Biz Coach Steve Feld is a Certified Business Coach, Author, Professional Speaker, and award-winning Business Management Executive. His business is Biz Coach Steve out of Phoenix, Arizona. Over 300 businesses have sought out his services to work with them on gaining much-needed clarity, implementing solid strategic plans, and achieving positive growth results. He has clients worldwide.
Steve is passionate about business growth, efficient operations, and long-term success. He has built, owned, and operated 7 lucrative businesses. He has consulted with other businesses providing change management and process improvement. He operated within 3 Fortune 500 companies, manning and boosting an entire division for them.
Tell us how you got started working with small business owners growing their business for long-term success.
In my first business, I was writing business plans for start-up tech companies. Then it morphed into writing their marketing and operating plans. Many of my clients were seeking venture capital funding. They needed help speaking business and improve their presentation skills to get the funding. At that time, all the venture capitalist panels were only businesspeople, and having someone talk tech to them didn’t work out too well. The business was fantastic, writing their business plans and coaching them to speak business and get that venture capital money. It was tough keeping up with the amount of business I had. Then one day, the tech bubble burst, and so did my business. All my clients were gone. No more leads or prospects, and all the venture capital money went away fast.
That taught me a valuable lesson about business, but clearly, I didn’t learn enough. I opened my next business a week later, going into businesses and turning them around. I started getting known as a business interior designer. No, I didn’t design their office. I redesigned their business from the inside out. Since then, I have owned 7 businesses, ran 3 others, and have worked with 100’s of small business owners.
Speaking of small business owners. What is the best thing you like about working with business owners?
I have been very passionate about small businesses. I patronize mom and pop establishments over chains. Now don’t get me wrong. I still will visit a chain restaurant or something, but I would rather support a local family business owner over an unknown corporate CEO looking to buy their 5th vacation house. Small business owners are the backbone of the world’s economy. Without them, big business would be in trouble, as well as every economy. Small business owners hire locally, which helps the community, they are part of the community, and when someone supports a small business owner, they are in turn supporting their community. Another reason is that the failure rate for small business owners is very high. They need help understanding how to grow a business and succeed in long-term success. The way I look at it, I not only help the business, but I am also helping the family and the community at the same time.
We see you have written 5 books. One of them is “45-Minute Breakthrough,” can you share some of those breakthroughs with our audience?
This book focuses on 8 simple strategies any business, no matter what industry they are in or what size they are, could implement within their business to grow the revenue by over $100,000 without having to spend an extra penny on marketing or advertising. The one strategy that most business owners like is joint ventures. Seeking out businesses that have the same target market as you and promoting each other while driving business to each other and possibly getting a referral fee as well. It’s a great strategy, and once it is set up, you just have to nurture the relationship. This is one of my favorite strategies if you are looking to get exponential growth in your business.
I am more than happy to give any of the readers a complimentary copy. Just visit. www.bizcoachsteve.com/100k and download it now.
Can you share a little bit about your other books?
All the books I have written were derived from conversations with small business owners. Realizing they only know what they know, and they need help knowing what they don’t know, drove me to write a book about the “10 Secrets every business owner should know.” That led me to write a book about “why you need a business coach.” That was driven by all the questions I received from small business owners. So why not put their questions and answers in a book and provided them some questions to use when they are looking for a business coach. Then came “10 digital marketing secrets” after realizing that most small business owners do not know how to leverage digital marketing to grow their business. That led to “Financial Formula Breakthroughs.” That book covers how to read a profit and loss statement and how to focus on just 6 numbers to make a strategic decision within their business. Most small business owners do not know their numbers, and that is hurting them and their business.
After writing my first book, I also started to see that many “experts” could use a book to promote themselves and set themselves apart from their competition. These experts could be salespeople that have to get their sales to get paid (insurance agents, financial planners, realtors, etc.) Having a 50–70-page book that highlights how they work with their clients, provides the reader some great insights about them, and showcases them as the expert, will put them way above their competition. Our package includes 100 hard copies, all the layout and design, a revision, and an e-book copy, which is all completed within 30-days. The book becomes their calling card and elevates their expertise as the authority in their field because they are a published author. www.bizcoachsteve.com/spotlight
On your website, you mention some proprietary software you use to find a business owner $100,000 or more. Can you tell us about it?
Our proprietary software keeps getting better and better. We can look at 12 areas in a business or have a deep dive and look at 40 different areas of a business to find a business owner, usually over $100,000 in hidden annualized revenue. Not only that, but we also have a digital marketing piece that has been unbelievable in finding that hidden revenue for those business owners that believe they are firing on all cylinders. We share our screen with the business owner, ask lots of questions, enter in their answers, and then let the 497 million algorithms do their work. It can summarize all our findings, put them in a report that we provide to the business owner. Not only that, but it also allows us to build an implementation schedule to work on areas of their business to get that revenue. We can show the business owner an ROI on their investment into coaching as well as provide a generalized valuation of their business. I like the tracking feature in the software that helps the business owner and myself track our results to make sure we can get them that hidden revenue.
The next feature being added will be for group coaching. We will have short videos provided to educate the group members on specific areas of business that they can implement, followed up with weekly virtual group coaching calls for accountability. Check out the short video we made about the software. We have opened up time for any business that wishes to have their business ran through the software. Just contact us to set that up.
What do you see as one of the top struggles for small business owners?
Small business owners only know what they know, and that sometimes can make business very difficult for them. They may have left a corporate job to start their business and may know how to make a better widget, but they do not know about marketing, advertising, accounting, finance, production, distribution, logistics, shipping, digital media, and so much more that goes into business. They probably never had to go out on their own to market or sell a product or service. So, they work on building that widget instead of lining up sales to bring revenue in.
The top struggle I see time and time again with small business owners is they believe they HAVE to do everything themselves, which is far from the truth. They do not have to do everything themselves, and they need to ask for help. I owned one of those businesses where I believe I had to do everything myself, and my business was failing. I brought on a business coach, and within 60 days, my business took off like a rocket ship. I realized that I did not have all the answers and know everything I needed to know about my business. Once any business owner realizes this and brings in that support (a business coach), watch how much better their business will be. They will be less stressed. Stop making business so hard and get help.
I have had a few business coaches over the years and realized that if Michael Jordan can have multiple business coaches, then I could have one. He knew he wanted to be the best and could only see what he sees. Michael knew that the coach could see things in him that he cannot see. Provided him the feedback and resources to be better.
Business owners just need to ask for help. Find the right business coach that can work with them to get them the results they want in the business. Having a coach by your side will not only get you to your goals faster, but they are also your cheerleader along the way, celebrating your success. They are also there to provide you with that much-needed feedback and guidance to keep you on your path. They will provide you with many other resources to give you the tools to be phenomenally successful.
Can you share with us a case study or a business that you worked with, and what kind of results did you get them?
I had a client in the retail industry. They had a brick-and-mortar business doing $250,000 a year, barely breaking even. The owner has not taken a penny out of the business for herself since the day they opened. No funds in reserves. Paid all bills 90 out-suppliers were always calling her. Many months behind on her lease. More people were shopping online and not coming into her store. Her marriage was in trouble.
She followed some simple strategies we worked with her on and transformed her business in 6 months.
We defined her customer and target market, so she had clarity, then reached out to potential joint venture partners. The JV partners increased her revenue by $40,000.
Installed an e-commerce element and a solid social media marketing plan, which lead to an increase of $70,000.
Brought in new staff, trained them how to upsell and cross-sell, which led to an additional $55,000.
She started a monthly newsletter in the 2nd month, created landing pages for online offers, which lead to another $40,000.
Her business almost doubled in by the end of 6 months working with us. She was very dedicated and worked hard to get these results. She was open to learning new strategies and then committed to making implement those strategies.
All her vendors were happy because they were all paid, and they renegotiated many of her deals which lowered her costs of goods sold. The landlord provided her incentives for marketing since she was paid up. She started taking a salary, which also helped save her marriage. Having the retail location and the online presence provided her store more credibility and sales.
We have many other case studies on our website.
It is always amazing to see the results our clients get from working with us. We want them to be successful and achieve their personal and business goals.
You also have been bringing on coaches and speakers, training them as well. How does that work?
I was speaking at an event. After I got off stage, I had 31 people approach me to coach them. At that time, I was not doing any group coaching and knew I had a problem. So, I started bringing on coaches and speakers. We train the coaches on the exact systems that I use, provide them with all the same resources I have so they can get fantastic results for their clients. Teach them lead-generating strategies so they can bring on the clients they want to work with. It is a great business for someone that wants to be their boss, control their destiny, help their clients get great results, and make money. All the coaches have their own branded E-Learning academy, and I provide them with other coaches to support them in many areas as well as myself.
Once I started bringing on coaches, I went back to in-person workshops filled with business owners who became clients. Then I passed those clients to the coaches. I knew I had to get some help on this as well, so I brought on speakers who can close from the stage. They are comfortable filling the room with business owners, presenting for 2 hours, and closing. Covid did hinder our live workshops, but those are coming back, and I am now bringing on speakers once again. Training them to fill the room and deliver the content-filled presentation. I am looking for more coaches and speakers to bring on.
Do you offer any other resources for business owners to help them grow?
We are passionate about seeing business owners survive and thrive and build an asset that they could sell one day and retire comfortably. Many of our clients like to work 1-on-1, while others like to work in a group coaching setting. We do have an elite mastermind for dedicated servant business owners that want extraordinary results within their business. Our E-Learning Academy is extremely popular with solopreneurs and those that want to follow a program to build their business at their pace. The E-Learning Academy includes a $2 million ad library and lots of tools and resources the business owners need in their business that will save them lots of time and money and the proprietary software that we have already discussed.
Our goal is to increase the success rate for dedicated small business owners, and we have many proven tools and resources all small businesses need to expand.
Where can people find you online?
The best place to catch me is via email, steve@bizcoachsteve.com, or directly through my website. I am always looking to meet growth-minded business owners that want to build the business of their dreams and enjoy the fruits of their labor. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.
