116. Kick Start Your Business: Interview with Tammy Johnston

With the current pandemic and changes in our economy, many people are looking at other ways to create multiple streams of income by starting their businesses. Or perhaps you just had enough from your day job and want to pursue your heart-centred, purpose-driven business venture. Whatever your trigger or reason is, most people will become solo-entrepreneurs by utilising their skills and experience to begin with. This podcast episode with Tammy Johnston will help you to plan and transition from a full-time job to self-employment, or if you already took the leap to become self-employed, we shared some tips and reasons that you don’t have to do it all alone.

Tammy Johnston is a speaker, educator, business and author. Tammy specializes in helping small business owners and solopreneurs since 2003. She is a noted small business expert on the stage, in the classroom and in media outlets for the better part of two decades.

If you want to find out more about Tammy Johnston work, please visit https://ksabusiness.ca

She is starting a new program called Kick Start 2022, for those who are thinking about starting a business or have recently taken the leap and want to shorten the learning curve and get you to become profitable faster. You can click on this link to find out more and to register: https://ksabusiness.ca/kickstart2022/

*I am not an affiliate or paid promoter for Tammy’s business, I recommend her work because she is simply awesome, super down to earth, no BS and a highly supportive coach and colleague!* 🙂 Check out her new program!

Interview Highlights:

Tammy’s personal story of becoming a solopreneur while pregnant
What would Tammy say to her younger self – the Do’s and Don’ts when starting a business
How to joggle between a young family and starting or growing a business
Why we need a board of directors or a tribe trusted people to support our business journey
The habit of Kaizen
3 Keys on successful business planning

Video

Transcript

Sze Wing (00:03):

Hi, everyone. I’m super excited to interview Tammy Johnson today. She’s my dear guest all the way from Canada. I love to interview people from different time zones. So this has got to be a really fun interview because I love chatting with Tammy and I just have to start this interview otherwise, we’re just going to go on all day. But I think today it’s going to be really great podcast because I know during this current pandemic and changes in our economy, a lot of people are looking at other ways to make money or create multiple streams of income. And not surprisingly many people look at starting their own business or taking their skills and experience into bringing it in terms of making a product or service into the world. So a lot of people are thinking, can they adapt? Can they transition? So I think Tammy’s story and expertise can really help a lot of small business owners or want to start people to have a think and maybe take some notes about this.

Sze Wing (01:02):

So I really hope this is going to be a useful interview for a lot of those people, but also it’s going to be lots of fun. So a little short introduction, Tammy is a speaker educator business owner and author. She specialized in helping small business owners and solo-preneurs since 2003. And she’s a small business expert on the stage in the classroom and in the media outlet for two decades. So she definitely got the experience and when she started out, she had small kids, actually babies. So for those who are moms like myself, we also going to learn from Tammy in terms of how to balance it all. I mean, balance is a kind of like a dream state, but how to do it all, like without going insane, I think. I also think this is a great opportunity too, for some existing small business owner who wants to turn things around or speed up your journey for success, or like brand new people who want to really start off on the right food. So I think it’s going to be super fun. So without further ado, welcome to my show. Tammy!

Tammy (02:17):

Well, thank you for having me. I’ve I’ve been looking forward to this all week.

Sze Wing (02:22):

That’s so nice. So kind of, you can say, I always like to start with your origin story. And as far as I know you started out your own business when you just find out you’re pregnant or something along those lines. So basically it was kind of the crazy time with hormones or when you have a new baby, you know, sleep deprived.

Tammy (02:45):

And I basically, I got fired from my job, which is actually a wonderful thing because I was hating it. I was looking for another job and if I hadn’t been fired, I would have just gone into another job. It would have been better paying all of that stuff, but it would’ve been just another job. But when I got fired, I’m going, it was a release that I was able to go, you know what, and let’s be done with this. And I started my business and then I got pregnant. So it was like all whole whirlwind. I am so crazy. I took 30 hours of mat leave. I worked up until noon of the day that I had my daughter. I missed teaching one class that night because I was in labor. She was seeing clients with me before she was two days old. She taught that missed class with me the following week. And she did her first trade show with me when she was two weeks old.

Sze Wing (03:47):

Oh gosh. That’s, that’s really something because I have two babies. So I know the whole, your body and your emotion, everything it’s like, up here. But actually funny that I remember when I was actually, after I gave birth natural birth on the way home, I was texted to tell one of my clients look, actually I just gave birth. I may have to push out the appointments. I remember actually, because the adrenaline, I guess the same day I was able to, you know, half my head still and say, look, I can’t do the call tomorrow. So we have to reschedule. Cause I kinda just went to the hospital. I mean, I didn’t expect it to be it’s happening so fast, but anyway, it was quite a crazy time. So we’re going to unpack this a little bit,in terms of the beginning, the origin story, I know that you talked about instead of falling into it, in a different universe, you know, we say that, when you given the chance again, you probably would do exactly the same, but let’s just say, you’re gonna, you know, plan ahead this time for this transition or, you know, the adequate example, you tell a younger self how to do it better.

Sze Wing (05:05):

Right? What are the top do’s and don’ts, what are the must have or nice to have , how are you going to prepare it? Your younger Tammy?

Tammy (05:14):

If I could have gone back and talked to myself a year before I got fired, the first thing I would’ve done is started doing the preparation to go self-employed to be setting up my own business. So that’s a big thing on what I do with my clients. Now I’m going, cause there’s so many people that are in jobs that they don’t want to do. They are not happy where they are. They want to get out of their industry. They do something different where I am oil and gas is absolutely huge. And that industry has been absolutely decimated and it’s never coming back the way it was here. So I have a lot of that. They have spent 10, 20, 30 years in oil and gas. And even if they have the option to go back, they didn’t mind. I don’t want to do, I want to be doing something completely different.

Tammy (06:08):

I’m tired of all of that. So how do I start my business? And I would, like I said, I would go back. If I could talk to myself a year before I was fired or decided to leave my job or whatever it was, I would have started putting the pieces in place financially at home better because there’s things that can be done that make things awful and banks love employees with their regular steady paycheck. They do not like self-employed people. They do not like small business owners. It doesn’t matter how many times they tell you that on their TV and radio commercials, unless you can prove to them beyond a shadow of a doubt that you absolutely do not need them. They don’t want you as a client, but as an employee, there’s things that you could be doing to be getting your finances set up a bit more.

Tammy (07:03):

I would have started putting together my marketing so that when I was ready to go, it was ready to go. I would’ve started creating, cause one of the things that I did because my original background is financial services. I’ve been in financial services for close to three decades. And so I went into sales full time. And one of the things that I did is I created a personal financial planning course, one day intensive, all the things you need to know about money, but I guarantee you don’t. I would have started building that at a time rather than taking this three months. It took me after I started my business to put that together, because that was the number one marketing thing that I’ve done. And it has made me a lot of money, a lot of very good lifetime friend clients because of that. So if I could have started that beforehand, especially before I’m dealing with the pregnancy hormones and a newborn that fed five times a night. So I don’t know how I survived on like no sleep and things like that, stuff like that would have made my life an awful lot easier while still having that steady, safe paycheck that it would have. It probably would have saved me about two to three years.

Sze Wing (08:28):

Well, okay. So let’s just pause here for a minute. When would you say, are you suggesting, say for many people they will have a signature program or signature product, whenever that is the first name thing, you figured that out, you create it, you try, you prepare the marketing for it. So I’ll use suggesting people actually will launch while they’re still working or should they wait until they know?

Tammy (08:53):

What the situation is. Some people can launch while they’re still working. Some people can’t, it depends very much on their situation where with my situation were, what I was doing and all of that stuff, I could not have watched my business until I properly launched where I work with a lot of people that will kind of test things out because it’s completely different bit. So for example I had a client running, working one business, he wanted to start a tea business. Well there’s no conflict of interest or anything there. So he started off doing, okay, bringing those products in. So you have, you have to be watching because when you’re talking about like business, there’s only like one thing that’s guaranteed, you’re going to pay taxes, everything else. It depends. So you need to be asking yourself the right questions and, and working with the right people and having a proper advisory team to help you put the stuff together.

Sze Wing (09:58):

That makes sense. So like, I understand a lot of people, for example, like in your case, and maybe non-compete issues that maybe, you know, it just not the right product or market that some people I say you starting to sell don’t know, I remember, therapy completely different. That’s no you can test the water, see where your product or your offering is actually you know, people do need it. So that make sense, but also time, because I know some people work in high jobs with it just have basically no time, except maybe a couple of hours in the morning and the weekends. So that’s also really hard for some people. So as you said, depends on the situation, but prepare well in advance

Tammy (10:42):

As much as possible.

Sze Wing (10:45):

But then how do they make that leap then? So I prepare, prepare. And then what if the situation has been lukewarm as in, you started to selling some tea, but you know, your team is making a little bit of money, but not enough to flip and say, I can quit my corporate job and just get into full-time tea business. You have a little bit of income. This lukewarm can take many years. So how you help people to sort of speed up the transition or pivot. I mean, sometime you never

Tammy (11:17):

Well, one of the questions I ask is, okay, so if you’re going to be jumping, you’re going to be launching and getting rid of the job. What financial resources do you have to survive until you start making proper money with your business? Because for example, if you’re lucky and you have a spouse, that’s got a good job that can look at things. That’s a very different situation than, okay, you’re a single parent, you’ve got three kids that need to be fed and have a roof over their heads. So do you need to be looking at that. And then the other is, okay, now you freed up all that time because you’ve jumped and you don’t have to worry about the high stress job and not anymore. Now you have the high stress business. How are you going to be investing and using your time?

Tammy (12:07):

Because when you are going from an employee structure where somebody else is dictating, and here’s my schedule, and this is where I work itself. And then you go to, okay, everything is totally and completely, my choice. Lot of people are not prepared for that. So they end up wasting all sorts of time on tons of different things. So if you’re going, okay, this is how I’m going to be spending my day. And, and all of this stuff, like one of the things I always talk about, one of my favorite things to talk about people is the lovely calendar. Like I go through, I’ve planned out my 2022 all on paper. So I lay it all out and I’m going, okay, how am I going? Like, what are my, what are my things that I’m trying to do? So for me, I have classes, I have speaking engagements that I have booked well in advance. I gotta be launching a new program or something. Okay. When am I going to be launching it? What is it going to take me to get that program put together? And then even more importantly, what is it going to take me to market it?

Tammy (13:23):

So a lot of people don’t think about this, this stuff, they’re all excited and I’m all for excitement, but I’m going, it literally comes down to what are your habits and how are you investing your time throughout the day? And one of the things that was a blessing for me, like I had a little bit of time before I had my daughter, but I had to get really, really focused because I had to work when she was having a nap or when my husband was home where I had a teeny bit of help, because unfortunately we don’t have any family close to us or anything like that. Just the two of us.

Sze Wing (14:02):

I know exactly.

Tammy (14:05):

And my daughter was breastfed. She wouldn’t even take a bottle. Couldn’t even give her a soother. She projectile vomit for you. So I’m going, I have to feed, I’d have to work in between feedings. And so it’s like, you’re not wasting time because you can’t waste time. You have to know what is it that I’m working on. And not just because a lot of people can be very efficient on things that shouldn’t be worked on. It’s are you working on the important things? I don’t care how pretty your filing cabinet is and how perfectly it’s set up. And this is from a person who’s an anal retentive organizational freak. But if you’re not doing the stuff, that’s actually going to put client files in the filing cabinet. What’s the point.

Sze Wing (14:58):

I love it. And that’s lead to my next question, because I think personality is super important. So you have practical, efficient, you know, no BS. I felt I’m pretty much the same. I do wander sometimes

Sze Wing (15:17):

So I think people like ourselves find it easier to strap ourselves tight and get going. And, you know, I can tell from the way, describe your beginning, your origin story, that you will like work til really late and you just squeeze it on. But not everyone it’s like that, not the personality or the strength. So I know you, you love to talk about, you actually need help. You need to have an advisory team. You’ll have, you need to have other people, but most people want to start out, especially solo entrepreneur. They want to do everything on their own because they think they, first of all, can not justify the money. Second of all, they don’t even know what they need. And actually the biggest danger of people like you and me, I think, because we think we can do it all. Like some people are more like, I can’t do this design thing.

Sze Wing (16:05):

Well, I can’t do this money thing, but with like, oh, we can learn, we can do this. Actually. We are the people, entrepreneur has this personality because that’s why they want to set up a business. Right? So how are you going to advise, say new starter to say, even though you have this amazing abilities and you can learn it, or you have the energy and time, whatever, that’s not how it’s supposed to do it all. So how are you going to, what you’re going to advise them and how you’re going to convince them that it’s not the way to go?

Tammy (16:37):

Well, one of the things like if you want to look at sports and I’m not a sports person, but find me any successful professional sports person or team that does not have a group of coaches for different skills. No, but it doesn’t matter how brilliant or wonderful or amazing you are. Your area of knowledge is this. And there is so much more. And especially in our very complicated world now, like there’s just so many different things that we need to be learning about. And then how do we focus? So the first thing I help people do is figure out, okay, where, what are your strengths? Where are you actually good? And things like that. And then where are your weaknesses? Because if you are not aware of those things, you’re just going to crash faster and then you need to be surrounding yourself with a mix and variety of people.

Tammy (17:37):

So typically when we first start out in business, we’re surrounded by our friends and our family are typically employees like the group of friends that I had 20 years ago when I started my business. Like we’re still friends. A lot of them are clients and things like that, but I don’t spend very much time with them anymore. And the group of friends that I have now, very, very different, almost all of my friends and the people that I spend time with and socialize in that are all small business owners, entrepreneurs, solo preneurs, because life has changed so much. And I need to be around in order to keep playing my best game and keep leveling up and leveling up and leveling up. I need to be around people that are playing the same game and that have different skills and that I can share ideas with and that I can listen to and find out what they’re going through.

Tammy (18:36):

And then I can figure out stuff like that. I have, like, there are certain things that I’m super strong on and there’s things like one of the things that I’m having to learn a lot now, because being international and doing so much over the internet and social media, I’m having to learn all of this technical stuff. Like I’ve been using zoom for about four years, but learning all of this stuff and then, okay, how do you do the social media marketing? Because that’s, that’s a new thing for me. I’m used to like, I go out and speak and people come and talk to me. Well, that’s very different than having to put your stuff out on Facebook and Instagram and things like that and all the technical stuff and different marketing. So I need to surround myself with other people with different skill sets, different ways of looking at things.

Tammy (19:28):

And one of the biggest problems that a lot of solo-prenuers have when they start, and this is why they try to do everything on their own. And I did it myself. I learned how to create websites and things like that because I’m going, I need a website. I do not have the money to pay somebody else to do it. So I learned how to create one in front page. And I’ve been through like 14 different like website updates and changes and stuff over the years. But they think that they have to pay for everything with money. So they’re going, I have a very limited budget. How do I do this? Well, you don’t have to pay for everything in money. Some things that you like absolutely have to, but you can trade because you have areas of brilliance and products and services that can be for someone else. So you can trade services, you could trade marketing and leads and things like that. You can ask somebody, are you willing to be on my virtual board of directors? This is what it means. This is what I’m looking for. And how can I help you back? A lot of people will help you if you just ask. And if they say no, that I don’t have the time or I’m not interested or whatever. Wonderful, thank you. I appreciate you considering the offer.

Sze Wing (20:49):

So you mentioned about the virtual board of directors, quite a bit. In other conversation we had, can you tell people what will be the typical has everybody at different strengths and weakness, right? But that will be something more like you will consider quite standard or normally people need to think about in terms of looking for potential virtual board of directors, people to surround yourself with, or, you know, make those offers. One of the typical ones that we should start thinking about.

Tammy (21:17):

So typically a good virtual board directors is six to eight people, including you. You don’t want it much bigger and you can’t have it much smaller. And you want to be very much taking a look at number one, like you said, what are your strengths? And then where are your weaknesses? Because you want people on your board of directors that are strong when you are weak. Most people, when they’re going to their advisors and stuff, they want to be around people that think, look and act like them. And then they wonder why nothing changes or gets any better. And they just crash faster. You have to have differing opinions and strengths like that. You need to have a couple of ideapeople, thay may be you or may not be you, you need a couple of people that are good at figuring out systems and the how to’s and things like that.

Tammy (22:10):

It is absolutely vital that you have one person on your board of directors that is your nay-sayer, or your turtle. They’re the ones that are really good at seeing the problems. They’re typically not invited to business meetings, because people say you ran on my parade and all of this stuff. No, no, no. They are the breaks. You bring them in after the fact going, okay, the idea of people in your systems, people have come up with this wonderful plan marketing or whatever in the world it is. And then you bring in your naysayer and say, shred it. What are we not seeing? Where are the problems? Where’s all this stuff. And they point out the things you didn’t think about this, or this could be a problem. Perfect example of a profession that’s a turtle or a naysayer, lawyers there. Their job is to see the problems to see the holes in your plan. And then because they’ve pointed it out, sometimes they can help with also figure out, because I could see this going wrong, and this is going wrong. This is how you prevent it, minimize it or deal with it. When it comes up, you don’t have those people. You don’t have a plan. You have a wish.

Tammy (23:29):

And then people that are actually used to the hands-on and different things like that. And if you can have a broad base of age, because we also typically spend all of our time with people that are close to us and demographics, well, I’m close to 50. I want to have some like young twenties and I want to have somebody who’s like 65. It might in my board of directors so that I am seeing things from different angles. Everybody brings strengths. Cause if everybody looks, thinks and acts like you, what was the point?

Sze Wing (24:09):

That’s true. So very good. So with the naysayer system, practical person, I guess, and idea person and yourself. So, I thought this is kind of likewhen people said that this is, they would start figuring out what people they need to pull in for that. Now my question is actually with naysay actually my husband is often that person, Like, that’s actually why I want to ask you, like, is that okay to bring in family or close friend to be part of this? Or will you say, it’s not a good idea.

Tammy (24:47):

No, it depends. Depends on what is, what is the situation? Are they supportive and do they have the skill sets? My husband is absolutely wonderful. He looks after what of my technical stuff and things like that, but he’s not an entrepreneur. It is not his skillset in any way, shape or form and trying to bring him in, just stresses him out where I’ve worked with other, like, I actually have two sets of clients and they are absolutely amazing partnerships and how it is in both sides. It’s a man and his sister-in-law and on both sides, the guy is very much the idea person. He’s really good at marketing. You can talk to anybody. He’s the visionary and stuff like this. And the business is very successful because he’s able to sell it. And then the sister-in-law is in the back. Okay. Now how do I actually deliver on all of this and putting all the systems and stuff together? So family can be good. Depends on the situation. Friends can be good. Depends on the situation.

Sze Wing (25:59):

That makes total sense. Yeah, my husband is a bit of the naysayer, and then I’d say you are right honey. It’s quite funny. We definitely meet all kinds of different types of people in our business on life to enrich the experience. So we change gear a little bit. Like you talk about the habit of Kaizen. Can you tell us a little bit of what is that all about?

Tammy (26:33):

Kaizen is my whole philosophy for life and business. It’s a Japanese word, roughly translated means constant and never-ending improvement. And it’s about focusing on what can you do today and every day to make something slightly better, it’s all about your habits. And a lot of people they’re looking for the quantum leaps and every now and then the quantum leaps happen, but they are so rare. That’s why, when we hear it, we hear about them because they are rare and spectacular. The small steps that you take day in, day out going to the gym, reading a book, learning, something, making a point of, okay, what am I going to be doing to be working on my marketing every single day? What am I going to be doing to be working on creating my next program or my next product every single day. This is the stuff that gets it done. Like the old cliche of the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. We laugh because we’ve heard it. And it doesn’t, you know what, that’s the fact it begins with one step and it goes with one after the other, after the other, after the other, if you’re not taking those steps, you’re never going to get anywhere.

Sze Wing (27:51):

And I love that. It’s similar to the 1% concept. You know, they say you don’t have to think about improving the profit margin 20, 30, 40% think about just 1% improving your performance or your profit. They it day in and day out. And then that will comes up with some. And I think that’s the thing, like, you know, people may be really scared taking the first step and once they make the leap after the first step, that’s not it, you know, you have to take a lot more tiny little step continuously. I do think consistency trumps a large effort, you know, the same with exercise. If I have no time, I prefer 10 minutes of yoga a day. Then one hour a week is the same with my business that, you know, I would rather to do something and at least keep me going with momentum and the energy flowing, then nothing and then hundred hours. And then zero for a long time, that’s my preference as well.

Tammy (28:54):

Yeah. Well, it it’s like the weekend warriors for they go out into they get really active on the weekend. They’re playing football with their friends and all of this stuff. But during the week they do nothing. Those guys are the biggest risks for the heart attack.

Sze Wing (29:11):

That’s true.

Tammy (29:13):

Like it’s been jumped. And if you want to be successful in your marketing, you’re better off making a point, okay, I’m going to post one post on Facebook. That’s been thought out one post on Instagram. That’s been thought out and I’m going to do this every single day so that people build up that consistency and they see that stuff rather than spending $10,000 on a launch. You do once.

Sze Wing (29:35):

Definitely. And you know, that also tie a couple of things. Someone ask you, one of the thing is that you obviously, you a believer of system and process. So would you give us a tip about say growing a small business or studying, what is the probably the most important system you think we should have in place?

Tammy (29:59):

The number one thing that I have found, and for myself personally, and working with clients for 20 years, is planning, because if you don’t have a plan, doesn’t mean that the plan is ever going to properly like 100% work out. But if you don’t have an idea of what you want, like, what are your priorities, what you’re going to be working on. What’s the point you’re just going to be spending all your time reacting. And I call them like the little metal balls, the pinball machine, oh, I hit this bumper, hit this bumper, hit, this bumper, hit this bumper. I’m in the gutter where if you have a plan and this is like I said, I plan annually. I plan accordingly. And every Sunday night or Monday morning at the latest I actually go through and I plan out my week and I take a look, I pull up my Google calendar and then going, okay, what do I have in there for appointments and stuff?

Tammy (30:54):

What are the other priorities? Like when my daughter was much younger, cause I’ve got teenagers now I know like when she’d have PD days and stuff so that no, she’s not in school. So I have to work around that, but I’m going okay, what do I have to be doing to be working on this, this class that I’m launching at this time? And I put that into my calendar and being realistic, especially when you are a parent with smaller children, you can’t cause so one of the things that people do is they overestimate their time and their energy. So they’re going, okay, you know what? I’m going to work on my business. Six hours a day after my job, after the kids put together, that doesn’t happen. Or if you’re going okay, I’ve got one hour where I’ve got this and it’s not going to burn me out.

Tammy (31:46):

I’m not going to be overly tired, but I can consistently do an hour. For example, what am I going to be doing in that hour? Because if you got it planned out, okay, I’m working on this, this and this. And I can go through it. You’re actually, weren’t going to get it done wherever you’re going. Okay, what am I going to do? Well, I could do this or I could do this. You move, you’re going to lose most of your time trying to figure out what in the world that you’re going to do that taking that little bit of time to plan has incredible positive effects on your efficiency and your effectiveness.

Sze Wing (32:24):

Yeah. And to add to that, I also plan, like you say, annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly. I mean, it doesn’t sound so bad like people may go gosh so much time, but it doesn’t have to be like five hours each, sometime it’s not weekly, but it’s just getting the focus. As you said, once you get the 15 minute break, what are you going to do with that 15 minutes? But if you have an idea, if you’re planning out your week inadvance, you know exactly what’s the best way to use the 15 minutes. What I want to add on it is that, well, people sometimes overlook about planning because they are afraid to be, I don’t know, like be accountable of the results, but I don’t know, like as many reasons why we stop discussing actually planning gives yourself a way in terms of reflecting on your, let’s just say energy level, because you plan according to where you are.

Sze Wing (33:15):

I mean, we can be wishful thinking, say, we’re going to write a book in 20 days, but it’s not realistic. But when you actually plan it out, it also gives you the opportunity to check in and ask yourself, how am I feeling? Maybe I have some health issues. Maybe I got emotional situation with other people. So this, which I’m not going to do that much. I need to look after my mother or myself, whatever. But that gives you an opportunity to reflect and factor that in that you don’t, you turn around a month later and say, actually I’ve done nothing. And then you beat yourself up, which I thought is so counter protective. So when you plan it doesn’t necessarily, it’s not a pressure thing. It’s actually a check-ins.

Tammy (33:57):

And, and what I’m talking about, like you said, what are your energy levels? Because some people are sick, twisted morning people. Oh, all the power to you. I am not one of you

Tammy (34:14):

All have our energy flows and things like that. So if you’re knowing, like, if you’re paying attention and you see, okay, what’s, what’s going on with, with, with your energy levels and also time availability. So like when I don’t seeing clients, cause I have my client hours, typically 1:00 PM to like 9:00 PM, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And that’s where, where I work at.If I don’t have clients in the evening, I find that my hours between like seven and 10 are super productive for me for doing things because that’s my energy flow where somebody who’s a morning person. Well, that could be seven to 9:00 AM for them. Yeah. That’s no. You learn that stuff. And also if you’ve got kids in school, well, this is your window when you’re there, not in your face. So how are you going to be dealing with,

Sze Wing (35:13):

Yeah, we do plan around the kids a lot, in a weekend where my son he’s really good sleeper when he sleep over 2 hours. Yes, I have a one and four.So when he sleeps for two hours, that’s like the golden hour where everybody can do their thing and its quiet. It is like that, you know, you plan around them and things change as well. Like, you know, as they grow older. So I feel we covered a lot of ground about planning, about system. Is there anything you would say to people who may be dabbling and on the edge and thinking with this pandemic, how are we going to, is it possible to become like a real business owner and do what I want? Like what would you say to those people? Or maybe the younger you once again?

Tammy (36:06):

Yes, it is absolutely 100% possible. If you are willing to do the work and that’s the biggest thing and it’s you’re are you willing to step up and learn how to do everything over again, for the most part, because moving from an employee world and mindset into a bit it’s night and day difference. So, I’ve been teaching a small business class for close to 20 years and I’ve had everybody from, I have an idea and I’m thinking about it too. I’ve been successfully in business for 35 years and I’ve had a few people at the idea stage after class go, you know what? I’m not cut out for it. I’m not. And I’m going, thank you. I am so, so glad that you figured this out now, before you’ve put in a couple of years and your life savings and risk your relationship with your spouse and your kids and all of this stuff, because it’s not for everybody. If they’re not willing to do the work and it’s not, I’ve, I’ve kind of crossed some employee types, they work hard. It’s not whether or not you’re willing to work hard, but when you become a business owner, you go from physically working hard to working mentally very, very hard.

Sze Wing (37:37):

And once again, that’s why, when your virtual board of directors or you know, having a tribe, it’s actually really important because you can plan and plan and plan. And then there will be things didn’t work out. You may have set back, but when you’re on your own chances like, oh, that’s not for me or, oh, I don’t know what to do. You just suck it all in. But when you work with people with other people, it makes such a huge difference. I mean, coaches have coachee and they have their own coaches, right? So we kind of need people to bounce idea or keep us, honest or keep us responsible and accountable. And that’s why I find that like another really big piece that, you know, we need people when you were start out or actually not to star, but the whole time

Tammy (38:20):

The whole time. I’m such a big fan of really good, like finding a really good networking group or two, not 50, like one or two, because you only so much time and energy, but you find the people that are your crowd, the ones that you click with, the ones that encourage you to learn and stretch and grow

Sze Wing (38:50):

Wonderful. This is a perfect wrap up for this interview. And I think people who are thinking maybe starting a business or growing the business will be excited to learn more about your work. So what’s the best way to connect with you?

Tammy (39:05):

Well, actually I have a gift for anybody who is listening. I do. So if you go to KSAbusiness.ca/gift, you can download my solo preneur self assessment. So it helps you figure out, okay, where are you strong and where are you weak so that you can start figuring out, okay, where do I need to be getting my help and different things like that. And that’s, that is completely free of charge to anybody who listens to your podcast.

Sze Wing (39:39):

Perfect first step as well.

Tammy (39:41):

It is a very good book. And even if you’ve been in business for a while,

Sze Wing (39:46):

Absolutely. We always have to do help to do you go to the doctors like once and that’s it? No. Do you go to the gym only once and you look good and say bye?. I know

Sze Wing (39:59):

Exactly the same thing, whether it’s the spiritual practice, physical exercise, practice business, you’re going to just keep on going and you go for health checks. And so this kind of assessment comes in handy. Any time, any stage in your business. So thank you so much. And I’m going to put the link and details on the page with the specific link and people obviously can find out more about you on your website. And I just want to say a big thank you for your time and energy today. And I learned a lot and I cannot wait to do your assessment right now.

Tammy (40:36):

Oh Wonderful.

Sze Wing (40:38):

Thank you so much for today.

Tammy (40:41):

Well, it was a lot of fun. Thank you for having me on.