We were lucky to catch up with Steve Feld recently and have shared our conversation below.

Steve, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Would you say you are more focused on growing revenue or cutting costs? We’d love to hear how you think about these two critical drivers

Working with small business owners, coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs this is a topic that arises quite a bit. Growing revenue is critical to all businesses, but many businesses forget about profit. If a business has the proper marketing systems in place to keep their pipeline filled and have a solid conversion strategy that will help increase revenue. Now, there is more to that, but that is the basics.

Businesses need to be smart about their costs. It does take some investment in specific areas to grow a business’s revenue. One thing I have seen with many business owners is they are not reviewing their costs and expenses on a regular basis. I usually will review all the businesses expenses and costs with the business owners and it is amazing to find out expenses they have been paying for, but not receiving any products or services. A good example of this is how many people are paying for a gym membership, but never going to the gym?

When analyzing costs, business owners have not noticed their costs have incrementally increased, but they have not adjusted their margin to cover those increases. Which leads to fewer profits. By continually analyzing your costs and making the proper adjustments in pricing to ensure the business’s profits will be maintained.

Having that outside perspective also helps in reviewing what the business show focuses on. Revenue or costs.
I have worked with businesses where we reduced costs to the point they were efficient in their business, but at the same time working on increasing revenue. The two areas together turned that company around and they became highly profitable.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Biz Coach Steve Feld, MBA, is a Certified Business Coach, Author, Podcast Host, Professional Speaker, and award-winning Business Management Executive.

My goal is to stop business owners from suffering entrepreneurial depression, doing everything themselves, and make running their business easier and fun.

Stop the struggle and start getting the results you want in your business.
Business owners and entrepreneurs hire me to crack 6 & 7 figures without burning themselves out.

Because most lack a solid marketing strategy, getting divorced over their business money issues, haven’t taken a vacation, are in burnout mode, and struggle with sustainable revenue and profits.

So, I help skyrocket predictable profits through their messaging, implement strategic systems and processes to gain freedom in their lives, and have the competitive edge for long-term success.

Bottom line, in 45-minutes I can uncover $50,000 to over $100,000 or more in hidden annual revenue for your business without spending more on marketing or advertising, which allows you to start reaching your business and personal financial goals.

Over 500 businesses have sought out his services to work with them on gaining much-needed clarity, implementing solid strategic plans, and achieving positive growth results. How does he obtain the best results for them so quickly? He focuses on the foundation of the business.

Steve is passionate about business growth, efficient operations, and long-term success. With the high-end content he delivers in his presentations, his audience can immediately implement for fast results. He believes business can be fun, so his delivery is entertaining thus resulting in high engagement.

Steve has built, owned, and operated 7 lucrative businesses. He has consulted with other businesses providing change management and process improvement. He operated within 3 Fortune 500 companies, manning and boosting an entire division for them. In addition to his extensive U.S. experience, he works with global businesses to improve and streamline their operations. Written 6 books.

Today, businesses hire Biz Coach Steve to skyrocket their revenue and profits. With an array of resources from 1-on-1 and group coaching to mastermind facilitation and an E-Learning Academy and proprietary software, Steve has all the proven tools and resources businesses need to expand.

Contact Biz Coach Steve to see how he can help you grow your business faster and without all the overwhelm and stress.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Being a business owner you are going to face many challenges. Some are known and obvious, while others creep up on you without your knowledge and you realize them very late.

In one of my businesses, everything was going well. Business was good, but not great. Marketing was effective, but just not bringing in the sales I wanted. I was spending about 90% of my time marketing the business. Attending networking events, having way too many coffee appointments trying to drum up business, writing articles for local publications, advertising, speaking to lots of other business owners, just felt like I was a hamster on a wheel. Moving fast, burning myself out, and going nowhere.

It got to a point, where I dreaded going into my own business. I owned a job that I did not like. My home life was deteriorating. I had to let the staff go because I could not pay them. I didn’t keep a lot of inventory on hand because I could not pay my vendors. I became so desperate to make a sale, customers felt it and ran the other way. No funds in the bank accounts and started living on my credit cards. Not a great place to be. My friends didn’t even want to hang out with me because I depressed them.

Then one day, I had lunch with some fellow business owners and did the impossible. I told them the truth about my business and that I was in dire straights. They all said I need to get help. To get a business coach. That is what I did. I retained the services of a business coach.

Within 45 days, my entire life was changed.

They helped me get refocused. I changed my marketing strategies and all of a sudden they started bringing in customers. Hired people with more experience than me in the industry which was amazing and really helped me focus on managing the business versus being managed by my own business. I enjoyed going to work. My home life improved and my friends welcomed me back. Eliminated many activities in the business where I felt like I was spinning my wheels in the mud.

My life changed.
This is now what I do. Help business owners change their lives and businesses. I am very passionate about what I do because I have been there. I know what my clients are going through. I know what struggles they are encountering and how it feels. Running a business should not be hard and should be fun. Sometimes we just need a little outside help to get us to where we want our business and lives to be.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

Out of all the 7 businesses that I have owned and operated, I only purchased 1 existing business. It was a business and model I was familiar with. I knew the owner and it was close to where I lived at the time. I knew the business was struggling, so I approached them to buy the business from them.

It was lots of back and forth and due diligence before the deal was completed. It was a franchise and I understood the rules that the franchisor presented. This was my first time as a franchisee and was quite an experience.

After I took possession of the business, some hidden items arose which took me by surprise. One was they teamed up with all the other local franchisees of that brand and co-oped on a bunch of advertising. The ads were old and stale, but the old school owners outweighed the new owners and modern marketing methods.

The franchisor came in and told me that I must abide by many rules, which I did. I then noticed the profit margin was not holding up because the franchisor told me I must purchase all my materials from specific vendors and must market the business a certain way. This was costing me lots of money and I was only getting very little profit.

I turned the business around and it started growing and started making money. I looked at my mix between personal clients and commercial accounts. It was 97% residential accounts and 3% commercial, but the margin was 3 times higher on commercial projects than residential. So, I created a marketing strategy to increase the number of commercial accounts. Within 3 months, my total revenue was made up of 55% residential and 45% commercial. At the same time, After reading my franchise agreement, I reduced my costs from 45% to 8% by removing some vendors and bringing in other vendors that had better pricing and terms. I also formed a co-op with some of my competition and related industries so we can purchase many items in bulk. Bringing on these new vendors, we negotiated that they pay for a portion of my marketing. This not only reduced my costs but also got their name out to my clients.

The business turnaround was very successful. Yes, it did have lots of hiccups as well, but we worked through them all. We ended up being awarded as an innovative company from the Organization for Entrepreneurial Development for unique cost control systems. As well as receiving the Small Business of the Year award from the Mesa Chamber of Commerce.

I would recommend to anyone thinking about buying a business, due your due diligence. Get the right people in place to help you purchase the business. Lawyer, CPA, Broker, and Insurance agent.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bizcoachsteve.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizcoachsteve
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bizcoachsteve
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefeld
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BizCoachSteveF
• Youtube: https://bit.ly/2AaIeGj
• Other: Podcast: https://bizcoach.libsyn.com/