 Welcome to Out of the Comfort Zone on ThinkTech on Spectrum OC16. I'm your host, Arby Kelly, and today, I'd like to talk to those of you in the audience who have dreamed or even been making small steps to starting your own business. Now, I'm a new recent business owner. As you know, I haven't been here in Hawaii long, and my business started after we moved here. So I've been through all of the mistakes you can make, and I hope I've come out stronger on the other side. But today, I am here with special startup business strategist, Karen Eason, to talk and give you some tips about how you can make sure starting your business goes easy and smoothly. Hi, Karen. Thanks for joining us. Hi, Arby. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited you're here. I'm actually very excited because I made a lot of mistakes, like I mentioned earlier. I made a lot of mistakes when I got started. So I'm kind of hoping to get a little feedback about maybe some things I could have done better. But I'm also really curious to hear, at least at first, how you got started in all this? Well, Arby, I have been a serial entrepreneur probably since I was maybe in my 20s. I have started with MLMs, multi-level marketing. I did Marikake Cosmetics. I have done insurance. I've done a lot of different things. And then I moved into more traditional business where I owned and operated an import-export company. I actually lived in Hawaii for five years. So it's just been a journey. And there was a time when it was so difficult because you didn't have help. You didn't know where to turn. It's difficult when you're the one everyone comes to for advice and you don't know where to go when you are trying to fill your gaps. And so over the years, I have helped people, given them advice. I helped someone with a proposal they wanted to go after. They wanted to start a cleaning business. They wanted to go after government opportunity. And she came. She sat down with me. I helped her to complete the proposal. And she won the bid. It was so gratifying and satisfying that I was able to help her. That makes a big difference. And she was in her 20s. Wow. Whoa. So you helped her start off early. Early. And today she has over a million-dollar business. Woo-hoo! It's phenomenal. Wow. That's incredible. Yes. So it sounds like not only have you started almost every kind of business on the planet, but you got so good at it that people started coming to you for advice. So where did you get the inspiration to start this business on your own? Well, I've been a teacher for business school for a little over 11 years. And it was there working with people, working with the students of all ages, of all backgrounds. And they would, again, people would just naturally come to me for advice or assistance. And I felt that it was my way to give back because I have been there. I have done it. I have cried my tears because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know who to turn to. And I had to figure it out alone. And I felt that if I could give back and help someone avoid the pain and frustration and just out and out craziness sometimes that you go through being an entrepreneur, that that was the best use of my skills and talent. And I don't regret a minute. I love helping people win. And so that's really what motivates me. That, it really resonated with me when you were talking about the frustration, the tears, the pain as you're trying to build this new business. Because I remember when I first got started, like, yeah, I'd been formally certified. I knew all the body language cues. I was an expert in that area. But I was new to Hawaii. I had no business network, no business experience, no real professional experience. So for me, starting out, I had no idea what I was doing. I would have killed to have known you back then. I would have killed to have known me. Isn't that how it is? That's so true. So what do you think are some of the challenges that business owners face as they're first trying to get started? Well, you probably have heard this old saying that you just don't know what you don't know. That really is probably 2,000% true. You know what you do best. You know your expertise. But what you don't know in terms of how to run the business on the back end, how to formulate policies for seizures, the average person doesn't even really understand the paperwork involved just to file the business to get it started. I get questions all the time, should I be an LLC? Should I be a corporation? Does it make a difference? What's the least expensive way to get started? They don't know how to take their idea and their passion and turn it into a formal business rather than a hobby that you sometimes get paid for. You know, as you're talking about LLC versus corporation versus sole proprietor, I'm just like having flashbacks. And that's something I still wonder about. Like, did I make the right decision going this route? Should I switch to another thing in the future? So that was so confusing and it still confuses me. So I'm happy that there are people out there to help new business owners and probably, you probably help a few established business owners to help them check through their holes and see what they're missing. Is that right? That is absolutely correct. I work with two types of clients. The first type of client is someone who's brand new. They have their idea. They know what they want to do. And they're just not sure what they need to do in order to get started. So I actually am a bit different from other coaches and consultants out there because I actually will help you or do the paperwork for you. So I have done with you and done for you services. I hold their hand completely from ideas, inception, to creating the strategic plan, to figuring out where you're going to find financing, how you're going to market. I help them with the basics and put the fundamentals in place so that you can have a strong structure on which to grow. The other type of client that I help are people that have already started the business, meaning they filed their paperwork. They may even have customers, but they know that they're not doing everything 100% correctly as if anybody ever does, right? But what they know is that there are gaps. Maybe they're counting is off. Maybe they're trying to figure out this whole marketing, you know, where do I find leads and customers? That's probably the second most frequent question I get is, well, why do I find my people? How do I get paid? How do I get leads? Because I want to make sales. But if you don't have your back end in place, when you do get those leads and customers, you won't service them properly and you will lose them. So I hope you put in place the fundamentals on the back end. It's not sexy stuff, but it's sexy when you can get paid because everything's in order. Yeah, I second that. Getting paid is the best. But I absolutely agree with you that there's so much of the nitty gritty that people have to create. They have to file. They have to decide. They have to handle before they can ever start taking their first paychecks. And I actually, the company that certified me also certifies a lot of other body language experts. And one of the things they've found is that some of the experts coming out, like, yeah, we are totally solid on the body language, but they have no idea what to do next. And so I actually have a lot of these trainers messaging me being like, oh, you're pretty experienced about this. What do I do? They're overwhelmed by setting up the website, by setting up their business name, by filing all the paperwork, how to do accounting, how can people schedule with them business cards even. And it seems like that's so intimidating for people starting out. So what is some of the advice that you give to people when they're like, I'd love to go after this dream of owning my own business, but there's so much to do, I don't think I can handle it. What do you say to them? Well, the first thing I tell them is, freak out. Give yourself grace. That is my number one piece of advice, because we are so more often harder on ourselves than we need to be. It's okay that you don't know. Google is our friend, but Google has a ton of information. And a lot of people get stuck in this hamster wheel of research, research, research. So the best thing that you can do is write down all the things that you think you need to do, the things that you think you need to do. And then from there, put together an action plan. An action plan is by far the least done thing that will provide the most benefit. So tell me about your, what does action plan mean to you? What does that look like? So an action plan is the same thing as a strategy plan. Some people may call it a business plan, but the word business plan these days is kind of a taboo. People kind of freak out about it. But when we talk about action plans, list the things that you know that you need to do. For example, you need to file your paperwork in order to be considered legitimate. It's important to be legitimate because it gives you access to funding. It gives you access to grants. It gives you access and ability to take advantage of business expenses and tax deductions. It provides credibility. People believe in you if you have a credible business. So that's the first thing. So the things that you know you need to do in order to be in action, in order to move you from point A to point A, point five, to point B, to point B, point five. It doesn't make a difference how fast you're moving as long as you stay in motion. So an action plan means you're listing all of the things that you know you do need to get done and then you put them in order of priority as best you can. Second to that, make sure you have support. Not the type of support that says rah, rah, rah all the time and knowing that they're just pumping you up. It's great to have people pump you up. But you need a type of support that's really going to get in there and when you're not in motion they're going to wake you up and say, hey, I thought you said you were going to do this. They're going to help keep you accountable. Iron really does sharpen iron. So you want to have your support team. You need to have your professionals in place. If you are not good at accounting and you don't have an accounting degree, like me, I have an accounting degree. I have several different licenses. I have three degrees in business and organizational leadership and computer programming. If you don't have that type of background where you can maintain your accounting system then you need to have your accountant. You need to have an attorney that can be there to help answer those legal questions that you may have. You should have a coach and you should also have a mentor. So the mentor is someone who can see where you're going because they've been there and they can provide guidance along the way. The coach is going to help you to take all of those action items that are in the air and bring them into a solid plan that you can see and move forward with your vision. And lastly, you may need some consultants. Those are going to be the people that they have the expertise at the gap that you have and they can fill those gaps for you. If you're not good in social media, hire a consultant. If you're bootstrapping, get your cousin who's excellent at social media to help teach you some of the things you need to do until you grow large enough where you can utilize a more professional consultant. So I can see that all of that is valid and valuable. And I absolutely agree that is what you should have. But I can also hear my voice from a few years ago saying, hiring all these people sounds expensive and I haven't even been paid yet. So what would you say to your clients if that's what they come back with? Oh, well, we are app. All right, we just lost her so we are going to take a quick break and then we'll call back and we'll see you in a minute. See you. I'm DeSoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture, which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. And with the show's host, Martin Despang, we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands and how it not only affects the way we live, but other aspects of our life, not only here in Hawaii, but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. For Think Tech Hawaii, I appear every other Monday at 3 p.m. And I have really, really exciting guests on the exciting topic of energy efficiency. Hope to see you there. Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea Gabrieli, the host for Young Talent's Making Way here on Think Tech Hawaii. We talk every Tuesday at 11 a.m. about things that matter to tech, matter to science, to the people of Hawaii with some extraordinary guests, the students of our schools who are participating in science fair. So Young Talent's Making Way every Tuesday at 11 a.m. only on Think Tech Hawaii. Mahalo. Welcome back. Sorry for those technical difficulties. Thank you for staying on with us, Karen. But as we were saying, all right, I was Karen was talking about the experts that you should have on your team in order to be successful. So we are now wondering what if she mentioned having a lawyer. She mentioned having social media experts. She mentioned having an accountant. But as I was saying, Karen, what if you don't think you can afford that? What advice would you have? The advice that I have for people that are, we call that bootstrapping. Oh, so sorry. Business never stops. We are live. So we do call that bootstrapping. And when we're bootstrapping, we can't afford to hire those experts, the experts, that are going to be able to take us from point A to probably point C very quickly. However, what we can do is put ourselves in an arena where we are able to be supported by other like-minded entrepreneurs. And you form groups, you form cohorts even, if you will, where you can, I call it recruit your weakness. So if I'm great at writing an ad or copywriting and someone else is great at maybe accounting, then we can help each other. Additionally, you can learn to develop certain skills because I always advocate that you learn first, at least be exposed to it so that when you're ready to hand it off to someone, you have an idea of what needs to be done and whether or not they're doing it correctly. So it's all about enhancing your learning curve and then knowing when to pass it off so that you can stay focused on the areas of your genius. That makes sense. And I'm also wondering, how long did it take you to figure out that you needed to have these experts instead of just going it alone? Oh my goodness, how long did that take? I would say not long. Business, so sorry everyone. I would say that when I realized that it was time for me to begin to hand off or to bring in those professionals and experts, it was at a time when I was feeling overwhelmed. I wasn't getting the results that I felt I needed and I was learning that the gaps that I had wasn't something that going to school again or getting another piece of paper or taking another course could teach me. I needed to work with people who were at a level that was beyond me such that I could leverage what they knew in order for me to grow from level to level to level. And so that's when I realized I was overwhelmed, I wasn't receiving the results and it just made sense that basically if you look at sports, they all have coaches, right? It is not unheard of to have a coach in sports. The same is for anything that you want to do in this life and especially in business. You cannot grow if you are the smartest person in the room. And that makes sense. That was something I struggled with a lot when I first got started because I was so certain that, you know what? I've been given everything I need. I can figure it out myself and it was only after, oh, tripping over myself several times that I finally realized, no, I actually don't have all the answers. Yes, I do need help and it was a tough realization. But you did say something else that I just kind of want to follow up with you about. You mentioned that you didn't think going back for another degree would help you get the results you wanted. And I've noticed in myself, I'm feeling the urge to go back to college to get more education. Is that something you would recommend for most people or would you say more that it's a distraction and that people should stay focused on their goal? Well, that's a pretty loaded question because as I mentioned, I was a college professor for over 11 years. Oh yeah, that's true. It might not be fair to ask you that. Well, I actually have a very unique perspective on this. And to add to it, I actually did that when I was first starting out in business. I said, oh, I must not know enough. I need to go back to school. And that's what I did actually went back to school and got an additional degree thinking that that was going to prepare me to be an entrepreneur. A short story is it did not assist me. And as a college professor, I have taught students who were actually in entrepreneurial programs. Yeah, that's one right now. And I really, what's missing from school? Now, I advocate for education. If you look at some of the biggest and wealthiest people in the world, you know, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, FedEx. I love to tell the story about FedEx because the FedEx idea came from a college assignment. And he got, I think it was either a C or a D on it. And the professor said, that'll never work. And he set out to prove them wrong. So a lot of people have not graduated that have built multi-million, billion-dollar businesses. But the one thing that was in common with all of them is that they started out in college. They were exposed to a lot of different things. Now, the gap that is with colleges is that you really don't get to implement. You can really only learn entrepreneurship by actually being in action and doing the work. There's really no other way to learn. You'll learn principles, but you get first-hand experiential knowledge by doing the work. So that's the long answer. The medium answer in between is unless you're going back for a very specific skill that is necessary or a credential that is required in the marketplace, for example, accounting. If you are going to be an accountant, you really should have the education behind you to be a CPA. So you have to judge whether or not that additional degree is going to give you credentials that will translate into dollars. I like that. You have to judge whether the degree is going to give you credentials that will translate into dollars. That is gold. And I can see how sometimes we just want the validation. Sometimes we just want, oh, I'm just looking for answers. But the answers, well, you may get ideas. The answers come through with the actual implementation. So I think you're spot on there. Right now, I'm taking a management course for my entrepreneurship degree. And I've noticed every time I start digging into the reading, it's always like, how would I relate this to my business? How would I relate this to my business? And then often I get sucked into a rabbit hole and I forget I'm doing college work and I end up working on my business. So I'm working on that. But I think you gave spot on advice right there about how you need to be absolutely clear about what you're looking for. So thank you for that. You're most welcome. Yeah. So I am also curious, how can people learn more about what you do? Do you have anything you could either like a website or a link to send people to? Absolutely. So for the people that are trying to start a business, they have questions. They are looking for a roadmap. I have a freebie for you. I have something, a guide that will actually give you 30 different points. It's actually a checklist that you can use as your beginning action plan. So you can go to libit.ly, b-i-t dot l-y slash track, I'm sorry, bit.ly at forward slash my biz checklist, right? So it's bit.ly, forward slash my b-i-z checklist. There you'll get the download for that and you'll be off and running. I love that you put together a first action plan for people who are just starting out so that they can get super clear about what they do need to be doing next, because I mean we talked about it at the beginning of the show, but that overwhelm of having so much to do and not knowing where to start can be so confusing. So I really love this idea. Thank you for sharing it with us. Oh, well, thank you very much as well. And for those that already have started and you're new to the business and you're trying to figure out what you have, what you don't have, what's missing, I have a way for you to contact me. You can go to bit.ly forward slash fast track chat, F-A-S-T-T-R-A-C-K-C-H-A-T, that way we can see what's missing. Yep, fast track chat. Thank you, Karen. And I'm just wondering if you have any last minute pieces of advice. We've got about one or two minutes left. Anything else you would say to the viewers to help start them on their journey? I would say as you're getting started, really take stock of why you are doing it. It can't just be about the money. It has to come from a very visceral place. Your why is what's going to carry you through when the days get long and the time is short. So really sit and think. I'm going to tell you or share with you the five why approach. Ask yourself, why am I starting my business? Okay, and then ask yourself why is that important? And then when you get that answer, ask yourself five times deep. You will come to what is the core of why you want to start your business and hang on to that, cling on to it. It absolutely will help carry you through. That is brilliant. And actually I'm making plans as soon as I get home. I'm going to go try that viewers. So I hope you do the same. But Karen, thank you so much for joining us. You have been a fabulous guest and I've loved having you here. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It was super pleasure and I hope I'll be able to come back soon. I'd like that too. All right, viewers. So I hope you took away some solid business tips to help you get started. But don't go away. Tune in next week at 1 p.m. for another episode of Out of the Comfort Zone and I'll see you then. Bye. All right, Karen, you were fabulous. Thank you. How stressful was that? It wasn't bad. It was just I was like, oh, the phone. But hopefully it wasn't too bad with the phone. I tried to explain it off like, well, you know, business doesn't stop. But yeah, it's always stressful when you have those unexpected interruptions. We had that happen here on the other side a little bit too with some of the people out.