Use this time to just sure yourself up for anything that could possibly happen and then if it does, you're prepared, you're already a step ahead of all the others that are not, get yourself ready, get yourself ready for it. And then you're only going to be steps ahead of everybody and if you're ready to go full time into entrepreneurship, then you're there, you've already started the process.
Good evening, partner.
Hi, good morning. How are you today?
Absolutely wonderful. But I have to say everyone's talking about the price of groceries, the price of gas, the price of electricity, is it the same for you?
Oh, yeah, I mean, over here in Bermuda a carton of eggs is now $5.00. That’s like doubled in six months, it's crazy, and that's just one of many items that are just getting, yeah, insane! They're trying to do things now, governments are doing things to try to decrease duty and stuff to help the economy but it's all anybody is talking about nowadays is the economy, downturn, recession, perhaps even a depression. You look over at what's happening in Europe, that's scary. The UK pound like it's all…
The UK pound to the US dollar - phenomenal.
Never seen that.
Yeah, absolutely. The US Dollar is just going nuts. And 10% inflation, I'm sure I saw in the news, 10% inflation in some countries in Europe.
It’s no wonder people are talking about it, there's a lot of fear in the air around this. You know none of us in our generation have lived through a depression, we've certainly lived through what they called a recession. Here in Australia it was called the GFC - Global Financial Crisis. We like our acronyms for everything.
I like it. It sounds a little less scary when it, when it's just some letters. Crisis is not a word I want to say out loud but a GFC, okay, yeah we can, we can go with that. Yeah, I mean, it can be very worrying and it can be very scary, especially for an entrepreneur and it can also be an amazing, inventive, creative, innovative time as well. So I always like to look at the positive in everything. And even just looking back on my own story, and if we talked about it early on in a podcast episode about our journey and where we started. But my whole business, I started out as a freelance graphic designer during the last recession we had here, which really hit Bermuda around 2011, 2012, after the real estate crash in the US that happened around 2008, the knock on effect happened here and our economy really contracted. I believe they called it a recession, I don't remember the details too much but that was a really bad, the last really bad global financial time was between 2008 and 2010. I started my whole business during that time and it was very scary, there was a lot of fear, there was a lot of hustle. And sometimes I look back and go, Oh, how did I do that? I was pregnant, I had a kid already that was in school and it was a bit of a crazy time but when I look back on it I'm really glad it happened because I don't know that I'd be an entrepreneur today if we hadn't gone through that time. And if I hadn't have had to make that decision, and if everything hadn't fallen into place for me because of what else was going on in the economy.
Yeah and you raise a great point. I mean, aside from all the personal stuff that was going on for you and that personal fear, and how do I feed my family? You're in marketing, you're in graphic design. So back then you would do mostly graphic design and companies are scaling back, they're scaling back their staff, they're scaling back their training programs, they're scaling back even sometimes their hours of operation, like really fundamental stuff. And I can guarantee you they must have been scaling back marketing budgets and there you are selling marketing services in an environment where people are scaling back marketing budgets, so tell me, talk to me, how do you build a business on that?
Right at the time before I was made redundant, I was working for a publishing company that was producing magazines and newspapers and different things. And that's exactly why I was made redundant because the budgets were all being cut and big industry, not just small, you know, mom and pop shops, but big industry were cutting back their marketing budgets because it was easier than cutting a salary right? Oh, we’ll do less advertising, we don't need to do as much, so they cut back, they cut back and and then there just wasn't enough pie left over for a small publishing company to keep full time staff. So that's what ended up happening. I got made redundant and I went part-time with them and I, you know, picked up more part time business. But yeah it definitely was a crazy time because I knew that, I knew people were marketing less. So how do I have a business that markets stuff for other people? And, you know, while they did less certainly, there were some companies that took the opposite approach and decided to do more. They switched how they did it. Yeah, they switched. So it was less maybe the expensive print ad in a really expensive magazine, right, because that would be a big spend of like $2,000 for one ad, and instead turn that money or a portion of that money into social media. And that's really when social media, marketing on social media started taking off was in the last recession, the last downturn because it was a free media and people realized really quickly how many people you could access for, like a free service. Kind of incredible, right? I mean, the algorithms and everything's changed now, we know that in marketing, it's not nearly as free or as accessible as it used to be, but it was certainly when that rose and that's exactly when Instagram was founded, as well, Instagram started in like 2010, which was during the last great recession, we're just at the very tail end of it. And I think and I do believe it's because marketing brands started moving on to those platforms, where before social media was nothing more than sharing pictures of your kids, your dog, your dinner, you know, your vacation. And all of a sudden brands were like, wow, we have access to a lot of people, we can sell stuff. So they started to advertise on these platforms and then the platforms just responded by new ones popping up, growth, etc and we saw so much innovation during that time of other businesses, especially tech businesses, WhatsApp, Airbnb, all of a sudden, you can book a place to stay online, you know, that came out of the last recession, Instagram, like I mentioned, Pinterest was another one that came out of that time, Groupon was another one that came out of that time. And because they were offering discounts, right and it was, it made sense, so much sense for the time it was really innovative to have a coupon based online service that gave discounts. So it kept a lot of businesses afloat by being able to offer it to the masses, in such a big way it was, it was brilliant. It was a brilliant service at the time. Uber was another one, another big one. A lot of the sharing economy came out of the last recession because the Airbnb, and people found different ways to make money.
Necessity is the mother of invention, they've always said that, right? And here you are stuck between a rock and a hard place, the world is in recession and so you need to be creative and generate new ideas, innovate to meet people's new set of needs. And I mean, you're always solving a problem in small business and here you suddenly have new needs arising, because things aren't the way they used to be and I think that's what recession brings in, it brings change and pivot - that word that during Covid, you know, but it's about really accepting change and then looking for the opportunities in change. And that's something that we love to share with our members and our clients, how do you find the opportunity in change when everyone around you is feeling fearful and trying to hunker down and keep things close to them? And if you're that one person, what do they say, they zig you zag. If you're that one person that just says I'm open, I'm open, I'm open to anything, I'm open to ideas, I'm open to opportunities, I'm open to collaboration. Let's go, let's double down for this recession. Let's double down and level up, and be ready for this recession.
Yes, yes, yes. I heard recently it’s said that a recession is like a forest fire. Obviously when it's happening, you don't want it, it's terrifying, you get away from it, you try to escape it right. But what does a forest fire do? It clears the way for new things to grow.
And more than that coming from an Australian perspective, the forest fires are actually biologically and chemically required for some tree species and I believe Eucalyptus is one of them, which is obviously the iconic Australian tree, those species require the heat of the fire to crack open the pods so that the seeds can be released to germinate new trees.
Wow that's really cool. That's, that's really cool to know that and just knowing that alone takes away some of the fear of it, right? It's like okay it's necessary. We don't want it and it's bad when it impacts human existence and human life and your own personal house but of course when you realize, yeah, when you realize the okay, but it's still necessary from an environment standpoint, okay, you know, so it's more of a management, yeah, it's always a cycle,
A natural cycle. And we see that unfortunately, with climate change and you know, you've just been through a hurricane, etc, but that's a whole different conversation, I guess, but this is a natural cycle and there's evidence to show that recessions happen in cycles, right?
Yeah, every 10 years or so, every 10 years or so we hit a downturn in the economy and it can be caused by, now we know what it's been caused by, what the whole world has been through in the last two, three years, but it's also cyclical. So it probably would have happened with or without, Covid, I think maybe Covid accelerated it and war of course, accelerated it happening sooner, and maybe will make it worse than what it might naturally have been.
Because people are starting on the backfoot, some businesses are starting on the backfoot. I think this whole conversation could easily relate parallel to the Covid conversation because so many of the entrepreneurs that we've spoken to, on this Resilient Entrepreneurs podcast have said that Covid, the whole pandemic did their business a favour, that they flourished in that time and they almost feel a bit guilty talking about it. Whereas others have just completely closed their doors and packed up for good. And some of that was related to shutdowns, lock downs, and they weren't able to pivot and get online or maybe their type of business didn't allow for that, or I truly believe that there are a number of businesses that closed because maybe, when you're just in business for so many years it's a really hard decision to say I've had enough. If you're not going to hand it on to someone in the family or sell the business, it's a very hard thing to walk away from something that you've been doing for so long. And something monumental comes along like a pandemic shutdown for so long that is, admittedly crippling you financially. But isn't it so much easier then just to say, now's the right time to not push through, to not try to find creative solutions, to not be resilient, because that's not the direction I want to go. I think some companies closed because they made that personal choice and it's a great thing to have that choice.
And like a forest fire, it clears away the deadwood, it clears away the things that aren't working because that is not going to survive. If it's not working it's not going to survive a bad economy. You have to have a business that works, that people need that people want, that people can pay for or are willing to invest in, not necessarily if they have the money or not, it's not about that, it's about, is it something they want to invest in because it's going to help them grow, build, be the thing that they need? So how do you be the best at it. Those are the businesses that are going to survive, the businesses that are going to thrive even. And I think it's an amazing time to be an entrepreneur, especially a small business entrepreneur or solo entrepreneur because you have the ability to pivot and move without all the pressure of overhead, a big staff; it'd be a really hard time to be an entrepreneur with a huge staff right now because you may have to make some really hard decisions. Now might be the time where you have to decide, or in the next few months, whether or not to let people go because profit is not what profit was two years ago. So it is going to be a time of really hard decisions. When you don't have a lot of overhead and a lot of staff to have to worry about being responsible for then it's a lot easier because you can pivot, you can move, you can change, you can go Okay, where is that need? Right? That's what we did during Covid. We had a whole different plan for this business. Two Four One who was not meant to be this when we first started out and we were like, Okay, there's no need for that business right now so what are we going to do? Where was the need? And we immediately looked around and said, okay, the need is small business owners getting online, getting social getting their marketing levelled up and that's why we created Two Four One to what it is today. And we've been growing and building since. And are we going to need to look for another pivot in the next year? I don't think so because I think the need is exactly right for the time. And because we pivoted two years ago I think we're well positioned for what's coming in the next year or two. And I think that's where people may find themselves at a bit of an advantage and where Covid may have helped their business, because they may already be lean, because they had to make hard decisions staffing wise so they may already be lean, they may already have pivoted, they may have already gotten themselves online and got a new website up or, you know, the social media, you know, working on that engagement right now, that marketing, and in my opinion, it's time to just do more. Right? Do more marketing. Businesses that market during an economic downturn are the ones that survive it because people know about you, you show that you're in business, that you're doing good business and you have things that people want. And as long as you get those things right it is going to be a good time for you to be in business right now. As hard as that is for some people to believe I firmly believe recessions are the best time to be an entrepreneur, it just takes a different mindset, you've got to just have the right mindset through it.
It is all about mindset. It's funny I remember when my mum owned a business during I suppose it was the 2008 GFC. And she said, Vicki, everyone's talking about this recession and I just say what recession, I refuse to believe there's going to be a recession. My mum's brilliant at those mind games with herself, meant in the nicest possible way, I mean it's certainly served her very well. Because customers would come in, she was in retail, customers would come in and they'd be a little bit gloomy and doomy and maybe they were looking for a little affordable retail therapy just to make themselves feel better and she’d brighten them up and be all perky. They'd be coming in, they've come from a previous store and they’d say, Oh, they're not doing very well down the road there and they're just talking about how slow everything is. Mum’s like, slow? Heck no, we're having great fun in this store. It's all about the mindset. And of course those customers felt so much better having had a conversation like that, and there might be a bit of fake it till you make it in there but I think honestly, it's just you see what you look for.
Yes, that's so true and it's also what you project out, you know, you project out that optimism, it makes you naturally more attractive than negativity. So yeah, when you're doing your marketing stay positive. That's the message there.
Good news. Absolutely.
So what else do small business owners need right now? Like you need to be able to survive this, not survive, I like the word thrive. Yeah, it's definitely resilience. What does that mean? What does it mean to be resilient? It seems almost a heavy word ‘resilient’. Are we tired of being resilient for such a long time?
Yeah. Doesn't resilience lead to burnout? Because just pushing through and pushing uphill and trudging through it? No, that's not what resilience means to us anyway, it's very much about being aligned, it's about a daily practice of being mindful of what you're doing in your business, are you focusing on the right things, are you focusing on the things that deliver results? Does it feel hard or does it feel aligned? Are you in flow? That's it, when you're in flow the creativity just comes, you are already thinking clearly and differently. You're seeing opportunities that are right in front of you. Because opportunities are always right in front of us. Always right in front of us. It's just about whether or not, whether we are in a state where we can allow ourselves to see it. And I think resilience is a state. It's a state of mind, but it's a state of being. It's when you're in flow and these are things that you can do, there's all kinds of personal tools that people use, some people meditate, some people go for a morning walk, some people like to go to the gym and pump iron. Whatever it is, moving your body, what do they say, move a muscle, move a thought. If you're stuck in a funk, go for a walk, get some fresh air, to move your mind, you move your body.
Yeah, yeah, super important.
That's just one of those things. The other thing is to keep learning, always have that hungry mindset, that perspective that you don't already know it all, even if you've been in your industry for 20 years.
Stay curious, stay curious. That's one I like, always stay curious.
Yeah, we can always learn from each other and it's important that we do learn from each other. And that's why community is so important, staying connected and feeling the sense of belonging that you're not in this alone.
Yeah,I think community is key especially when things feel like they're crumbling around you, and the stress is piling in, the worry and all of that, when you have a community that just helps ground you again because oftentimes, we've said this so many times before, but especially as a solo entrepreneur, you feel like you're on your own, you're doing it all on your own. And when it is all on you, it's so much weight on you all the time. And when you trade your nine to five for your 24/7 job, which is what entrepreneurship is, it's all consuming and when you're doing it all on your own, and you think, Oh, my god, how am I going to get through this thing, whatever this thing that's weighing on you, do I have enough money to pay payroll tax for myself this month, right? And then you get into a community and you're like, Hey, guys, I don't know, how am I? Where am I gonna find this payroll tax? Oh, my God, payroll tax is stressing me out and then you get in front of a community and there's an accountant in the community that goes, well, hey, you can you can do this, or you can defer that, or you can do… and you’re like oh thank you, that's the piece of information I needed, which you wouldn't have found on your own unless, without tons of research, but there's just a community to tap into that has that knowledge for you. Oh my God, that's what I love and that's why we established the League in the first place. If this is your first time listening to our podcast, the Level-Up League is our membership program we've had running since 2020 and we have amazing, brilliant entrepreneurs and they're from all different types of businesses and all different stages of their business. And we talk about marketing but we also talk about so much business development, dealing with things like financial stresses, as well as just that loneliness and the journey and it's just amazing to have a group of cheerleaders and fans and friends and collaborators, because that's something we've also really seen within the community. And my favourite part about community is just, Hey guys I'm doing this thing and somebody else is doing something else that works so well, in collaboration, it's not competition, it's just, hey, we can work together on this, or Hey, I know the perfect person that's gonna help you. Yeah, I know a VA that could do that for you.
And it gives people courage. Like for that VA conversation, we have people in our membership who are so weighed down by all the work they have to do and then someone else says, you don't have a VA yet, what's going on? Why aren't you there yet, we know you can do that. And it's a bit of a light bulb moment and that's just one example but there's many examples like that, where, there's no shame, there's no judgement, it's a very safe space but it's a sharing of, well, I'm already doing that so did you want to try it, I can put you in touch with someone, and it feels so much easier, so much more aligned. And that's why we meet in collaboration and the opportunity that's right in front of you, too. And the other thing I like about the League, while we're talking about it, is that more structured concept, that more structured component of it where there's an element of it we call it, it's a marketing challenge. So it's an element of accountability. We like to think that you can only be accountable to yourself, no one else can ever make you do something but when you have an opportunity and a framework to work within where everyone's doing this and you can choose to participate in it, too. Then once a month, we set you a fun challenging marketing activity and you can choose whether you go all in or whether you just take one piece of it and do it, but it's about that consistent layering as well from marketing especially. Resilience is all about consistent layering and doing it because you want to not because you feel like you should, shoulds are a banned word!
You ‘should’ yourself to death! Exactly. Yeah, no. I'm a person that thrives on a challenge, give me a challenge, that's it, I will go all in and that's when I'm more apt to take action. Because it's really easy to kind of sit back and go okay, this is working in that scenario. Am I going to do it, am I not going to do it? But when there's a challenge, it's like, oh, yeah, I'm on it, I want to do that, I want to win that, I'm competitive. I admit, I am competitive and competition drives me. And I always look at that as a good thing, that is I know, one of my maybe superpowers is that I love competition, not in the way that I want to crush anybody. I'm not in it to win and to take anybody out but I am in it to just continuously better myself, level up what what I do, learn what I do, what you were just talking about like learning and stuff, you learn so much from talking to other people, because you might just get like that perfect book recommendation or podcasts to listen to, or that little dose of inspiration, you also have a WhatsApp chat, which I think is awesome for inspiration, and celebrating the little stuff, celebrating those little wins. It's so important, especially at a time like this when there feels like doom and gloom and you know, if we're going to make it through this month, do we have enough cash flow to survive and then you're like okay, but I did this and I've got this client, and I become a guest on a podcast, or this is gonna happen and that's gonna happen. And it can be small things but when you look at them and analyse them and realise you're just always taking positive steps forward, it builds and builds and builds and when you're doing those day after day, week, after week, month after month, despite an economy, despite anything that's going on around you, you’re continuously building, you're gonna look back and you're gonna be in that group of entrepreneurs that do make it, that don't quit, that don't go back to the nine to five because it feels safe. Because the reality is, nine to five is not safe, when you're working for somebody else you are relying on them doing what they say they're going to do paying you every month, paying your health insurance, and all of that feels very safe when all is good but at a time like this you do not know what's happening behind those doors in those boardrooms, because they're making hard decisions which may impact you and you may not get a lot of notice. You know, it's happened to me, it's happened to plenty of people I've known in the past and you should be ready for it. And the best way to get ready for it, if you're not ready to make the leap into entrepreneurship which I do not think people should do lightly, prepare yourself for entrepreneurship, it is a ride but you do need to have a community. So put that on your agenda to do when you're ready. One smart thing I could advise people to do right now is just start your side hustle, because everybody's got a side hustle in them, I always had a side hustle and that's what made jumping into entrepreneurship work for me was because I was always doing graphic design on the side for other clients, I already had clients that I was working with on the side and I was able to grow them into more clients and get the referrals and build myself into a full time agency just doing graphic design. Because I have that hustle already going, now is the perfect time, even if it only brings you in $1,000 a month, it's something you could build and grow on. Or at least you have that extra, save it, put that rainy day money and squirrel it away, invest it, get that little extra in, it's worth it. This is the right time to do it. Use your free resources like your social media to market it, email marketing, we always talk about the importance of email marketing, build your email list, use this time to just sure yourself up for any thingthat could possibly happen and then if it does, you're prepared, you're already a step ahead of all the others that are not, get yourself ready, get yourself ready for it, and then you're only going to be steps ahead of everybody. And if you're ready to go full time into entrepreneurship then you're there, you've already started the process. Yeah, and that's the hardest part.
And the cool thing is with the stats is the average recession lasts about 15 months, which really is no time at all, how quickly a year flies by, we've just seen what happened in the last two years. I mean, was there even a 2021?
I don't I don't know. We're skipping that year.
So time flies, 15 months passes by and then it's followed by a spurt of about 10 years of growth. So you're doing your prep now, you're working towards that and you will be shining bright. And talking about competition, if you consider it a race, which we don't really, but if you look at what you're doing and if you have someone in a similar space who's pulling back, reducing, working from fear, and you're growing even if it's step by step then you've gone so much further ahead than someone who was pulling back, so once the recession clears look where you are compared to the rest of your market.
Yep and history, research always shows that the people who do that are the ones that are way ahead of others, when it all clears, when the dust settles and your growth journey is far ahead. And now's the perfect time to take advantage of opportunities that only come around at a time like this, because costs are going to have to drop, right, they're gonna have to drop costs of supplies, there's going to be a demand supply shift. So this is, there's opportunities, you just got to look for them, because everybody's going to be trying to sell you their stuff. So how do they do that, they're gonna have to reduce their prices so now you can get things at better prices, so just paying attention to those small things could really get you so much further ahead. Now is the perfect time to be an entrepreneur. It is, I believe it, I'm gonna say it forever and I want people to know it and believe it too because get out of the fear, push past all of that, look for the opportunities. It's a time to innovate, it's a time to look and talk to people, ask around, see what people need, get real curious about your industry, use social media well, create polls and surveys and engagement and see what people are talking about. You know if you're really tuned in and paying attention, you're gonna see so many more opportunities than tuning into the news and seeing all the doom and gloom and letting yourself work on fear and making rush decisions or not making any decisions, which can be worse, which is still a decision. It's true, that's true. Yes, so I will always stay on the positive, we're always going to be here to support small business owners, it's what we do, it’s what we love, it's who we're passionate about helping and inspiring. And you know we've had our moments of wobble and we didn't quit, and we want to make sure that all of you entrepreneurs out there, never quit. Because there is so much opportunity. It's the only opportunity you have to really create wealth and freedom in your life, whatever wealth and freedom looks like to you it doesn't matter if it's you need to be a millionaire, or you just want to be someone that travels and takes their laptop and lives a nomad existence, that's wealthy too or just someone who wants to spend more time with their kids and stay at home and have a business that runs well out of your living room, that is amazing as well. And we are here to support everybody in those spaces. Please reach out to us, tell us what you're thinking about the recession, where's your mindset at? Where are your worries? We'd love to hear about it, or what's your positive mindset? What growth are you looking towards and forward to? And where do you want to be? Let's set some goals. What goals are you setting for the next year or two? Where do you want to be when all of this finishes and we start moving towards that growth and we start, everything starts accelerating, you want to already be halfway up the roller coaster ride. When it's time to accelerate you don't want to be starting at the bottom still loading all the people in, we want to be at the top, ready to go!
Yeah, we want to hear from the future Ubers and Groupons and Dropboxes.
We want to hear from you. We don't need to hear your trade top secrets but let us know that you're out there and what you're working on and how you're going to be resilient through all this in the most easy, flow creative kind of way.
Yeah, love that. Well, thanks, partner this was an awesome conversation
It’s a great conversation. I feel fantastic about, well I'm not gonna say I feel fantastic about the recession because that just might come back and bite me in the butt.
But go for it in the right mindset,
We're in control of this, we get to choose what path we're on and that's a really beautiful reminder I think for everybody. Let’s do this, we're in it together and always look for your tribe, look for people who are like-minded and can lift you up as you lift them up.
And on that note, good night partner.
Good morning partner. See you later.
So thanks for joining us on Resilient Entrepreneurs. We’re Laura and Vicki from Two Four One. We love supporting entrepreneurs especially with mindset, marketing and motivation which is why we've built an incredible community of business founders who meet weekly in the Level-Up League. If you'd like to know more about it, look us up at www.twofouronebranding.com
