Celebrating Six Years of Entrepreneurship: A Journey of Resilience & Adaptation with Veronica Edwards

Embarking on the sixth anniversary of my entrepreneurial journey, I, Veronica Edwards, am celebrating the triumphs and reflecting on the hurdles that have shaped my business's success. This episode is a heart-to-heart monologue marking this momentous occasion, and I'm inviting you to join me as I share the intimate details of navigating the tumultuous waters of small business ownership. From the early days of balancing a full-time job to fully committing to the roller coaster of entrepreneurship, I'm laying bare the realities that come with such a daring venture. With a shiny new microphone in tow, thanks to my producer Aaron, it's clear that the dedication to improving your listening experience is just one of the many ways I'm pushing the boundaries this year.

Setting the tone for the new year, I'm excited to shed light on the critical strategies that small business owners, like you, can employ to scale new heights. Ebony Sullivan, the COO of Cassie Electric, joins us once again to reinforce the message that progress is born from constant adaptation and resilience. As we explore the significance of making strategic investments in marketing and branding, along with the essential nature of agility in business, this episode promises to arm you with a treasure chest of actionable insights. Whether you're toasting to your own business milestone or just gearing up for the entrepreneurial climb, this session is a salute to the unwavering spirit of entrepreneurship and the firm belief that with the right mindset, surpassing the odds is not just possible—it's inevitable.

This program is brought to you by:
Balanced Virtually

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Transcript

Veronica: 0:39

Welcome to the Veronica Edwards show where we have fun financial conversations that everyone listening can apply to their personal and professional life. I'm your host, veronica Edwards, and so excited to be back here in 2024, season three on this radio dot US. So again, I'm always starting off the show thinking the listeners, aka the V team, for supporting me for the last three years and especially this season. We are still shooting to get over that 3000 download hump and get to 4000 downloads. So today's show is just me I wanted to do beginning of the year monologue, just sharing some small business goals that I have for my business that small business owners listening can also implement, as well as some goals that I have for the show, because, even though it's been three years, it's a lot, you know. Everything always changes and I want to continue to stay fresh and to pivot. I literally just ordered a fancy microphone. Thank you to my producer, aaron. So that's something that I said I wanted to do for a while. So I'm really trying not to procrastinate in 2024. That's one of my things. If I'm saying I'm going to do it, I want to go ahead and knock that out. So this year, and especially this month, is really special for me because my business has officially turned six years old and I know for some people they're like, okay, that's, that's not a big deal. But for me it's a personal milestone Because you guys know I'm a statistics person and, based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 45 to 50% of all small businesses fail within the first five years. So some people say, oh, you should celebrate after five, but I wanted to celebrate after I got to six, because I do not take it lightly that I'm still here and even during this whole time, I've had a full time job that I was able to work remotely and basically at a part time level, but it just took so much out of out of me where I wasn't really able to build the business as quickly as I wanted to. So that's another big milestone for January. For me, this is the first time, gosh, since 28 the end of 2018 where I do not have a full time job. That's helping me, you know, with the cost and the expenses for my business. So I'm 100% doing payroll through my business. Now I have medical insurance.

Veronica: 3:14

So I definitely want those listening that might have started out with a business that was a hobby and they've kept their full time job, which I totally understand. Just know that if I can do it, you can do it. And not to scare those that are listening back to my stats, but it doesn't get easier the longer that you're in business. You know throughout that stat that 50% of businesses fail the first five years, but guess what? It goes up the failure rate the longer you're in business. 65% of all businesses fail before 10 years and only 25% of businesses make it past 15 years. So I'm not saying that to scare you, but I am saying that to say that you can do it.

Veronica: 3:56

But you have to keep your business fresh. You know you have to be willing to change and pivot and reset constantly. So we've talked about that and some of our segments was small biz tips with Ebony Sullivan, coo of Cassie Electric, client of Balance, virtually in Greenville, south Carolina. And it's true, because you do I think that's something I've learned kind of being this hybrid employee and business owner the last five years is that with a job a W2 employee job, work is just coming to you. You know you're gonna get paid, you know you're gonna get benefits, but when you have your own business, no one is going to tell you. Okay, veronica, you need to make sure you send these emails out, or? All right, veronica, you need to go out and do some networking. So I just want folks to know that you can do it. But you can't get comfortable because, just like I said, you'll make it past five years and think, okay, I'm doing well, but now you're just climbing up a steeper mountain and you can definitely do it.

Veronica: 4:56

But some of the tips that I did wanna provide is that you have to keep investing in your business, in yourself, especially in the form of marketing and branding. So I've talked about my brand ambassador, who I love, ms Jyland Farr, who helps me tremendously. In the last year and a half, she's really helped me really have more of a presence in social media for the Veronica Edwards show. She's also now helping my husband, carlos Edwards Please check out his website. He just dropped a Christmas EP and she helped us design the EP cover and some of the media with that.

Veronica: 5:37

And for me, marketing social media is a huge weakness for me. It's not something that I naturally do well, it's not something that I have any desire to do, so I learned that. Okay, veronica, part of growing your business, you have to get out of your comfort zone and you have to outsource some of these things that you're not the best at. So I definitely encourage those listening is to invest in your marketing and branding. There's so much free stuff out there and also things that are at a minimal cost, but if you need help with that, check out my girl, jyland Farr, check her out on social media and you're always gonna hear from me. Cash is King.

Veronica: 6:17

You definitely want, as a small business owner early on, to carve out reoccurring income and definitely multiple streams of income. So that's something when I really got serious about leaving my full-time job about a year ago, I told myself I have to make sure that I'm working with multiple clients providing multiple services. So if one stream of income dries up, if people aren't having any education classes that I'm teaching well, then I can provide bookkeeping services. Or if the bookkeeping is slowing down, I can provide coaching and consulting, where I'm explaining and I'm reviewing things that I'm not the doer of the work. So that's been huge for me, because when I first started my business six years ago, I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I do encourage those listening try out everything. I did taxes, I did small business bookkeeping cleanup for folks. You know, some stuff I would do for free because I just wanted the experience. I was going to chamber networking events association of CPAs for North Carolina events just trying to find ways to network with people that were CPAs like myself but also that were small business owners.

Veronica: 7:30

So continue to develop those networks, which is also marketing, so you can have those multiple streams of income and not feel like, oh, I do have to be kind of in those golden handcuffs with a W-2 job because you feel like, well, at least I know there's security there. But I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I've known multiple people in 2023 and in prior years where you've been with companies for 15, 20 years. You think you haven't made and they let you go, so you're really not guaranteed a job anywhere. So if you're at that point where you're ready to make that leap, I say bet on yourself and you'll be very happy with those results. So definitely, yes, it's scary and you do want to research, and I always give the disclaimer. I'm not telling you to just go out there and quit your job, but you have to start somewhere. You have to start just putting your toe in the water, as I like to say, in that business world, if you want to be successful, I mean, it's just have to do it and not procrastinate about it.

Veronica: 8:37

Another tip I definitely want to talk about is automation. One of the small biz segments we had the end of 2023 was AI Artificial intelligence just really becoming huge. I'm seeing it everywhere. They have it in Slack, they have it in Zoom, they have it on Google suite. So it's everywhere. And myself, being a solo pernuer, it's just me and my business and, of course, my husband assist, but it's kind of just me out here on this island. So it's nice to have some automation because I can't do everything. So you can use AI to help you with recording and meetings, you know, taking notes. We actually use it here on Biz Radio to help with bios and some of the things that you see when you go to Buzz Sprout and you're listening to the show.

Veronica: 9:30

I've been utilizing DocuSign for contracts, quickbooks for invoicing, google Suite for emails and storage. Google Suite even has it where you can get a remote fax, so where if I need to fax somebody information, I don't have to have a fax machine to do that. I can do that all remotely through my computer. So I'm trying to figure out ways, the more that I'm growing. My business, now that I'm six years old, is how can I do my job anywhere, like as long as I have Wi-Fi? How can I do this? And that's where I found that I was shifting a little bit in 2023 and now I'm going full blown ahead in 2024, that I don't want to feel like I have to be somewhere to make a bank deposit or I have to be somewhere to cut checks. I'm trying to automate things to where someone can easily come in and do my job, but also that it can give me a break and just make things more efficient so I can spend more time doing the things I love to do, like being on Biz Radio, doing the show and also really just coaching and consulting as many people as I can, cause I feel like if you can teach people, that's a huge gift and then they can continue to teach people as well. So, yeah, so those are kind of the big things in the business side.

Veronica: 10:45

Again, on the radio side, I'm really hoping that we can hit 4,000 downloads before we get to season four, and again, the show comes on Wednesday and it's live, not counting that but I just so appreciate the fact that people are taking time outside of the live airing to download the show. I've gotten so much great feedback of people that learned a lot from the show. They laughed, they cried. I don't care if only one person listens to the show, but the fact that we have thousands of people listening is really an honor. And because I'm an accountant and a stats person, I'm like, okay, so now I'm competitive, let's get to four, and then next I'm gonna say let's get to five. And that's also part of being entrepreneurs, like keep pushing yourself and, right when you get comfortable, do something else, because it's not gonna stay constant. So I definitely wanna step up my marketing game. I wanna do live clips and videos and newsletters. I wanna provide more behind the scenes.

Veronica: 11:44

As I said, gile and Far has really helped push me out of my comfort zone and I'm so grateful and thankful for her services. Because, again, I'm just figuring this out as we go and what we did a year ago might not work this year, and what we're even doing now it might shift again when we get into season four and that's okay. I think that's the biggest thing if you wanna be successful in anything that you do, just be willing I remember there was a book to keep moving the cheese. You know like you just can't get comfortable because this worked really well in 2020. Let's try to do it again in 2024, which I can't believe now. It's been four years since the beginning of this pandemic, but that's where we are now. Inflation is high, prices are not looking like they're coming down. This is our new reality.

Veronica: 12:37

So, instead of just kind of sulking and being upset and thinking it's gonna change, you're the only thing stopping you from achieving all the dreams that you want to. So that's the biggest thing that I wanted to leave you guys with is that I always say if I can do it, you can do it because, again, I'm just a hard worker. I'm not the smartest, I'm not the fastest. Might be the funniest, not the funniest, but I try to do the best that I can do and I try to surround myself with good people that if I don't know the answer, then I can reach out to my brother, bill Robinson, on taxes. If I don't know the answer or something else, I can reach out to our CPA chat friend, michelle Trox, because she has 20 more years experience than me, knows the stuff inside and out, and I think that's the big part of being in business you have to know what you don't know and you have to know what you do well and capitalize on those things. So I'm gonna leave you guys with that little tip and again I just wanna thank the V team for just supporting me so much.

Veronica: 13:45

I'm asking for everyone to send me DMs or an email which you can go to balanceverselycom so you can give me some ideas for some shows, show topics for our CPA chat or our small business tips If you wanna be on the show, if you're somebody that owns a small business anywhere and the US are beyond, or doing great things in your community, that's the type of people that we want on the show. We're all about wanting to showcase those that are doing better in their community. They're in a business that is supporting minorities, women-owned businesses, usually the things that don't usually get on the news. That's not as sexy, that doesn't get all the press, but it's making a difference and that's what we care about here on bizradious. So just like that end of the show, I wanna thank everybody for continuing to support the Veronica Edwards show and you can definitely listen to the live airing on bizradious and it's also available on all platforms on Wednesdays. And if you miss it live, you can always listen to prior shows at VeronicaEdwardsBloodSproutcom.