Owning Your Own Business

Hello and welcome to Awaken Your Spirit podcast. I'm Tangerine your host today. I want to thank you for joining me. 

Today's podcast is going to be about creating and owning your own business.

Today I'm going to talk about 

· fear 

· How life is too hectic, 

· time management, 

· how to create and envision your business, 

· how to write a business plan 

· how to shop for commercial property  

· how to negotiate a good lease 

· what to look for when you're looking at commercial property 

· how to write a letter of intent 

· management of people 

· how to deal with the pressures of family 

· how to figure out what your end goal is

· how to use your business to create relationships with your community 

· and lastly marketing. 

 

So let's start with fear because this is a big thing to overcome when you're considering opening a business. There are two types of people in this world. There are entrepreneurs, and there are people who work for entrepreneurs. Both are equally valuable, and you have to determine what you're entirely comfortable within life. When I envisioned talking about this podcast, I honestly did it for the people who have been incarcerated, especially here in California. When they get out, it's almost impossible to get a job. I wanted these people to know that they can open their own business and indeed turn their lives around. So this is the blueprint that I'm laying down for those who want something different in their lives. There will be fear in our lives. However, we have to overcome the fear, or else it will hold us back. 

Owning your own business is going to be extremely stressful at times, but whether you own your own business, or not, life, in general, can be extremely stressful. An excellent way to combat stress is by doing daily meditation, and we offer those on our podcast for you. 

 

I've seen many people not follow through with their dreams of owning their own business because they think life is too hectic. Standing back and looking on the outside, I realized it all boils down to time management. When you want to Branch out to be your boss and to create your own company, you have to get started way before the business opens. That means you have to go to work and do your regular job, do your workout routine, spend time with your family and your community,

 and after all that you have to go home and spend 4 to 8 hours working on your business every day. 

When you fall into that routine, what that's doing is preparing you for those long hours you're going to be putting in when you first open your company. 

 

 

The next thing you want to do is start to create and envision what your company is going to be. What is the name, create a price list for your services or the products that you're going to be selling, start designing your website, there are many websites available for less than $100 a year so shop around and find the easiest to use and the most affordable. That website has to be very professional and very easy to navigate through. Check out WordPress or Squarespace for websites. You also want to start designing a space and determining what you build-out, or your business needs to look like for it to fully function. What is the minimum amount of space that you can operate? Start a Pinterest board so you can get different ideas for designs and decors. You can also get ideas on Pinterest about what to post on your social media.

You should have a separate social media exclusively for the business with no personal. Have a notebook with different sections in it and write out all the ideas that come to your mind. Attend community events about your business. Look at OfferUp, Craigslist, newspapers, go to yard sales and go through your garage to find equipment and decor that you can use in your new business. Save money by refurbishing and repainting items that you get for free or very low-cost. Look up the insurance needed for your business to get quotes. Look up the legal forms that you need for your business and the permits that are required. Create protocols and employee handbooks. 

 

Next, we want to talk about your business plan. You can download templates online, or you can call up a small business association. They typically provide you with materials at no cost. I got a business plan called Penelope's pie shop, and I copied it page for page and just transitioned the verbiage into what I needed it to say for my business. Also, I still use that to this day. They say that most people never complete their business plans because of the financial page. That should be easy. How much money do you need to make per month, how much do you estimate your fixed expenses to be, and that will be the beginning numbers of how much you expect you will generate each month. Break it down by day for a daily goal, then weekly, monthly, and yearly. 

 

Shopping for commercial property is very fun, and you'll find once you open your own business that you're regularly buying for commercial property, it's like something that never turns off (at least in me). You want to drive by and write down the phone numbers and call and ask how big space is,

 what the cost is per square foot,

 if there are any additional fees on top of the price of the lease,

how long it's been vacant, 

also, what was the prior business?

I got fortunate to find a day spa already built out. 

When you go to tour a prospective commercial property, you want to begin to envision and determine what the build-out would need to be for your business to be successful there. Take pictures and note:

 the electrical 

the plumbing.

Handicap access 

These things can be very costly, negotiate for the expenses in your and tenant improvements. So any build-out is considered a "tenant Improvement." Also, this is money that you can settle for before signing a lease. You also want to check out the signage. Backlit signs can be as expensive as $6,000 so pay attention to the type of signage that is on the building. Make sure to check that the building is zoned appropriately for the business you wish to attain. I remember I almost signed a lease for a building that was not in the zone for a nail salon and it's not up to that landlord to tell you that information, you can find that out by calling the city permitting and zoning board. 

 So a proper negotiation of a lease would look something like this: let's say the building is 1000 square feet and they're asking $3.50 per square foot, so that's going to be $3,500 per month. You're willing to sign a five-year lease, you're asking for the space to be $2 per square foot, and you're asking for a $50,000 tenant build-out, three months free rent, and the landlord to pay for the signage. 

 I also want to share a recent lease negotiation done by a broker that I was recently working alongside. She got a nail bar owner a $200,000 build-out, six months free rent and half off the next six months for signing a five-year lease. 

 Sometimes you have to negotiate on the spot, but try to make sure it's once you have enough information to start the negotiations. There's no point in negotiating if you don't know if that building is zoned for that type of business. You want the estimate for the build-out cost to be as close to what you're asking. So no money has to come out of your pocket. So you can have contractors come in and look at the property with you, as well,  before you even begin any negotiations.

 Some realty companies offer services from a broker who will negotiate everything for you and will help you find commercial properties. I think the only downside to that is that the usually only look at Tier A properties. The tiers go from A-D. 

 However, brokers are very awesome to work with because they do find the properties for you, they do typically negotiate everything in your best interest, and the landlord pays their fees.

 When you're ready to negotiate, and you want to do it on your own you can download a form called an L.O.I.- It's a "letter of intent," and this is where you start the negotiation process with the landlord.

 If you decide to do the negotiations in person, make sure it is in person and not over the phone and not through text message. 

 Another area you're going to want to strengthen before you open your business is the management of people. You want to be able to build a robust and reliable team. It's stressful when you have to be present to ensure your company is running smoothly. So you want to create protocols and have excellent training. I do all my training on my own in monthly meetings. I have found that using Google slides and discussing contracts keeps people engaged and informed. 

 You can also take some classes at your local community college in the areas that you feel you need to strengthen. I took one entrepreneurial class at a local college, and it was great. A tip I would like to share when it comes to recruiting talent or staff is to look online at Craigslist and Indeed, and see how other similar companies are writing their help wanted ads. I typically like to search in the larger cities; I found some great ideas for my help wanted ads that I would never have thought of on my own. 

 You also want to spend time listening to books on topics such as leadership, self-help, positive thinking, managing people, and any other issues you feel will strengthen your ability to run a successful business.

 Owning your own business does require time. If you're managing your time and spending time outside of your working life and your family lives, you're already noticing the toll that it takes. Many times people feel guilty that they're spending so much time away from their families. If it makes you feel any better, I felt guilty working a regular job because I was away from my boys so much. Everybody has to work. However, it feels so much better to be working for yourself; it's just something different.

 Also, try to visualize what the end goal is? Are you going to build this company up and then sell it? What's your exit plan? They call it an exit strategy? Do you want to open multiple businesses? Do you want to pass the industry down to the family? Give yourself an end goal for this company.

 Before you open your business, you can begin to strengthen your relationships within the community. The Chamber of Commerce is a great way to be involved with your community and to put your business as a name out there. Every month for our local Chamber of Commerce meetings, I donate 3-5 gifts for a raffle for attendees. It allows me to get in front of people and talk about my business and also to give away services and products, so people will know what we carry. You can be very creative and what you give away at raffles. Owning your own business allows you to spend time in an area of your community that you want to give back. You can create partnerships with different organizations and help them in ways that don't even require money if your business isn't profitable at first. The only way you're going to start generating ideas on what you could do is by attending these meetings and paying attention.

 Moreover, lastly, I want to talk about marketing. I spoke of the website earlier, and I did mention how it has to be very easy to travel through for your clients. So you want to know what your client experiences when they visit your website. Make sure you are seeing what your clients see on their mobile phones, as well as their laptops and computers. The client journey through your website should be flawless. It would be best if you also had a strong presence on your social media. If you're not sure how to do this, look at similar businesses who have a large following, and see what they're posting and how often. Go to the big companies and see what they're doing on their social media. There are often free classes online, videos on YouTube, videos on Facebook, and books that will teach you how to grow a good following on your social media.

Another thing that will help you drive business into your company is a sandwich board sign in front of your business. When you're looking at spaces to potentially lease out make sure that you're able to use a sandwich board near the street to attract new clients. Moreover, with any posters, window decals, or sandwich board signs, you want always to try to minimize the number of words that you place on that sign, and make sure that those words are instrumental in communicating what your business does and what your special offer is. On my sandwich board, it said $20 pedicure. That's it, and I became fully booked within three months. Make sure someone can tell what you do in 2-3 seconds of seeing your sign. 

I want to thank you for joining me and listening to my podcast. I hope I gave you some motivation, and some new insight and please share my podcast with any other entrepreneurs you know who would love to listen to this and could benefit. 

I also want to talk about my partnership with B.S.O, which is Beauty Supply Outlet. The owners, Sylvester and Henry, come into Native American owned salons and bring in shelving (that you pick) salon products (that you choose) a free point of sale system with a cash register at zero cost to the business owner. They also partner with Native Americans who live on or within 20 miles of a reservation to open up stand-alone beauty supply stores or with casinos and resorts. So if you're interested in this business opportunity to reach out to me through my website, you can find me by Googling: Native Dreams Day Spa in Alpine, California or you can find me on Facebook or Instagram by searching for native dreams Day spa. 

 

In our upcoming podcast, we're going to be discussing what it's like to grow up on the reservation versus growing up native in the city, otherwise known as an Urban Indian. It's going to be a great discussion with Karen, myself, and Camille. We hope you join us! 

Have a beautiful day, and thank you for listening to my podcast.