Are you aware of the Silent Business Killer lurking around in your business? Chances are you probably don’t, hence the name Silent Business Killer. Our guest today, Ken Wentworth, also known as Mr. Biz, shares with us how to identify and uncover the Silent Business Killer hanging around in your business by using his 3 Pillars of Financial Success.
**DO YOU NEED HELP SELLING MORE FRANCHISES? ATTEND OUR FRANCHISE SALES TRAINING WORKSHOP. REGISTER HERE: www.FranchiseSalesWorkshop.com
**Subscribe to our NEWEST Podcast called: Franchise Your Business. CLICK HERE.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- Learn more about Mr. Biz Solutions: https://mrbizsolutions.com/
- Mr. Biz Radio: https://mrbizsolutions.com/category/videos
- Mr. Biz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrbizsolutions/?hl=en
- Mr. Biz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mr-biz-wentworth/
- If you are ready to franchise your business or take it to the next level: CLICK HERE.
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Ken Wentworth, aka “Mr. Biz”, is a strategic business partner who helps business owners run their companies more profitably &more efficiently. After ascending to the top 3% at a Fortune 15 company and breaking six World Records, Mr. Biz now uses his experience &expertise to help others develop their skills to become more successful owners.
He is the author of two bestselling books, his most recent, “Pathway to Profits”, provides an actionable blueprint to excelling in any economy. Ken is the Award-Winning host of “Mr. Biz Radio”, which airs 55+ hours each week across six different networks. Being an influential business guru, he has amassed a social media following of over 290,000. For his expertise, he has been featured on Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Fast Company, The New York Finance, and AmericanExpress.
SPONSOR
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
TRANSCRIPTION
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:00):
You’ve worked hard to build your business, and now it’s to grow. Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast. I’m your host, Tom DuFore. CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team, and a serial entrepreneur. And the purpose of our podcast is to give you a weekly dose of inspiration and education, to help you multiply your success. And as we open today, I’m wondering if you are aware of the silent business killer lurking around in your business. And chances are, you probably are not. Hence the name, the silent business killer. And our guests today, Ken Wentworth, also known as Mr. Biz, shares with us how to identify and uncover the silent business killer hanging around in your business, using his three pillars of financial success. And Mr. Biz is a strategic business partner, who helps business owners run their businesses and companies more profitably and efficiently. He’s an author of two best-selling books, host of an award-winning Mr. Biz radio program, and has been featured in Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Fast Company, and many others. So, let’s go ahead and jump right into my interview with Mr. Biz.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (01:13):
First of all, thank you very much for having me, Tom. I appreciate it. I’m honored to be part of the, Multiply Your Success. So, Ken Wentworth. My title, I guess I would say, is Mr. Biz. And I say that a little bit tongue in cheek, but I actually do own the trademark. Went through all that stuff. And I did not nickname myself, by the way. I have a strong rule against that. So, I’m the founder of a couple of different companies, but the primary focus is Mr. Biz Solutions. And I’ve got a 20 plus year background in the Fortune 15 world, and then left to start my own company. And that was about, almost six years ago now.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:51):
Wow. Well, that’s a pretty big jump. Most of my experience has been in franchising. And so, we deal oftentimes in the franchise sales world where, there’s a corporate executive or mid-level manager that says, hey, I’m done with this corporate thing, and ready to make that jump. And you’re at about as high of a level as you could go at a Fortune 15 company, and decided to jump into it. So I’m just curious, what was it for you, that made you want to make the leap?
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (02:23):
Yeah. I mean, I was in the top 3%, when I left. And was actually in the process of being promoted to the top 1%, which actually made it a little crazier. I didn’t officially get promoted to that, because I hit the brakes on it. I told my boss, I said, I think I’m going to leave. And he got up and closed the door. And said, this is not how this conversation usually goes. But, I had always wanted to do my own thing. I always wanted to have my own business. And I explored the franchise route as well, at one point. And I decided that back in… so, I got my master’s degree and my company paid for it. And I had to stay two years, so I didn’t have to pay any of it back.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (03:05):
So, I literally started the clock and told myself, all right. You’ve got 24 months to figure out what business you’re going to start, what are you going to do? The end of that 24 months, was in 2008. Which of course, was the economic downturn. And JP Morgan was the company I was with. So of course being in the financial industry, there was all sorts of different, super cool things going on. And I got tapped on the shoulder, and was fortunate enough to be a part of a lot of really cool stuff. So, that reinvigorated me into my corporate career. Not that I was ever… I love my corporate, now. I should mention that, by the way. It wasn’t like I was frustrated, it wasn’t anything like that. The end was, I had two revenue generating ideas within about a three or four month period, that got shelved for some of the typical big company bureaucracy, red tape. Maybe a little bit of ego in there as well.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (03:58):
And after the second time I’m like, okay, that’s it. That’s a sign. And I knew that the skills and expertise that I had developed over my 20 years or so with JP Morgan, I could transfer those and be able to help more people. And I knew based on those recent misses, that I was going to not be able to help as many people in the corporate world, as I thought that I had the ability to do. I’ve told this story before, but I was on the 48th floor in Midtown Manhattan. And after that second idea got a shelved, and during the elevator ride down, I was like, that’s it, I’m leaving. And the funny side note to that story is, I got to the airport. I was in, as I mentioned, New York city. And I got to LaGuardia that evening, after the rest of my meetings.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (04:46):
And I talked to my wife and I said, I’m going to get promoted to the top 1%, blah, blah. And my wife’s like, oh my gosh. All your hard work, this is fantastic. Oh my gosh, it’s a culmination. It’s so great. And I said, and by the way, I’m going to leave. And my wife said, you mean your plane’s leaving? You have to go, because your plane’s taking off? I said, no. I’m going to resign. And there was a long pause. And she said, did you get to the airport early? Have you been drinking? And I said, no. I haven’t. And she said, well, how about if you maybe take a little nap, or sleep on your plane ride home? And we can talk about it when you get home.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (05:24):
And once I explained it to her, she totally understood. And she said, look, if that’s what you want to do, let’s do it. So the next time I was back up in New York, I talked to my boss and said, I’m going to resign. I don’t even know what I’m going to do next, I know I’ll figure it out though. And I said, I’ll stick around as long as you want. And I was around for several more months. And in the meantime, I was trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. So, that’s the long version of the story. But I think there’s enough integral parts in there, to make sure to fit the pieces all together.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (05:57):
Yeah. I think that’s an amazing story. All of a sudden, it just hits you. Said, it’s time. Now is the time, and away you go. I know I resonate with that. When I was bit with that entrepreneurial bug, and have a similar… it’s time. It’s not a great time, but this is the time. Well, you’ve written a couple of books. And you have some general principles and things you talk about. One of them that I want to talk about is, this three pillars of financial success, that you talk about. And so, you’ve left. You’ve started your business to help others, to help more people do this. In particular, especially small business owners. So, I’d love for you to share and talk about this idea, orienting around the three pillars of financial success.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (06:48):
Yeah. And it just was happenstance, honestly. It was almost accidental that… I didn’t realize I had these three pillars. But as I started my own business… I’m a fractional CFO, so I work with business owners, help them run their businesses more profitably, more efficiently. And as I was going through and working with different clients, different industries, et cetera, different size companies, different parts of their life cycle, it struck me that I was taking this methodical approach that was similar with every company. Regardless of industry, or size, or age of the company. And then I realized, as I did some reflection is, it came a lot from my corporate career. So, those three pillars that I… every single client I have, I start with these three things. Some businesses need help in just one of them, some of them need help in all three.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (07:41):
And we spend as much time or as little time as we need to, initially. But I really feel like, based on my experience, that you have to have these three things nailed down, well oiled machine, before you start to talk about anything else. Especially, and along the lines with what you do, Tom, is you got to have these three things nailed down before you start to even thinking about expanding, scaling franchising, any of that stuff. Because what I find is, if you don’t have these three things and you start to, say you franchise, and you want to have 10 locations, all of a sudden now, you’ve multiplied something that’s not that great. And so, those three pillars are, I guess I’ve been teasing that, right? So the first one we start was, cashflow. If you don’t have cash, you don’t have business.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (08:28):
So, obviously critically important. That is the reason…you always hear these statistics about businesses that fail, and how many, what percent. And how many don’t make it this long, and that long. But the US Bank did a study, and they found that 82% of businesses that do fail, fail due to cashflow problems. So, the way I look at it is, I like to flip the script on it, Tom. And I say, if you can get your cashflow right, you only have to worry about 18% of other stuff.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (08:56):
Yeah. That’s a great way of looking at it.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (08:58):
Yeah. So, get the cashflow right. And again, some of those things are subtle tweaks that you can make. And your cashflow might be okay, but we can make it great. There’s always some things there. And that was my first book, was about How To Be A Cashflow Pro was, I started with that, because it was such a prevalent problem in businesses I was working with.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (09:15):
The second one is the B word, Tom. I don’t know if I can say it on here? Budget.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:24):
Ah.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (09:25):
And I call it the B word, because I know a lot of people don’t like that word, for a lot of different reasons. I’ll tell you, Mrs. Biz. doesn’t like the B word either. She doesn’t like the word budget, either. And the thing, I think that the word budget or budgeting, gets a bad rap and gets a bad connotation from a lot of people. Because, I think most people when they think of budgeting, they think of almost the same way that you and I maybe, would think of when someone says, hey, I’m going to go on a diet. You think of restrictive, you think, oh my gosh, I got to eat salads and exercise all the time, and drink water.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (09:59):
Well, a budget doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. If you franchise your business and you’re in growth mode, your budget can reflect that. Back in my power lifting days, when I competed in power lifting, there were times when I was moving up a weight class. So I was on a diet, but I was on a diet to gain weight. And a budget can be the exact same way, it doesn’t have to be restrictive. And a matter of fact, it can be the exact opposite of that. But a budget… I’ll put it to this way, Tom. If I talk to a prospective client and they turned their nose up at creating a budget, that’s a deal breaker for me. Because, I know how absolutely impactful it is to have a budget, and be able to measure against that. Know exactly where you’re at, where you might be falling short against your goals for the year, where you’re excelling. And you can use some of the lessons from that, to help some of the lagging areas, et cetera. It’s just so powerful.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (10:52):
Almost every company I’ve ever worked with that’s not had a budget for, and we institute a budget, the first year, they have a record breaking year. Almost every, without fail. I mean, it is literally that powerful. So, that’s the second. So cashflow, budgeting, and then the third pillar is, pricing.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (11:09):
And when I say pricing, I don’t just mean, oh, let’s go through and increase all your prices by 10%. Absolutely not at all. Primarily what I mean… I actually just had a meeting with a client this morning about this, a new client. Again, I hate to use these absolute terms. But almost every business I’ve ever worked with has what I call, the silent business killer.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (11:30):
And the silent business killer is a product or service that you offer, that is at best, break even. But most likely, you’re losing money. Now most owners out there would say, Ken, why would I have a product or service that’s unprofitable? I wouldn’t do that. Right. You wouldn’t purposely do it. That’s why I call it the silent business killer. Again, almost all businesses have this. You just unknowingly have it, because there’s other factors maybe that you haven’t considered, that are hidden costs associated with that product or service. And I’ll tell you, it is super powerful to go through that exercise, really peel back the onion. Find those silent business killers, eliminate them. And then instantly, your profitability increases. Instantly your net margin increases. Your cashflow gets better. It just has this huge impact across the entire business. So if you have those three things, those three pillars correct on the financial side of the house, then you go to multiply. Then you go to franchise and scale, et cetera, you are set for success, for sure.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (12:33):
Yeah. And I love those three pillars. It’s very simple. And I think about a client of ours that’s maybe already franchised, and say they have five or 20 franchisees out there. This is a very simple franchise support methodology for your franchisees. Get your cashflow, get your budgeting, and take a look at your pricing. And help them evaluate all of it, because they are independent owners. And they’re going to run and operate cashflow, they’re going to have guidelines certainly, but I’ve been in franchising long enough to know that two franchisees in the same system, are going to be similar, but they all run their business differently. They all have their little nuances, especially the behind the scenes stuff. The customer facing stuff is very often, almost identical.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (13:22):
Right.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:22):
But the behind the scenes, what you’re talking about, this is a brilliant thing. So for, you’re listening in as a business owner, great idea. And then for my franchisees, even better. I love this whole concept.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (13:34):
I’ll tell you Tom, especially on the franchise side, I alluded to it a little bit earlier, but… I’ll use the… this is an outdated reference, I need to come up with a new one. But, think of it back in the old days, when we would make photocopies of something.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:49):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (13:49):
You have the original, you make a photocopy of it. And you hold them up next to each other. And the second one’s pretty good, but you could tell it’s not quite the same. It’s not quite the same quality. You take that copy and you make a copy of it. So, now you’re two removed from the original. Now you compare that third, to the first. And you’re like, hmm, I can definitely tell there’s a quality difference. That’s the same type of thing that can happen when you have your business, and you don’t quite have those three pillars correct, and you start making copies of it.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (14:18):
And so, that third, fourth, you open your sixth location. Now, you’re six removed from your original location that maybe, you’re at and still running. You can’t be at all six in this scenario. And so, you’re six removed. And all of a sudden, that copy, instead of it being, you want it to be an eight, nine or 10, on a scale of one to 10, you made a copy of a six and a half. So, it became a six, and then a five and a half, and then a five. And so, you get further out. Now you’re looking at, you have four, on a scale of one to 10. Because you replicated a bad model, or an inefficient model.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (14:51):
Yeah. That’s absolutely phenomenal. And just thinking about the photocopy example, I’m sure we’ve all had, at some point, you get those copies of something. You sit down at a meeting or someone hands out a worksheet or something, and it literally looks like it’s copy number 1000. And you can barely make it out anymore, and it’s sideways.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (15:18):
Right.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (15:18):
Like, what is happening here? So, that that’s really funny. Well, what I’d love to do at this point, Ken, is make that transition to talk a little bit about your misses, makes, and multipliers. We ask every guest these same questions, before they go. So, you’ve had quite a really interesting career. From being at the top of the corporate world, to advising, growing small to mid-sized businesses. And you’ve built your own social media following, in doing a whole lot of different things here. So, I’d love for you to share maybe a miss or two, and something you’ve learned from it, along the way.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (16:02):
Yeah. I’ll tell ya, for a miss, I mean, gosh. I could talk to you for days, about misses. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, I mean it in a positive way. Because in my mind, if you’re not missing, you’re not trying hard enough. You’re not stretching far enough. You’re being too safe. That’s coming from a numbers, nerd, financial person. But I’ll take a little bit of a different tack on it, and use my competitive, athletic career. Just to give you an idea, so, I was competing at the national championships. And long story short, I failed. I finished third. And I was extremely disappointed in my performance. Because it wasn’t just that I got beat, it was that I did not perform up to my capabilities. And I knew what my capabilities were, based on my training sessions leading up to my training plan, that all cycle. I knew what I was capable of, and I fell well short of that.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (16:58):
If I would have done what I was capable of doing, I would have won easily. And I didn’t, I fell very short. And I was so grossly disappointed in myself… the funny side note to the story is, I got a third place trophy for this national championship. And I’m standing up on the podium, and the picture is hilarious actually, of me standing there. And you can just see my non-verbal, how disappointed I was. I took the plate off of the trophy, and I drilled a hole up in the corner, to make it so I could put it on my key chain. So I had to carry around this third place placard, for a constant daily reminder of falling short of a goal, and falling short of what I knew I was capable of doing.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (17:47):
So, I had to carry it around with a constant reminder. And by the way, here’s the other part, Tom. I’m carrying that around, of course it looks goofy. Anyone who sees my key chain, asked a question about, well, what the heck is that? So then, I have to tell the story. And I did that on purpose, because I wanted to have to tell the story. Because, I wanted that reinforcement of that miss. I wanted to make sure that, that did not happen. I wanted to do everything in my power to ensure that I wasn’t going to fall short due to anything, on my end. And so, I did that until the next national championships. So I had that for a whole year, on my key chain. And had to tell that story a million times to people.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (18:26):
But that was a big miss for me, and I learned a lot from it. I learned how to approach things differently, how to not take things for granted. Again, I want to be able to control the controllables, as I say. Everything that I know that I can control, I want to do. If I show up to a competition and someone lifts more weight than me, I can’t do anything about that. But if I didn’t lift what I was capable of doing, then that’s on me. And so, I learned a lot of lessons from that. Even though it was more on the athletic side of things, I apply it to the business side as well.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (18:54):
Yeah. Wow. What a story. And I love that, I don’t know if it’s a self-inflicted pain, but I like the reminder that you are giving to yourself. Just to say this, make sure you’re stretching and pushing to be the best you can be every day, at everything you’re working on. So, I commend you on that. That’s admirable. Well, what about a make? Let’s flip things on the other side. And a make or two. You’ve shared some already, but is there anything else you’d like to share about a make, along the way?
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (19:27):
A make. I guess, a male that I go back to all the time… and again, it’s on the athletic side. But it was, I learned that in the weightlifting world. So, you make weight, and then you have 24 hours until you compete. So I started to think, obviously they have weight classes. So, weight is a big deal there. So, I determined that I was going to figure out how to cut weight, almost like you hear wrestlers do things like that. Because, I had 24 hours to put it back on. But of course, you do it the wrong way, you feel like crap the next day. You don’t do well. So, I absolutely poured myself into that. Because I knew if I could master that skill, it would be very beneficial for me. And I got to the point where… and I promise you this is all documented. So, it sounds absolutely insane. When I tell people this, a lot of times they’re like, you got to be kidding me.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (20:23):
I lost 19 pounds in a 24 hour period, of body weight. Weighed in. And then the next day, had gained all the way back. And again, it’s all water manipulation. I didn’t lose 19 pounds of fat, or anything crazy like that. But the discipline that it took, the planning upfront. 12 weeks out, I started putting things into place, to be able to accomplish this goal. Read several books, talked to several experts. And why I mentioned all that is, to even take it away from the athletic realm again, and say, this is how I approach things on the business side as well. When there’s something new that I’m trying to learn, I pour myself into it. I go find the books. I read the books.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (21:05):
I reach out to the authors of the books and say, hey, can I get 15 minutes of your time? I’ve read your book. I loved it, and I had some questions. I subscribed to the Steve Jobs theory. If you don’t ask, the answer’s always no. Some people say, oh my gosh, the author would never return my call or my email, or whatever. I’ll tell you, in my case, most of the time, they will.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (21:25):
They’re flattered that you read their book. They want to help you. They wrote the book for a reason. And then, the actual execution and the discipline it took to accomplish that goal. When I’m trying to do something difficult, where I’m facing some hurdles in my career, in business, et cetera. I can look back to that experience and say, gosh. If I did that, whatever this is in front of me, is a piece of cake. So, if I could accomplish that goal, come on. This is a piece of cake. And it puts things in perspective quickly. And I get right back on track.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (21:59):
Yeah. What a story. What a way to reverse engineer what you wanted to do, and go through the process. And all of the planning and preparation. I mean, thinking about it, was one 24 hour period, but you started conditioning for that 24 hour period, 12 weeks in advance. For 24 hours.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (22:17):
And even before that was, the reading the books, and talking with the authors, and then practicing. Practice makes perfect, right? So, I didn’t just roll out of bed and decide I was going to do this, and do it. And again, I mention that because, you can apply those exact same types of principles to anything you’re trying to accomplish in your personal life, in your career, et cetera. Any goals you’re setting, do that. I talk about it all the time, model expert behavior. Whatever you’re trying to achieve, someone else has probably achieved something like it, or similar. Find them. Find the book, find that author. And I’m not saying you copy someone, I’m not saying to do that. I’m saying, replicate their behavior. How did so-and-so go about accomplishing whatever it is, that’s similar to what you’re trying to do?
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (23:04):
Gosh, talk to them. Pick their brain a little bit. For me, I’ll tell you, I’ve done that a bunch of times. When I started hosting my radio show, I did the same thing. I reached out to some nationally syndicated radio show hosts, and got help. Because, the first time I hosted the show, to say it was terrible, would be a massive compliment. I mean, it was so terrible. I mean, it was really bad. And so, I said, I have to get better at this. And so, who could help me get better at this, than someone who’s already well accomplished in the field? Right.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (23:32):
Yeah.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (23:32):
And let me pick their brain, and utilize some of their knowledge. And maybe they can steer me around some hurdles or some challenges, that they faced early in their career.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (23:40):
Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing. I mean, the next question is about a multiplier, but that sure sounds like a multiplier. I don’t know if you have another one to share. But just thinking about, wow. How that compounds and expands over time.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (23:55):
Yeah. A hundred percent, for sure. I’ll keep it short, because I know we’re running a little long here.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (24:01):
Oh, you’re fine.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (24:02):
Another multiplier that, it’s really good in the entrepreneurial business space. And you had mentioned earlier about, social media and things, is the power of video. When I started doing videos a few years back, it absolutely exploded the Mr. Biz brand, my social media following, the business, absolutely exploded everything. And so, the power of video is real. I did a hundred videos, in five months. Same thing. I poured myself into it, I studied, I figured out some key elements I needed to share, and things like that. I had my little Excel spreadsheet. I put out a hundred topics, and I made the plan. I’m going to do 20 videos a month, for five straight months.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (24:45):
And all 100 were live streams, with my phone. Nothing fancy, not over engineered, not edited at all. And I think, the more feedback I got, it made me realize, people enjoy the authenticity. It’s not overly produced, it’s me being real. There’s self-deprecating humor in the videos. Because I screwed up and I’d say, oh my gosh. Guys, I’m so sorry about that. Let me start again. I’m tongue tied today, or whatever. And they appreciated the fact that it was real. It wasn’t something overly scripted and et cetera. But no matter what your business is, that is a way for you to get a leg up, versus your competition. Because more than likely, your competition’s not doing those things. And you could do this with a plumbing business.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (25:32):
I had a client that has a plumbing business. He said, I can’t do videos. Said, sure you can. He said, what do I do them on? I said, what are the top 10 reasons that people call you? And I said, do a video. And the one example we had, the very first video he did was, how to light a pilot light on a hot water heater. He said, we get that call 10 times a week. I said, make a four minute video on how to light the pilot light, on it on a hot water heater. People will find that very helpful. And that’s the kind of thing you can do. Think outside the box, make those short videos. And it helps people get in touch with you. They understand your personality a little bit, they make that connection with you. Can this person help me or not? What exactly does their business do? That kind of thing. It was super powerful. Absolutely a multiplier, for sure.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (26:18):
Yeah. What a story. That’s great. And I think it reinforces… I’ve recently interviewed a guest who’s built the largest podcast community in Clubhouse, and largest podcast magazine distribution, and so on, the other day. And he said the exact same thing that you’re saying about, when he first got into this whole space of video. And for him, audio was his thing. And he just said, don’t over-complicate it. The cell phone you have today, is plenty capable of delivering quality products to get started with. You can upgrade later on, to do all the other stuff. So, I appreciate that advice. I appreciate that.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (27:10):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (27:11):
Okay. And the last question we like to ask every guest before they go is, what does success mean to you?
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (27:20):
Success. What does success mean to me? Success means to me, my ability to fulfill my life’s goals. So, whether that be… and I think that’s different for everyone. And I think, for me at least, it’s multifaceted. So, I don’t set success as, I made this much money. Or, I set this many world records, or anything. It’s just, have I fulfilled the capabilities, the legacy that I want to leave the earth with? Have I done everything? Have I tapped out on that? And again, multi-faceted ways. Have I been able to do that? Have I’ve been able to optimize my time, everything? Utilize my financial resources, to do some philanthropic things that I do? Just a whole myriad of things. But I think that’s probably, maybe a little bit sappy, or whatever. But I guess, that’s probably how I would define success, for me.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (28:27):
Great. Well, and as we bring this to a close, is there anything you were hoping to share with the audience, that you haven’t had a chance to get across yet?
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (28:37):
I don’t think so, Tom. Again, I appreciate the ability to come on and talk with your audience, and everything. And I mean, I guess I would just say, if anyone needs any help, certainly go out… follow me on social media, if nothing else. We share free content, five days a week. Sometimes even more. A lot of videos, YouTube channel that’s got, I don’t know, 150, 200 videos on it. 300 videos, I don’t even know what it is now. But, with a bunch of free stuff. We’ve got playlists on the YouTube channel, for example. If you wanted to get tips on cashflow, there’s, I don’t know, probably 20 videos on cashflow, that are all four or five minutes long. Pretty easy to digest. So you could break it down by things you’re looking for, you might need some help with. But, absolutely. Go out and take advantage of some of the free content out there. And I’m happy to help anyone that might need it.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (29:22):
Great. And where can they find that? Is there a website? How should they track you down? Social media handles, and so on.
Ken Wentworth, Mr. Biz Solutions (29:30):
Yeah. Well, mrbizsolutions.com is the primary website. And honestly, if you go out and search for Mr. Biz, you’ll, find me. I’m on all the social media, including Clubhouse. Follow me on Clubhouse, and join some rooms with me there. But if you search for Mr Biz, you’ll find me,
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (29:47):
Ken, thank you so much for being a guest again, on our episode today. And let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. So takeaway number one, comes from when Mr. Biz shared with us this idea of the silent business killer. And he shared that almost every business has a silent business killer somewhere. And it’s that product or service that we’re offering, that’s losing money or at best, breaking even. And we just lose sight of it. But it’s really pulling down the business, and we don’t even recognize it.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:19):
Takeaway number two is, when he shared a make about modeling expert behavior. And he said, when there’s something you want to do or figure out, or find out about, find an expert. Replicate it. Contact them, model them. Pour yourself into reading books. And chances are, whatever you’re looking at, others have done this before. And they’ve written something about it, or published something.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:40):
And he quoted Steve jobs, when Steve Jobs said, if you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:48):
Takeaway number three is, he shared his multiplier being the power of video. And using the cell phone or tools that you have at hand, and using that power of video to make this go. And now, it’s time for today’s win-win.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (31:06):
So, today’s, win-win comes from when Mr. BiZ shared his three pillars of financial success. He focused on cashflow, budget, and pricing. Cashflow, budget, and pricing. And if you have those three pieces in place, you’re going to have the three pillars of financial success. And that’s going to be a win for you, your team, your company, your franchisees, anybody that’s involved in the business. And so, that’s the episode today folks. Please make sure you like and subscribe to the podcast, and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know, might be ready to franchise their business or take their company to the next level, please connect with us @bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in. And we look forward to having you back next week..
