 Good morning everyone. We're going to wait a few minutes so that everyone can come in out of the waiting room and we'll get started with our webinar. Okay, good morning. We want to be respectful of everyone's time. So we want to get started. My name is Aisha triggers. I'm with the city of Columbia office of business opportunities. Thank you for joining us for the financial fitness tips and strategies for small business series. This is the third of a three part series. I encourage anyone who missed the other two to please. You can look on Facebook and watch the live stream of the event. I can also share the YouTube link if anyone has any interest of looking back at those videos they've been great, very informative. We've really enjoyed offering this session for the group and we look forward to providing additional resources for our small businesses in the community. I want to start by just giving a brief overview of the office of business opportunities for those of you are not familiar with our office. We offer commercial lending which is financial assistance to start up and existing businesses for growth expansion retention and the creation of new jobs. We also offer assistance in the redevelopment of commercial corridors. Brett Whiting is our loan officer. He is on the call and he'd be happy to answer any questions related to commercial lending. If anyone needs to contact our office for that. Next we have our contractor and supplier diversity area, which offers training and support for city initiatives that are designed to increase local contractors capacity to compete for government contracts and other procurement opportunities. Some of our program areas are subcontractor outreach mentor protege local business enterprise preference policy and the Columbia disadvantage business enterprise. The area we have Juliet Nelly, Latanya Germany, and also Kalina again yard. Lastly, we have our technical assistance education and advocacy, where we offer business development assistance and courses for startups and existing businesses that are looking to grow and expand some of the topics we cover include marketing, the use of social media, business plan development, finances, legal issues and more. If you have any questions about the trainings we offer, feel free to give me a call. Or you can email me as well. We can talk about some different opportunities for us to assist with technical assistance. Also on our call in our office that support all of our areas are time reported to Barry, Shandria Robinson and Carla Eichelberger. So want to go over our upcoming webinars. Our next webinar is next Tuesday we're offering a profit first session with Steven. He's, he's the executive director of no money. For anyone that has registered for these webinars, I will send you a follow up survey, along with the link to register for this upcoming webinar next week. Here's our contact information. If you have any questions about how we can assist your office. Also, if you offer a so good our service, we would love to make sure that you are registered with our EBIT system. So you can give us a call at 803-545-3950 or email us at obo at Columbia SC.gov. Now I want to turn it over to one of our partners, Miss Cheryl Sallie to go over the Benedict College Women's Business Center Cheryl. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you so much, Aisha. My name is Cheryl Sallie, and I service director for the Benedict College Women's Business Center. And I want to thank you to the city of Columbia for having this great, great event. All of the information. We are a newly I still say a newly funded center we launched officially last September, coming up on a year, but we are funded by the small business administration who you will hear from shortly. So a little bit of what our mission is our purpose, our vision, primarily is to be a gateway or to create a gateway out of poverty for our socially and economically disadvantaged women entrepreneurs. And we do that by providing the 101 counseling programming, giving the information, the education, and the tools for individuals to start their business or to grow their business. And, you know, at the end of the day, we want to see who want to stimulate this economy, but we want to see and help individuals leave a legacy for their families and in this community. So what we do some of the services we provide is business planning and development, helping individuals to write that vision, you know, write that vision, where you are today where do you want to be five months from now five years from now 20 years from now, you know, and that's what the steps are to get there. So writing that plan out and the misnomer is that individuals come all the time and say yeah I don't really need a plan because I'm, I'm not going to a lender to borrow money, but the plan is not for a lender always lenders do want to see what your plan is and they want to see it in writing, but the plan is for you it is for you internally to and look at it you know year to year am I on point with where I plan on being so we help with the business planning resiliency and disaster recovery planning, financial management, helping to fill out all type of applications from business licensing to applying for the loan or government contracting and certification packages, so on and so forth, and all of the one on one counseling we do is at no cost and just like the women business centers we have three in South Carolina small business development centers score and an array of other business development resource partners in this area is that no cost and it's a wealth of knowledge here right here in South Carolina. We don't know everything but we have a large enough network to help you guide you to where you need to go to get the information that you need. We assist our focus is on women entrepreneurs particularly women of color, but I always have to put this out there that we help everyone regardless of your race or gender. We do focus on for profit entities versus nonprofits. And we have I just want to say acknowledge our administrative coordinator I think she's on the line Latoya Lindsay, she helps keep us together here and she, she helps our clients, providing optimal and great customer service, but we do. We partner with the other resource providers in the area in South Carolina and nationwide. And it is just to share with you our slogan, it is our place to work side by side with the women entrepreneurs and local businesses to retain and build industry and commerce, create jobs and improve economic opportunities for all communities so please please connect with us, you have our contact information on the screen. We want to make sure that you have the tools that you understand business, you understand business management how to develop and the systems the infrastructure and I always say that Mr Smith I've been taking some good notes he is he has been providing great information about one of the major systems in every business whether it's for profit nonprofit civic church faith based the financial system and all about finances and financial, you know, financial management but he's touched a lot on that. So take ownership of the information, use the information that we share all the time every day all day so I'm going to stop right here so we can get on to some great information I have my pen and paper ready. Thank you city of Columbia thank to the partners and thank everybody for being here. Thank you sure we always love your passion to provide assistance and resources to our small business community so thank you for your partnership. Now I will go to miss Angela Brewer with the small business administration. Thank you so much. I should thank you all for having me. As she stated my name is Angela Brewer I'm a business opportunity specialist with the Sacramento District Office of Small Business Administration. SBA we're based our foundation is start grow expand and recover. We say start we don't hear SBA we don't ourselves do the counseling process, but we have we get grant you access to count we have the women's business center with Cheryl Sally and her great team. We have another women's business center in Charleston, and we have one in the upstate. We have SBDCs is located throughout the state and we also have score. So when you're trying to start a small business we will probably don't get upset when we send you to our resource partners, because that's why we provide assistance a product provide the monetary assistance so they can help you start your process. And then when we talk about grow. We have a lending program we we don't have again we don't lend money, but we have access to lenders that land on behalf SBA SBA back 75 to 80% of that loan. We have four loan programs we have the SBA micro loan, which is $50,000 or less than we have the SBA express loan, which is $350,000 less than we have the 504 in the seven a loan which is five million 10 million respectively, or less. And then we grow that's my side of the house I may expand. If you have a business that has been running operating for a while now. You say okay I'm at a standstill what can I do next, you want to reach out to Angela or Carl or Stephanie, and we can help you expand your business through federal contracting. We have four preferential programs we have a program which for social and economic disadvantage business owner. We have a woman on small business program which is self explanatory. We have the hubs on program which is historical underutilized business zone, and then we have the service they better program, which you have to be considered disabled by the VA with a 0% to 100% rating. And then lastly we have the recovery phase like right now we are still trying to recover from this and then oh God I hate talk about it, but this pandemic that has somewhat crippled the United States with the whole world. The system recovery we at SBA only a pet will have money when it comes to the recovery phase. We lend money through our disaster team, not the SBA district office, although we get all the calls that still goes to disaster we can look if you have your phone or the PPP, we can look it up but we cannot do anything as far as the loan packet go, but we can look up your your ideal number or your your PPP loan number, and we can tell you what's going on with the but we cannot do anything like upload or re rearm fresher link or anything like that but we can look at the information and let you know what's going on. So if you if you need any assistance for us from SBA please reach out to us. We're here where we're at home but we are here man between eight and 530 every day and we'll be more than happy to help you. Thank you again Aisha. Thank you, Angela. And Paul mentioned early in this series about the ecosystem that we have and all of these ladies are such a wonderful part of our ecosystem we work so well together, so that we can provide the appropriate resources to our small business community. So, thank you, Angela and Cheryl for your partnership. Collina again yard is monitoring our chat she has already added some information in there we as a reminder please keep your microphone on mute so we can clearly have your presentation there will be an opportunity if you have any questions to type those in the chat or we can ask those questions later when we get to Q&A portion of the presentation. We're going to kind of go over what we've already discussed or what Paul has already discussed. Last Tuesday he went over the six seas of credit and the importance of establishing a banking relationship. And so I would encourage anyone again if you missed that webinar just please contact our office and we can provide you with the recording of that link. And then on Thursday or that was last Thursday and then this past Tuesday we went over cash flow projections and the simplified business plan. So we got a lot of information on the difference between cash flow and profitability, as well as what you need to include in your business plan. So now we're going to go over the emphasis of entrepreneurial mindset including management innovation creativity and profit maximization. Paul has a lot of title skills to pay the bills so we're looking forward to having this conversation now I want to introduce our presenter, Mr Paul Smith he's the CEO of best Carolina LLC, and he serves as lead instructor for the South Carolina Community Loan Funds local entrepreneur accelerator program. He's a certified next level facilitator specialist specializing in business startups, existing businesses who wish to grow micro enterprises and specialty training in agriculture based ventures, also going green signage and money management. Additionally Paul is a certified fast track new venture trainer with the Kauffman Foundation. He's been a college instructor since 2004 teaching all aspects of business curriculum. He's received his BS double major in finance and risk management management from the University of South Carolina and the MBA in business from Webster University. You can take it over Paul. Okay, and thank you again, Aisha, and the city of Columbia Office of Business Opportunities this is the third installment, and we're going to do some skills to pay the bills I'm hoping today that the chat room will be filled with responses and or questions, and provide you have my contact information right in front of you, as we move forward. Okay, we have about 35 minutes. Let's let's move forward with this skills to pay the bills I've labored around this topic. And I just wanted to keep things simple the kiss method and have five, and they're probably about 30 to 40 depending on who's presenting the material, but I want to keep things in a simplistic form and it is that simplistic pretty much and that's the key the following I usually alluded to the fact that this learning ecosystem, and I've mentioned within a 10 mile radius. Ladies and gentlemen, you have the subject matter experts, all of which, all of which operate from the mind. The the mindset of a teacher. Okay, so here are the five key skill areas, communication and negotiate. Okay, and then you see a kind of lump them together so you can enthusiasm and attitude, networking teamwork critical thinking slash problem and professionalism and or social media. So that's my intent again the chat room I'll probably hit time and time again and thank you Collina for monitoring the chat room as we move forward. Okay, let's go into communication and negotiating. And just to kind of put this in context I have challenges that I have heard as a business coach and an advisor, and some strategies. I've reached out to my clients and just in general audiences, my students as well, challenge elevator pitch anxiety, the elevator pitch, you've heard it time and time again, some have said an elevator pitch should last 30 seconds some say two minutes time permitting today. Ladies and gentlemen, I will show you the pitch that $1 to $30,000 with the South Carolina Community Loan Fund. As you notice, I will mention the Women's Business Center, thank you Cheryl, that'll be coming up right here. Matter of fact, one of the bullet points here Cheryl, all of these and we share, we share we're not in competition. It's all about the success. Okay, but elevator pitch anxiety in essence. I just said that the elevator pitch once you're in an elevator with a mover or shaker, or person of influence you have the time from which the elevator goes from the second to the fifth floor to to reach them and how it benefits them from that standpoint the pitch. And here are some strategies. I would say before you develop your elevator pitch just come out of your comfort zone and this could be having three by five cards. I have utilized that okay. Toastmasters again pre COVID. There were several chapters summer meeting virtually, you've never heard of Toastmasters. I will put a link later in the segment on Toastmasters, and there again that's something where you can be among those who do this for a living. Okay, so you can always smile that smile while talking is beneficial. I've heard time and time again and I showed you I believe the first session. There was a woman named Tamika who said I'm quiet and introverted. I hate to talk to people. Okay, but again for that timeframe given the technology. She was able to come out of that shell and be the recipient of seed monies in the form of $5,000. I've embedded a link and to Isha's point. These slides will be available to you link to Chris Voss. He's a former FBI negotiator. And he did a TED talk and the TED talk says never split the difference. I find a lot of small business owners. And I have one in my family tree in North Charleston. He is in the lawn care industry, the lawn care industry and you can certainly respond to chat room. And I've heard him say on numerous occasions, because that's just the way I am. The way he is is whenever he does someone's yard. Okay, he will say, you know, it's the person is older. He will say well I'll take whatever you give me. I'll take whatever you'll give me someone just respond to chat room what's problematic with that. Okay, he's in it so proprietary not an LLC. And he gets a lot of calls that has me in a fit of anxiety I said because here's why they're calling you all the time, because the word has gotten out. Wow. Yeah, he will take whatever you'll give me so again, so never split the difference. And then that term and he'll break this down how he was able to get folks to confess or to surrender, but never split the difference. And I do not know what the numbers mean. Okay, we got a comment in the chat from Ashley Coleman. Hey Ashley, they can pay what they want to give him. Yes. Yes, not what you were not what's worth. Thank you Ashley. And here's some strategies of baton of these acronyms I've given you CDFI Community Development Financial Institution, the best alternative to a negotiated agreement. That's a strategy. Okay, the goal of negotiation is to create a win-win situation a new situation. And you see again, I'm alluding to Cheryl and her group at the women's business center. So again that communication and negotiating set up a time where you can meet with one of the staff members to go through this and that can also be the city of Columbia. Again, I shared with you with community works. I'm there on Laurel Street. Normally, I'd like to be virtually but get communication negotiating. Okay. Also, thank you Ashley. On negotiating, there are some styles in the chat room. Okay, here's the styles. Again, this is textbook soft negotiators. They avoid conflict at any cost. No drama, no drama, no drama, no drama. Hard negotiators. And then there's the win-win. In the chat, this is kind of, again, this is the last session in a series of three. Just give me your preferences. Okay. Soft, hard or win-win. Okay. And I'll continue to go through this in the essence of time. But here, soft says usually don't stand up for the best interest. That's a dollar amount associated. Okay. Hard negotiators may use threats or bluffs. And if that's your preference, if you want to admit it in this public sneer, do so, but the win-win. So in the chat, let's continue to go through this. And again, and thank you Collina for this time again. And we'll take a poll, an informal poll on other three styles, what your preferences are. You got two right now that say win-win. Okay. I'll be quiet. Okay. And I'm doubting today that someone will automatically say I'm a hard negotiator on paper. But I get that. I get that. Good deal. Good deal. Here's some traits. They understand their counterparts' interests and perspectives. As you're formulating your elevator pitch, go with that in mind. How does it benefit them? Okay. We talked about BATNA, the best alternative to a negotiated agreement. And here's what's important. Know when to walk away from negotiations. It's not when it all costs. No. Okay. So again, traits of effective negotiators, and it goes back to never split the difference. And that's a clear understanding. All right. That's one of the skills. Secondly, enthusiasm and attitude. If you've never watched this movie, you can see up the right hand corner, one of my favorites is called the pursuit of happiness. Here's another story portrayed by Will Smith, and you can see his son there. That's a bathroom scene, a homeless scene, actually, in the movie. Okay. So in this walk called entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial mindset, there will be some times where you're all alone financially and literally, literally. And I like the fact that this movie was made for television. And I'm going to give you some of the challenges there. The customers and your contracts are few and far between. Understanding the actual, the framework, ladies and gentlemen, or the foundation is based on this COVID environment. COVID-19, they're vaccines, but now there's a Delta variant. You will have in your businesses a variant. Paul, I did everything right, but now there's a variant. Okay. And with this attitude, I would submit it says challenge. I have so-called friends. I've heard entrepreneurs say that so-called friends or fair weather friends. And here are three key questions here. Who do I need to know? Where do I need to be? And what do I need to start doing? And I'm glad you asked this because I'm going to provide some solutions. Here's strategy, positive mental attitude, thinking outside of the box. And on these so-called friends, I'm going to go to the late and bless her when she rests in peace with Maya Angel on a second. And then here, I'm giving you resources. I don't mind sharing resources because no man or woman is an island unto themselves. But we look at sources and someone has already been there, Doug, that Ken Coleman has was called the proximity principle. And he said there were three main P's in the proximity principle. A book I highly recommend. He said the right people, the right places. Okay. Look at this. And the right practices. Next to the city of Columbia Office of Business Opportunities, they sponsor Next Level. They sponsor Fast Track. Later, I will go to their Instagram again. None of you have never been on their Instagram page. It is the who's who. Who, where, what, all of the above. I think Ayesha mentioned that and she was providing a summary, but it's much more in-depth. So we're going through this enthusiasm attitude. Here's what Maya had to say. Dr. Maya, when someone shows you about these friends or these so-called friends who they are, Dr. Maya says believe them the first time. Believe them the first time. Because people know themselves much better than you did. And that's why it's important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are. There are going to be some members of your family. I have them that do not support entrepreneurship. I'll just work a nine to five or question why are you leaving this industry to pursue a dream. Okay. When they're showing you that love them. Love them. That's your family member or friend. But just know their limitations. Okay. Now here I'm going to go back quickly. I said, where do you, what do you, I need to know where do I need to be and what do I need to start doing in the chat room. Again, Ken Coleman says the proximity principle is putting yourself in the proximity of those people, places and practices in the chat room. Tell me what is who are some people you think you need to be in the proximity of and you can be general. You can say elected officials. You can say if you're a Greek member, your, your sorority or fraternity, but in the chat room, just kind of go through this. I want this the last day. So I want this to be very interactional and hear from you. Otherwise, it's just a monologue. So here, who are the people, where are the places you think you need to be. And what do you, what do you need to start doing. So it's in the chat room with some of the people. Brandon says, OBO Brandon has a great answer, OBO. Yes, OBO. Okay. Any elected officials and you can say County Council, City Council, all of the above. You've heard the same mom and dad told you it's not always what you know. I don't know what I'm about to say. It's about what, it's about what in your chat room. Not always what you know, but chat one, chat two, chat three. Okay, I'm going to continue. Yeah, who you know, who you know, and how do they know you. Okay, so those are the people some of the places, and I'll give you my personal experience, courtesy of the City of Columbia OBO, they sponsored an event about I think two years ago. At the Optus Bank, two and a half years of precode. Okay, here at networking and teamwork. Someone said teamwork makes the dream work. I agree. You're not in this by yourself. I am a solopreneur. It's just me. I need help with taxes, insurance, legal, etc. And I don't know them. I don't know who these folks and I don't know you. I won't interact with you. Be careful with that. And let's play it safe. Let's play it safe. Okay, I mentioned next level in fast track. These are 10 week programs sponsored by the city, where if you're a solopreneur, guess what, you're amongst other entrepreneurs, serial entrepreneurs, all of the above. That's those people. In addition to the OBO that you're surrounded by. And in most cases you have some of the same challenges. Okay, Wednesday, Wednesday, yesterday, every Wednesday, one million cups. Okay, Miss Cleckley does an awesome job of some 9am to 950. And I would say just tune in. Don't become a presenter, but just tune in and see other folks pitching their idea or providing movers and shakers, some prospective investors, what their company is doing. The Benedict women's business center in the chat room. Just tell me yes or no. The question is, are you linked in LinkedIn is the world's world's world's largest platform. Okay, of business owners, professionals. LinkedIn. It's in the chat. You think you are. I'm LinkedIn. Yes or no. Yeah, your name, why thumbs up. Just let me know. Or you linked it. That's one, where you can kind of align yourself and folks in a similar capacity. LinkedIn. If you've never heard of LinkedIn, you see my point. Knowledge, knowledge. Here's the OBO at Optus Bank experience and proximity. Long before I heard about this book Optus Bank. Here's what occurred. I was invited to an event. Thank you, Melissa Lindler. And we were several of us were there. It was probably almost 150, 200 people and please audience, whatever there's an OBO event, please attend the food. Oh, it's own. If nothing else, and don't eat for three hours, just just roll up. Trust me, you'll be good. You'll be good. The Optus Bank in that proximity. Okay, I met Bonita Clement. She manufactures high viscous tea. She had a display. And I didn't know about the medicinal benefits of that. Okay. Another young lady walked up to sample that tea. Her name was Tammy. Her company is Bluebird Property Management. I invest in real estate. That's the proximity principle. I invest in real estate. Tammy said, Tammy Davis, yes, please to meet you. I said, you know what? I'm an entrepreneur. I have a few rental homes. Can you assist me with this? She gave me names of contractors that she deals with. Okay. Heating, ventilation, air conditioning, right then and there. That's the proximity principle. That's the people. First, you've attended an event, an event, the people who are going to be there. And walking across because he was a guest speaker at one of my next level classes was James Chatfield. And I was congratulating him on becoming a board member of the Columbia Housing Authority. And we were just talking, I said, well, James, I know you're at the South Carolina Community Loan Fund. And do you sponsor, do you guys have next levels? You know what, Paul, we do, but we're looking to kind of subcontract that proximity. I am a subcontractor. So you know what? Submit to me a proposal, Paul, and your cost and structure. Long story short, three years later, I am still. Okay. The lead facilitator for the next level South Carolina Community Loan Fund. It works. Not to mention Mayor Benjamin came in. Okay. These names. Cheryl was there. Lucenta Lewis Ellis. I'm dropping names. Proximity principle. If you know these folks just give me a thumbs up. Karen Jenkins was there. These are, again, movers and shakers. Tony Grant was there. Someone knows where I'm going here. Okay. And here, Dixon Monk, because I was sponsoring a trip. I want to take my students to China before the lockdown before this COVID. And I reach out to the honorable Paul Livingston, Paul Livingston County Council. He put me in contact with Dixon Monk. Okay. And that's the Columbia International Council. I'm going to stop for a second. I'm going to take you to some places here. Let's go. Rolling with greatness. Another guest speaker, Gwen Singletary. She has now launched her own podcast. I appeared on it a couple of weeks ago. This is free. Free advertisement, ladies and gentlemen. Now, again, you have to reach out to Gwen. If you want to give me a text, I can provide you with your information. This podcast is broadcast Mondays, you can see it at 6pm, 6pm. And here are the following markets. New York, Washington, D.C., Metro Area, Charlotte, and Columbia, South Carolina. Growing in greatness where you can literally tell your story, pitch your event that's going on. That's just one. That's just one. Okay. Here's another. Cheryl said on Tuesday, she's not really versed in importing and exporting. I'm listening, Cheryl. But look at this. Here's Dixon Monk. Here, I join. I join. I join. Okay. Ambassador Louise Blase on the 24th will be at the Palmetto, the Palmetto Club. You don't have to be a member, but again, it's a cost. It's a cost. It takes money to make money. Yes, I agree. $35 for nonmembers. But here's what's key. And I'm going to read this to you because this font size is relatively small. Please join us for our next distinguished speaker luncheon proximity with Ambassador Blase to discuss the necessity of maintaining North American supply change. Okay, North American supply chains, especially between South Carolina and here's what's key. The almost 80 Canadian companies based in our state. That's proximity. You're going for the lunch. Listen to the presentation. What if one of those companies can assist you with the product development all of the above? That's the proximity. Okay. And thanks to Cheryl. Cheryl is too modest. Cheryl has a staff and Tangy. Tangy, Michelle, Jugar. I'm throwing names out because again, this is the team. This is the radius. Here's the ecosystem. This came out a couple of days ago from Tangy who is in the Women's Business Center, the launch pad. Now the deadline has passed. Okay. Applications closed yesterday, but look, there are still spots left. Being in that proximity, the mailing list, the email mailing list, that's proximity. Okay, so when I'm talking about this, I'm giving you clear examples of how this can and has work. All right. And here's the leak program. James, again, James, he's moved on. He's with a banking concern now. But here, here's Lee. The current session is already closed. We'll start that shortly. But there will be two sessions in 2022. The pitch I shared with you was the $5,000 pitch. And if you can't see it, I'm going to do this because I've been going to the actual leak here. And this is Grant. Grant funds. Someone asked the question that alone. No, no, no, no, no. These funds are wired to your business checking account. And it's local entrepreneurial accelerator program. Okay. And I'll show you time for making the $30,000 pitch that wanted for a couple out of Sumter. It's statewide and I'm glad this has been broadcast statewide. So you see what I'm talking about that proximity principle, the people, the places and the practices. Let's move forward. You've heard thinking outside the box. Okay. Critical thinking and problem solving. Okay, entrepreneurs solve problems. They solve problems. Okay. I am good at what I do. But what could you implement to become better. There's always room for improvement. My prices are fair. I would submit to you fair prices provided they are allowing you to keystone. I'll tell you what keystone is. This too shall pass. This code shall pass and it shall pass. Okay, believe that have a positive mental attitude. Now there's a Delta variant. This too will pass. My point is there will always be an opportunity for you to kind of tweak what you have going on. Okay. And remember, anyone and everyone is a customer that is a recipe for failure. All right. And I've heard this before challenge. I work very hard in my business. I expect you to. But now add smart with that work. All right, here's some strategies a SWAT analysis. You know, and I insert several of your customers lift and Uber three years ago ride sharing in the midst or in the advent of COVID Uber is taken off. Huh. Not so much left, because Uber was able to pivot in the chat room. You can tell me why they're able to pivot. I'm hearing now that lift is now going to the rental car industry. So again, but Uber eats. Again, because again, that's I'm good at what I do can always treat what you're going to have going on. You see, I have some images. This is thumbtack. And you've heard of Angie's list. It's now Angie. This could be that 25% increase in volume that COVID related strategy to protect you. I mean, I have to pay thumbtack a fee. Yes, you're paying them a fee for leads and Angie clients of Angie and thumbtack know that the vendors have been background check. They're bonded. So that's a degree of house. I said comfortability. All things being equal. Okay, so consider that if you offer a service that can be utilized in the actual thumbtack. I've seen personal trainers on thumbtack. Okay, cosmetologists, massage therapists, auto details, all of the above, working with your hands. You see it all the time. The Walmart and other companies, you know, they implement what's called everyday low pricing, but that's a marketing scheme, but keystone. To give a quick example, and you've seen it all the time. If you've traveled pre COVID to a Disney World or transporting event, the price of a bottle of water, the price of the bottle of water is what you're paying. It's not the cost for that merchant. Absolutely not in your drink machine. It's been marked up. That's keystone. Okay. And how do I determine what my prices are? That's the breakdown. That's the coaching element of it. So again, that learning ecosystem. I mentioned contingency planning again for not not if but when it will occur. And obviously anyone and everyone as a customer. No, in these next level courses in these fast track, we will nail this down. Target your market. And I have a quick example in about 20 seconds. I'll need your assistance with in the actual chat room. Some of you I've seen before in my previous classes so you know where I'm going. All I'm saying ladies and gentlemen, take time to work on on not in on your business. Okay, your enterprise. And that's what the entrepreneurial mindset. Yes, this is what they're paying. But here's what they could pay. There's a reason ladies and gentlemen, if I need a plumber today is Thursday. If I need a plumber tomorrow at about 9pm. The same cost will be increased. Someone in the chat room tell me why or an electrician. Okay, just tell me why some of you worked in industries that you work shift work. There's something called shift differential that you're doing the same eight hours but because of the time. You're the price of your labor has increased. Okay, so get chat don't leave me alone in the chat room. Here's target marketing. I'm not going to insult your intelligence, but the drive this home, a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed. That's target marketing. Last night, I spoke with a group in the Greenville Spartanburg area. And we just did this is a quick example. Okay, up with a tip here's a quick example. And I'm not going to ask for the chat in the essence of time is I want to show you let you listen to an actual elevator pitch, courtesy of the gambles, Nicole and Milton gamble who won the $30,000 as you can see the female who females wear shoes, they wear heels. But there's something about these heels, upper right upper left hand corner. That's a certain target demographic. And ladies if you can just wait in the chat room. Okay, is something about the heel, something about the heel. As you can see, check cash, payday cash advances. That's a, again, someone said low income people the unbanked guess what that's a target market unbanked low income. That's a target market. Okay, I see the chat room. Okay, great. And you see five guys. I said last evening. What's the likelihood of me being successful going to five guys with $5. Not very successful. But what if I took that same amount to go to cook out. You see my point. So when you target, there are certain clients. In some cases they'll pay two or three times more because they're not banked. I don't agree with it. Remember, I don't agree with it, but it's a legal business in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina banned the practice, but it's legal. And it's legal again. Okay, we abide by the laws. And here lower right hand corner from North Charleston. I've seen many, many of folks. I'm not going to speak specifics that have consumed. Well, what they call alcohol, it's malt liquor really a 40. But just tell me who do you think the question is in the chatroom is lighting up who or what demographic group is being targeted. Okay, so we see the shoes, we see the five guys versus cookouts no food, we have to eat. But then again, the unbanked, the unbanked. Okay, ISNB Johnson, and he's a very successful entrepreneur and attorney and former state representative says, he said, ignorance is expensive. Ignorance is expensive. And another quote. He said you don't borrow money. Again, I love these tidbits, you don't borrow money. I'm not alone. He said in essence what happens when you borrow money, you were being sold money and the price you pay his interest. That's real world. That's proximity. I use that quote every semester, you're being sold money and a cash advance. I'm going to sell it to you. And the price you want to pay his interest. Okay, while we're 33 and a champion. Okay, okay. The 40 ounce of the mall liquor. It's a product it's sold in local establishments. Anyone who's 21 can anyone can technically speaking consume mall liquor can. But they target a certain gender males. They drill down not just any male Latino and black males. That's who was being targeted. Don't hate the players. Hate the game. Okay, we're going to continue with this. We're good. We're good. We're good. Okay, all right. Professionalism and social media. I've heard many folks say, I have over 500 Facebook friends. I'm blowing up Instagram. I, I, I, I, okay. They say they have a website. Okay, have a website. I sell my products on eBay, Pinterest, etc. And sometimes I have too much inventory. Okay. What I want to say strategy said you have all these so called again, you want to separate friends from from true supporters, invite them to your crowdfunding campaign. Just invite them. I'm trying to raise $5,000. The math says if you're trying to raise $5,000, and you have over 500 Facebook friends, all each of them have to do is contribute $10. You want, you want to keep it real. You want to keep it real. Yeah, you want to really if you're blowing up you all that in the bag of chips. Okay. Well, yeah, yeah, okay. What's it say money talks. I'm gonna leave the rest alone but here we go. So let's do the crowdfunding campaign. I have a website. Okay. Have you checked into search engine optimization. Whenever they type in your name Jays or when I type in le leave these polls up, leave me sooner home. That search engine optimization. And because folks American consumers are very impatient to check your, your company, check your company. And once you are on your website. The average consumer will give you three clicks to find what they're looking for three, three, maybe sometimes two, if it's not there by. Okay, as certain some folks read the reviews of that can be a positive and a negative you can have a competitor trying to, you know, disparage your company so be monitored monitor it. And folks will spend more. Listen to this, if you offer free shipping. But it's going to cost me well build that cost into the price of the merchandise that strategy. Okay, that strategy. Free shipping. Oh, your website so that now you've kind of when you can free shipping, you've kind of taken the, you know, that critical analysis of your product is free shipping. Amazon Prime. Jeff Bezos went to space. He was quoted as saying thank you for all of your you Amazon customers thank you. Thank you. Okay, here I'm going to go to the I'm going to go here. Um, just give me a second. Out of respect for this group again Melissa's littler. I'm going to go to the city of Columbia's their actual their Instagram page because I'm wrapping up here where it is right here. Again. This all day every day. I'm just scrolling down the ecosystem. Okay. Next week, you have no money. Stephen Hughes, they're always on top of this always. I think that process will occur in the future. I think it was around February Cheryl is that if you had a client consultation, you'd already reached out to the, the professionals there that they would allow you to have a pop up shop. They would have merchandise or products or advertise your services. They granted you space there on their facility. Once you've already gone through the intake process want to cover that okay to want to cover that. And here it is. Before we end. Here's the pitch. So you can hear on make sure you can hear it. We are Nicole and Milton Gamble visa now LLC. Currently hundreds of thousands of people seeking assistance with immigrant document processing. These families have been struggling for a long time. Until visa now came along. It was uncertain because of the high cost will committed to the process by helping to remove the problem of uncertainty, eliminate that fear and instill trust and affordable rate. The search for the immigration. Assistance is vast to Google Bing and Yahoo. And it's not just in Sumter. It's nationwide. We can offer our services remotely to almost any state in the US. Sometimes a close knit community of immigrants with 65% of non citizens coming from Latin America. There's a device mix of legal permanent residents. International students temporary workers. 63% of the naturalized citizens were from Asia, and all of these diverse groups require our services at some point. Something takes pride in the growth and the prosperity with the help of the immigrant community. South Carolina's population includes 5% immigrants who have contributed to over 379 million in state and local taxes. While immigrant workers can be found in vitally any industry such as farming fishing construction. Our story is truly a humble beginning Nicole. Left an abusive marriage and came to us penniless, but with her children and dreams of a better way. She found a better life. She's now a naturalized US citizen. After preparing mounds of paperwork, interview after interview. We had an epiphany and we said, hmm, what if we offer a service that encompass the entire process at one location and affordable rate. We realized there was a demand for our services and voila visa now LLC was born. A solution to the problems faced by immigrants and their families who wish to start the immigration journey as a one stop shop where they can have their documents prepared and affordable rate and even benefit from our post green card service, which offers solutions for life after gaining legal services. We identified three target groups, the family military service people and the eligible DACA recipient which means deferred action for childhood arrives. Ethnicity, all of that does not matter education, occupation has no status they can be male female, but the sponsor must reside in the US. Now, here are the things that we want to do. We want to just a few of them. We want to hire a full time bilingual employee improve the website of course. We've already reached out to Chamber of Commerce and state and local officials. And of course we're going to try to get our softwares, preferably some AI software to help improve our site. Our prices have been set according to the industry and I got to tell you, even though our prices are set at 175, they're at least 20 to 30% lower than the industry standards and our costs are about 75 a month, which gives us a pretty good profit. Our main three competitors boundless rapid visa and immigration direct. Our advantage is we have a competitive prices review services of a variety of forms package assembling and submission services. And most importantly, we went through it. So it's a personal touch that we add clients get it all right here. We need to team you know us, but there's Brandon college student he's going to be a doctor by the way, there's Haiti she's a translator, she does Spanish as well as Portuguese and German. And there's Gabby a scholar from a long time she's been doing a lot of things she's a newly inducted was a national national honor society, high school scholar. And they all come and they work with us and they put in 100% here the funds that we're going to need was seeking $30,000 in capital investment to take visa now to the next level for operations and cash reserves 30% will go marketing advertising 24% new hire 16%. Well, and I'm not going to go through the Q&A if you want to listen to the whole Q&A. Well, I'll text my give you the link to the whole three hours of the pitch night. They. This was 30% ladies and gentlemen, the 70% was the business plan. Okay, this is only the pitch the pitch didn't win it for it's both and that was $30,000. And I want to cover one more and I'll take your questions here. I'm just going to do this live plan live plan and I neglected they have a one page business plan ladies and gentlemen one pager. Here it is here's an example of here's an example of one page business plan. Now I'm not saying this is what you need for bank or to to present to 1 million cups, but here's some simplify one page. Now what about this. Again scores always free score.org but here. One thing I like about it. You got $15 a month or $30 a month, but here risk free for 60 days. So again, not a 20% refund 100% refund if you're not satisfied. So the tools are there against skills to pay the bills. It's right. Yeah, I was 1058 I'm going to stop here and now and turn things back in the hands of Asia. Thank you. Thank you so much, Paul. This is wonderful. As always, we really enjoyed it. If anyone has any questions can we ask that you put them in the chat or if you'd like to ask those questions you can unmute yourself. And we'll take a few minutes to answer any questions that you may have on Paul I love that idea of the proximity principle that's, I'm going to use that people places practices that that's the jewel of information that wonderful. Do we have any questions before we wrap it on up. Paul, do you have any final thoughts. No, I want to say again, thank you Aisha, Melissa Lendler, the city of Columbia the OBO all of you you know how I feel about with the opportunities you provide. No one has an excuse in the midlands or throughout that you can't point your finger to OBL. We are on a high, very professional. I would like Cheryl, the dean, the modest one to show, could you just elaborate on that pop up that you had about several months ago pre COVID for the for the audience and your group I can't say enough about the women's business center. Yes, thank you Paul thank you and thank you so much for all of this wealth of information and knowledge that you've shared within these three sessions it's been really really really really great you are awesome thank you to the city of Columbia. For women's history month right we did it mid March through mid April. Benedict is or has converted its bookstore into what we're working on as a retail marketplace for women or individuals who are selling products. So what we did was allow women owned businesses to pop up their businesses there for the month and observance of women's history month. Now we're moving transitioning to actually having at least five spaces I think it is like a kiosk. This will serve sort of like a launch pad if you want to get into airport concessions, you have to have experience as a kiosk slash storefront. So we started with the pop ups to pop up their products. And now we're moving into some permanent spaces kiosk spaces for our women retail entrepreneurs. But we're planning to do some more things and Paul you put you put me out there but we also provide and I didn't say this but we next and Pruitt is one of our partners and their larger law firm here in South Carolina, and they provide pro bono legal services to the Benedict women's business center clients so that if the clients are ready, you know really ready to do they're they're already up for the most part or they really need some legal counsel, or looking at contracts looking at lease agreements, intellectual property all about trading marketing and all that we provide they provide that for us at no cost. And we're going to be sponsoring some CPA services will keep it in account and services as well for our women entrepreneurs so we're trying to, you know get some things in place to help. And I don't share a little bit of this, we're gonna we're in the process and we'll launch probably January 2022 our WBC mobile unit traveling across the state to provide so we want to make sure we reach our rule communities. Thank you. Cheryl is always modest but again I guess he's he's indeed she's indeed. And one other comment I wanted to make about the red bottom shoes. And it was very interesting to me, you know they're very sought after in high demand, a real estate professional who should remain unnamed says her target customers by houses from the 500,000 up to $3 million range. So when she's showing them those houses are meeting them. She wears the red bottom shoes. That's that's proximity so again, I'm just saying so some folks will that's over the top, but the pit on our industry, they come to expect that. Am I am I right ladies and I guess. I'm done I'm gonna shut up thank you. And I have the website for next improvement. Wow, look at this, the 10 mile radius, the women's business center on Reed Street, again, Laurel Street main street city of Columbia has it going on. I'm done. Anything else you want to add to that Cheryl as we wrap up. Well, no, we've kind of said it all, but you know I just encourage and encourage our, our entrepreneurs just to take advantage like Paul's been saying take advantage, take advantage, take ownership and best time in your business to set it up right. Paul is giving so many great great gold nuggets here take them take ownership, learn more. Don't be afraid to reach out and learn what you need to know. So you can, you know, establish this solid foundation we're here to help small business administration city of Columbia, all the different resources in the area. We're here to help. Thank you Cheryl. I'm Angela. Do you want to add anything as we wrap up have anything to add but my coworker Valerie torcison is for give me is on value you have anything to add to what I put out in the beginning. Beyond sharing with you the same thing that Paul has the same thing that Cheryl has my colleague, Angela, and I Asia have. I don't, we just want to see you succeed so we are hoping that you will use our time talents treasures and resources, because ours are yours. Thank you. Thank you, Valerie. Appreciate that. And thank you Collina so much for monitoring the chat for us and keeping up with all their questions we really appreciate that. Today, this afternoon you will receive an email from our office with a copy of this recording a survey on one of the questions in the survey will be, if you have any interest in a one on one console to discuss the financial issue and answer that question and let us know when we can contact you to schedule some one on one. As Cheryl has said we have a lot of free resources so it's really important that you take advantage of the resources and before you think about paying someone contact us and we may be able to provide that service for you, free of charge. Again, if you are interested in our webinar next Tuesday with Steven Hughes with no money to discuss profitability please register for that I'll include that registration in the email as well. And if we don't have any final questions. Thank you all for joining us today I hope you have a great rest of your day and please contact our office if you have any questions or need any additional assistance. Thanks everyone. Thank you.