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I almost sunk our family business. I assumed I knew enough about business to run a dinky little plumbing company. After all, I had spent about $100,000 of my parents’ money on my college degree in Business Administration. In fact, I graduated at the top of my class. Still, I didn’t know how to balance a checkbook! I got involved in my husband’s company after his partner died unexpectedly. Boy, was I humbled! It seemed like lots of money was moving through the company, but at the end of the month there was never any money left. Thankfully, I found a mentor, a savvy plumbing contractor. Frank Blau wrote a column in Plumbing & Mechanical magazine. I wrote to him and asked for help. He took me under his wing and taught me how to keep score in business. He taught me how to read and use financial reports. He taught me how to make money. We turned our company around. We paid off our business loan. We doubled sales and tripled the amount of money we took out of the company. Very cool. My husband and I went middle-age crazy. We sold the company to our employees – a friendly coup d’état! – and bought a gentleman’s farm in the country. (Picture Green Acres.) At this point, I realized that I wanted to share what I’d learned. After all, if a smart, highly educated person like me didn’t know how to read a Balance Sheet, I figured business illiteracy must be rampant. I was right. My experiences since then have included teaching and consulting with hundreds of small businesses, primarily home service companies. I rarely find a student or a client who creates and reads financial statements on a regular basis, much less uses financial information to make management decisions. In fact, few know their assets from their liabilities! I teach the basics, the simple disciplines that can move great ideas into successful businesses. I’ve written four books on business basics: Where Did the Money Go?, How Much Should I Charge?, The Bare Bones Biz Plan and The Bare Bones Weekend Biz Plan. Check them out at ellenrohr.com. My consulting work led to a position as president of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, a home-service plumbing franchise company. I learned a lot about what works to grow fast and profitably…and what doesn’t. Guess what! The basics never go out of style, no matter how big a company gets. Currently, I am an owner and founder of ZOOM DRAIN—a drain and sewer cleaning and repair franchise with locations across the US. I am a financial coach at HowardPartridge.com. I also work with ServiceTitan, the premier software for the trades, as a consultant and podcaster. I am here to help. Together, we can build extraordinary businesses and expand world peace. Follow me on Instagram @ellenrohr or visit my website at ellenrohr.com.
Episodes
Tuesday Nov 09, 2010
Tuesday Nov 09, 2010
Erica started a web hosting company in 2001 and sold her online business in 2007 at age 26 for $1,100,000.00. Although her business didn’t require her to understand the intricacies of search engines, she learned them anyway. Back then,it was mostly about just getting listed in a search engine.
After Erica sold her business, she started another one…natch! www.whooshtraffic.com This one is all about a relatively effortless approach to getting more traffic to your site. And, Erica has a rockin’ good blog, devoted to helping you become more successful. Love it!
We'll Discuss...
- Erica’s amazing story of success at such a young age.
- Three Basic Factors That Make People Successful.
- 5 ways to increase traffic to your website.
- What are Google Keywords? And what the heck is an Algorithm. More importantly…what do you DO with them?
- Debunking the big internet myths. Erica is not the hardest working girl in the Marketing business. That should tell you something.
- The #1 thing you should be doing to increase traffic to your website.
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