Bosun - Building Remote Teams

Running the Bases today with Liz Goddard and Nicole Grinnell from Bonsun - a service provider that helps small businesses grow their remote teams.  Bosun allows small businesses to grow as their needs and business expand.  They build each client their dream team and only charge them for work completed! 

Liz and Nicole share their challenges of finding the right offering and business to grow, and how they landed on the concept of Bosun.  They even share how the meaning behind the company name.

Selecting the right team member, investing in development, and building the team is crucial for any small business.  Liz and Nicole share how Bosun helps take the risk, time, and expense out of the equation.

Liz and Nicole have seen their business grow during the pandemic - and of course, that brings a complete set of challenges.  They share how they’ve embraced the challenges, set their course for continued growth.  They provide some great insights for small business owners on how to get past the hurdles of “letting go”.

Learn more about Bonsun and remote services at www.bosunsolutions.com

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Transcript

Randy: 0:01

I'm Randy Rohde. And I'm fascinated with entrepreneurs and small business owners. Plus I love baseball. Every show I sit down with the small business owner and we discuss they're running the bases of entrepreneurship. We throw the ball around on strategy management, execution and innovation, plus. Oh, little fun. Baseball talk. Hey, thanks for joining us today. Settle in, grab your Cracker jacks and you know what they say? Okay. It is a great day for a baseball game. As I like to say, I'm Randy Rohde and your with running the bases with small businesses. And today we actually have a first on the show where I actually have. Two guests from the same business ladies that this is you're setting a, I don't know, hopefully a trend. We'll see, but, uh, something great. So I'm going to see, I've got a little bit of factoids on each of you here, so hopefully, um, we we'll dig into these, , in a second, maybe one of you I understand was painted. And maybe at an early age by Thomas Kincade, the painter, the famous painter and the other I understand is an avid motorcycle rider. Well, maybe that might be a stretch on the, but you've got a great story about riding a motorcycle anyway, but together. They founded an operate boson, which is a remote services provider. And so we'll want to get into that, but, uh, certainly want to welcome Liz Goddard and Nicole Grinnell. Welcome to the show ladies.

Liz: 1:46

Thanks for having us. We're excited to be here. Would this be considered a double header if we're going to stay and no, that's not the same as my analogies are horrible, but I'm just playing your baseball theme here,

Randy: 1:59

Double header, I'm not sure about the double header, but you know, it sounds good. Anyway, we'll take it. All right. So before we even get into Boson and so that's, so it's kind of a nautical term. You guys do this thing, uh, on this remote services that you provide, you may even want to touch on that. What exactly is that? When I say that even, but how does this kind of nautical this boson? How does that nautical term apply to your business? Where did that come from?

Liz: 2:25

Yeah, well, I'd like to say it came from like some really smart, you know, we. Discovered ourselves under this thing, it came from TV. And, um, I really enjoyed the show below deck, which is kind of like our world on a yacht. and I think that's why I was drawn to it. It's all about assisting the captain and you've got these crews and you're taking care of guests. And there is a position in it called a boson. And it's essentially the person right below the captain that is totally in charge of the equipment and crew. And even before we went through the rebranding, I would tell Liz, I'm like, it's so funny. There's this position. It's kind of like what we do. And then as we were just naturally rebranding, we kept coming back to this and we were like, I mean, that's it, we're the boson and for small business,

Nicole: 3:10

And we learned that as we were going through this exercise of who's our client, what does that look like? We kept an, , the analogy of our client is like the captain and he wanted to be in the captain seat. Well, who makes sure the captain is in a seat and able to focus on steering and leaving his ship or yacht a boat? Well, the boson handles equipment crew and all the guests. And so we realized, okay, that's what we're going to do. It was sterile enough where boson might not. Directly take somebody to know exactly what that means, but the more you dig, the more, wow, that's a really beautiful analogy for what you all do for small businesses.

Randy: 3:42

That is great. Well, I love boats and nautical stuff anyway, so I think it's great. And it really is a, uh, a terrific kind of explanation of what it is that you do. But I will go ahead. Why don't you give a broader definition of what it is and the services that you guys provide?

Liz: 4:01

So, what we do is we take small business owners and we build out a remote team for them. And that's going to look different for every business owner because every business has different needs. So let's say, you know, you run a law firm and you need somebody to bill your clients. You also need someone to answer your phones. You need someone to run your social media and you need somebody to do paralegal support. Well, typically that's four to five individuals you would hire, but you may not have the capital to do that. You may not have enough work to keep them busy. So, what we do is we build your dream team and then we only bill you for time work. So a small business owner has a larger reach as if they were a large capital backed company, but they're kind of running that shoestring budget and their employees. Um, they directly reflect the revenue coming in. What we like to say is in a small business, if you, our revenue is not fixed, neither should be your, you should have very few fixed expenses. It should completely tied directly to revenue. Which is what we're doing for snapping.

Randy: 5:02

Okay. That's good. Nicole, anything to add to that? That was a great explanation.

Nicole: 5:07

Yeah. Better at that than me.

Randy: 5:10

Right. So I love having the two of you on board as, , Founders of the company. Give us a little background. Where did you guys connect? How did you meet what started the partnership? Go ahead.

Liz: 5:23

So, uh, what's funny is we actually met through common friends. We, um, she, I live in Atlanta. We both live in Atlanta, Georgia now, but when we met, she lived in California , , she was friends with my roommate at the time. And. I had heard this fun girls coming to town. So we met up and, um, um, it was kind of like a slow beginning. She ended up moving here. We started seeing each other more and circles, and then we actually ended up working together at the same company. It was a FinTech company in Atlanta and we were there together five years. I was there probably seven, a little over seven. And, um, we just realized we had so much in common. Like, you know, we both grew up under small business parents. Um, we both loved to work. We also love to have fun. And so. We kinda got this itch to start a business and kind of fell into what is now boson.

Randy: 6:11

Did you kind of dig into the market a little bit and the, like, what is, uh, you know, a gap that we could fill from a services standpoint or what this company was going to be? I mean, did you have a sense about that before you started boson or.

Liz: 6:27

So I'll let Nicole answer that. But I would say before we got to boson or we rebranded during COVID pandemic, um, to be boast when we were previously CC my admin. But before CC my admin, we had a business idea every other month we would like, okay, if we thought it had legs, we'd do like a logo. We come with a business plan. I mean, we were just always thinking, right. And so those. Just didn't make sense from a finding other ideas we had from a financial standpoint, or just like, Hey, that's a bad idea. Okay. Let's move on. We don't know anything about growing flowers. Okay. Moving on. So, um, until we landed with this and I'll let kind of Nicole speak to. The idea.

Nicole: 7:04

Yeah. So it kind of just, uh, evolved naturally. I was an executive assistant and my boss was retiring. So I kind of started hearing about, um, being a virtual assistant. I thought, well, I'll, I'll go into doing that. Um, started supporting him, got a few other referrals. And before I knew it was just. Snowballing the clients that were coming in to the point that I could not keep up. And Liz kind of simultaneously was looking to kind of change directions in her career. She was taking many sabbatical, I would say to kind of look at what that is. And I went to her and was like, I think this, this is the business that has legs. Like we sort of fell into it, but I think we could really run with it. And so then at that point she came on and I guess it was December or January falling my departure in April. So fairly quickly. And that's when we kind of evolved the business to where it's now is not just virtual assistants, but it really is your whole remote team.

Randy: 7:55

Wow. And so you're doing much more than just what I would say and not just, but doing more than virtual assistance. So you really are providing a broad range of services for your business clients.

Liz: 8:11

Absolutely. And that was one of the things that I noticed when I got out there and started marketing the business. And when you said, did you test the market? We tested it by, by just doing it. And honestly, that's my biggest advice to any company is you can plan all day long, but until you start seeing what people's needs are. You're not going to do great because you don't know who your client is. And so we started learning our client and learning what their needs were. And that's when we learned, um, by feedback from quite honestly, everybody that CC my admin and the previous name of the company really pigeonholed us. Um, we were so much more than just an executive admin sourcing company. We really were a, like an operations. Operations company. And so we wanted to market ourselves accordingly. So that's why we did our name change. And, um, no, honestly, we needed something to really focus all of our energy on during the pandemic. And so that's where boson was born.

Randy: 9:02

So you have the similar path of business owning parents from what I understand, rating your guys's background, your bios on both of your parents' sets appearance, where they had their own businesses. You all went and worked in corporate America. And then what I would say, it kind of came back to the farm, so to speak, but you decided, Hey, I'm going to go and kind of do our own business as well. What is to learn from that kind of life experience? Is there anything that kind of steps out, , where you always kind of an entrepreneurial spirit? I guess

Liz: 9:39

Um, the Nicole backgrounds are really similar, but she and I, his core personalities are pretty different, so that answer's going to be different for her than me. I am very risk, like a burden. Like I don't enjoy a risk. It makes me nervous. I am not your typical entrepreneur. And yet there was a part of me that it's to do it. And I mean, I inherited my dad's business when I was 19. And we had to, and we lost it in the recession 2008. So I kind of walked away from entrepreneurship saying that it's not for me. I don't want anything to do with it. It would give me hives and anytime anyone would talk about opening a business, I was like, you don't want to. It's horrible. So, um, it is funny that I kind of turned a corner that I want to be. You start a business. Whereas Nicole, I feel like she doesn't see risk at all. Like doesn't exist. Um, Michelle obviously. It makes me nervous, but it's my work.

Nicole: 10:29

The difference is like I saw my parents have literally nothing, um, be successful and it just, it all worked out. So I come more from that mindset, like with hard work, you'll figure it out, even if it's not what it looks like. And we've had many times where we've just had to be like, Oh, that is not working. We need to move this way. So it does that part doesn't scare me. Um, but I think we're also a good balance for each other because she can definitely be the brakes when I'm the gas and vice versa.

Randy: 10:56

Yeah, I was just going to kind of say that, that, you know, you kind of play off of each other a little better. You're the two sides of the coin, right? So one is, you know, maybe the more conservative kind of path or approach, and one is no let's drive let's push forward. So does that ever create any stress in the partnership relationship at all? Because sometimes that can, I mean,

Liz: 11:19

Not in the partnership. It doesn't, I don't think, I think we, we knew the great thing is we knew each other incredibly well before he went into business and we knew each other, not that we were, we were very good friends, but we also were colleagues. And so we knew how each other worked and we respected each other in our own space. And so we kind of knew our strengths and our weaknesses and not to say you can predict everything, but. Nicole. And I are very aligned in values. Like we're, we have a strong faith in God. We have a strong faith in just like friendship and families. And so we kind of just, anytime there's friction, we go, let's go back to what we know and believe and make decisions from there. And it's, it's proven.

Randy: 11:55

Let's talk about challenges and. You know, I'm going to ask you those questions about Hayden, you know, talk about your greatest challenge in operating your company at this point. And it very well may be COVID and we can parallel have, you know, a good conversation here on COVID before we hit on COVID though, and how you've operated and kind of navigate it. Kind of stay in your, in the boats in world. Were there other challenges in the early days of boson or CC? My admin in those days, were there, what were some of those challenges in the early days?

Nicole: 12:29

Education? Right.

Liz: 12:32

Honestly, it's education, uh, to our clients. So there's not a lot of people doing what we do, the way we do it. You know, the idea that you can get. Everyone on your team, but only have each person work an hour a day and only have to pay for time. Worked, not free. I mean like it's very unheard of and people think it's too good to be true. They don't trust it. So pre COVID the education that you can get a team working and that's remote and you can have everything you need. So that was an edgy, it was a higher acquisition cost for the client because there's so much education involved.

Randy: 13:05

Now let's talk about COVID and going through the pain, I would imagine. So in the services that you provide, you're working directly with small businesses, small companies, and, you know, it's been a real struggle the last 10 months, 11 months, something like that. And how has that impacted your business as well?

Nicole: 13:28

Well to piggy back off of what she said, when it first happened, we were sort of like, you know, okay, what is this going to look like for us? Right. But the funny thing that's happened now is that education piece is like, people get it. They're like, Oh yeah, I know I've, I've been working remote. Like it can be done. And actually you work harder and all the time and you have to stop yourself. So that piece of like, I don't know, how am I going to watch them? How do I know that they're working now? Everyone has been forced into it. And they understand like, Oh, it can be done and it can be done well, So I would say that's the biggest hurdle that we've jumped in this. And she can speak a little more about, you know, what businesses are coming to us for now.

Liz: 14:06

Yeah. So we went from a small business owner who, who really just needed like a one person five hours a week. And now we're seeing people who may have laid off. 10 people. And now they need one person, 20 hours a week, sometimes 30 hours a week, but they're not really, they don't want to commit to a full-time employee because they're not really sure what the economy is going to do. So we're seeing actually larger companies sign up with us still in the small business category, I would say, but you know, our client profiles changed a bit and what's been interesting is previously so. I, my, my side of the business is really a sales and understanding business needs. Nicole side of the business is making sure we have the right talent and servicing the client. And that's what her team does. And so it's interesting. It's pre COVID. I think I had more of the challenge post COVID. I think you have more of the challenge, which is the people that we're hiring. They're juggling so much more at home, right? I mean, you can speak to that. Like you've done a good job of kind of helping people navigate that.

Nicole: 15:01

Yeah. I mean, I think we went from, you know, the stay at home, you know, woman who was doing this maybe during kids' school hours or they're retired and they did it, you know, while their husband was at work. And now all of their worlds are colliding. I mean, I felt in myself where now all of a sudden I'm a homeschool teacher, my husband's upstairs working. You know, everybody wants me to feed them lunch during the day I've got a job, you know, it just was like, everything was colliding and that was hard. And we have a lot of girls that we had to scale back a little bit, um, because. I mean just the homeschool alone. I gotta be honest. That's just, you know, town. So that became a different challenge. And we had to now go into it going like, okay, I know before you said you could work 10 hours, the reality is you can work five because now you have all these other needs that are on you. And we want, you know, family definitely comes first in our world and we, we don't want anybody stressed out. This is supposed to be a good opportunity and we want it to work for your family. So that was kind of like, I hit this wall of like, wow, everyone is stressed.. Which went across the board for everybody. Right. But that was something we didn't really predict.

Randy: 16:05

That really is amazing. So you get you touch on a couple of different things that I want to highlight first, I think is this whole issue of remote work. And because that's exactly what it is that you provide as a service. And so it seems like the whole pandemic and the restrictions has really is almost. Been at, uh, a blessing to you in a, in a means of kind of pushing back or breaking through that barrier of. That trust and uncertainty of having a remote employee or, or, or provider. So, yeah, that there's, I've had this conversation with several different people in regards to kind of what I would say would be some side benefits or pushing forward, some technologies that the pandemic is doing and all stuff like this, , that you're doing on the remote services, uh, remote meetings, all of those kinds of things. Really people have just gotten comfortable with it. It's like, well, this is how we do it now,

Liz: 17:04

staffing, like you said, it's trusting your employees or team members to be at home, but it's also investing in the technology. And I think we were always going in that direction. And I'm certainly not the first person to say this, but it's like, it COVID catapulted us into it right. Overnight. I mean, truly. So it's, it's re now people do have the technology. I mean, so many of our hurdles were just cleared for us. So we just kind of got lucky in that sense, in that sense. But of course, Where there's an opportunity then there's, it's something else ships. Right? So then our, our staffing became a little harder and we had to start brainstorming on that problem.

Randy: 17:41

Right. That's what I wanted to follow up on as well. So, Nicole, I think he did a great, a, a great commentary on the struggles of. People working at home. I know my, my wife will say the same thing. You know, she's got, our kids have been doing virtual schooling and she was like, yeah, it's so busy. Like all of a sudden they'll come down. Like I need to eat. And so I'm cooking more and you know, and she's not thrilled about that either, but the demands, like during the course of the day for some of these folks, I would think that that did work for you. Very interested in that. And so have you. So you mentioned like, well, maybe they were working 10 hours a week now they're down to five hours a week. So clearly you may still have a demand. Is it more difficult for you to find staff, skilled service people to lend to your clients? You know, curious how you've kind of tackled that particular challenge?

Nicole: 18:36

Yeah. So what was funny is we actually didn't have a hard time finding staff, but w we had a hard time doing was weeding through who was kind of using our services as a bandaid, because maybe they've been laid off. And so, you know, most of our clients, I would say 99% are coming to us for a long-term team member. So we were kind of having to gauge, you know, okay, is this, is this person wanting to work remote because. That's the lifestyle they want. That's what that works for their schedule. Like they truly want to work remote or is this like, I mean, I need cash coming in and I'm using you as a temporary service until I find full-time employment. So we really had to like, kind of dig down to the, , the heart of why they were wanting to work with boson and just making sure, cause we, we certainly don't want to have turnover for our clients where we can, , prevent that. So that was what more were seeing was floods of applicants, but. Really, it was a, they were using us like attempt service and that's just not what we are. And so kind of having to navigate that.

Randy: 19:33

So probably like many other industries, you probably took that depth, um, kind of in the, the end of the first quarter, second quarter as. Things kind of stabilized a little bit or people try to understand, or they accommodated, they pivoted, they adapted. And then I'm assuming as that kind of kit, that trough that maybe your business can have recovered then toward the third quarter, fourth quarter.

Nicole: 20:00

Yeah, we actually just did this and I was trying to think of what the exact months were. I think it was March that we saw Oh yeah. Like our biggest, like a big debt, you know, kind of everyone just foom March,

Liz: 20:12

April was our biggest dip. Yeah. March the first two weeks. So you weren't until April was our biggest and then our best was July. I think people were like, okay, let's go in July.

Randy: 20:23

So ladies, I don't know if you it's that time of the show here, what that we called the 17th. Any stretch, little fun baseball talk. We like to throw in here. All right. So hopefully, um, you are ready for that. We've , Done a little bit to try to pull our research team to, uh, come up with a question that's actually kind of relevant to your particular business., I think they did a pretty good job here. So just as you are out finding great talent to bring to your business teams, your, your business partners out there in baseball, they have the talent Scouts, right? Guys people, I shouldn't say guys, but people that are out there looking at talent to bring in. Uh, add to their, to their teams. So we've got a question in baseball around Scouts and scouting in baseball. All right. You ready for this? So this is really isn't that it all right. So there are a number of baseball teams and every team kind of has their own, uh, obviously their own organization, right from the major league team itself. And. Everything that's incorporated in that all the way through all of their farm systems and everything. So here's the question for you? How many paid Scouts does the average MLB team employ? And I, and I make that I'll give you, I'll fill in a little bit while you think about that. So. There are paid and unpaid. So people will actually will do this because they want to break into, uh, into the system if you would get their foot in the door. And so people go to these baseball scouting schools and kind of learn the tricks of the trade and do all that kind of stuff. But there are a number of paid Scouts and, uh, Surprisingly, they don't actually, their average salary is a bit lower than what I would think. When you think about baseball and the industry of baseball, I mean, there's millions of dollars flowing through there, but the average MLB scout salary is just under 36,000 a year, which kind of surprised me. But back to the question, how many paid Scouts does the average MLB team employ? What do you think.

Liz: 22:47

Can we talk it through? What would again, throw a lifeline out there, right? I mean, imagine there's a scout per region, right? So how many regions are in baseball? I thought of five. Well five right ahead. Then we'll go with five.

Randy: 23:03

You'll be surprised to know on average, about 40. Not really. Yeah. Yeah. Big number. Yeah. It kind of ranges anywhere from about 37 to 45. So on average, I just kinda threw out there at about 40, but yeah. That's a, it's a big number and you are Liz. I think you're kind of going down the right path that they're actually there in regions or areas. Right? So a guy that's down in Northern Florida or in, in Atlanta area is going to get to be an expert. I mean, and evidently they start scouting kids as young as in middle school and beginning to identify talent and start tracking them a little bit and see how they. Developed. So, you know, a good scout. That's what they're looking for. They're looking for early identifiers of talent and, uh, keep their pulse on them., Try to get them into their system. So, , so 40. So there we go. All right, well, let's get back into it. Thank you. All right. So, um, yeah, I got all kinds of fun stuff going on here. So tell me about the relationship that you have with the businesses you work with. Is it kind of as a consultant, is it trusted advisor or you. A service provider. How do the businesses, , I guess kind of view you and how you provide your services?

Liz: 24:25

I would say overall it's just a service provider. Um, but the way we bring clients in is very consultive. So we kind of use consulting as a sales tool and then we know what they need, where their company wants to go. And then we build staff around it by providing the service of whatever they need. So I would categorize it as a service provider if I had to choose one.

Randy: 24:47

Is there a process. So I would think, and, and, uh, just had read an article somewhere in regards to remote working. I think I, maybe I was just doing some backgrounding on, um, preparation for our conversation here today, but for remote workers., and so for folks Steer me the right way if I kind of have this wrong, but I'm assuming that you would place somebody, you know, like, Hey, here's Randy and business X, Y, Z, Randy. They need your skills. We're going to place you with them. And you're going to work 15 hours a week there. Um, doing marketing, we'll say. And I'm assuming then that I would be Randy, is that individual, that employee of yours, that that's my kind of my resident place that I'm going to work maybe. Right. So I'm going to try to embed myself into that business, right. As a part of their culture and stuff. I didn't do I have that wrong? Is that what you tried and expect? Maybe your team to go in.

Liz: 25:48

Yeah, Randy, you want a sales job? Great. Um, I mean, that's exactly. Nicole does a really good job of finding the right people and then saying, Hey, this might be your Randi might be your primary client. How many more hours do you need a week? Okay. We'll give you some supplemental projects or smaller clients., and then they really look and feel like a part of your team as if you know, to your clients. They're sitting right next to you in an office. It should feel seamless like that. But yeah, I mean, you know, we have. Great examples of clients who look at our team, you know, their team members via us, um, as family, you know, it's, it's, it's remarkable. We have one call us on Friday night and say, Hey, she's doing such an amazing job. I've never had somebody like this who ever worked for me. I want to give her $5 more an hour. Right. Okay. We'll pass that directly on her, just, you know, as a thank you. And so you see that all the time with our clients, they, they may look and feel like friends and family.

Randy: 26:44

That is terrific. Do you do anything I'm kind of curious in this process of this? Well, I, I got stuck in those word embed, but, uh, how you embed, you know, that individual that you place with that company, do you do anything to try to. I dunno, navigate that, , entry point and that onboarding so that it's smooth and comfortable and that they actually really do get comfortable with the culture of that company. And immediately begin to be productive and, and contribute.

Nicole: 27:17

Yeah. So we have like a whole onboarding process. And one thing that we really wanted to do differently than we were seeing in some, you know, virtual assistant type work was, it's almost like a, a call center bank for lack of better word. And it's like, okay, client a here's your assistant have a great life together. And we really wanted to provide the support on both sides. So they, each client that comes with us, they're getting a relationship manager, which is really kind of the role that myself and my team plays. They're going to walk through that onboarding process and we want them to immediately begin working with their assistant, um, and start that bonding, honestly, because it's, it's not a temporary position. We shouldn't be any different than your staff. We're going to look and feel like your team, but within Boson and you are getting this extra support, a lot of business owners. They've never managed people. They certainly don't have an HR department. And so we're able to be kind of a sounding board. If they're wanting to add services, they can go to Liz and talk through like, Hey, this is where my business is at. I'm thinking I need X, Y, and Z. And she can walk through that. If they're having an issue with their assistant or they want to expand on the role with assistant, they can come to their relationship manager. And say, Hey, you know, Jessica has been doing such a good job in this. What do you think about me doing with this? And it may be something that we say, you know what? Jessica is a great admin. She's not a bookkeeper, but let's get you in a bookkeeper. Right. And so we're able to walk through that with them. Um, but the goal through the onboarding process is for them to look and feel just like a team member of their company. It just so happens that they're getting these added resources with us and the support, um, to make sure that relationship goes well.

Liz: 28:53

And I think additionally from the get go, as soon as you sign up, we create an org chart for you where you're at the top of it, and you can see all your team members. So that was another, just kind of psychological thing we wanted to put in. So they saw themselves as a team. We weren't just a vendor. We were a part of their team, our languages, welcome to the team. We're excited to be on your team. And so when you do that, people really start to feel like, Oh, we're, we're here in this together. You know, you're not just a disposable person we got from attempt service.

, Randy: 29:21

I love that example that you gave and what it is that you do there, because I would think that that would be so critical and it's a great example for customer service, but it would be so critical for that continued relationship management aspect that you have with clients. So building that trust and building that relationship and that we're here with you as a partner, that's gotta be a monster as benefit.

Nicole: 29:45

Yeah. We're I mean, we're hopeful for it. It really is. Not only on the client side, but also the assistant side. That was something that we were routinely hearing as well is it's like I match with the client and then I never heard from these people again, you know, like we want to be there too. Step in where they need help problem solve with them, guide them in how they're relating to their clients. So we really want to be a resource on all sides and feel a part of their team and watch their continued growth, because the hope is obviously as they grow, we'll grow with them.

. Randy: 30:16

So you work with a lot of different businesses, I'm sure. Do you see, and probably from small businesses where it's maybe family led or an individual that is just one president or something and not an executive team with them and probably all the way up to a much more complex, , organization. Do you see any common challenges though, of the businesses and leaders that you work with? Do they, do you see any. Commonality to some of those things that they either are challenged by or are struggle with

Nicole: 30:50

wanna let it go. I was like, it was control was going to be my thing. So yeah.

Liz: 30:55

Favorite thing in the sales call was people like you don't understand I'm control freak. And I'm like, yeah. So am I? And so as every client we have, like, if you own a business, you're a control.

Randy: 31:03

Well, at least they recognize it.

Liz: 31:05

Right. Some don't those are the words.

Randy: 31:09

Yeah. So how do you help them kind of get over that? How do you help them? Let go a little bit?

Liz: 31:15

Well, if you know, a better way, we'd love to see that.

Randy: 31:18

I, you know, anyway,

Nicole: 31:19

I think it's like anything, right? Like there's the business owners that come to us, like. Ready and mentally willing to delegate right there. At that point, they get it, they know the business cannot continue to just run off them. And that's an easy client, right? Like, because we can help them through that.

Liz: 31:34

And we spot those quickly. Like, I can say this person's going to be easy. Yeah.

Nicole: 31:38

Clients are like dream clients. They come with. Job descriptions. They know exactly what they need to delegate. They've got passwords ready and we're just off and running. Um, and then occasionally you get the client that it is just, it is pulling teeth to get them to let go. And it's a lot of answers and we. We understand we're the same way, you know, we're business owners as well, where it's like, Oh, I don't know. I just not sure they could ever do this. I've always been the one to do that. It's so complicated. I'm not sure. And what I try to lean on is because we get this a lot as well. I just not sure that the assistant is going to understand my industry and I have supported multiple different industries over my career. And the reality is the executive assistant or the bookkeeper or the paralegal. It doesn't matter what the industry is. They're there with the skill sets to support that business. And so we try to coach in that, like, I know you think that you're the first person that has ever needed an assistant in the marketing industry, but this person can help you because the reality is we're talking inbox management, we're talking, managing your leads, we're keeping up with your calendar. And it doesn't matter what industry you're in. Most businesses are the same behind the scenes. So we try to preach that. And, you know, for the most part, I would say we're pretty good about that. Liz is really good about walking through that with everyone, um, describing how that's going to be. But I mean, it's like anything, right? Like there's going to be. Um, a few clients that it just doesn't get it. And unfortunately, they're going to be on that same hamster wheel over and over of doing it themselves and which really just limits their growth.

Randy: 33:10

I would be certain that they appreciate, , the help, uh, that gene that you guys give. I can only imagine, some of the challenges that you face sometimes probably working with, , certain types of people and or clients. You know, back to the issue on with talent and with the folks that you find, where do you find your talent? I mean, there's an, I don't know whether it's a lot right now, , the, the unemployment rate is still fairly high and I would imagine. Probably pre pandemic. It was, you know, when the employment rate was down in that three and a half percent range, something like that. I bet it was very difficult to find staff and maybe not, I don't know. What's it like now? And how do you find talent? Let me get to the point there.

Nicole: 33:55

Yeah. You know, fortunately we've never really run into a hard time finding staffing, um, finding qualified contractors, unless we get just a very obscure thing where Liz will say like, Oh boy, you're gonna have fun. Trying to find this kind of thing. Really it's people that are looking for a difference. Whether it's lifestyle different way of working flexible schedules. So we're very clear like, Hey, we are not a six-figure career path here. Right? Like people are coming to us for a different way of life. And as long as they're buying into that and really understanding, like that's what we provide. It's a really good, , we have, uh, uh, good net of sourcing, honestly. And at first we started off with kind of a lot of word of mouth, spreading it through our friends across the country lives. And I have lived all over many places, so we have a lot of kind of touch points around there. Um, and then we started getting in with different groups, different communities, love military spouses, love them, and they're a great fit for us because they are moving constantly. So very hard to keep down a job when you could be transferred at any moment. So. We just started connecting in different communities and honestly have just been really, really blessed with a lot of good applicants coming through. So I would say we have a harder time with just making sure we can match people up before they get taken away, because we have such good. Um, you know, sometimes I'll call Liz and be like, there's this girl I have gotten to get her something. She's amazing. Please try to find me this, you know, and she will kind of set that as permission to find a client.

Randy: 35:18

Well, and I would think that now with, , and again, kind of post pandemic here now with remote work and that environment so accepted that it would be maybe even a bit easier to find staff, I suppose now, as you kind of walk through it, and especially when you're talking about military spouses and that. It doesn't kind of matter. You could get relocated and you could end up, maybe you were in Georgia and now you're over in West Virginia and Hey, remote work, you can still, you know, service this particular business that you're working with. Yeah. Yeah.

Liz: 35:51

Well, I think Nicole's team does a good job of using discernment. Like she mentioned earlier of like, why are you applying? Are you good fit? Because you know, if you're, I mean, your listeners are small business owners and an applicant will tell you what ever you want to hear. To get the job and you have to understand that that is their that's. Their goal is to get a job at any cost, right. More than likely., and so you have to use the sermon to say, is this a good fit for their lifelong term? Is it a good fit for our client is a good fit for our business. So you're constantly, you're not just, you're not like a head Hunter. Right. And that's why we have so much success in retention of team members and clients is because we spend that time and honestly that money to do that too, before we match. Um, and so that's so important.

Randy: 36:33

Yeah, I would think so, but I really enjoy that. I think that approach that you take, I think, with your staff,, and you call them contractors. So I'm assuming then they're independent contracting with you. But I love that approach that you take with them. And, , probably really they're the people that you're attracting to come and work with. You are looking more for a lifestyle, something that's convenient, they still want to work. They still want to be challenged. Um, but it has to fit kind of their lifestyle. You know, I've got. 10 hours a week that I can work for you. And that's it. I think it's a terrific, , venue that you're able to provide for folks really at any stage in their life. So Liz, you handled kind of on that development side, right? So you are selling and working with the businesses directly and I'm imagining, you know, you're just constantly, always out there looking for in this kind of current environment. Any advice that you've got, or some things that, that you've come upon, like, wow, this is really beneficial. And how I'm working with folks now, anything that, that comes across how you're approaching kind of selling businesses in today's world.

Liz: 37:49

So I think that that's kind of a twofold question. One is lead generation one is we're really leaning on client referrals because we're not able to get out there and go networking., We don't spend a ton of money on advertising. So it's trying to find that sweet spot. So we're trying to really leverage client referrals and rewarding them for that. I've spoken at seminar mastermind groups. A lot of them have gone virtual. So speaking at mastermind groups are a good way to, um, do like a, get a pipeline podcast. People are consuming content like no other right now. Um, so that's, those are all be my recommendations for lead generation. In terms of how to talk clients through how to use a team, how to run their business? Well, my background was human resources, so I, I feel very blessed that I've been able to see, you know, a small business that I help my family run and then inherited, , to a FinTech company that started at a hundred, went to 500 over the course of seven years and did mergers and acquisitions. So I have a pretty good feel of where you're at at any cycle of business and where you want to go. And, um, honestly, team members. Are the key to getting there. And so just, how do you use, what team members, how do you incentivize them? How do you push them? How do you delegate? And so that's kind of what I am strong in., and, and that's what I teach our clients to do. And then we give them the team to go do it.

. Randy: 39:05

So what's around the corner for boson. What do you see in the coming years? Assuming, you know, we're going to get through all of this pandemic stuff at some point, what's the next stage for, uh, for boson,

Liz: 39:17

you know, we're actually, um, we're working towards that next stage every day. And what we see is yes, hopefully an increase in client load. Um, but we've also started rolling out full service packages. So helping you find the right technology cause technology, the whole thing about Boson is you want to make sure you have the right equipment, but right. Crew and, um, that everyone knows how to do it.. And so we want to make sure that our clients have the right technology in place. We want to make sure that they have the right teams and then we want to have processes around it. So it's really become that full service operations company. Not only giving you the team, making sure you have the technology to do it, but then documented processes around all of that. So we'd love just to. Bring that to every business we come in contact with because we think the more businesses that look like that, the more they're set up for success. And our country runs on successful small businesses. And so we want to see more and more stronger small businesses. And if we can be a part of that, you know, Nicole and I can go to bed happy at the end of the day.

Randy: 40:15

I love that I won't be able to go to bed a happy that's that's a good goal for everybody.

Liz: 40:22

I mean, I have trouble sleeping, so if I can, if I go to sleep while, I mean, this has been a good day.

Randy: 40:26

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's terrific. All right. So here we come, ladies, we're down to the bottom of the nights that I always ask all of our guests. What advice. Do you have for rookies in the game. So those folks who are starting out in business, or maybe they already have their business and are looking for some guidance or some words of wisdom here, what advice do you have for those rookies?

Liz: 40:49

Nicole and I were at breakfast with somebody looking to start a new business on Saturday. So that's actually top of mind for us and I'll give what I given and maybe the same that you would answer. I mean, it's honestly just go do it. Don't. Solve. And I'm the queen of doing this. I try to solve problems that aren't even in front of me. I'm like, okay, but in 10 years, this could be a problem. And it's like, what's in front of you solve the problem. Go find your first client. Don't feel like you have to have everything figured out, just go do it. And there's so much fear wrapped around failing. It's like, you're going to fail, get over it and just, just do something. And then if it doesn't work, don't be so proud not to pivot. That's mine.

Nicole: 41:26

Yeah. I mean that for sure. And the only thing I would add to that is just don't do anything for money because it's ridiculous. You won't service your clients, right. You won't really do what's right for your business. You won't do what's right for yourself. So if you take money out of the equation, which I know that's easier said than done, but I do believe that if you're servicing people correctly, there is a need in your business and you're staying true to what you believe and what you want your business to believe the money will follow. That's good. Um, we see a lot of people that are just., you can't be a tightwad and being an entrepreneur. I just don't believe you can.

Randy: 42:02

Yeah, I would, I would agree with you on that. And I think you also have to have just a, uh, a tolerance of risk. I love to, um, Nicole, have you said as well, you can't, I even wrote it down. Don't be so proud not to pivot and that. One of our earlier guests, as well even mentioned something like you always have to have some self-awareness and always kind of touch base with yourself again, to understand, Hey, is this working or not? And don't fool yourself. And I think that's kind of what you're getting to with that as well. Like. Don't be so proud of that. Sometimes you've got a great idea, but you've got to do it differently or maybe, maybe it wasn't a great idea and you you've got the hard work and the drive, and you're just going to do something different completely. But I loved how you stated that don't be so proud not to pivot. And I think that in this environment, uh, if we've learned anything, it's gotta be pivot, learn to pivot. It's funny.

Liz: 42:59

We met a kid, um, I guess a couple of months ago. And he was like, Oh, I'm, I'm majoring in entrepreneurship. And I was like, how is that a major Stan? That's like the most ironic thing I've ever heard, but he said, I just, I don't want to answer to anybody. I just want to be my own boss. And I just want to make lots of money and we both go like, Well, just let me tell you, it's going to be rough because when you own your own business, you're you answer to everybody just gives it to one person. You answered your clients, your team members, each other, and it's just, you know?

Randy: 43:31

Yeah. I think he's got to expand his definition on entrepreneurship. There. Well, listen, thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate it. It's fascinating too, to learn about your services and what you do at boson, and, uh, certainly wish you the best of success coming through 2021., again, just really, it's been a great pleasure.

Liz: 43:56

Randy. Thank you so much. We really enjoyed the talk. So thanks for having us.

Randy: 44:01

And we will have all of Bosens information, contacts and phone and social links and all of that stuff in this, in the show notes. So be sure you go check that out and get in touch with them. And, uh, as we like to say, Hey, that's the ballgame. So thanks for joining us today. And if you liked our show, please tell us friends, subscribe and review, and we'll see around the ballpark. Running the bases with small businesses is brought to you by 38 digital market. A digital marketing agency, committed to client growth with lead generation higher conversions and increased sales connect with us today. At 38 digital market.com.