We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rodney Scott a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rodney, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Many of us have dreams and aspirations but not all of us have the resources or tools available to be in an ideal situation. I realized this early on as a youth watching local business owners try to make a way but struggle with growth because there simpy wasnt a budget for operations, accounting, and expansion through marketing etc. Many times this was due to a lack of education and or ability to seek reasonable resources to build a team around a business to grow their efforts. When I drove around to the more affluent cities I’d see whole familes sharing in the benefits of successful businesses that could effectively be passed down for generations but that wasnt everyones reaility,

That sparked something in me to really want to get educated in marketing because I’ve always felt the most successful companies had unmistakably solid marketing you coudn’t miss no matter where you went. I decided to persue my M.B.A with an emphasis in operations and marketing with hopes to provide small businesses with affordable marketing and business consulting services to achieve sustainable growth. After building a couple successful businesses on my own the best way I saw to give back is by passing along those same skills to others.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’m Rodney Scott or often known as Rodney the Entrepreneur. I firmly believe in building a life for ourselves through our talents fueled by our efforts. I’ve always had a knack for marketing and business but started my business journey off promoting events early on and would later embark on the beauty industry as a mainstay. Along the way Ive worked with multiple business owners from realtors to mobile gaming truck host to help them build their brands as well by taking the same principals I used to build one of the most popular estetics businesses in Colorado Springs.

I help clients clearly communicate their brands to their audience and become house hold names in their industries. I often see way to many business owners trying to be the owner, accountant, customer service rep, marketer, and operations person all at once. The reaility is successful companies all have multiple people in these roles which is a major defining factor. This approach allowss the owner to be able to work on the business and not constantly in the business for real growth.

I help business owners have a indepth understanding of the importance of a strong social media presence, cpmpelling visuals that are clear and consise, and help them to easily convert customers. I mainly focus on finding a brands story and bringing it to life which many people confuse with marketing because they are completely different. Were always here to help brands out even if we dont end up working together we want to see everyone get closer to their goals.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

One of the biggest misconceptions in business I talk with owners about often is needing a certain amount of capital to start. Many don’t realize you can start a business today in most cases for less then two hours with under $2oo. That includes securing a LLC, EIN, and domain name to secure a website. I followed this same plan by boot strapping my entire business along with other creative funding sources such as tax returns and credit to initially buy supplies which over time paid fo themselves. All in all it didnt take thousands of dollars to have a respectable brand.

Even though I’m in the service industry to all my owners in the product business theres creative ways to fund your business such as pre-sales where you’d simply show your audience an item you plan to release for sale and make sells on the item before it releases. Another great resource we used was the square platform. Once you’ve made so many sales through square they then start to offer you square loans based on your sales volume which don’t effect your credit at all are solely based on your business sales and just paid back through processesing fees from your future sales. This is a vey easy option that allows you to have more money for inventory and marketing etc.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients is and always will be word of mouth. We as people value our friends and families opinions the most. If we here about a new product, service, or experience and its backed by someone you trust saying they love it you’ll notice you’ll soon be a customer as well. Social media is still the major driver of getting recognition but once you start to gain new attention through social media that customer who tries your product or service and loves it will become a cheer leader for you brand that will ultimately be the reason new people frequent your business in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brandcreativ.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/rodneytheentrepreneur
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thebrandcreativ
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/thebrandcreativ