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
Adapting to Market Shifts for Business Resilience
How can embracing adaptability transform your business in times of crisis? Join me, Jonathan Wagoner, as we explore the critical role of flexibility in business success. I'll share how pivoting from a carpet cleaning venture to a restoration business spurred growth. Through my personal stories and insights, we'll uncover the power of a flexible business plan and proactive strategies to navigate unexpected hurdles, turning potential setbacks into opportunities for advancement.
Reflecting on my journey through the 2008 economic downturn and the recent pandemic, I'll delve into strategic decisions that helped my business thrive, such as reducing unnecessary expenses, making smart investments, and transitioning to a family-run model. We'll also address ongoing challenges within the California insurance market and how we've adapted to meet evolving client needs. To wrap up, I invite you to engage with the show by sharing your experiences and feedback, as we aim to support and guide each other through the ever-changing landscape of business. Thank you for tuning in and being part of the Business Guide community!
Hey everyone, what's going on? It's Jonathan Wagner and I want to welcome you back to another episode of the Business Guide. Today we are tackling a very important topic that every business owner needs to have in their arsenal of tools running their business, and that is how to adapt to change. It is so crucial as business owners that we consistently pivot our businesses when needed to thrive and succeed. So today's episode we're going to go over so many different things about changing pivoting, why it's important personal experiences that I have dealt with and why you definitely need it in your business plan. So let's jump into it.
Speaker 1:For those of you returning, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you supporting the podcast. Seeing the listeners, seeing the comments, it is motivating me to put more content out. So I definitely appreciate it. And if it is your first time here again, as mentioned, my name is Jonathan. I'm a small business owner in the beautiful state of California. Although the tricky state of California I've been in business a little over 12 years have different businesses, I would not change being an entrepreneur for the life of me. I love what I do, I'm excited, I look forward to going to work in the morning, so I hope that this podcast helps you succeed and helps you feel the same way I feel about being in business. So thank you for being here.
Speaker 1:So today's episode we're definitely diving into why adaptability is key to the long-term success of your business and when to identify the exact time you need to pivot and tips for staying flexible during uncertain times. Now, I say that because COVID is still so fresh of the big pivots that us business owners had to do. So being able to stay flexible in those times was definitely hard. But this next part I have written down after this is and how to turn those challenges into opportunities for growth. And when I share my story with you, I'm going to share how taking a step back actually made me be more profitable and really expand my business. So just because you have to pivot in a different direction does not mean you are not going to be successful, matter of fact. You might like it. So let's jump into today's episode. So let's jump into today's episode.
Speaker 1:So first up is the importance of adaptability in business. Now, when I was relatively new, starting out my business I've opened up before that I had different mentors, I talked to so many different people about different things about different things and I started my business in 2012. 2008, and being an employee in 2008 of small businesses, I could really see the destruction that the recession did on small businesses and while I wasn't in the business seat at that point, starting my business, I was very fearful to go through a recession and, as I took my business and took it from carpet cleaning into a restoration business, really thinking that I was a part of a recession-proof industry really opened my eyes when COVID hit. And now a struggle that we are currently going through right now, which I'm helping my management team get through, is the ever-changing insurance market in the state of California. So the importance of adapting your business to a changing market or changing trends is so important for you to ingrain in your mind from day one, as I did, because it always keeps you on your toes.
Speaker 1:Now I've talked about the importance of a business plan. I am consistently on my business plan. I'm always looking at my business plan, but once a year I go in and I really go through my business plan and I mark my next goals for the next year. I dive in. If it's, I'm gonna buy more equipment, hire more employees, hire more employees, buy more vehicles, whatever it may be. That plan is definitely there. But a big part of my business plan, and that I encourage you to have, is a what if your phone stops ringing? What if your customers stop coming into your store? What are you going to do and how are you going to adapt? So a big part of my business plan is actually a fallback on protecting my business if my business customers stop coming in. Now you might think it's morbid.
Speaker 1:I had a gentleman I spoke with a couple years ago that I had shared that I have a backup plan for essentially my business going under, if you will, and protecting my business, always planning for a doomsday, and about a year later he had had some issues and experienced having to adapt his market and actually then sat down with me and talked to me about a year later and said now that is something that he does every single year is go in and think about a what-if scenario. So don't knock it. If you have been there, if you are a business owner that has survived the shutdowns of COVID, I'm glad you're here, I'm glad your business is still thriving. There are so many businesses that closed up and were unable to adapt to such a catastrophic. Just economy, just the economy just coming in and everything was against you. Everything was against you.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, being able to know the importance of why you need to be able to pivot is super crazy important, I can't stress it. Be able to pivot is super crazy important, I can't stress it. A mentor that I had years ago he didn't prepare his business and unfortunately lost it during the 2008 downturn. I had a pretty thriving business, did not plan for his phone to essentially stop ringing and you know we're entrepreneurs we bounced back and he did bounce back. But the lessons I have taken away from him is you really really need to understand how important being able to pivot and change in your market is so crucial. So moving on is recognizing when it is time to pivot.
Speaker 1:Now, 2020, I'd probably said pivot 2000 times. It was consistently evolving, consistently changing. It was a market pivot after pivot. I mean we had a pretty big facility. Our phones stopped ringing. I mean our sales were essentially sliced in half. We were planning on renewing our facility. We were actually up that year. We were going to renew for another five years. We opted to not renew kind of pivot, if you will into a new facility that was much smaller but a much more manageable kind of nut, if you will, as far as the rental price.
Speaker 1:When you're building your business and you've got all of these wins right, you've set your goals, you're growing, you're growing, you're hiring new people, maybe you're buying some new equipment, you're really on your up and up in business, if you will, and then you have a downturn come and it knock you back. You can feel like you failed. You can feel like maybe you didn't do something right, and I know that I definitely felt that. But throughout everything that happened, I am so thankful that it did, because little did I know I was going to make myself way more profitable and my workload was getting evenly distributed throughout the year. My team, my team that stuck around then, allowing me to completely split off from that side of the business and allow me to explore other business opportunities. So I'm so thankful that we had a downturn.
Speaker 1:But being able to recognize, you know, if things are going wrong. You're starting to see your phones aren't ringing and you can't just figure out what it is. I mean, if you're a business that solely relies on, maybe, online advertising and now you can see maybe online isn't working for you, being able to pivot into maybe more of a referral-based business where customers are referring you, different vendors in your field are referring you. Being able to pivot your business there If you, unfortunately, are maybe going through some cash flow issues. Being able to pivot on what's important, what's not important, how you're going to grow, how you're going to essentially just get through the time. So really recognizing when your time to pivot you always need to. How do I put this? You always want to make sure that one you're not just doomsday every single day thinking about it, but it needs to be front and center of okay, hey, this isn't working out, this online advertising isn't working out, or this particular referral stream is no longer working out. How do I diversify? But then also recognizing hey, there's actually a bigger issue here and this is completely changing. My market is completely changing and we need to do something and get into a different service. So I'm going to give you an example.
Speaker 1:When I started my business I've spoken about this in the past is I started the business as a carpet cleaning business and never in a million years would I have ever thought I would have gotten out of carpet cleaning. Now I knew that I wanted to add restoration onto my business services, but that was going to kind of be a cherry on the top for the business. What I mean by that is, my primary source of income was going to be carpet cleaning, and if we got a restoration job it was just going to add a little extra money to the business, where maybe we would buy more equipment or get a bigger facility whatever it is, maybe put a little bit more money into my pocket. But little did I know. As I started to grow my business, I wanted to really put a team in place and I wanted to put a skilled team in place with legitimate players. I didn't want to have to be looking for new employees, and so what comes with that is competitive wages, and as a carpet cleaner starting up, I could not offer competitive wages, and even when I was successful, I could not have competitive wages to keep solid people around.
Speaker 1:For a long time it was really seeming for me that my employees, if you will, were just going to be high not high school, but right out of high school, college kids and maybe get them for a couple years, and then they would be on their way and I would have to retrain, go through that process but nonetheless always having a rotating door. And for me it was important very early on to recognize I didn't wanna be in that situation. I really wanted to be able to set up a management team and have a business that ran itself, instead of it 100% relying on me. So I really thought long and hard. I pushed it as a priority to start my restoration service side of the business and once I did that, I pulled out of carpet cleaning. I recognized that I had a very successful business model on what I was doing in the restoration world and no longer needed to be kind of distracted with the other part of it, which was carpet cleaning. Now, carpet cleaning is a very profitable side of the business but for me it added noise for my growing business. So I found it important for me to adapt and move to restoration Again. It was a part of my business model and what I had been planning. But, like I said, never in a million years starting the business would I have thought that I was no longer going to offer that service and completely be in a different field.
Speaker 1:So leave yourself that opportunity or that option as you get into business to not just be in one particular service. What I mean by that is, say, you're a bakery and you really specialize in cookies. Don't put all of your advertising out as Joe Schmoe's cookie shop. Leave the door open. Leave a broad name. Talk to people. Talk to your customers. See what they want.
Speaker 1:I know somebody that does cake pops. A cake pop business is their sole business. There's no room for them to get into wedding cakes. There's no room for them to get into baked goods. It is solely focused on cake pops. So that particular person is locking themselves out. Now, if they decide to grow and scale their business, they know that they're going to have to add on different services and the branding that they're doing now and have done for years is around this one particular item that they sell. So they need to be able to adapt to their business and move on.
Speaker 1:But recognizing that for you as business owners is important. You want to do it before it's too late. Maybe there's no market for cake pops anymore, maybe there's no market for cookies anymore. You really need to leave that option for you and your business Because, right at the end of the day, we're business owners, we're entrepreneurs, we want to make money, we want to provide for our families. We want to be successful and maybe adding on a different service. This is something we can do as entrepreneurs. So recognize when it is time to pivot for you and your business.
Speaker 1:This next section is tips for staying flexible. But gosh, I will tell you, flexibility is so hard when you're actually dealing with it. So I think you know, for me in my carpet cleaning kind of era, if you will, pivoting into restoration was a strategy move. It was not something that I needed to really be flexible on. There were obviously issues dealing with bringing on newer employees, having to train them, cross-training other employees, then slowly pulling out of that. So that was its own kind of flexibility. But this flexibility one really stands out to me, which was during COVID COVID.
Speaker 1:Covid beat my business up hard and I didn't expect it. You know right, we deal with insurance-related claims. People are always going to have that. Well, I didn't expect that everybody was going to be at home catching these things. I didn't expect that insurance companies were going to be hard to get a hold of because now everything was remote. I didn't expect that my sales would dramatically decrease or half of my workforce was not going to show up for work. So this was very hard to do in the time and it's very easy to talk about it now.
Speaker 1:But us business owners, we are consistently the cheerleaders, we're consistently the motivators of our business and we have to stay positive. But dealing with these times, it is hard to stay positive Now. Fortunately for me I've mentioned in the past is in my business plan I have a big section of what to do if things go wrong. So being able to follow that plan and execute that was not pretty but it made my business survive, absolutely survive. And it's interesting when you're growing, you're succeeding, you're winning in business, and then you've got this big hurdle that gets in the way and you having to take a couple steps back. It definitely hurts, maybe the ego, maybe the pride I'd probably say the pride a little bit more than ego on my side. I don't think that's a good word, but it definitely takes your pride back and, as you maybe have employees that have been there on, hey, I'm growing, this is the company, we're successful, this is what we're doing, and then being able to take a couple steps back and saying, hey, this is actually what we're doing and we're just going to survive right now and it is hard. So staying flexible is absolutely easier said than done. I think being able to have that plan in place is the largest tip I can give you. Right, if you're going in and maybe you've got a business that you make slime and sales are booming because maybe it went viral on TikTok and now you've had to secure that bigger facility, the more expensive equipment, being able to jot down a plan of how do I get out of this bigger facility, how do I adapt my business to where I can still handle my workload and not close down operations, maybe how do I get rid of the equipment if I no longer need it or there is no longer a demand. These are important things to have in your plan of being able to walk back and saying, hey, things are not working out and I need to succeed. And then, moving on, it's turning challenges into opportunities. Now I think that when you're going through these downturns right there's it is very hard, it is absolutely hard.
Speaker 1:I think when I got into business, like a recession was super fresh on my mind. Right Again, I was an employee that had saw it decimate small businesses and now I was in the small business world and I was deathly afraid of a recession Now, having been through an economic downturn like the pandemic, having been through so many different hurdles throughout business, if we had a recession, am I super scared like I was before? No, absolutely not. I know how to handle it. I know exactly what I would do and I know how I would be profitable and continue my business operations. So it's important to remember if you're going through a challenge, it can be an opportunity later, and that is exactly what happened to me with the pandemic and, like most businesses, we were able to figure out what we needed to do to survive and thrive. We needed to do to survive and thrive.
Speaker 1:Now, the 2008, I'm going to back up to the 2008 recession and decimated businesses, right, so, getting into business, I had met with somebody that was very successful in real estate. They had owned a ton of real estate. They had a property management company. I remember having a sandwich with this lady for lunch one day and she had given me a story of a local company and how they were able to survive and turn a challenging time into a massive opportunity, and this really stuck with me. It is stuck with me, definitely during COVID. It stuck with me my entire business career and I hope it sticks with you.
Speaker 1:But in our city or our county we had a pretty prominent fence company. That fence company had a lot of eggs in one basket with general contractors and new home builds and unfortunately, in 2008, their business took a massive decline. General contractors weren't calling them anymore, new homes weren't being built and their sales were absolutely hurting. Now they necessarily weren't looking for new clients. I mean, every business is always looking for new clients but their business approach was how can we take the clients that we still have and the clients that are still using us and offer more services to them to make us more profitable and get us through this challenging time? So they decided to offer porter potties. They looked at their business model and they said, hey look, we noticed that there are a porter pottie company that we are always recommending and most of our clients use them and we should bring that in-house and add that onto our business as it goes hand-in-hand. Now, fast forward, years later, they are the largest porter party Porter. This is such a tongue twister. They are the largest porter potty rental company in our county, with now their fence service being second rental company in our county, with now their fence service being second. So they were able to get out of that downturn and be successful, right Adding something onto their business that they knew their clients needed and then turning it into an opportunity to grow their business later. So that story really stuck with me.
Speaker 1:Now, during the pandemic for us, I did not expect our clients to not call. I did not expect certain things to happen, and they did. Some people had banger years. We didn't. We were definitely affected. We're in California. Regulations were extremely hard. It was a very tough time, but being able to turn that tough time into opportunity was huge and I did not know that at the time. So we were able to go in and completely revamp our business model. We were going for more of a corporate feel. We went more for a family-run feel. That really resonated with our community. It really resonated with our future clients and we absolutely have kept that model to this day, being a family-run business.
Speaker 1:We've been able to go through and we were able to just completely trim the fat. We got rid of employees that didn't show up. We got rid of employees that we no longer needed just because of the. You know, when we were growing we needed just bodies. We got rid of all of those bodies. We kept all of the skilled people, went through the vehicles. We realized what our biggest assets were and we downsized our facility. So we cut our expenses tremendously. And then we invested in the business. We got pieces of equipment that we needed that we had always rented. We bought those after things were good. We bought those cash. We really focused on completely paying down our debts, which we did, and then, moving forward in 2021, we were almost completely debt-free. We had skilled employees that we were investing in and the overall operation was more profitable. So when we have now bounced back to regular business and it's all back to normal, our revenue is, I'm going to say the same, if not higher, but our profitability is through the roof, almost double of what it was before, because we were able to completely get rid of all of the waste and really trim up shop and make it work for us.
Speaker 1:And then that opportunity that it led for me I was able to move out of state. Now, fun fact, I came back. It was actually a little challenging for the family in the other state, but I was able to move out of state and completely focus on other business ideas and ventures. So that allowed me the flexibility to truly be an entrepreneur. And now, to this day, where I sit, it has allowed me to grow into other businesses and has allowed my management team to thrive on my main business. So this is so cool how, unfortunately, such a bad time was able to turn out to such an opportunity for us. So if you are going through something, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I can tell you right now that our business is currently adapting to the ever-changing insurance market of California. Right now, if you do not know insurance companies are not staying in California. Not know insurance companies are not staying in California, and that is very hard for our clients, the ones that need to file claims. So we are adapting to our clients' needs. We are adapting to exactly what they need our price points, our services to reflect a better business for that. So where there is a downturn is always an opportunity.
Speaker 1:Now going through it again. This is this is easier said than done. This is like uh, you know your friends in a relationship and you're telling them to get out of the toxic relationship and it's just not working. But you, but you know, you're telling them, you're giving me the advice. A couple years later You're going through it and now you're not listening to your own advice. This is easier said than done, guys. It is so hard to stay motivated when you feel like the chips are stacked up against you. But I can tell you, get through it, you will be successful. You will take it and turn it into a massive opportunity. You just have to trust the process.
Speaker 1:Opportunity you just have to trust the process, and it starts by working in a backup plan in your business plan is if you have to downsize or pivot or change in your market, what you're going to do and that is across the board. I look at a backup plan on every single thing I do. I look at a backup plan on every single thing I do a facility what if I need this facility and then I don't need it but I'm still in a lease? How do I get out of it? If I buy a vehicle and maybe I don't need the vehicle anymore? If I hire an employee and maybe I don't need that employee anymore? If my marketing is not working out on one particular thing, how do I adapt that marketing? I have a plan for everything. So I implore you, please figure out a plan for your business on every little thing you need and always have it in your back pocket, because, at the end of the day, I want you to be a successful business owner and be able to have your business thrive. And just because it's not looking too good in one particular month doesn't mean it's not going to bounce back the next month.
Speaker 1:I'm just taking some time to kind of reflect, reflecting on I don't know. I think reflecting on how exhausted I was during the pivot. And this episode is strategic, as us business owners have been in business the last year, year and a half. We've heard an incoming recession. If you follow the news, if you're like me, I'm always making sure I'm up to date on market trends. Right, and thinking, gosh, we just got out of COVID, I had to pivot, I had to pivot, and now dealing with the recession, am I going to have to pivot again? Now, for me, surprise, surprise, as a business owner wearing a thousand different hats, we had to pivot on now, insurance companies pulling out of the state and affecting our business. So we are always pivoting.
Speaker 1:It is something that we do, but I think the reflection that I was having is how to stay positive during those times. Right, you've got a plan of what do I do if my business is not succeeding and I really need to trim the fat. Right, you have maybe a list of employees that you have to start getting rid of. You have a list of equipment that maybe you're starting to downsize or refinancing some debt, whatever it may be. But actually going through it is a lot different than putting it together on pen and paper.
Speaker 1:So, reflecting on those times, if you're unfortunately dealing with something that you have found yourself on this episode and you are dealing with a pivot of your own right now, I know it's hard I speak from personal experience but I want you to know if you power through it, you will be successful and you will turn it into an opportunity. So go out there and get it done. You're the business owner. There are hard decisions to make, but I want you to get those done. And I're the business owner. There are hard decisions to make, but I want you to get those done and I want you to succeed.
Speaker 1:And for business owners that have not had to pivot, I strongly suggest you get a game plan together, because you might not have to pivot this week, this month, this year, this decade, but at some point you are going to have to pivot your business. Every single business has to pivot. Look at Amazon, started as a business, or a bookstore, online bookstore. You don't think about that with what you think of Amazon right now. We're always adapting our businesses because we want to succeed as business owners. So if you have not had to pivot, I would implore that you go down, jot down a plan if you have to and recognize hey, if things start to go this way, this is when I'm going to start implementing these things. Right, hold yourself accountable, I think.
Speaker 1:Some final thoughts Change in a business. Change is inevitable. Right, we go through our lives and we have things change in our lives that we have had to adapt. So that happens in business, but it's how we, as business owners, respond to that change that defines our success. So remember that Change is inevitable, but it's the way you handle that change that will define your success. Staying flexible, staying informed about your market, the trends, watching everything and always being able to adapt when the wind shifts that is what's going to. That is what's going to help you adapt if you need to adapt.
Speaker 1:So thank you for joining me today on today's episode of the business guide. I really hope you found this episode helpful. I am. I'm doing this for you. I am. There's no strings attached. I know that there has been so many different gurus out there that promise the world. They ultimately just want your money right. As business owners, we have learned that there are so many hands out there saying, here, pay me this, pay me this. This is just a free resource guide. I really do enjoy being in business. I love talking to other business owners and I love hearing the successes in business. And I love hearing the successes in business and I love helping people through the challenging times.
Speaker 1:So this episode is probably not one of the friendlier ones that you want to hear. You don't want to hear if your business is going through something tough how to change it, how to deal with it but we have all been there and we will all be there. There's a saying when I think, riding a motorcycle, there are those that have fallen and those that are yet to fall. It's the same thing in business. There are those that have had to pivot and there are those that will have to pivot right. So just stay on top of it. Stay on top of your business. I want you to be successful.
Speaker 1:But, with that being said, leave me a comment. Send me a text message. I have that on the description. Send me a text message in the podcast. I would love to hear what you thought about the episode. I'd love to hear what you're dealing with. I would love to be able to address that on the podcast. Create an episode for you, help you get through whatever struggle you're dealing with or success you're dealing with. I'd love to help you out. So, thank you everyone for taking the time to listen to today's episode. I really appreciate you being here and I will catch you on the next episode of the Business Guide.
