah, I get a little tongue tiedtied, so excuse me on it. I don't want any edits on this podcast. I want it to be as raw and real as possible. So thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited today on today's episode. So, as mentioned, I want to make sure that you really understand where I'm coming at with this episode on being able to start small and thinking big. This is something, and the way I've crafted this in our second episode like this is this is a strategic part of what we need to do, and this podcast is an example too. Of course I need to start small to do, and this podcast is an example too. Of course I need to start small. It's myself in a little studio, but I do have some goals of this podcast that I would like, and I'd like to go a little bit bigger and make sure that everybody that maybe needs to listen to this is listening in. But we've really got to start small. Maybe I don't have fancy equipment or fancy training on podcast, but this is a good reminder that, no matter what we're doing, we need to think small, we need to dip our toes into it, and I'm going to go over personal experiences of where I've had to start small and, of course, think big and also grow. With that picture, I will share that story, or stories, with you, and you know times where maybe I've lost track of thinking small and just going straight for going big and how that's failed for me. So really excited to you know. Dive on into this, into this episode.
Speaker 1:So first I want to talk to you about the power of starting small. If you're an inspiring entrepreneur or obviously already in business and you're listening to this podcast, let's think about this why it's important to start small and how it can be beneficial to you and your business. You're going to have, obviously, starting in business. You're going to have some lower risk. Think about and this reminds me of when I started again.
Speaker 1:I started in the carpet cleaning industry and cleaned carpets. So instead of going out right away and securing a facility to house my equipment and my office, I ran it out of my home. Therefore, I had a lower financial obligation every single month and it also helped me put more money into my pocket and grow my business. It allowed me the flexibility. So sometimes I was, you know, working late at night or had a long day and instead of, you know, maybe taking my vehicle, you know, home and then having to, you know, drive back from the office to home, I was able to just go right to my house and as you start smaller as well, it's really easy to pivot your business where you need it to go. So when I was in the carpet cleaning business and I started my business, I knew that I had a kind of a wide range of services that I knew were a core part of my business that I wanted to offer. And there were some stuff that I wanted to kind of test my toes in and see if it would work. So in my industry, in carpet cleaning, that was the primary business. Some businesses add that tile cleaning, upholstery cleaning, air duct cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, things like that. So these are the core services that I wanted.
Speaker 1:Now I also wanted to get into house cleaning. I wanted to get into janitorial services. I wanted to get into stripping and waxing of floors, things like that. And so when I was small and I was there myself executing the service or advertising the service, you know it was like a word of mouth thing that as I was going to business networking events and things like that, I started dropping the services that I was offering and so it was easier for me to pivot into that industry but on the flip side, I didn't dump a ton of marketing material into it to where, when I needed to pivot out and I found that a house cleaning wasn't going to work for my business model or janitorial services wasn't going to work for my model, I was able to pivot out of that. That really didn't cost me a loss of money. If you will, I can tell you in my water damage restoration business, when I was able to pivot there, I did take the same mindset of thinking small there. I brought that into expanding my business. It allowed me to safely expand my business but I was able to pivot into that market very carefully with a relatively low-risk financial position there.
Speaker 1:So very important when you're starting your business or you're starting out a venture to remember it is okay to start small. Matter of fact, it's actually going to help you grow your business faster. You're going to intimately know the details of your business, the things that work and the things that don't work, and you're going to be able to implement those changes immediately. If you were to just go big right away, you might get into a service or have a product that is unprofitable for you, but it takes you a minute to digest that and realize, hey, this is not viable for my business and therefore maybe you've lost some money. So, starting small extremely beneficial, low risk. You've got the flexibility and it's very easy to pivot when you are small. Again, to recap, you're also learning how to grow your business with thinking small, and I know that sounds mangled. I got a little off a topic there, so I apologize. I got a little off a topic there, so I apologize. You know, I think when you're dealing with your day-to-day service and being small, it can also be very frustrating.
Speaker 1:So I knew this gentleman, really really, really good guy, and he had been doing what you know what I was, the business that I had got into and I had talked to him so many times and you know he really opened up to me intimately on his business. And this is a guy that I looked up to for a while, really great guy, and one of the issues that he had with growing his business was he had always maintained a goal or a big picture mindset of wanting to expand his business, but he was never able to get out of the small business mindset on the flip side. So, as mentioned in our first episode, he had some fears, you know, fears that he was not able to overcome. Now fast forward 15 years. He is still in the exact same spot, but he's got the big picture mindset. And so for us entrepreneurs, I think that it's important for us to keep that big picture mindset, but also don't get comfortable in being in that small realm if that's not something that you want. I know that a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners out there are completely content with maybe an operation where it's just themselves or it's a couple of their employees and they are completely okay with that. That is great. As long as you're profitable and in business and you're happy with what you're doing, then I'm not gonna be one to tell you to do anything different. That's what works for you. But for me, I knew that I needed to start small and I always consistently thought big, and sometimes my bank account didn't always line up with my goals and the things that I wanted to do. I remember, specifically, cleaning carpets. Probably maybe about a year in A year is really where I really started to push myself of. I really want to get out of this role and I really want to grow my business to the next level and obviously, as you can imagine, it's just myself at that point.
Speaker 1:I remember having a really, really long day and we've got a. You'll see it in a bunch of car commercials. But I live, as mentioned, in Ventura County. There's this rock in Point Magoo and it goes from my city to Malibu and I remember I had a long day that day and why I mentioned you might see those is they film a lot of car commercials on that kind of that stretch. But that is on the one.
Speaker 1:And I remember going to one of my projects. I mean, I was working all day and I was working like a dog that day. I was so tired, it was late and I had a customer call in and they kind of needed like an emergency carpet cleaning, if you would, and I was like gosh, I really need to go to this, I really want to make the extra money and I want to make this customer happy. I don't want them to call anybody else. So I shot out there, did what I needed to do and I remember just being so drained on the way back. I was hungry, I was practically like dehydrated and I remember kind of watching the sunset, thinking is this going to be a business that fast forward? 10 years from now, 20 years from now, I am still sitting in this driver's seat doing the exact same thing, answering the same calls, and I just knew that a year was my limit. I was like I've got to really light a fire under my butt. I knew I had the big picture goal of growing the business, but I was comfortable in the small scale. So I knew I needed to start moving in the right direction.
Speaker 1:And that's been the story for a lot of friends that I talked to that are in business is they are in that small boat or have been in that small boat and there are things and fears that they've had to overcome to start growing their business. And really the first big thing that I think a lot of entrepreneurs kind of get stuck in is that first employee hire and I'll go into that more in depth into another episode. But I think that once you are able to justify a workforce and you're able to slowly start bringing people on safely, I think it's one of the best decisions you can make in business. And that really resonates with me because when I was able to find that person that I knew was going to be gold for my business, that's when my business started to take off. So you know again, it's okay to be small, work small, think small, but continuously think about the bigger picture and don't, you know, don't get comfortable there. If that's not where you want to be, don't think that day one you can, you know, immediately open your doors and you can, you know, spend the money of, you know, facebook or Google. I mean, while we would like to think that we, our businesses, can be successful which they can be you've really got to put your own blood, sweat and tears into that business so it can thrive and be successful.
Speaker 1:I think that I've mentioned or or not, excuse me not have mentioned, but I would like to mention is as I have gotten into different business ventures. Now my business is successful and thriving and I feel like I've got I mean, I know I've got a great management team and now I can start doing other things. I've gotten into other business ventures. Some are successful and some have failed, and you know the failures I could really dive in and I feel like in future episodes I will dive in into those failures, but I feel like a lot of those failures have to do with right off the bat. It took me time and it took me being small to actually grow into being a successful business, into being a successful business and in the business models that are successful and do work, they have started small. I've been able to really grind those businesses, put my blood, sweat and tears into those businesses and then they're able to thrive. So remember it's a part of the strategy when you start small. I'm going to take a quick second to just review my notes because I want to make sure I'm not getting off topic.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, moving on, maintaining a big picture mindset, um, maintaining a big picture mindset, um, obviously, as you're going through your day to day, um, you know, as I was going through my day to day as a, you know, a carpet cleaner, I think you get you. You can slightly get distracted when, when you are a smaller company, um, I remember the days of, you know, waking up, going to a networking event, breakfast morning networking event at my local chamber, going and doing my regular jobs that day, maybe a full day of three or four carpet cleaning jobs all by myself, and then going back and maybe doing an evening networking. And that example of my schedule was practically every Tuesday for the first two years in business was just this long drawn out day of me doing a ton of customer jobs and then going and doing different networking events. I really grinded that. But as you're in the trenches and you're dealing with this everyday grind or hustle, you can really be love being in business and I'm super excited to be in business. But I mean I was just kind of a high-paid employee at that point that could lose everything on a moment's notice if the phone stopped ringing, everything on a moment's notice if the phone stopped ringing. So really maintaining that big picture in your mind, or whatever your version of your business is, is so important that you don't lose focus on that. One thing that helps me in my life is I have a good friend that I like to meet up with every quarter and we just go over our goals for that quarter, we go over our success stories and we go over our failures and what we're going to do to get over them and move on. And that is done every quarter.
Speaker 1:For me as a business owner and entrepreneur, there can be a lot of people around you, but it can also be very lonely and especially when you have employees and they need you know, they need your brain and they need you to. You know, work with them and consult them and and be there for them all these different things. But to be able to have a set time where I can kind of check out and I can go through my goals and I can go through my failures and I can talk to somebody about that has been super important in my life and my business venture. So if you've got a friend out there excuse me, if you've got a friend or you know somebody in an industry or another business owner, I would encourage you to meet up with them, set once a month, once a quarter, once every six months, once a year I mean I probably wouldn't go out once a year, but I think six months at the furthest. But go out and check in with them and check in with their business, put them on notice.
Speaker 1:Like I mentioned, this can be a lonely time, right? You're the entrepreneur, you're the one that's sitting behind the computer late at night thinking about gosh, what's my next marketing idea or what's my next move in business, and the kids are asleep and your wife or husband is asleep and you just don't know what to do and people look for you for direction. It can be very lonely at times. So having somebody that's in those shoes with you that you can get real with. I highly encourage that. But it helps you focus on exactly what you want in business. And if you're in that small business right now or you're in that small business mindset and you want to grow your business, this is one of the level ups that you need to do to do that business. This is one of the level ups that you need to do to do that. Meet up with somebody, have them check in and get real. Share things that you normally wouldn't share to people. If you're not comfortable sharing your financials, find somebody you can share your financials with. If you're not comfortable sharing employee success stories and horror stories, then find somebody you can do that with. But you need to really find someone or people that you can set quarterly check-ins to keep your mindset right.
Speaker 1:All right, again, just checking in on my notes to make sure I haven't gotten off topic. Now for those of you listening, I'm kind of a wild card. I'll have some stuff jotted down and I do this during meetings with my buddies or other business owners and I completely go off topic and I really feel that the off topic stuff can really hit home. So that's why I like this. It's not scripted, but this podcast is unedited. So this is why you're going to hear these pauses, because I'm kind of thinking where I need to be on this. So you're getting kind of the realness of it. So I want to share a failure with you.
Speaker 1:Everything was going good for me. Everything was going good. My business was growing. I was super stoked. I felt like gosh, like I turned this into. You know, I went in from carpet cleaning. I turned it into a banger, water damage restoration company. I'm making real good money. And now I'm going to get into different business ventures and I immediately opened two different businesses with two different partners and threw money at it and was like, yeah, we're going to make this right, Hit it with the same advertising I would kind of do before with my other stuff. And I just really went all in on these two businesses and those businesses quickly failed. I want to say they were both pretty much out of business within like four or five months.
Speaker 1:And that's where you know, when you sit back and you think about you know why did? Why did I fail? Why did this happen? You know what? What? As I dived into it and really thought about it. It was that I did not start small. I immediately thought I could be this bigger company, I could immediately have more employees, more expenses, all of this just kind of garbage mindset that I had and I didn't pour the blood, sweat and kind of tears that I did building my business and it failed, and it failed horribly. Yeah, I don't know, don't be discouraged.
Speaker 1:If you're working at that donut shop right now that you've poured all of your money into, and you're opening up at 4 or 5 am and you're staying late, you're cleaning up, you're going home, you're, you know, sweeping up for the night, you're cleaning up, you're tired, you're working like a dog. It's your seventh day working and you're just like gosh, like I wish I had a ton of employees and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Listen, listen. This is for sure the hard work you put into your business, so those customers you're interacting with and those connections that you're making, will help your business thrive. Now you've had maybe those 100 clients come in, or 100 customers come in and now they're all repeat clients and now they're telling their friends. Now your business starts to thrive.
Speaker 1:So you starting small is crucial. If you're in it right now and you don't want to be and you want to be bigger, then meet up with that buddy. You can go to a local networking event If you don't know anybody, make some friends and start setting goals and have them hold you accountable on. Hey, it is now quarter three of this year. Where are you at on your goals from quarter two? What's going on, what are you going to do and how are you going to grow? What's going on, what are you going to do and how are you going to grow? So I guess, in recap, don't get discouraged if you are in a business right now where you are small. Don't get discouraged as an entrepreneur or inspiring entrepreneur, thinking that you need to start small. This is a huge part of your business's success. And then know that it's going to take time, but maintain that bigger picture goal so you can grow your business.
Speaker 1:Guys, I really appreciate you listening to this episode. I really appreciate you listening to this episode. I really want to create valuable content for the business owners and entrepreneurs out there. I love talking about it. I love meeting people and talking about business. It is my life and I truly love being a small business owner and I just want to make sure that there is valuable content for you, the listeners on this show. You guys are going to be huge in creating the direction of where this podcast goes, and I am very thankful that you're listening.
Speaker 1:But I would be even more thankful if you could drop me a line if it's an email or a comment section of what you appreciated on this episode but, more importantly, what you truly want to hear moving forward. And if you've got any questions or any struggles that you're dealing with, drop that privately to me. Let me dive in and see if I've been through that before and if not, I will call around my circle and I'll have a guest on here of somebody that else has been through it and we can get you the answers that you need and deserve. Guys, again, thank you so much. Please subscribe to our podcast, as I would love to grow the audience as well, and I hope you guys have a good rest of the day and I look forward to talking to you on the next episode. Again, this is Jonathan Wagner on the Business Guide podcast. Thanks for joining us today.
