Marketing Strategies: Simple Tips for Quick Results – ep 125

Mostafa Hosseini  00:02

Hello and welcome. In this episode you will you will discover how to increase your profits right away. Simple marketing strategies you can use now without spending more money on marketing and advertising, how to overcome a struggle or to within your business. My guest today is Steve Feld and we’re talking about simple marketing secrets. Surprise, surprise. Welcome, Steve.

Steve Feld  00:29

Well, thanks for having me.

Mostafa Hosseini  00:31

Great to have you. Let me do the proper introduction for Steve. And we’re going to dive into a very interesting conversation about simple marketing secrets on the simple Marketing Show, which is going to be very interesting, I guess. So biz Coach Steve Feld is a certified business coach, author, podcast host, professional speaker, mastermind facilitator, and coffee enthusiast. He is passionate about having small business owners and entrepreneurs achieve massive revenue and profitability growth. By utilizing simple proven strategies and tactics to build a long term sustainable business. Steve takes the overwhelm out of business.

He has owned and operated seven lucrative businesses while providing change management and process improvement for other businesses has operated within three fortune 500 companies, written eight books about business for entrepreneurs. And overall, he is just an awesome guy that I’ve known for a few years. Welcome, Steve. Thanks. Oh, as your day so far, my friend,

Steve Feld  01:39

busy. I love it.

Mostafa Hosseini  01:43

That is awesome. What keeps you busy these days?

Steve Feld  01:47

A lot of talking to prospects, potential clients, business owners. So I’m in many different all sorts of groups as well full of business owners, and I just love helping them and seeing them all survive and thrive.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:01

Love it. So let’s dive into it. Before we dive into it, where are you located?

Steve Feld  02:07

I’m in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:09

And what’s it like out there is a summer right now?

Steve Feld  02:12

Well, it’s freezing right now for us.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:16

It’s probably our summer up here in Canada,

Steve Feld  02:20

was 55 Fahrenheit for us today, which is way below are normal at this time here.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:27

Let me just do a quick check to check and see you so 55. Yes. That’s like spring for us.

Steve Feld  02:34

Exactly. That is your spring? Like, look, it’s health freezing.

Mostafa Hosseini  02:39

Oh, I know. Like it’s been it’s been around zero this January up in Calgary, and it feels like spring for us. Like zero freezing temperature. And so

Steve Feld  02:54

what’s, you’re not getting all the snow?

Mostafa Hosseini  02:56

We’re getting some snow, but not not as much as you’d not as much as what we usually get in January. So Steve, what is your story?

Steve Feld  03:09

Let’s say well, we kind of hit a few things own and operate seven businesses. And I turned around three others, and then participate in three fortune 500 companies, I just found my very first business where my passion lies. And that was working with owner operators of businesses, because seeing the failure rate of small business owners just kills me. I mean, it really just bothers me.

So that’s where my passion lies, you know, let’s help these business owners realize their goals and dreams. And I’ve been teaching a workshop called ABCs of starting a business for seven years. And I do it one to three times a month. And I volunteer to do it. And the reason is, it’s like, I want people to be successful in business, because small business owners actually make up 97% Of all the businesses in the world.

So without them, the world economy would come to a halt. And people think of the big names. That’s a small sliver of the of all the businesses. So one business might employ, you know, 100,000 people, but that one business needs probably 10,000 small businesses to get their supplies, their materials, and everything else. So small businesses are feeding the big ones. And people have to realize that so and you’re giving back to your community and I love seeing people really realize their dreams and not having it turned into a nightmare.

Mostafa Hosseini  04:43

Absolutely, absolutely. So I know you touched on it already a little bit. So what do you do these days and who do you serve?

Steve Feld  04:50

I serve owner operators, primarily service based businesses. It’s almost in every industry I used to have a niche in an industry A lot of my one on one clients or CPAs. Currently, I just don’t know how I, I speak their lingo, I guess. And I’ve been starting a new mastermind group starting in February. So we’re filling that up.

And I just did a workshop today, early today before I went to go see a prospect on strategic marketing, because a lot of business owners, small business owners, they don’t have any plans for the whole year. And I know if you have a plan and you execute your plan, you have a higher chance of success. It’s just funny how this works.

Mostafa Hosseini  05:34

Yeah, if you know what you’re doing and what you’re going forward, you’re a lot more likely to achieve it. Like it’s impossible. And I’ve been saying this for a long time. It’s impossible to get something if you don’t know what it is like. That’s it. What do you want? I don’t know what I want. How are you going to get something if you don’t know what it is?

Steve Feld  05:53

And I hear from small business owners all the time. Well, I want to make a million dollars. Why? I don’t know. It sounded cool. Yeah. Well, let’s get some thought into this. Yeah.

Mostafa Hosseini  06:07

Yeah, you actually you really want this? Are you? Are you going to put up all the working hours and the everything you need to put into get it? A lot of people? Yeah. Oh, my friend said it’s cool. Yeah. I saw an ad from Grant Cardone, he said, it’s easy. So I thought I would do it too.

Steve Feld  06:28

I should be making a million dollars here in five weeks. Right?

Mostafa Hosseini  06:31

All right, I’m going to 10x and five you.

Steve Feld  06:35

You can’t. And I tell people that all the time. It’s how are you going to 10x? Zero? What is that result?

Mostafa Hosseini  06:41

Yeah. All right, I 3x. My sales, I went from $100 to $300. So you touched on something when you were talking? And that’s the topic of prospects. And when it comes to the world of marketing, it’s probably the biggest problem with every business that we know, unless they’re fairly established, but small businesses, they’re always hungry for leads and prospects.

And they’re usually looking for ways to do it. How do you seems like you have a good flow of prospects and leads? How do you do it? Because we have a lot of coaches and small businesses that watch our show. What’s your process for that?

Steve Feld  07:23

I set up many different systems. And I love systems, I’m on marketing operations, guys, those are my like my jam right there. And I just love it and setting up systems. So we’re gonna I know, we’re gonna talk probably about one of them. It’s like joint ventures. If you have joint ventures, they’re actually can feed your pipeline, if you will, from another source.

And I’m a big proponent of having joint ventures and once I really started getting established in joint ventures, I started realizing like, wow, I’m getting great leads coming in. And what did I do? I created a relationship with this many individuals.

Mostafa Hosseini  08:06

Love it, how do you what’s the process for is joint venture, your number one thing or one of your better lead gen strategies?

Steve Feld  08:15

That’s a joint ventures are especially during the pandemic. Pandemic too. I actually well, your database is your gold. I hope you know I’m telling everyone that you’re not filtering or funneling some way of collecting data on prospects, their name and email and staying in touch with them. I mean, that’s one of your best lead chins there is.

So they might not be a what we call a tip now buyer, someone who’s like looking I’m I need to buy right now. They might be a future buyer where they need to just gather information through their journey, the buyers journey. And by you having them on your email list, your newsletter, podcast, whatever it may be, you’re taking them on that journey.

So when they’re ready to buy, you’re though you’re the one who comes to mind. So I believe on bringing people into your tribe, if you will, and nurturing. And you need to have many ways to do that. It’s not like the old way you go network and collect business cards and put them in your CRM and you know, reach out to him whenever you need something. Right old old way.

Mostafa Hosseini  09:29

Love it. Love it. So talking about nurturing. How do you nurture your your list? What are some ways that you nurture your list that is working for you?

Steve Feld  09:40

I’m a big proponent of funnels and automation to if something can do it when I’m not doing it, I love it. So one way is to give away a book, a guide, a worksheet, a video that’s going to give content not sales, not Don’t be the sales, salesy, but give away your content. I know a lot of small business owners like if I give it away, they’re not going to buy.

That’s full hockey. You’re not giving them the secret sauce, you’re giving them the burger, right? The burger and a bun, but you want the secret sauce is what the magic. Now they need you. Right to be the burger. Get them into a pipeline, a drip campaign. So you’re reaching out to them on an automated sequence. And then funneling them into like a newsletter, I reach out, I have a newsletter that goes out every other week, religiously.

And it has an article that’s going to help them in their business. And then has also affiliates or joint venture partners I have in there as well. So if they like those offers, they can opt in to those people’s lists. And then anything that you know, podcast here on the latest podcast episode, you might not be a subscriber on my podcast channel. But I noticed they’re not a subscriber on the channel, but they’ll listen to an episode because it’s in the newsletter.

Mostafa Hosseini  11:06

So you think well, your podcast your list.

Steve Feld  11:09

So I put the podcasts actually the episodes in my newsletter, like in case you missed it, which is true, we we all get busy. Sometimes I don’t go back and listen to like, whoever I have on our guests. Like if I have you on my show. It’s like, I’ll go listen to your podcast.

I really do. And I listened as someone’s podcast before I’m a guest on their show. Because it’s like, is this a right fit for me? Am I gonna good tribute value to their audience? And that’s what I’m always thinking. I want to contribute some great value.

Mostafa Hosseini  11:42

For sure. So did you listen to our podcast?

Steve Feld  11:46

Yes. It was. Because I looked at it quite some time ago. Like, was

Mostafa Hosseini  11:53

it good? Did you like it? Or not like it be honest with you? Honestly?

Steve Feld  11:57

I do. If I didn’t like it, we wouldn’t be having a conversation. I’ll be honest, I’ve heard some bad POC. Well, it’s subjective. But I’ll say I’ve heard some podcasts where I didn’t think I would be a good guest for them. Fair

Mostafa Hosseini  12:13

enough. So here’s what I’m doing. Here’s our maybe exposed and coach moment. I am actively working on improving the podcast. Since you are a coach, and you’re a podcaster. And you have listened to our podcast. What feedback do you have for me for the entire process? Since you signed up? Until you’re here today? What can we improve on?

Steve Feld  12:38

It’s funny you mentioned that because when I started looking at podcasts because this is gonna fall into it. I was a guest for a year and a half, almost two years as a guest. What I did is I just asked for five extra minutes after the podcast with the host. Uh huh.

It’s like, can you give me five minutes? I’m not selling you anything. I’m gonna ask you have a million questions right now. And they go okay, sure. So I asked him, How did you start at what platform do you use? What how’d you get your music? How do you rank yourself? How did you find keywords? Everything? How do you find guests? What is the process? And I tell people, what you’re doing to bring guests in your podcast should be the same thing why business owners should be bringing in prospects into their business, there is no real difference, right? The difference is you get to interview them on a great platform. Having that process, make it easy for them to sign up and get something out of it. So in this case, hey, I want to be your guest.

And you made it easy. Here’s a form, fill it out, it’s pretty darn easy. I learned that make it simple. Don’t make it overly complex. I don’t need to know your blood type. Neck next have follow up to once they’ve registered, get them booked because it’s hot and it’s in the heat of the moment. Same thing with your prospects. They just downloaded your guide, get them on offer. Get them on your calendar. Or another way they can contact you.

So you did that. And then follow up. And I know my my newsletter, my podcast, sometimes the guest book so tight, they get their follow up after they’re already a guest. They’ve already done the show. But you had a follow up and you always want to do reminders. And you’re you did all that. And I learned the reminders are the key. So that’s why I have it in my Calendly system.

So it does three days in advance two days in advance a day in advance the day, an hour before. Why we’re business owners. Stuff happens. Like I mentioned you right before this call I had a few minutes between my last call, I just went got water and came back. took a deep breath. And let’s do this. Yeah.

Mostafa Hosseini  15:07

So do you have any feedback for me any constructive? I appreciate what you shared. Do you have any constructive criticism, the more you feel like it’s going to hurt me, the more I love it, the more you expose me and like my stuff, here’s what you did wrong. Here’s what you could improve on. Do you have any of that for me? You

Steve Feld  15:24

did. Did everything I would recommend too, is swipe copy. So let’s make it easy for people. We’re talking about swipe, copy, something that someone could copy and paste and make an ad copy, couple word changes to make it more more them. And paste. Don’t make it so difficult. And you did all that and you provide a graphics.

So that also takes the headache out. I know, I do that on my show. Here’s the graphics. And I get feedback all the time. Like you made it so easy just to copy and paste. Good. So you’re doing everything I think the elements that I look for, and I ate and I learned. And I was the hard way. Fair

Mostafa Hosseini  16:08

enough. If you if you remember anything I would I appreciate the feedback. So have you worked with? Do you primarily work with small business owners? Or midsize bigger or what’s what’s your target audience?

Steve Feld  16:21

Primarily small. I have automated programs for startups nice and easy for them. But I’d say most of the clients I have in group or mastermind and one on one, or anywhere from a half million all the way to 20 million, half

Mostafa Hosseini  16:36

a million to 20 million. All right, so and then what do you like about working with small business owners?

Steve Feld  16:41

I found my passion was the owner operator. Because I’ve been a C suite. And one of my businesses, I only focused on C suite individuals. One time I was like, Something’s just not right here after working with a C CEO and a CFO in the same company, because I had two different meetings with them. I realized they’re hired hands.

At the end of the day, they’re worried about their contracts. So are they really passionate about moving the business they are but because they want the bonus, other than that they had no passionate. So I love the owner operator who has skin in the game. I know what they what they’re going through. I’ve lived it too many times. I know what it feels like to wake up in a cold sweat at two in the morning worrying about payroll tomorrow. I know that feeling.

And I can relate to that. I also know the feeling of being a CEO going, yeah, oh, payrolls due on Friday, I’ll just have my co deal CFO deal with it done. I go back to sleep. Whereas you’re the owner operator, you’re not going back to sleep?

Mostafa Hosseini  17:51

Hmm. What do you see as one of the top struggles for small business owners?

Steve Feld  18:00

I’d say the number one is? Well, of course, they always want more revenue. But they should be saying I want more profit. Because revenue is for show profit is what you take home on. That’s how I look at it. So you’re looking at the wrong things. They don’t know their numbers. And accounting is the Language of Business.

So you need to really know your numbers. And I’d say the number one thing is they just don’t ask for help. When plenty of people that can help them. So they’re trying to let’s say they hate doing accounting. So they’re doing it all themselves getting frustrated, taking too long, and they’re messing it up and the IRS is knocking on the door because they messed it up.

Whereas if you were to ask for help and hired someone, they could have done it in an eighth of the time, way less money if you do the math, and IRS is loving you. So yeah, ask for help.

Mostafa Hosseini  18:59

Yeah, we feel like we’re going to save money with doing your own stupid accounting. I mean, accounting is not stupid. It’s really good. But it’s not my thing. And I’m not good at it. I would gladly pay someone with like, grab like a bag of receipts and be like, Bill me, because I’m not gonna deal with it. Some people love it. And that’s great. I would not be saving money, I would just, I would pull my hair out. Let whoever had to do it. Hmm. So when you do

Steve Feld  19:31

the math that how much your hourly rate is and how much time you spent on that to get the learning curve. You could have paid someone $25 And they could have done it in an hour. Meanwhile, it’s taking 30 hours.

Mostafa Hosseini  19:45

That’s That’s right. So you talked about profits and I know back in the day, I learned from Dan Kennedy he said a business owner’s sole and most important job is to make profits and most people don’t even think about that. Just think about getting busy and act like they’re very productive by being busy. What’s the approach on making profits? Because I know this is a big deal. Like most companies are not profitable, right?

Steve Feld  20:14

You know, great examples like Uber. They’re not profitable.

Mostafa Hosseini  20:19

They’re not a no. Well, I mean,

Steve Feld  20:23

they’re disrupter of the industry. They’re a unicorn with a 1 billion value over a 1 billion valuation. But are they making a penny? I don’t know. They’re not. And they’re in the hole, because they have investors and everything else.

So when a small business owner needs to focus on profit, because that’s going to have your cash flow to keep you alive, keep the business afloat, it’s going to so you can pay yourself and bring home something so you can stay living where you’re living.

And I totally agree with Dan Kennedy I. That’s what drives me nuts about many small business owners, they’re so focused on the top number, they should be really focusing on the bottom number, controlling the costs watching going lean, especially when you start Go Lean. You don’t need naff cards when you start a business. You do not need it really.

Mostafa Hosseini  21:19

Yeah. What are the so you said some business owners don’t know their numbers? What are maybe top two or three numbers people or business owners should know? Like all the time?

Steve Feld  21:29

Well, they should know their revenue and their and their profits? Difference? It’s like what are their cost of goods? Or what’s their net profit margin? So how much of what they take in is expense? So if you take in $100, and you know, you have $50 of expenses, okay? That’s what you should be knowing? Do you need to be an accountant or a CPA to really understand everything? No. Should you sit with your CPA and have an explain what a profit loss statement is? Yes. And I even wrote a book to focus on three numbers on your profit loss statement, to know those that you can move the lever and the dials. So your cost of goods, you really need to be in control your costs all the time.

Mostafa Hosseini  22:20

Yeah, there was a guy I know here in Canada, a Persian guy that owned used to own future shop and Oh, company at Best Buy bought, and they kind of shut it down. And then I knew a guy who knows the guy is know was named Mr. K. And he said, This guy, Mr. K would would take care of all of his payables himself and keep an eye on it.

So you got to know how much money is going out. And then this guy’s worth probably, I don’t know, hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions. And so that’s what this guy this guy did. He would sit around and look for the payables. What are we paying out and keeping an eye on? It?

Steve Feld  23:00

was absolutely. I mean, I, one of my clients was a CPA, and we started looking at their books. Okay, CPAs are great with numbers, right? They’re not the best business people necessarily. We started looking at the books and I saw, you have receivables amount od of 600,000. Whereas you’re an accountant. If you saw this on someone else’s books, what would be the first thing you would say? I’d freak out and go, Why didn’t you collect that?

And I go, well, then that’s my answer to you. You’re losing money, you just lost 600,000 that people owe you and your collected. So the first thing we focused on was getting the 600,000 that turned his business around from losing money to all sudden making money, because he didn’t control is receivables, how much he was owed in and now his receivables are zero.

Mostafa Hosseini  23:57

Nice. So he just cashed in on the 600 Grand that people owe him and that’s okay fastest. That’s actually been been one of my fastest way to get cash, literally like opening the receivables and calling people up or emailing them saying, hey, looks like we haven’t received I could be wrong, but looks like we haven’t received a payment on on this or that or oh my god, I’m so sorry. Here’s my credit card, or here’s an email transfer or whatever. And then I immediately get cash. I love doing that.

Steve Feld  24:30

And you know, a lot of business owners like oh my god, well, it’s been like seven months they’ll never gonna remember. You don’t want business owners forget and what you said happened? I’d say eight out of 10 times.

Let’s take care right now because they feel that oops, it fell through their cracks. And then the other you’ll have the one who Why don’t know you anything and they want to play the game, find their bad client, get rid of it, write it off as bad debt. And then the other one. You know what? They just want to see the recede again. So you have to do a little big, big.

Mostafa Hosseini  25:03

Yeah. Love it. Good. So, um, you have written so many books, and one of them is 45 minute breakthrough. Can you share some of the breakthroughs with us? Yes,

Steve Feld  25:17

that book showcases eight simple strategies that any business owner can put in their business that day without spending more on marketing or advertising. And we have hundreds, but I want to focus on eight. And I mentioned one of them already, which is one of my favorite is joint ventures. So I love the joint venture partnership. I just spoke to a business owner today about this about doing cross selling upselling and down selling.

And I said that to him, they gave me that, like, What are you talking about? And the easiest way to convey this when I’m talking to someone, it’s the simplest marketing strategy is everyone just about everyone’s been to McDonald’s. So when you buy a meal, to upsell, would you like to supersize that same thing in your business? Whatever it is, would you like to take the next level? So you might have another level of products and services?

And then you could cross sell? So would you like an apple pie with your happy meal. So an ancillary product that now separates you from all your competitors, because they cannot compare apples to apples anymore? Because now you’re giving them more value? And then down sell? Well, I can’t get you in the Lexus. So how about if I get in the Toyota? Oh, I can’t get you in the Toyota. How about if I get you into the Ford? I mean, what is your down sell strategy?

Mostafa Hosseini  26:48

Sure. In a cobalt.

Steve Feld  26:52

It’s funny I saw. Well, one of the car. I can’t remember the name of it was a cold day. It was like every time someone hit the back of it, it exploded. It’s from decades ago. And I saw one on the road. And I’m thinking I can’t believe it’s, you’re allowed to drive that thing.

Mostafa Hosseini  27:13

Interesting. Yeah. Those are some great strategies. So upsell, down, sell cross sell. And those are three strategies. Yeah. And

Steve Feld  27:22

they’re simple. It’s like, what do you have in your business? We’ve done this with women’s boutiques, or did it with an online business as well. So we had the good, better best kind of packages. I’ve done it with CPAs. So they said, Well, I think you’re in this package. But we have this one. Now, I’m upselling. Well, I can’t afford that. So back down, down salad.

Well, I can do that one. We have one more package below that, that you can downsize into, or bundling if you sell products, a bundle discount multi purchase discounts first time buyer offers. I’m not a big fan of discounts. I don’t know I’m using that term, but a first time buyer, I’ll give you a special rate. Get them in?

Mostafa Hosseini  28:09

Yeah. Is there any? Do you have any tips for people on when and where they stop adding products to their list? Because I’ve seen people where they have too many upsells too many down cells and the the operation is now derailed. They cannot deliver well on every single one of them. And now they’re screwed. Is there like a line or limits on how much upsell and down selling or cross selling we could do? Absolutely.

Steve Feld  28:41

I worked with a company who created ceramic tiles. And they had hundreds of styles. So I went to our warehouse and it was just mind boggling to me. And I’m like so all these sell right? And they go well, no. So now we start looking at it. Because I also have my green belt and Six Sigma. So it’s like let’s look at it from a Six Sigma point of view.

What are your winners and what are your dogs? So once we started looking at that they had so much money wrapped up in inventory and the dogs it was hurting the business. Yeah, we came up with a way to cross sell if you buy like this product a we’re going to throw in for an extra X dollars. product z blew out all that bad inventory, never to bring it back again. Now his line was down here. Guess what? We had to reanalyze it winners and dogs.

So we got more dogs did the same thing. He got his line down to like 40 some styles that were highly profitable. And now the turnover. He never had inventory anymore. Good So we got rid of a whole warehouse. Because no need for storing excess.

Mostafa Hosseini  30:05

Yeah, right out the door. Yeah. Is that the equivalent like doing like an 8020? Analysis? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, absolutely.

Steve Feld  30:16

Pareto principle works on just about

Mostafa Hosseini  30:21

everything. Yeah,

Steve Feld  30:23

it’s crazy.

Mostafa Hosseini  30:27

It works everywhere. Like you said, people that don’t pay their accounts, probably 10, or five, or I don’t know, one or 2% of your customers don’t pay. Those aren’t to get rid of list.

Steve Feld  30:43

One of my clients, we actually the time they spent with clients, every single client because they added by time jobs, we found his worst clients SUCKED UP 80% of their time. Their best clients use 20. Wait, the worst clients actually paid the least, as well at 20 back on that too.

And we got rid of the worst clients, guess what? Now you turn it around. So 80% of the time was on the best clients. And they were the higher or higher pay. And it turned his whole, the morale in the office changed.

Mostafa Hosseini  31:24

100% really, absolutely love. And then you will probably want to spend more time finding more customers like to top 20% type of customers versus just tiny little, you know,

Steve Feld  31:37

I’ve done it my businesses. You know, I’ve done it with looking at my inventories like, what are my dogs that aren’t going Why am I carrying that inventory? I know better. And then let’s blow it up. But I know how and I won an award for lowering my cost of goods 100% through that method?

Mostafa Hosseini  31:56

Absolutely. So I noticed on your site you talked about you have to talk about a software that you have that helps people find 100 grand. And that’s a big promise. How does that work? Oh,

Steve Feld  32:12

it’s pretty darn easy. It’s some proprietary software we have and I actually run a business through it. They’re with me on like zoom. So they’re seeing it live. And I look at 12 different areas of business itself. And all I do is ask questions, I put in their answers. And it runs it through 497 million algorithms. And then we’re finding hidden revenue right then in there in 45 minutes.

Things that we think that we know in our business is shocking, because I’ve ran I have a deeper one called a deep dive that once someone’s a client and I’ve ran businesses that they’ve learned more about their business, going through that, then then being in their own business. Because it’s things they don’t look at or think of. It’s making them think differently.

But once we find that hidden revenue, we actually can have now an implementation schedule to turn it into reality. And we have our process like Okay, now let’s work together. And let’s do it in reality. And we always look for some quick wins and hits right away, which are right in front of them now because they now see it. Yeah,

Mostafa Hosseini  33:23

quick win collect 650 grand I was shocked for starters.

Steve Feld  33:32

I mean, one of my challenges I put out to some prospects. It’s like listen, if you have an issue saying you can’t afford me or anything like that, which is not true, because there’s always a will there’s a way but when we sit down together for 90 minutes, I’ll have you bring certain documents to the meeting, I will find you your investment in me plus an ROI within the 90 minutes. Absolutely.

Mostafa Hosseini  33:58

So we’re halfway through the show. Again, if you’re watching or listening, please make sure to like and subscribe to the channel on whichever channel you’re watching. If you have any questions for Steven I just post them in the comment and we’ll try to address it now or later if we see it after we’re done with the show and feel free to send the link of this conversation to a friend or and or tag them on social media so they could see it and benefit from all the value bombs that Steve is dropping and include them in the conversation.

 So we talked about profits and how not a lot of people think about it don’t even think about it. Nevermind like doing it what are some quick easy ways to increase profits?

Steve Feld  34:46

I’ll tell you they can do it within 10 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes.

Mostafa Hosseini  34:52

I’m gonna profit strategy guys, let’s

Steve Feld  34:54

say here and it’s not it. This is what is gonna cost you zero this zero. So the first thing is look at your costs. Look at all your expenses. And people go, Well, I look at my expenses every month. No, are you really looking at your expenses? Pull out your personal credit card bills, pull out your business credit card, your bank statements, look at what you’ve been paying, that you’re not using. Great example, how about how’s that fitness annual fitness program that you’re paying for that you’re not even going to? It’s little things like that are sucking the life out of your business.

And you’re not realizing it because they’re in small, little increments. And I started to shape this with personal, your personal budgeting is up people are buying like $7 subscriptions, all these online services, you don’t realize, by the time you really look at it, you’re spending hundreds of dollars a month on these little T subscription services. Yeah. So look at your cost, could you reduce your costs by this much? percent? That’s it? Five. And when I talked to business owners, they always kind of laugh. They’re like, of course, I can cut my cost by 5%. I could do that right now, just by looking at my statements. It’s that easy.

It’s not some long drawn out process, that you have to need a committee or you can do this on your own right now. Not only that, the next thing is could you increase your prices by 5.5%? increase prices? By 5.5%. We just haven’t a calendar year flip over. Hopefully all business owners did do a price increase because they looked at their cost. Look at your vendors, they’ve been increasing their costs on you all year, and have you adjusted your pricing to match it to accommodate for it. Odds are most small business owners are so scared of raising prices.

Well, I’m going to lose clients. But if you rose it 5.5% How many clients will you really, really lose. And I’ve done the math, in boardrooms, in business owners, conference room CEOs row rooms, showing them the math that you how many clients you’re going to lose is so so small, it’s those are the clients who are going to leave you if you raise your price by a penny. So you got to get over that. They’re not seeing the value of your service.

And hopefully, you’re showing value of your products and services. So when you do raise a measly 5.5, which no one will really even notice. It’s easy. One of my clients raise their prices 40%. He lost 20% of sales in the first month. The next month, he doubled his sales, because now he was seen as a higher value in the industry. So can you weed it out all the price sensitive individuals and gained another?

I think it was 10,000 he sold another 10,000 units the second month with higher prices. So do you think he was profitable? Or did he lose money? He didn’t lose money losing the 200 clients.

Mostafa Hosseini  38:28

It was like I know, Steve, I know a lot of businesses are so much undervalued. Yeah. And the prices are so low, that they could probably double triple or five extra prices and still, you know, be okay and make a ton more profit. But like you said, most people are scared. Honestly, I have looked at my prices. And I realized that I put I put such a significant discount on my higher levels. And I’m not making profits. And I went in there and I just got rid of it.

And because I did exactly what you said looked at my expenses, I’m gonna have to pay out to my team members and like, there’s nothing left. Well, there’s not just not enough for me, it’s just not worth it. I’m like busting my rear end every day all day from 4am to like, you know, midnight, and it’s just not worth going through all this trouble. So I just increased the prices. That’s

Steve Feld  39:29

5. I even did this with a CPA on one of his packages. So every time he sold one of these packages, he actually lost $5,000 real money and it was so we increased his prices. But I’d say to any business owner you could do this today. Increase your prices by 5.5%. No one’s good. You might lose one person or someone might bat an eye or make a comment. Guess what prices have gone up look at eggs milk gas. There’s a million billion eggs Gamble’s

Mostafa Hosseini  40:00

Yeah, I mean, everyone else is raising their prices. Why not? Are you almost everything is almost between double down to like 30% higher compared to two or three years ago, and some people are still trying to stay competitive.

Steve Feld  40:20

You’re called the cheapest and worst thing you can be known for is the cheapest. That’s right.

Mostafa Hosseini  40:27

We talked so time looking at your cost, increase your prices, is there anything else we could do to?

Steve Feld  40:34

You know, if you did those two things, no matter what your revenue was, your profit number was, if you did the math, and I have a simulator that even does this, it will double your revenue, or sorry, double your profits, just those two things, reduce expenses by 5%, which you can do right now, and increase your prices by 5.5%. That’s it.

Mostafa Hosseini  40:59

Love it. Two things, reduce costs increase price, and

Steve Feld  41:03

it’s gonna cost us zero to implement. You’re just

Mostafa Hosseini  41:07

going to edit the numbers. That’s it. Yeah.

Steve Feld  41:12

Put in your net profit margin your, your costs, gross profit margin, which is you can Google what the gross profit margin is the average of your industry, believe it or not, it’s on the internet. And use these kinds of stats for your business.

Mostafa Hosseini  41:28

And I think these are stats, it’s so so simple. It’s such a simple thing that people sometimes overlook the simple things that they could do, and they’re like, I am looking for some sophisticated software to analyze what I’m doing and give me a 372 step process that I will not do anyway, but I’m still looking for it.

But I’m also not gonna give the 10 minute, look at my bank statements to find some stuff I could get rid of. And I’m afraid to like Steve, increase my prices, so I’m just not going to do that. I’m just gonna continue to be a loser my business. But can you give me a way to get? Was that pretty awesome?

Steve Feld  42:18

Oh, truly, I had one business owner, fought me tooth and nail, that raising price, I’m gonna lose all these clients. And I said, we came up with a list of all their current clients, I said, Who do you want to lose? Really, if you had the choice to like, money’s not an issue to get rid of, because they’re mean nasty, whatever pain in the butt who and she created the list. I go, there’s your 20% bottom feeders who are sucking up 80% of your time. Guess what we raise prices? By by the immediately,

Mostafa Hosseini  42:49

immediately? Isn’t that such a relief?

Steve Feld  42:53

Oh, my God, she was amazing. Happy after that, and now she’s making more money?

Mostafa Hosseini  43:03

Absolutely, absolutely. Um, so we talked about helping people overcome one or two struggles within their business. Is there. I mean, we talked about a few struggles, like the price, the profits and this and that, is there anything else that you can you could give them just some tips to our audience about? Yeah, I could get rid of one of the

Steve Feld  43:32

things since I work with a lot of you knows smaller size businesses to scale and grow. You cannot be the bat individual. You’re gonna have to bring on people, you know that you have people. I’ve had multiple businesses with people. I learned right away. Always hire some my coach taught me that always hire people smarter than you. And when I first heard that, I’m like, but but but I had a million bucks.

And they’re like, Are you an idiot? They are trained in that area, which you are not. You’re hiring them to do that one job that you cannot do. Why would you want to get involved? Yeah. And once that really sunk in, I was like, I had one of my businesses, I hired unbelievable people. And all I did was giving the direction and give them the tools and support they needed. They grew my business. That was the key. And that’s when I started realizing I’m not in my business anymore. I’m leading my business not managing it. They were it was controlling me.

They would yell at me if I’m coming in on a Saturday to do the books. What do you mean? Sometimes doing the books for $10 an hour, get out of here. And that’s when I was like, oh my god, I have unbelievable employees. You can take a vacation and never hear from them. That’s what you want in your business. That’s a business What’s going on?

Mostafa Hosseini  45:03

Let me ask you a question about hiring cuz past two or three weeks, I had an issue with hiring, hired a couple of people. One of them quit like in two or three days and other one quit the week after. And I was out there interviewing people like 1520 hours a week. And then I put together a system to do group interviews, which to me felt like I discovered fire. And it was like probably one of the best thing I’ve done in the past 10 years. What suggestions do you have for finding the right people? And then getting them to stay and have them, you know, be interested? Yeah.

Steve Feld  45:44

Working with CPAs? Have, they always had a problem hiring people? Well, many businesses do. And the first thing I always say, let me see your ad. That’s the first thing. And they always wonder why? Well, if your ad is general and nonspecific, you’re gonna get a billion resumes. Now you got to weed through it. And you know what, you’re gonna get frustrated and tired, you’re gonna just start picking whoever has a heartbeat.

And that’s what happens with most businesses. It happens at companies too. Don’t get me wrong. But the more specific you are with your ad, that’s the start. And then what is your hiring process? Is that a phone call? After you weed it down to like, 1030, whatever the number is of resumes? What are the questions you’re gonna ask? It’s a quick 1015 minute call just to see if they can get over the hurdle. if you will. Not think we’re not getting deep stuff. We’re not getting into behavioral based questions yet. But you want to know some of the basics about them?

Are they really what they say on paper? That’s really what you’re weeding out? Then you whittle that list down to say, from 30, down to 10. Now you have your behavioral based interview questions. So those are preset, depending on the job and the duty and the tasks that you want them to do. There are tons of resources online for that, and many, many HR sites that have books and volumes on behavioral based questions.

But you just want to pick about 10 of those specific for that bit, that job that tasks that duties, and listen to their responses, because it puts them in a situation, what was the situation? What were your actions? And what is the result? That’s what you’re listening for? Now, you’re down to probably about two or three candidates. And I’ve done this at many businesses. I said, you’re looking for this many people bring on those three top candidates.

And they’re like, but but but it’s going to cost me I go, it’s going to be the one of the best investments you’re ever going to make. So for 30 days, you get them in the first week you work with them, you’re going to have to have you or someone have a training plan, work with them, getting them going and watching what they do for the next three weeks.

Now you’re down to probably one or two candidates, give them another 30 days to fight it out, if you will. Now’s when you’re going to see with the cream rise to the top. Now when you hire that one, they respect it, but then you onboard them like there’s no like they are the they just won the Oscars. You have an onboarding program. That’s unbelievable. And instead of doing the typical pay the 3060 90 day reviews, which i i think that’s old school nowadays, why not have a weekly just check in meeting where you start off the owner, whoever it is, checks them?

Hey, how’s it going? What are you working on? Tell me what are you seeing, get their feedback? And say, Okay, here’s where our next steps are? Have them almost start creating the agenda. I’ve done this in many of my businesses. And I’d start off how’re you doing? Great, I’m working on this. I’ve accomplished this. I’m going to be working on this next. And it’s gonna do this for the business. I sat back go home. I know I’m taking notes.

They’re taking notes and giving me a coffee. I’m like, Oh, this got a lot better. And I didn’t lose any employees because they were engaged and they owned the position. And I gave them the leeway to own the position. But it was hard. I’ll be honest with you. It was hard to make that transition.

Mostafa Hosseini  49:37

It was not what was the transition for you going from what to what stopped being

Steve Feld  49:41

the dang manager and involved like you need to do this and you’re not hitting these goals. I had a sales guy I’d say great. What are your goals for the next month? He would tell me and then he writes it down and hands it to me. I didn’t set up the goals. He knows the goals for the business and how He has to get the those goals. But he broke them down in month by month. So he’s telling me his goals every month and his status.

And I’ve had people going, I didn’t hit my goal this month I go, what happened? Tell me, well, this and this, and that’s great. How are you? How are you going to resolve it? I’m not solving their problem anymore. They’re solving their own problem. And it’s leadership development is what you’re doing.

Mostafa Hosseini  50:27

Love it. Love it. Gang gang. If you’re watching or listening right now, Steve just gave us the rundown on the hiring process, that I’m gonna go back actually listen to myself again, because I have a constant need for employees.

And as a call center, we are always looking and it’s actually an industry that is pretty high at turnover on team. So I want to double go back and watch them. Listen to that again. It’s

Steve Feld  50:57

funny, you mentioned that because I had an agency insurance agency owner, he always was growing, he was growing his business like there was no tomorrow. So he’s always hiring. He had an ad out all the time.

And he always brought on two people and hired one. He goes every now and then I’ll find two rockstars. So they pass the 30 day test, they both pass the 60 day test. He says, I don’t care. It might hurt me financially for a few months. I hire him both. And his business and he has minimal turnover, his turnover as they retire, get married, move out of state or die. That’s his turnover. Hmm.

Mostafa Hosseini  51:37

Love it. Steve, can you give us one simple marketing strategy that people could use? And see results? Like right away?

Steve Feld  51:50

I mentioned we mentioned a couple. I would say one of the biggest thing is, what do you have on a lead? Gen? What can you give away? content wise, we touched on drip campaigns. But what is it that you can give away capture their information and get them engaged? That’s one of the biggest things and I’ve seen it done.

I’ve done this at networking meetings, even the book. So my book that you mentioned 45 minute business breakthroughs. I’ll give away that damn book. hardcopy at an an actual networking meeting, in exchange for an appointment. Guess what? I bring five books, five appointments. It’s

Mostafa Hosseini  52:32

nice. physical books, physical books.

Steve Feld  52:35

Yeah, I’m doing an in person app. So

Mostafa Hosseini  52:37

how do you do that? Do you just say, Hey, if you book an appointment, or you get a book, Why show

Steve Feld  52:41

the book, I say what’s in the book, and I go, I’ll give you a complimentary copy. Come talk to me afterwards. So as they’re coming up, and I go, What is your business? How long have you been in business? I’m qualifying them. Great. I’m gonna give you a book. Let’s get you on the calendar right now.

Mostafa Hosseini  52:58

And they say yes. And they say yes, because you just gave him a gift. And then these are not people that would like bail out on you. Or like they would show up.

They don’t just do it. Like what I’m trying to say is, I did not just get into, say yesterday appointment to get the book and then not show up after

Steve Feld  53:14

I was getting about 15%. No Show rate. Oh,

Mostafa Hosseini  53:19

that’s not bad now. But I also say,

Steve Feld  53:23

Yeah, it’s like, you know, the books are quick, easy reader, you can knock out the whole book in 20 minutes. And given the eight strategies that you can implement on your own. Go, just think if we have like a 15 minute call, and it’s a non sales call, and I do that non sales call.

And it’s like all I’m doing is asking questions about their business at the end of it. They’re starting to go wait a minute. Something’s wrong in my business.

Mostafa Hosseini  53:48

Now shedding some light on. Yeah. Fantastic. So Steve, tell us about your, your gift. Oh, yeah. The marketing secrets, proven marketing secrets ebook?

Steve Feld  54:03

Absolutely. It’s very similar to the 45 Minute Business Breakthrough. So we actually show I think, 10 strategies and now different ones, is what it is. It’s these are strategies that any business owner can implement right away. And that’s why I’ve made that book was because they’re proven and we talked about some of them today.

Lead Gen cross selling joint ventures, affiliate programs, giving away something getting on your lists, increasing your prices, dang it. If you want a quick hit and your business, increase your prices and lower your costs, it’s that simple. Yeah.

Mostafa Hosseini  54:45

As a matter of fact, I think some people have I’ve seen cases when when you raise the price, people will buy more because it means more and more significant and better thing. It means probably more quality and it’s there’s a lot of things associated with that. So like he’s not being being the cheapest is not necessarily helping you out?

Steve Feld  55:05

No, the company I mentioned raise their prices by 40%. He was known in the industry is the cheapest, not inexpensive, which is better than cheapest. He was known as the cheapest, same quality, same ingredients as the top manufacturer in the industry grows, his price is 40%. Three months later, he rose increased it another 25%.

That’s not 65% people when you do the math, it’s more like 90% increase of prices. He’s now seen as the upper middle of the industry. He tripled his sales once he rose the price the second time, because now he’s seen as higher value. He didn’t change his label didn’t change in a gradient method.

Mostafa Hosseini  55:50

Well, you know, I think most people would be scared shitless to do that. Oh, he was yeah, you know. Please buy another 50% was stop. Are you crazy? Yeah. That’s the kind of responses get out the door. What am I paying you for?

Mostafa Hosseini  56:15

So gang, the link to the proven marketing secrets ebook is in the descriptions of the show it is in the comments on social media. Go ahead and grab it. Read about the proven marketing secrets. Reach out to Steve, have a conversation, this guy can help you he has been around the block for quite some time. He knows his stuff has written eight books and what he does.

And generally an amazing guy. Steve, can I ask you a couple of personal questions before we go? Sure. All right. What’s a new thing you have tried recently?

Steve Feld  56:50

Oh, it was it? I’ve never had Pharaoh, the green. Pharaoh, Pharaoh, is that I’m gonna say it right now. It’s never eaten it before. And I’ve heard about it some Middle Eastern grain. And I’ve never had it. So I tried it. And I was like, Why haven’t I ever tried stuff like this?

And I’ve also tried, this is going to I made black black bee? Was it Black Eyed Pea soup, which I’ve never done before. Because just it’s a southern thing. And I made it and I was like

Mostafa Hosseini  57:34

so how do you narrow How do you spell it?

Steve Feld  57:36

It’s like FA R Oh, I know. Someone will listen to this and go eight. No, it’s fair.

Mostafa Hosseini  57:45

I’m trying to look it up on Google and see if it’s something I’ve had before. I’ve

Steve Feld  57:50

traveled around the world many times. And I’ve eaten just about at least almost every single thing. And it’s like there’s foods, I’m starting to find out. I’ve never even tried that they’re in your grocery store. I’m like, What’s this? I don’t know. Let’s try an interest expanding my palate in a weird way. And I love it.

Mostafa Hosseini  58:09

Love it. All right, give me two of your favorite books.

Steve Feld  58:13

Easy, thinking grow rich. The one book that actually changed one of my businesses, a board member told me to read this was

Mostafa Hosseini  58:24

change or die, change or die, danger

Steve Feld  58:27

die. And I read it on the way to a conference, I came back I had an emergency meeting with the board. And I said I need to make some changes in the business. And I’m gonna die. Red Book, and I go Yeah, I did. And I had a 10 page business plan to change the whole business.

They let me fire 20% of the staff. I said I’ll try to keep mom on the bus is another great book on the bus. I’ll try to keep my change. I’m going to let them go and we’re going to have a new focus. They said, do whatever you want. And I went in and changed the business. Our business went

Mostafa Hosseini  59:08

and change or die. Let me look it up, change, change or die. And

Steve Feld  59:14

it was written about people with a heart condition. Alan

Mostafa Hosseini  59:17

Dishman. Yes, that’s it. Change your diet. I’m gonna add it to the list. All right, so next question. What’s one advice that made a massive impact on business or life?

Steve Feld  59:32

This one I was the most stubborn person on and I rejected this.

Mostafa Hosseini  59:36

I should say forever on that

Steve Feld  59:38

everything is get a coach. And I said I don’t need a coach. I know what I’m doing.

Mostafa Hosseini  59:44

I am a coach.

Steve Feld  59:47

on him, we got a coach in my life. My business changed within 45 days. Within 45 minutes, 45 days. Oh, and then I started realizing I gotta let my ego go. And I should have done this a lot sooner because I would have loved life and my business a lot more.

Mostafa Hosseini  1:00:11

So how does change what was that change? Like,

Steve Feld  1:00:14

oh my god, well, you know be no money in the bank working 20 hour days in my own business, I felt like I was tied to my I had my own Gob is what it felt like, home life wasn’t better, because I’m so stressed out about business. I’m trying everything from marketing, literally everything and nothing was working by luck, chance something should be hitting. And then it was like, I rejected the whole idea of getting help and getting a coach.

When I got a coach, they said, let’s cut out 95% of all this junk, let’s focus on what you really need to focus on. All of a sudden, the business took off. All the marketing that I focused on, took off my home life got better. It was just like, oh my god, what just happened? I went from not sleeping stress, not eating to enjoying life.

Mostafa Hosseini  1:01:08

Loving. Hey, Aaron, good to see you. Gang. If you’re watching and listening, please make sure we’re towards the end of the show. Please make sure you’re subscribed to the channel on whichever channel you’re watching or follow or subscribe. If you have any questions, or just want to say hi, just leave a comment.

And here’s my last question for you, Steve. And that is if you had a message that you could display to people around the world, whoever has access to internet through a Google or a Facebook ad? What would your message be for the people of Earth?

Steve Feld  1:01:45

Wow. I’d say be tolerant with one Egypt one another. Because I think that’s the thing. People are not tolerant. And that’s what’s causing a lot of friction. They don’t see the other side. They’re only seeing their side. Love

Mostafa Hosseini  1:02:04

1. Love it. Love it. Steve, is there anything you want to talk about or mentioned that we maybe didn’t get a chance to talk about? Before we wrap up?

Steve Feld  1:02:11

Oh my god, we talked about so much. But my big thing for all business owners is like, listen, get the help you need in your business. I I know I’m a victim of it. I’m a product of it as well. And it’s changed my life. It changed my business. I mean, I have two coaches nowadays, I’m in two mastermind groups. I live what I talk and I if you’re gonna get a coach or anyone, here’s what I say.

Are they living? What they say? Do they coach? Are they in a mastermind? Are they growing themselves? Are they helping you grow you and push you like Phil Jackson did did Michael Jordan be like that? That’s a good coach.

Mostafa Hosseini  1:02:52

Absolutely. So like we need to get the hell out of our own way. So we can grow. Steve, it’s it’s been an absolutely amazing conversation. Thank you for sharing all the value all the nuggets, gang. The link to Steve’s book is in the comments in the description of this show. Go ahead, click on the link claim his free book do reach out to this wise, intelligent and and experienced man and coach.

Tap into his wisdom and grow your business. And thank you for joining us have yourself a great week. Great day, great month. And again, if you have any questions, put them in the comments and send it out to us and we’ll do our best to cover it. Send the link to the show to a friend that could benefit from all Steve shared a ton of good stuff like this is literally practical shit that you have to pay for.

Right? Do that or tag them in a comment, like and subscribe again. And we’ll see you on our next episode. Have a great week. Thank you. Bye now