Tag Archives: local business

I was dying to get into some REAL conversations to ask: Has the past 2 years affected your identity as a Small Business Owner? Has it forced you to reassess your dedication to your skills, your business and your paradigm of what life is?

In Episode 10 I speak to 2 small business owners in Texas who are using the disruption of Covid to rejigger their business models – in two completely opposite ways.

In Part 2 of this 2 part series, What Your Accountant Wants You To Know, we dig deep with San Antonio CPA, Debi Malone, who has been my accountant for 5 years. Today we cover her client pet peeves, her forecast for the recovery and solid advice for finding a CPA that is the right fit for your business.

Every small business owner needs a professional team to keep things moving strong and flowing right. One of those people on your team is your CPA or accountant. It’s so important to find the right accountant for your business and to establish a good working relationship that person so they can fully understand your business’ needs, short and long term goals – and so that they can help with financial strategies and advice to keep you both in compliance with the laws and also aware of the incentives available to you.

Over the year, we’ve gotten to know some fantastic small business owners in Texas, and I’ve been wondering how they fared during the summer that tracks with Q2 and Q3. In that time, we saw a massive rollout of the vaccine, increasing numbers in travel and tourism, and a general sense that people are ready to get back to life as usual. That’s all fantastic. But when it’s coupled with localized spikes and case numbers around the state supply chain disruptions and the uncertainty of this moment, we wanted to check back in with some of our guests from Season 1 and see how the year has treated them thus far. This week, we chat with Episode 7 guest, Scott Pepper of The Magician’s Agency Theater in San Antonio, Texas, and Episode 2 guest, Lori Schneider of The Cupcake Bar in Austin, Texas to ask firsthand, did the big summer season fix all the ails? Our first guest Scott Pepper of The Magicians Agency is optimistic for what 2022 will bring and is taking the lessons of the pandemic with him as he keeps his sights set on strategic goals for the future.

The past 18 months have been hard. How you show up as a boss and how you support and build your team is more important than ever. This week we look at the subject of Emotional Intelligence, in a deep-dive with our Dallas based Emotional Intelligence expert, Marcel Brunel of The Brunel Group.
If a crisis persists and grows, like Covid, so should your empathy as a leader.
Moments like this test us. We see in real-time what our capacity for resilience, vision and empathy is. Forced to navigate these waters, we’re squared off at the helm of this pandemic storm… and we’re being called upon to answer this question:
Are you are the leader you would want to be in the face of adversity?

I’ve spoken with a number of business owners about surviving the pandemic at this point, both on and off the microphone and one thing that continuously surprises me and makes me feel seen is when I hear a business owner say, “this moment actually feels HARDER than 2020” And I tell you what, I feel that too. Having a shortage of available workforce in the service, hospitality, healthcare and most blue collar jobs – it’s making this recovery feel like a cruel joke and a one-two-punch to us small business owners. There is finally work! We’re getting calls from everywhere! And we are so understaffed that we’re killing ourselves trying to keep up!! We are people dying of thirst who are given a fire hose to drink from! Only without the teams to keep up.

This week on the show we break it down, and talk to our business owners about Disruptions in the Supply Chain caused by Covid. The Economy, when it’s humming along nicely, is a complex and delicate ecosystem that we take for granted most of the time. It is a system that works based on Buyer’s fluctuating needs, wants and demands — Needs, wants, and demands that got thrown into a tailspin in 2020. And not only was the tailspin because the American consumer didn’t spend nearly as much as anticipated on suits for the office and ladies dress flats to complete that business professional looks and their dollars shift to things like ring lighting and new additions to the house or remodeling that now essential “home office”, but it was an even bigger dilemma, because due to Covid international trade was halted, shipping yards were being temporarily closed, the price of gasoline crashed then skyrocketed, the demand for long-haul truckers ballooned, and we’re not even going to get into the toilet paper thing… to say it’s been difficult to navigate is an understatement. Tracking the effects of a disruption in the supply chain can be dizzying and it can hit you where you least expect it! 

There is no doubt, there’s something happening in Texas… it’s in the air. There is an electricity. A feeling of ambition & entrepreneurial magic. That the sky is the limit. No matter where you live, I’m willing to bet you’re meeting some New Texans, too. People from all over the globe ready open-up shop and bet their futures on the Legend of the Lonestar State. This influx has already brought confirmed businesses such as Tesla, Google, Oracle, HP, & Samsung as well as celebrities like Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, James Van Der Beek, Parker Posey, 50 Cent, and more. It’s clear that something is happening, even if we don’t have a name for it yet.

This episode is called “Why Texas?” and I decided to focus on the massive growth and migration happening within our State because it’s part of the story of our recovery.