Hello this is Kelly Coughlin, I’m the CEO and a CPA with EVERYDAYCPA. We work with small business owners on strategy, tax, accounting, and risk management throughout the US. I personally like to work with soon-to-be or wanna-be new business owners. So, I am always on the lookout for innovative and cost-effective solutions to help business owners create, launch and manage a new business…and increase the likelihood of success.
And that lead me my guest today, RYAN ASHE, the founder and creator of BIZBOOSTIO. Ryan are you there?
Ryan how are you today?
Ryan, I sent you an email when I heard about your group and said I would like to interview you and ask you five questions on your vision for BIZBOOSTIO. I gave you in advance the categories…but I did not pull CNN debate moderator trick and give you the questions in advance. Is that correct?
Yes…
So Ryan, since you are the brains and the idea guy behind BIZBOOSTIO.
My first question is:
KELLY: WHAT Any new business or new business idea, has to be filling a need or void in the market. Let me just ask it simply, WHAT is the need or void is BIZBOOSTIO filling.
That's a great question Kelly. I could not agree with you more that any new business entity that is just starting up needs to fill a void - or in this case a need. A need that I don't feel is being addressed. For instance, in high school you weren't given a class to teach you the basics of personal finance well the same is true for small businesses and start-ups. In this great economy that we are having, there are more small businesses opening than ever before BUT how many of them have the business knowledge or networking connections to maximize their chance of success? That's where we AS A COMMUNITY…step in. We AS A COMMUNITY want to offer the know-how, knowledge, and experience they aren't finding other places…COST EFFECTIVELY. We want to offer this through our community of other business owners and expert advisors. Unlike other groups that focus on small businesses, we want to focus on the business itself and not totally what nonsense is happening in D.C. We are there for the business owners all the way not just when we want more MEMBERSHIP money from them.
KELLY: Is there any company or organization that’s doing this now? Or something similar the groups of business organizations that come to mind are
· NFIB, ROTARY and LINKEDIN
· Are these organization in your space, if no why not…if yes, why are you better
· Lets start with ROTARY
· NFIB
· LINKEDIN
RYAN: Let's take that one at a time because they may have SOME overlap they are very different in their approach and I would like to point those differences out.
A. Let's start Rotary I think that Rotary does a good job on a LOCAL community level but that is really the extent of it in practical terms. The simple truth is we don't live in the pre-digital world anymore. The world is now flat and we don't have to look at it like Pandora's box has been opened - on the contrary, it is a GREAT opportunity. For example, if you are opening a restaurant for example in Columbia, MO in the Rotary model you can talk to other local businesses and that's great but how great would it be to be connected to other restaurants owners across the country to be able to innovate and share experience of what has proven to work and what has proven not to work - Your business will greatly be enhanced and you can provide your customer with a vastly better experience. This is true for not just the services but for ALL start-ups and small businesses.
B. As for NFIB, they are really large but with an organization, their size and age comes bloat. We at BizBoostio want to stay lean and strong for the business owners and not have a top-heavy structure filled with fat cats eating up the money that should be used to benefit the members. Also, 80-90 of their focus is on legislation and although I will say they have supported good bills throughout the year they pay little to no attention to the business owner COMMUNITY. The most common thing I hear from former members of NFIB is "I only see them when they want more money". I also don't like the outdated high-pressure sales approach they use they have used the same script for over 50 years completely unchanged in a door to door model that is completely outdated and completely misses the modern digital business market completely.
C. Linkedin is great in some ways but what it lacks in my eyes is the dedicated community of business owners not being constantly shilled to and having their data sold without their knowledge for profit. Linkedin started as a place to get a job…and has tried morph into a networking deal…but they really don’t want people connecting on the planet earth…they want to connecting virtually….we think nothing replaces human connection. Bizboostio is not primarily a digital marketplace but a vibrant, dedicated COMMUNITY who's sole purpose is to grow and educate business owners. We are kind of the synthesis of NFIB, Rotary, and Linkedin…with a little bit of social meetups and Facebook thrown in…we are taking out the bad elements from all those and leaving the good but adding some great things.
KELLY: You mention Facebook…I want to talk a few minutes about FACEBOOK…a lot of business people are disgusted by the noise from the Facebook audience…and the bias and shadow banning going on by FACEBOOK content managers…Is there are an online social media component to this? Do you see this being a replacement to FACEBOOK for business owners?
RYAN: That's exactly what it is. Facebook is so out of touch and bloated that it offers very little to help a budding business or any business for that matter. AND you don't want to get me started on the data-stealing issues they have going on at Facebook. Plus who needs all the scammers and trolls that fill the Facebook platform. It's a true shadow of its former self.
KELLY: How will people use this…how do they CONNECT with other people. You say a business owner will be able to get help from other business owners…how do they actually go about that
RYAN: They begin by listening to our podcast. Then they simply go to www.bizboostio.com where we have additional information. They simply sign up and then we integrate them into the bizbootio culture and give them the networking tools to connect with other business owners and BAM you are on your way to success. As we are still expanding out we are giving early adopter rates and will offer them exclusive specials in the future as we roll out more features.
KELLY: My next question has to do with money…I know you are doing these podcasts and these are free, correct? What’s the revenue model for you and BIZBOOSTIO?
5. We expect to charge a reasonable monthly fee of $40 to $50 bucks to access the community. Although I don't see it as a "monetization" model but an instrument to improve the lives of as many small businesses as we can. Because unlike some of those other organizations I spoke about a few moments ago we realize it's not just about numbers on a balance sheet. It's about mothers and fathers, Sons and daughters - family, and at Bizboostio we want to help make your business life succeed because we know when it succeeds your family succeeds and when families succeeds America succeeds.
KELLY: Well Ryan that’s sounds interesting…for me personally and professionally, if BIZBOOSTIO could be a noise free, troll free, shadow ban free version of FACEBOOK for business owners that would be great…and I personally thinking charging a membership fee is a start to doing that…free attracts everyboday and I would not be interested in this if it this included EVERYBOY.
So, how do people find you…are taking members now…how can they join.
