Episode 229: #AskAdam – Twenty-Five Minutes of Business Advice
As entrepreneurs, starting a business can be challenging, and we seek advice from other successful people in order to grow the business. In this episode, Adam Stott focuses on answering the questions from LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
Adam gives advice to people who are just starting in business. He dives deep into raising business funds, mindset, and business strategies. Listen as he shares his learning and his experience building a successful business.
Show Highlights:
- Learn to cultivate a business mindset and gain experience to build resilience
- How to become a better leader through communication
- The best business strategies for start-ups
- Finding investment, approaching retailers, and getting into publications; and
- How to start to appeal to people’s self-interest
Links Mentioned:
Join the Ultimate Three Day Business Event and learn more Business Growth Secrets
Be part of our Facebook Group Big Business Events Members Network
Connect with me on Instagram @adamstottcoach
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
Adam Stott:
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to Business Growth Secrets. Got something really, really cool. This week, we have recorded a 24 minute long, totally content full business q&a. So different questions coming in from TikTok. We have different questions coming in from Instagram or questions coming in from all over from different clients and business owners that wanted to better help and it’s really cool stuff covered from marketing to business and so much more.
So, what I want to do, it’s on YouTube. But I decided to take the audio and share that with you because I think it’d be massive content for you. So, hopefully, you really enjoy listening to this quick q&a. That’s going to be going on for this week’s podcast that I’m sure it’s going to add a ton of value to. And of course, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe. And if you’re enjoying the podcast, make sure you give us a five-star review.
So, thanks everyone, I hope you enjoy today. I’m sure you’re going to love it. You’re going to learn about mindset, you’re gonna learn about raising capital. You’re going to learn about sponsorship, you’re going to learn about marketing, you’re gonna learn about sales, and so much more. So, make sure you stay tuned for the whole episode. Give us your feedback or your questions in the comments. And I hope you enjoy it.
So, first question from Sam Craig is, how do you become resilient and develop a business mindset? So, it’s kind of two questions: become resilient or develop a business mindset? I think I have a business mindset. What did I do right in the beginning? I go back to the beginning before I started any business before I had any experience.
I started to read a lot. And I read every single business autobiography I could possibly find. I was starting to put myself in the world. One of the first ones, which is quite controversial, ever read was The Donald Trump called The Art of the Deal. It kind of got me into the mindset of someone that was going out there doing business every single day.
Then I went on to read and the show went then went on to read Richard Branson’s. And I just read every single different entrepreneurs, business books. And more recently, I still do it to this day, I read really cool books all the time. I was reading a book about the founder of WeWork the other day which is a really controversial story. But why do I say this because you’re asking about how to get into a business mindset.
The best way to get into a business mindset is to get into business conversations. Start to understand the world and start to immerse yourself in it. If you’re interested in it, just throw yourself in and start to learn so many different resources, watch videos like this. Make sure you subscribe to watch every single week. You’re then involved in business conversations, you’re going to start to find yourself picking that business mindset up bit by bit.
Really you’re exactly right in terms of saying how do I get into a business mindset because a business mindset is something that’s cultivated over time. And you just start to make these decisions naturally, because you know, the right way versus the wrong way. So, I would say read loads, read articles, read magazines. Get yourselves on to some books, get your head into some books and start to read those, enjoy the stories. Watch these kinds of videos, and then get yourself some events.
If you really want to sharpen up your business mindset. Our three day event, Business Growth Secrets is immense. That you’ll be in a room filled with entrepreneurs talking business, and you really start to see those ideas thrive. So hopefully that helps you there, Sam? And the second part was how do you become resilient?
Well, resilience is built up from experience. So when we first start off, it’s gonna hurt when somebody says they’re done with your product. It’s gonna hurt when somebody says they don’t want to do business with you, it’s gonna hurt when you don’t quite get the deals that you wanted to do.
Things don’t quite go right for you. It’s gonna hurt a little bit in the beginning. That resilience builds up over time, just by being out there and being in the mix and having those conversations and doing business. And eventually, you just realise there’s no one that I can’t answer the question of building your resilience in the question. Just got to go out there and get it done. Right.
If you’re afraid of selling guns, you’re afraid of marketing. If you’re afraid of meeting people, go meet people. The best way that you can build up resilience is by walking into your fear rather than away from it. So this question from [00:04:59-00:05:01] says how do I become a better team leader?
When I first started out leading people, it was difficult. You know, when I first started out managing people, it was difficult. One of the things that I would say is that people who always get along with me is a straight conversation. I think people appreciate that. The quicker that you can stop dancing around subjects and be direct, the better communication becomes, the easier it becomes.
So, I would say start to be more direct, be more open to having straight conversations. And remember, you’ve got two ears, you’ve got one mouth. So, use the two ears to go and listen to what your people have to say. Listen to their needs, and really start to listen, rather than being the person that’s always out there talking. Because if you use your two ears, and you start to listen to what people need, it comes naturally to leadership, you can direct people closer towards their goals a lot, lot, lot quicker. So, in terms of leadership, remember to listen.
Remember when you have to have a conversation, don’t dance, be direct, be friendly with it. A lot of people can’t be direct, without offending people. But I like to try and be direct and have a conversation and just tell people how it is. But do it in a nice way. I think if you can master that skill, everybody knows where they stand, things become a lot easier, a lot quicker. Okay, everybody, so this is a really good question. This one is really, really good.
It’s from Sam, again, and it says, If you had to start again, with only 10,000 pounds, no more, no less, to invest, what would you do? So first of all, 10,000 sites and again, from the very beginning, I would start a business, you know, 10,000 pounds, not gonna make a massive dent, and in cyber property, right and property company.
So I’d be looking to invest 10,000 pounds in the business, in actual business, that’s the first thing that I would do. There’s no point going to invest in 10,000 pounds and shares in forex, not enough to go and make sort of money and build off of for the long term. So, I would start a business. That’s number one. Number two, what would I do? I would look at starting a service-based business, but only had 10,000 pounds. I wouldn’t be interested in Ghana. Starting a business requires me buying stock, or a retail premises that I’ve got to drive people in because frankly, 10,000 pounds is not enough to fund it up.
So we have to start differently. I’ll start a service based business. So, it would be providing a service for other people, frankly, knowing what I know, now, I would go into the coaching industry, because I think it’s the one of the best and fastest growing industries out there. You know, as the information, people want information, they’re willing to pay for information.
So I would go into that industry again, that would be the first thing that I would do. And if let’s say you’re watching right now, and you’re saying well, what should I do? Look at what you already know, look at where you’re advanced, look at what intellectual property you’ve got, and see if there are people in the market that want to purchase that from you. Because at the end of the day, there’s stuff that you know that other people want to learn. And if you can teach that to people, they’re going to pay you good money for it, right.
So that’s the way I would say that you look at it. So I’ll start a business, I’d go into the information business, and definitely make sure it was a service that I was going to offer. And I would use the 10,000 pounds that I had to start off with, I’d get my Facebook pages up, I’ll get my Instagram pages up, I would get myself into a place where I had some presence, I won’t bother with a website, because there’s no point but only about 10,000 pounds.
So I’d go and start landing page or go and click funnels, and I build up a landing page to get people to go and like literally be able to land on and then I’d start making videos, I would go out start making videos, having conversations, sharing the knowledge, sharing the results that I can help people with talking about those results. And then what I would do is I would spend even a little bit of money, getting those videos out with ads to the masses.
Alternatively, I would run a campaign to get followers so they could see the actual videos. And then I would start talking to people through my Facebook through my Instagram, directing them into the landing page. And what I’d probably do if I was very limited on money, is I’d probably hold a webinar weekly, or a zoom me in weekly where people come on, they can meet with me, I could go and start the relationships, have the conversations and tell them about the new product that I’ve created that can help them to get the result they want.
Now in all of that I’ve not even dented 10,000 pounds, I’ve probably spent under 1000. And very, very quickly from that 1000 pounds spent, I’d have a presence online, I’d have a landing page online that was collected information. I’d have conversations out there in the marketplace, I’d have a meeting where I can get people to, and I would straightaway be making more sales before even some are 10,000 sales. That sounds like a good answer for you.
Right because we’d be making money straight away offering the product to start with. And then I’d go and reinvest that in more ads. So he had more people on. So, I could serve more people and I could help more people. And before you know it would be at six figures, no time flat. So, here’s your answer to that one. Hopefully you like it.
So, I’ve got this one from Kendra Bedwell, it says how do you deal with people who try to slate your name in business out of jealousy to the point where potential clients might avoid you. Well, how do I deal with it, I don’t deal with it. I just don’t give any time or any attention to anybody that’s negative. If anybody’s going to be negative or say, block, move on, forget it. Very, very simple.
You know, you’re not going to please everybody. And if you are pleasing everybody, it’s because you ain’t speaking to enough people. If you are pleasing everybody, it’s because you’re not putting your opinions across enough. So the reality is this is don’t give your time, don’t give your attention to anything that is negative, the quicker that you can literally push it away and move on, the better.
It’s been worded in a way that it sounds like you might have had a little bit of that in the moment. It’s very difficult to put yourself in a place, I do understand that, especially at the beginning of your journey, it’s very difficult to walk away from people saying things. I always remember a bit of advice that I was given, when two idiots are arguing, no one knows what it is. Right? And that’s the reality.
So, you’re sitting there arguing with somebody who’s right, right? Are they right? It doesn’t really matter. Everybody just looks and thinks these two people have an argument. They’re both idiots, right? So, the best thing that you can do is move yourself away, ignore it, don’t embrace it, and crack on, start talking to the people that want to do business with you that want to hear from you.
Don’t worry about what anyone else has got to say. If you give people that have got negative things to say, time and attention, it’s going to drain your energy, it’s going to drag you down, it’s going to make you feel no good. And it’s going to waste your time. And it’s going to put you into a negative mindset, which you don’t need. So walk away, move on. That’s why the audit.
So next one, I’ve got a three-part question from [00:11:37-00:11:39]. says how to find investment is the start of the question. Now again, assess whether you need investment. I just started that question. I told you how I’ve only had 10,000 pounds, what would I do? What would I create? What would a garden offer? And in under 1000 pounds, you can build a six-figure business? Right?
So, assess first of all, Rach, wherever you do need investment? Is that something you actually need to bring in? How much do you actually physically need? What are you going to spend the money on? So, a lot of people say they need investment, but that you really need investment? Not always right. And I think that’s really important to understand.
So, the first question is, why do you need the investment? What are you going to spend the investment on, then, in terms of how do you go and find it, we’ve got to understand if we’ve got a business, and obviously, I don’t know where you’re at, if you’re real early stages, and you’re right at the beginning, investors, venture capital investors aren’t gonna want investing to an idea that’s right at the beginning stages.
So you’re going to be looking at things more like banking, finance. So you’re going to be going out there talking to the bank. And if you have got a limited company, it’s right at the start, or your business is right at the start, you’re probably not going to get funding if a business isn’t trading.
So, when it comes to investment, usually in the beginning, the person has to put the investment in is the business owner. Right. So I think it’s important to understand that, and a lot of that time, it’s going to come from your personal credit, either you investing into the business by going and getting a loan, you invest into the business by using a credit card by using a savings, whatever it is, that’s how I started my business.
So most people start their businesses, the initial investment is going to come from the business owner, so so to make sure you don’t waste any money, go and figure out how much money you need to invest in in the beginning, and how long that’s going to last you what you’re going to use it for. And make sure you pitch yourself like you would an investor. So like right, okay, so I need to go and get a 25,000 pound loan, this is what I’m going to use it for, this is what I’m going to return myself. Now you’re going to feel a lot more comfortable putting that investment in, and that’d be the start.
Secondly, what I would then do is I’ll start trading, start selling, start getting your business move in, start getting clients for your business. And then you can look at when you’ve got a proven business model, do I need to go and pitch a venture capitalist investor? Do I need to take this to the bank? Do I need to get an overdraft and you can go into the next stages. So hopefully that helps you reach. And that was the first question of how do I find investment? The second one is how do I approach retailers? Well, you approach retailers by going out there getting the product ready, and actually going out and having a conversation. That’s the old way of doing it.
The new way of doing it is to grow a social media following and get people to realize that you’re there, that people like what you’ve got, people like what you offer. And then straight away you can go to your social. Go to retailers and say hey, look, I’ve got 50/60/70,000 people on social follow me on social media, they love my product. I’m sure you’d love it. So I’d love to come and see you then you’re going to get a much better entry into the door by having that type of conversation.
Which leads me on to Rach’s very great questions. You got three. How do I get into publications when our products are exactly the same way? Build your social media following. Use that as leverage to go to the media company and say what 50/60/70,000 People that love what I do. I’d love to come into your publication and talk a little bit about my journey, and people are going to be a lot more interested in that if you’ve already proven what you’re doing on a social media level. That’s kind of remember that your social media is your media channel.
If you want other media to cover you or Get your media right first, then a lot of other media are going to be much more interesting covering you. So there you go answer all three questions. Proper quick fire over there. Help me, Rachel, how do you switch to a new industry, when you have no experience in that industry, but you also need to maintain a certain salary as you have a mortgage, a young family, and many financial commitments were such good questions.
And it’s something that everyone looking to make the switch out of being employed to becoming a business owner has to go through God, make sure you’ve covered that, and you cover yourself and you cover that salary and those overheads that you’ve got. And you mentioned in there that you’ve got to switch to a new industry.
So, what I would say here is, if you’re looking to go and starting a business, in an industry, you don’t know you haven’t worked in, you’re not familiar with, I think you need to go and do a bit more exposure, you need to go and get some experience in that industry. That’s the first thing you should do. Before you go and start a business and go and conquer the world. In it, you need some more experience in it. You need to see behind the scenes, always remember that when my dad was younger, he went out and bought some cafes.
And the first thing he did is he went and worked in those cafes for several days for free to actually just get a feeling whether we actually liked it before we went into that type of business. And I think it’s something that people should do, you should go and make sure that you enjoy what you do. When I made the switch from being in automotive to being in coaching, speaking education and information. I was already a fan of the products I’ve been in. I’ve been on every call scurried. I’d invested in myself, I’d had a coach and I’d had mentoring, and not loved it.
So it was really easy for me to make that transition. But if you don’t know you love something, why would you go and start a business in it? You don’t even know if you like it yet? So I would say haften You need to get some part time work? How can you do some extra hours? How can you do a few hours a week? Or how can you, you know, immerse yourself in that kind of environment.
Before you make the leap to go and start a business there is only going to help us only get you to understand the industry bow. And that will be my first step, the advice. The second step of advice would be to start off as a side hustle. Alright, after you spend a bit of time working in that environment, and you start to get there, and you’ve you know, you love it, you know, you’re passionate about it, and you’re like, hey, I love this. This is what I love to do, pay for a product or service, go and sell that part time, get some extra income coming in.
So you can actually look to start to replace your income that you’ve got your sign up at the salary, I got this job, I got this mortgage about family commitments? Well, hey, you know, I’m sure your family is gonna understand you starting a business on the side, going out making a bit of extra money for the family, especially for something that you’re passionate about.
Now, what you can do is you can start to build that income up. So, you can replace that salary and you can make that leap without having the problem. Start off as a side hustle, and sort of, you know, build up until you can replace that income. So you can make that leap. Or you can at least get close to replacing that income.
So you know, you get to this point where it’s like, hey, right, I’m doing this on the side, I’m spending six hours a week doing it, I’m earning two grand a month doing it. And in my job burns five grand a month, they say whatever the numbers are, well, currently, I’m only spending a few hours a week doing this, I’m spending 40 hours a week doing this. If I were able to, you know, spend 40 hours a week doing this, would I be able to make more money? The answer is yes.
Now we can take that leap, we can make that move. So hopefully that makes perfect sense to you. And best of luck with your transition from [00:18:16-00:18:18], what’s the best way to go about raising capital for our startup business? And how do we really hook them in? Now, I don’t know whether you’re talking about hooking in the funders here, or hooking the clients here? So to answer the question, we answered the first part of the question in more detail, what’s the best way to go about raising capital for our star business? I answered this a little bit earlier for Rach, and we talked a little bit about it, but I’m gonna give you a bit more depth.
Now, When I started my first ever business, I knew that I wanted to start a business, I knew that I wanted to grow a business. But what I also know is that I was paid a salary and I had lots of bills to go with so I was going to struggle, I had my mortgage and everything else I was going to struggle to go and start a business. But I knew that I wanted to take that leap. And I knew that I wanted to take it badly. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t have to work for anybody else. Therefore, I had to get the setup right in order to make sure it was to make it happen.
So what did I do? Well, I’m not saying that you go and do this, but it gives you a few good examples of what I did. Because that’s my experience. I’m hoping that can help you. So, what I did is I actually went out, I sold my house, I went and literally moved back in with my parents and maybe you can go and rent some ways. If you’re in this situation, it might be by moving back into my mom’s spare bedroom, and I went and I used that capital to start my first business. That way I had 50,000 pounds to start with.
Also my mortgage was that I no longer had a mortgage, and my overheads were reduced by a lot. Now I know that not everybody can do that. Maybe I’ve got a property, maybe not in that position. But what I am saying, which I think it’s really important to understand, is that when you want to start a business and you’ve got a passion and you want to make it happen you are going to have to back yourself.
Maybe that comes with you going to get a loan, maybe you get a 25,000 personal loan or 50,000 Personal Loan to start off with, maybe you do release some equity at your home, maybe use the savings that you’ve been saving up for a rainy day, whatever it is, you’re going to have to back yourself in the beginning. Now you might say why, why do I have to back myself in the beginning, the reason you have to back yourself in the beginning, is because you won’t when you start have a proven business model that you know will work. Right.
So, any investor coming and looking at that deal. Anyone coming and looking at what you’re doing is anything. Okay, well, I like the idea. Let me know how you get on with it. And maybe we invest that late stage where no one’s gonna go, Oh, I love that idea. I’m going to give you 100,000 200,000 Go and start a business. And why would they? Right? Because if you haven’t got that experience already, and you don’t know how to use that money, and you haven’t got the plan, right? How can I trust the brand new business owner to go and spend 100-200-300,000 pounds, their hard-earned money? So this is why you as the business owner usually have to back yourself at the start.
So, you’ll need to work out how do you go back yourself? And I said in the question, so Rach, preparation is key. Look at how much money you think you need. Right? Look at how much time you think you need. Look at where you would spend the money where you would invest the money and go out there and put a plan together for yourself, and then go about raising that capital personally in the beginning.
Now if you can raise it on the business, that’s ideal. But I see a lot of people saying, well, you’re not going to start a limited company, go out and raise 50,000 100,000 150,000 pound without any trading history. That’s why it has to come from you initially from a personal perspective. Now, the other option is you could go and you could look at friends or family investing.
But if you want to get friends and family invested in your venture, it’s not proven is difficult. I think what I’m trying to say to you here, which is the bottom line, every business owner that is going to succeed at some point has to back themselves and start looking first of all, how can you take yourself into the market before you ask somebody else to back you. Hopefully that helps. And hopefully you can take that on board.
Okay, so this one is from Alex Connor. It says how do I get companies interested in sports sponsorship, especially for racing drivers. A lot of companies will sponsor teams but not individuals. Now, this is what I’m going to answer right now. The other week, I was watching the Game of France, right? The other week.
When I was watching the Game of Thrones, there was this really important moment in the Battle of Blackwater and I thought it was genius. And I think this is what we know, hopefully me sharing this kind of experience. Maybe you watch Game of Thrones, maybe you haven’t. Right. But what happened is that the reason I watched Game of Thrones, I just went to Croatia a couple of months earlier. And it reminded me to go and watch it back because I’ve been at this bit.
What I saw was awesome and something that I want to share with you is that at the Battle of Blackwater, Joffrey, the king is running away from defending the battle, and older soldiers seem to be running away. And all of a sudden, they think, oh, my God, we’re doomed. It looks like we’re going to lose this battle, it’s going to be an absolute nightmare. Tyrion, who is the dwarf character, tries to motivate the troops to go and fight. He’s like, “Hey, everybody, you know, doesn’t worry, your kings are not running away, we still got a fight”. And all of them ignore him. And they’re not interested.
So, what Tyrion does, which is genius, is he switches around, he says, “Hey, alright, the Kings running away, he’s afraid”. He’s worried he’s gonna get killed. And that’s his prerogative. But let me tell you, you’re not here to fight for your king. You’re not here to fight for anyone except yourself. Because, hey, if we lose this battle, whose homes are getting ramset yours, whose gold and whose life savings are getting taken out their homes, yours, whose wives and families and children’s are going to be exposed to Raiders, and people coming in and killing and slaughter yours, so I don’t want you to fight for your King, I want you to fight for yourself, because this is your last chance. Otherwise, you’re gonna die. Right?
And I go, right, okay, I’ve just realized, I need to fight. So, they will rally up, they fight and they win. Now, what is this, this is appealing to someone self interest, right? And if you want to get people to respond doesn’t matter if it’s a racing team, a racing driver football team, if you want to get somebody to do something, you have to have a reason what’s in it for them, you need to make a more compelling proposition as to why they would want to sponsor this racing driver. And if you can’t communicate those benefits, you’re not going to get the yeses that you seek.
So you need to switch it around and say, hey, what real benefits through paying for one? And how can I deliver these benefits through my medium, which is sponsoring this race and driver? What is the thing that I can do?
And if you get that right, then you’ll have no problems getting the yes so my answer is this. Start to appeal to people’s self interest. Don’t worry about what you want. If you help enough people get what they One, you’ll certainly get what you want to start paying some people self interest. Hi everybody, Adam here.
And I hope you love today’s episode. Hope you thought it was fabulous. And if you did, I’d like to ask you a small favor. Could you jump over and go and give the podcast a review? Of course, I’ll be super grateful. And that is a five star review with putting our all into this podcast for you, delivering you the content, giving you the secrets.
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