Scaling Your Home Business with Confidence and Calculated Risks

Unlock the secrets to propelling your home business forward with Jim Swan of Pine Tree Partners, a maestro in the realm of small business expansion. Prepare to be enlightened on the transformative impact of incremental price hikes and strategic pricing risks, as Jim lays bare his philosophy that surmounting any obstacle is possible through revenue amplification. Our conversation traverses the landscape of revenue growth, providing you with the tools to cultivate new products and services, establish fruitful partnerships, and understand the cumulative power of modest revenue upticks.

Embrace the journey of marketing and public relations tailored for the compact enterprise, as we dissect the nuances that set apart the strategies of smaller ventures from the behemoths of industry. I share our audacious promise to clients: generate enough revenue to pay for our services or get the next month free, a testament to our confidence in delivering results. Through tales of businesses that have scaled from modest beginnings to seven-figure sales, we seek to inspire and guide you in nurturing your own home business toward unparalleled freedom and independence. Join us and seize the keys to unlocking the potential awaiting within your entrepreneurial spirit.

Website: https://pinetreepartnersllc.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrswan

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Transcript

Hank: 0:40

Welcome to the Home Business Success Show. Join us as we speak to home business entrepreneurs for tips, tricks, do's and even don'ts for running a successful home business. Welcome everyone, I'm Hank Eder, also known as Hank the PR Guy, and you're listening to bizradious all entrepreneurs all the time. This is the Home Business Success Show. We'll meet our guest right after my two-cent marketing minute. Did you know that SEO is constantly evolving? It's no longer about bundled keywords. Now branded quality content is king. Keep your content relevant to your audience and to their unique problems. Don't ignore your keywords, but don't try to plaster them all over your pages. That's just tacky. Just keep adding value for your audience.

Hank: 1:42

Today's guest, jim Swan of Pine Tree Partners, has more than 20 years of experience as a small business owner, entrepreneur, award-winning author, strategist and consultant. Jim brings his experience as a survivor of success and failure to the world of business strategy and consulting. He's turned his years of business experiences, personal values and a belief in the power of transformative energy into a laser-focused professional objective to support small business owners as they expand into medium-sized businesses through revenue growth and profit expansion. Jim says he believes there's no challenge that a small business owner faces that can't be resolved by more money coming in through the front door. Does Firm guarantees new revenue or they work for free? Welcome to the show, jim. Thank you, hank, it's great to be with you. Oh, you're welcome, you're welcome. That's quite a guarantee there You'll find more money or we work free. We'll get more into that in a few minutes, but if you would please tell our audience really what it is that you do.

Jim : 3:03

Certainly happy to do that. Frank Hank, excuse me, the work that we do is focused solely on helping small business owners grow and become medium-sized businesses. If they want to grow and become large after that, that's fine with us too. We'll keep on working, but the goal is to find people who have small organizations. Sometimes it's a solopreneur situation, where it's just one person doing all the heavy lifting, but they have an idea, they have a passion, they have a message that they want to get out into the world, and our job is to come in and help create unique opportunities where, in specific areas of business focus, they can grow revenue and, through the magic of compounding numbers, watch that revenue growth grow in a way that brings meaningful new revenue to small businesses. Last year, our businesses, the clients we worked with, averaged a little over $120,000 of new revenue, and for small businesses that's meaningful money. For anybody that's meaningful money.

Hank: 4:06

Yeah, $120,000, as my mother used to say is nothing to sneeze at. Exactly so there you go. What made you choose to do this kind of work? Did?

Jim : 4:17

you choose to do this kind of work.

Jim : 4:19

Wow, it wasn't so much a choice as just following a path. I was a small business owner for many, many years, had a successful business in Los Angeles and we ran up against a brick wall that didn't want to budge, and that was the economy going sideways in 2008. And our client list and roster of A-list 1% clients couldn't be seen spending money, and so our firm of 14 dwindled down to just myself and finally, even that had to be closed up. So that business went away and I needed to do something. So that business went away and I needed to do something.

Jim : 5:04

We had had extreme, extremely positive success in growing our business as early adopters with social media and some of the platforms that we're quite familiar with today Facebook, instagram and Twitter and I began initially consulting in the world of digital marketing, sharing the stories of how we had grown our business. And then, as the digital marketing world began to change, as paid advertising sort of stepped to the forefront, my focus began to shift, and over the years it's continued to grow and shift until it's become the work that we're doing today, and that is to help bring new revenue into small businesses so they have the options that they need to grow as big as they want to grow.

Hank: 5:43

Right, right. Well, what are some of the days? Some of the days? You probably spend a lot of days, but what are some of the ways that you help small businesses grow?

Jim : 5:54

Well, we've built up a library of over I think we're up over 40, maybe 41 strategies that we've implemented over the years, with different success rates and different situations with different clients. So we draw on that list and it's everything from the rather simple, straightforward, we can even call it low-hanging fruit of when did you raise your prices the last time? I mean, I'm quite fond of asking that question when I speak to a room full of business owners and it's fascinating to me the look of terror that flashes across their faces. As small business owners, we're somehow trained to believe that we can't raise our prices, that we're going to lose our client base if we do, whereas big business Wall Street they're pretty good at it, they do it on sometimes a weekly basis to us and seem to be perfectly fine with it. No, we're not Not advocating recklessness in that regard, but I propose to my business owners, when we're working with them, what would a 5% price increase look like for you?

Jim : 7:00

And we do the math and in many instances that 5% can represent $15,000, $20,000, $25,000 over a calendar year Again, meaningful money. And then we work backwards. So if let's say it was $20,000, hank, how many clients would you have to lose, to offset that $20,000 of new revenue and bring you back to exactly where you are today no worse off than you are today. And again, when you do the math, we discover that often that's 18, 20, 22% of your client base that you would have to lose. And then I ask the really simple question If you went into your favorite restaurant tonight and sat down to order your favorite meal and that $30 meal had gone up by 5%, can you really honestly tell me that you would get up and leave that restaurant without ordering and never go back?

Hank: 7:55

That's a really good point, because that 5% isn't really all that much and you're not too likely Did you mention 18%? You're not too likely to lose 18% of your business by raising your revenue by 5%, not your revenue by raising your prices. Your prices, yeah, yeah, by 5%. So you know, it's a question of getting past, I guess with a lot of business owners, the fear factor, the uncertainty, and, yeah, small businesses do have this mindset that they have to not be too expensive. But at the same time, you know, somebody that I work with quite a bit, who's taught me quite a bit, has pointed out to me on any number of occasions that when you raise your prices, you also attract a better degree of clientele, a higher degree of clientele. And yeah, so it almost seems counterintuitive to a lot of business people that raising their prices will bring them more business. But there are people who are reluctant to do business with those whose prices are too low, and I think we'd be surprised at how many of those really are.

Jim : 9:06

Well, I think the word you just used surprise is what consistently happens with the clients that we work with on this issue, because we never advocate just plunging ahead recklessly. We do the homework, we crunch the numbers and we get to a point where, okay, if you're willing to take this chance, let's give it a try. And the business owner says, yes, let's do it, and without fail, and I can go back and show you the records the clients who have gone ahead raised the prices. If there has been a client loss, inevitably it's that client or two that they really didn't like doing work with in the first place, and seeing them leave made room for more and better and, as you pointed out, a higher caliber of clients, and that's the kind of surprise that I'll take any day of the week, and our clients feel the same way.

Hank: 9:58

That's very cool. Are there other ways that you could share that you find other sources of revenue for clients or help them find other sources of revenue?

Jim : 10:08

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the list is pretty long, but the things that jump out are things like creating new products and services. So let's look at what you're doing successfully with your clients and even drill down a little bit deeper. What is your top 10% of your clients? What's the service that they're getting that they're raving fans about, and how can you take the focus of that product or that type of service and create something that is going to address an adjacent concern or problem that those same clients have? What is an area in your physical region or what is an area in the market sector that you're working in that is gone unaddressed?

Jim : 10:54

I was on a call yesterday with a couple talking about coming together and working together, and they dropped a simple question having to do with couples working together, and it opened up for me an entirely new sort of facet of work that we might be able to address in some of the challenges that couples who work together in a business might face. So things like that what new product, what service could you bring to the marketplace? And we always remember, hank, that we're not looking for an overnight get-rich-quick solution by implementing any of these changes. All we're looking for is 5% growth, 7% growth, maybe 10% growth. I mean we were really going to be aggressive about it.

Jim : 11:45

Do you think, by introducing a new product or new service into your business, mr or Ms Client, mr or Ms client, that your revenue could increase by 5% or by more than 5%? And that's the goal that we have. And we consistently realize that success in achieving those goals. And then we move on to the next strategy, do the same type of thing and then, with that magic of compounding numbers, when you start compounding the first success, the first growth of new revenue, with the second strategy and the third, and by the time we get to the end of that first 12 months that we're working together, those numbers start shifting the dial in a really meaningful way and our business owners are quite excited and quite happy with the results.

Hank: 12:33

So say, a small business represents solving a problem in a small you know of a reasonably small niche, but one that works for them, for their ideal target audience who has a certain type of pain point, and this small business is great at addressing that and has a track record of being able to solve that. Is great at addressing that and has a track record of being able to solve that. So then what you're saying is, if you come across some kind of a I don't want to call it a sister problem, but an adjacent issue that maybe if you've got this issue, you might also have that issue and we can address that as well.

Jim : 13:11

Absolutely. I mean, and for many of our business owners, they're busy, they're buried deep in their work, they're doing the work day in and day out and in some instances they've never had the time to just sit back and look at a 20,000 foot view of what they're delivering to their clients. And when they do that, they suddenly see things that they've never noticed before. Oh well, we're solving this, and they have this problem right adjacent to it. What would it take to do that too? And that, along with a number of other exercises, can open the door for a new product.

Jim : 13:49

Or maybe you decide that developing a new product isn't right for you, but maybe partnering with an adjacent business and creating a bundle of unique product and services, where you're just taking an existing product or service, bundling it with a product or service that not a competitor, but someone who is serving the same clientele as you, something that they can deliver, deliver, combine the two because it's a unique combination. No one else in the market is delivering that. So you don't have the the typical constraints. There's no way they're going to shop you because no one else is delivering this combination of product or services. So you're able to put a premium price tag on it and you've got something that you can sell and you can move the dial rather quickly, often within 30 days.

Hank: 14:36

That's pretty remarkable. Do you help, then? Do you help the business, the small business owner, with the logistics of getting that together, maybe teaming with the other company, and what the agreement would look like and what the revenue streams would look like.

Jim : 14:54

We try to advise within the parameters of our areas of expertise. I have other team members that I can draw on and we'll bring them in and involve them, and then in some instances, my team, we're sort of out of our league and that's where I'll say to the business owner you know what I've got this professional who does this type of work. I've worked with them before. So I go to my Rolodex, I find a referral. We introduce them to the project and then allow the business owner to do business with them and it becomes a win-win. Whatever needs to happen to make the project a success is what we'll do.

Hank: 15:32

Interesting, and what you just brought up is something that I think small business owners should keep in mind that they can and should affiliate themselves with others not just, you know, not competitors, as you say, but people who maybe are in a niche that complements what they do and to have, if not specifically, a team I believe everybody should build teams but if not specifically a team, at least have a network of associates that you could call on to get things done. And I think that's an area that a lot of small business people miss Because, as you mentioned earlier, you know they're putting out all their individual fires every day, so they don't get to look at the wider view.

Jim : 16:16

Yeah, running a small business can be a lonely endeavor. It can feel very isolated. So any opportunity that we have to encourage our clients to beyond just working with us, I mean we love that interaction of course. But in your community, in your industry, develop relationships, develop alliances that can be helpful and supportive of you, even if it's just somebody to go have a cup of coffee with and sort of you know, vent over a rough day. Those are really important to the mental health and to the emotional health of a business.

Hank: 16:51

Yeah, that's something that a lot of people don't think of either, and sometimes it can't be somebody's spouse or significant other. You actually sometimes need to commiserate with somebody who is either right in your niche or very close to it. Exactly, and you mentioned a return of about $120,000, $125,000. Is that like a typical kind of scenario, what happens when you work with companies?

Jim : 17:25

So we work with three different types of companies, and so the answer will vary depending on what type of company they are. The first is startup. So we have two projects we're working on right now where, when we came into the project, there was no revenue, so we had no benchmark to start with other than zero, and so any growth is going to be positive from there. We have other clients, and these are the ones that I think those numbers are most tied to, or these last two. These are somewhat established businesses. They've been in business three to five years. They've got anywhere from one to maybe three employees. They've got revenue from quarter of a million up to maybe a million dollars, and so that kind of growth is typically found in that segment. And then slightly larger businesses. We don't do too much of those because we really find a niche and feel like we're really helping the smaller guy grow to become the medium-sized business. But that's how those numbers would be most accurately associated.

Hank: 18:28

You know, it's like the other day. I see where you're coming with that. For my own company. I work with small businesses, you know, and medium-sized businesses to some people can be considered big businesses. It depends on what it is that you're dealing with, but I work with small businesses. And someone asked me you know, do you have any experience working with, like Fortune 100 companies? And I said well, no, I've not worked with Fortune 100 companies, and the reality of it is, you know, I'm a small PR firm, but I also do all those other things that involve marketing. But I said the reality of it, though, if a Fortune 100 company wants to hire a PR firm, they go to Madison Avenue, they don't come to me. So I don't expect that I ever will work with a Fortune 100 company. But you know what? That's all right, because I think that the resources that one would need to work with a fortune 100 company are beyond the ken of what I provide, and that's all right too.

Jim : 19:26

Yeah, yeah, there's a slot for for every size business, whether you're asking for the service to be provided or whether you're providing service. It's a big marketplace out there and lots of opportunity.

Hank: 19:39

Yes, it is. Now I'd like to ask we mentioned before that you have this guarantee if they're not making money, then you will work for free. Could you tell us a little more about that?

Jim : 19:51

Sure, so we put this in place. So one of the things we work with our clients on is developing an irresistible offer. Offer a client something that they would be foolish to turn down. And in that work we came up with our irresistible offer, and that is that when we get into the implementation phase with our clients which means we've selected the 10 or 12 strategies we're going to implement over the coming 12 months, and we've now picked the first one and now we're actively implementing Once we're into that work, if in a given month, the strategies that we're working on don't generate at least enough new revenue to cover our fees, then we'll work the next month for free until that turns around and those numbers come up.

Jim : 20:41

The reason, the only reason people hire us I mean beyond our charming personalities and great wit is to generate revenue. And if that ain't happening, then you know somebody's something, something's not working right and and yes, there's responsibilities that the owner and their team have, and we know, we're very clear about communicating that. But if the team is functioning and we hit a month where gosh guys, we just didn't hit the numbers, we're going to work the next month for free until that turns around.

Hank: 21:11

Well, that's really walking the walk, you know, because there's a lot of people out there. There's a lot of coaches I mean I'm not denigrating coaches. I mean I know some really awesome coaches that help people do amazing things in their business but there's also coaches that you know. I came across a 19-year-old life coach who, you know, took a course online and got certified as a life coach. But when you're 19 years old, what do you really know about life in general? Not that there's not some old souls out there there really are but the point I'm making is that a lot of people don't walk the walk, you know, and they don't make those kinds of guarantees. So that's pretty remarkable. If you could give small businesses one bit of advice to grow, what might that be?

Jim : 21:59

I think there is an obsession that we have as a culture, and certainly as business owners, that bigger is always better, and there's nothing wrong with building a big enterprise. Don't get me wrong, but understand the numbers that you're looking at. I worked with a gentleman a while back who was very proud of the fact that he had built a seven-figure business. He was very proud of the fact that he had generated over a million dollars in sales and we were thrilled. I mean, how exciting, that's so wonderful, great. Now let's pull out the numbers and let's look at what that looks like on paper. And long story slightly shorter, when we looked at what his profit, what he as the business owner, was able to put into his pocket at the end of the day, he had made $61,000 at the end of that year.

Hank: 22:51

Right and he probably could have scaled his business that he could have made $61,000 without running himself ragged. Well you know, jim, I hate to cut this off, but time has flown by. I've had a really good time with this, oh my gosh, and now I have to ask you that final question. Please tell our audience the best way to contact you.

Jim : 23:20

I think a lot of people that are listening really need to know some of the things that you teach and would really benefit from your programs. Well, I'd love to hear from them. They can go to our website, which is pinetreepartnersllccom. You can reach me by email at jim at pinetreepartnersllccom, and you can always find me kicking around LinkedIn under Jim Swan. That's an easy one too. Under Jim Swan that's an easy one too.

Hank: 23:36

Jim Swan yeah, excellent. Well, thanks for being here with us today, jim. And to our listeners, tune in every Wednesday for the Home Business Success Show here on bizradious. Remember, you can achieve success, freedom and independence in your own home-based business. I've done it freedom and independence in your own home-based business. I've done it, jim has done it, and you can do it too. See you again next Wednesday here on bizradious. This is Hank Eder, wishing all of you a fabulous day of home business success.