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30 Quick Wins 10th Episode Milestone
Chris O'Hare: [00:00:00] I'm Chris or had your quick-win CEO as a CEO from businesses, fan startups, consultant, province, and even won awards. But in this show, we'll be talking to entrepreneurs and experts. I hope you understand key concepts for your business. Along with three quick wins that you can take away and apply to your business today.
[00:00:18] And every week we find out about the entrepreneur themselves and dive into a different. Pretty important topic, but this week we're doing something a little bit different as we've hit our first 10 episode milestone. And when I started this podcast, I had no expectations, but for it to reach top 10 in the Apple charts blew my mind.
[00:00:40] But what also blew my mind. What's the love I got from all of you by listeners and how much you found it valuable. It was totally unexpected. So thank you for everyone who subscribed to the podcast and the YouTube channel, but special. Thank you to all of those. Who've been kind enough to rate and review the show.
[00:01:00] And the head is one of my favorite reviews from OAJ 95. Chris has clearly spent a lot of time making sure he has created a podcast that's chock full of interesting information. It's only been a few weeks and it feels like he's really hit a stride for streamers to CEOs. He's smashing it. And if you're a business owner or you want to be a business owner, give it a lesson.
[00:01:24] Thank you, OAJ95 for your love there. And if you want to write review, please do. I'll make sure to give you a shout out in a future episode. And of course I have to thank all of my great guests, Tom Young as Darren Fell, Melenie Schatynski and Toby Moore, Alex Chisnall, Josh Wallman, Jonathan Markwell, Simon, Kimber, and James Wood.
[00:01:49] Because without you guys, this podcast, wouldn't nearly be as valuable as it is. So thank you. But in this episode, I'm going to combine all of the entrepreneurs quick wins for each one of the first 10 episodes into one. Episode and that way you can get a super quick dose of useful tips in one episode.
[00:02:11] And if you find any that resonate with you, please do go back and check them out. They're great. A, here we go.
[00:02:28] A great show for you today. If you never had a video game streaming, then this episode is for you. It's a rapidly growing industry with the average viewer spending 95 minutes per day on its app. That's three times more than Instagram. That's a mind blowing statistic and streaming is incredibly sticky.
[00:02:49] Tom Young, a semiprofessional streamer tells us about how he turned his evening. Hobby of gaming into a main job by building his own fan base and earning money for sponsorship and tips from viewers. Tom also tells us about how you could use streaming for your business today. It's going to be an interesting episode.
[00:03:11] So here we go, Tom young.
[00:03:13]What about your three quick wins that will accelerate your streaming reach,
[00:03:19] Tom Young: [00:03:19] be aware of the content that you produce? And remember to I would say tiny tweaks would be. More beneficial to you and the, this the stuff that you produce rather than big changes, because you're only ever going to expect big things.
[00:03:38] If you make big changes. Whereas if you make tiny tweaks to the stuff that you already produce, you're only ever going in with the expectation of maybe a little bit of change or a little bit of an increase when actually you'll be surprised those tiny tweaks actually amount to a lot of difference. So yeah, a hundred percent, that would be one of mine.
[00:03:57]Next one would be treat all social platforms as unique entities are not as similar beans. So that means get to understand the tools that you have around you. So Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tik TOK. Remember that they all have their own algorithms. But remember that they're all individual platforms and they need to be treated as such.
[00:04:22] You can't expect the same message to be sent across and expect the same results back. So make sure that the content that you have has been repurposed and made unique to each platform. And then the last one is recognize that if you are going into history that you become the brand. If you're a business and you wouldn't make that into a brand, that's, you've already got a brand belt you're already ahead of the game for a lot of people by at least a year or two.
[00:04:52] So if you go in there with a brand already made my God, you're going to hit the ground running. But remember if you're going in with no brand. It mind at that time, you're going to become that brand and you need to represent your best self every single time, because otherwise you're going to be under the microscope a few years down the line.
[00:05:12] So make sure you're on your best form.
[00:05:15] Chris O'Hare: [00:05:15] Love those really good people are going to get so much value from those. Yeah. Thank you for that. What a show we have installed for you today as for make ideas as an expert, getting a startup out of your brain and into reality clients. Hence include Samsung power, MBA and digital catapult.
[00:05:35] Spencer came onto my radar a few months ago when he and Nick away started to create a YouTube series. And I immediately saw his wealth of knowledge or startups. And first we get to understand Spencer and his entrepreneurial spirit before diving deeper into his expertise of prototyping, where we talk about how to start building an app and different forms of prototyping, along with the various tools to use, including Marvel and PowerPoint.
[00:06:00] Before Spencer rounds out the show where there's three quick wins and tells us where you can learn more about prototyping, your very own app. You go to where the shows are. Here we go. Spencer what's your top three quick wins that, if you were going to give to the audience about how to get started with prototyping or just to maximize bang for their buck and get the most insight in the shortest amount of time, what would those top three things be?
[00:06:27] Spencer Ayres: [00:06:27] So I think the I'm going to, so the first thing that I'm going to talk about is talking actually, the quickest win for you to get to understand whether your idea has any substance is talk to people, never forget whether you're CEO, CTO, whether you're a developer where you are within the organization, prioritize talking to people.
[00:06:56] Doesn't have to be called a customer research. Doesn't have to be called user research, just talk to people about their problems and what you're trying to do. That's the first thing. And it's so easy, right? Quick. When you can send out a message to someone you can get on a zoom call within minutes, like that's doable.
[00:07:11] People think it's hard, but it's not. It's really easy to be doing. Speak to people, constantly try and speak to someone new each day. That's a, that would be an amazing thing. So that's number one. Number two is. Get ideas out of your head, get thoughts, whether it's a brand new idea, whether it's a hack for for converting people on a landing page, whether it's a new feature that you want to have, whether it's a new.
[00:07:38] Color for, but anything, just get it out of your head, make lists of things. And my, my buddy, our good friend, Nick, he talks about this creativity muscle that you have to try to create. And it only comes from constant repetition. It's like trying to lift weights. You're never going to get big and bulky, unless you put in the reps, you've got to keep rapping.
[00:07:59] So making lists of ideas, it's a really good thing to do. So my second tip would be. Jot everything down and get it out of your head. Get it onto paper as quickly as possible. The third tip, similar theme, but like we've talked about this so much is getting those ideas into something kind of tangible form, draw a screen out, draw what you think a journey is that is a prototype in a sense, essentially, you've got to be able to draw out this flow because sometimes it's really hard to figure it out in your head and it's just not a good use of your time.
[00:08:30] It's not good use of your brain power. Drew out the steps that it takes get a prototype. I've literally got them if I can. I've got them up here on my, yeah. Can you see this on my wall? There drawings post-it notes. I'm working on live and it's my. It's just my way of constant connection to what I'm doing, even though I'm in high-fidelity mode over here, coming over there to look like what was that thing that I was trying to do.
[00:08:57] So it's really valuable to go through that, that hand-drawn process as well. It doesn't matter how great or poor you are at drawing. Just got to do it, get it out there.
[00:09:06] Yeah, a quick right. Quick wins. Talk to people, write all of your thoughts out and start drawing screens. Come on. We can all do that.
[00:09:15] Chris O'Hare: [00:09:15] We can all do that today. So audience you're listening, you should definitely do that.
[00:09:20] What better way to learn about cloud accounting from the accountancy pioneer of the year. Darren Fell. Darren is the CEO and founder of Crunch accounting, 180 staff bam off we're. Over 50,000 software members is a serial entrepreneur and has successfully built and sold a tech company previously before setting his sights on disrupting the accounting industry by creating a simplified cloud variant that gives the power back to the small business owners.
[00:09:52] Darren and Crunch, I've won a long list of awards and I was set to continue to disrupt the accounting industry with a new product crunch. Sierra Darren gives us a nice rundown of the benefits of cloud accounting and it's quick wins. So here we go. Darren fell. What are the three quick hacks or quick wins that you had say to these business owners to get the most out of their cloud accounting software, what are the things are going to give them, the big results with minimal effort in terms of the software?
[00:10:24]Darren Fell: [00:10:24] The most obvious one is get going with it straight away. We see too many people in all the many thousands of calls coming into here and the many hundreds of new sales calls. Yeah. People like, can you do my counts? No. W when's it ju like next month? Now imagine that stress loading on that person.
[00:10:45] Yeah. I'll get around to I do. I sell a few things. I'll do a few projects. So the number one hack is, gets your whole set up your accounting set up the right bank connected to it. Yeah. Set up as soon as you possibly can, before you go out like banging on the doors and calling people and sending the, selling your wares, that's the number one thing.
[00:11:08] And you've got that beautiful foundation of strength in the business. I'm equally doing a YouTube channel to help people really want what I want to help them as and I called up A good friend of mine who's who runs our debt collection service to help our customers who get screwed over by other firms.
[00:11:28] And it's the whole setup, according to a debt collector. And it's really interesting. It's all the basics, don't give credit. Yeah. It get a really strong bookkeeping set up the counting, the banking these things mantras completely, you don't give credit, why would you give credit?
[00:11:43] But there's all these basic points. So that's it get the thing up and running fast? I think the next one would be, and it's interesting out of all of our, plus 10,000 accounting customers. Not this still is as a relatively small proportion using open banking. And this is our account manager.
[00:12:00] Keep going, come on. We've got them all connected. Now connect up. It will make your life so much simpler. So use open banking get that on there. The other hack to, to cash flow misery. Is the second you can get the invoice out there to the client and don't give big terms.
[00:12:21]If you can get some money with a brand new client, it's always worth getting some money in a, in advanced site, 50% because they may be super sweet. Yeah. But you've done an amazing work. You've poured your heart and soul into it, and then they turn around and go on.
[00:12:36] I'm not paying you. I'm not, I wasn't happy with this tiny element which is a complete fabrication. This whole thing about not giving credit, or at least when you start working with someone get 50% up upfront for projects or what monies you can. Yeah. Break the project into nice slithers.
[00:12:52] So you can get money flowing in and you know that good for it rather than getting to the end of the projects. We see so many people do. Yeah. He won't pay me. I can't believe you were paying me. I've done an amazing job. So all of that, that the real hacks to a stress free existence is get this whole accounting set up.
[00:13:11] All nailed down, find a really good accountant or using online accounts and then have it all fitted together. Make sure you're all right with that. And then, yeah, just make the, make sure all the basics Bulletproof and then from that strong foundation, you can really just focus on everything like selling your services or your products, and just focus on building the business.
[00:13:35] Chris O'Hare: [00:13:35] What Great quick wins. Brilliant. I think people are going to get a lot of value from those. So thank you for that.
[00:13:42] And in this show, we're talking to Melenie Schatynski at developer. Who's worked with the likes of the Telegraph and now has her own business called my code kit, a software based toolkit that breaks down the complicated barriers of coding for youngsters and promotes failure as a tool for learning.
[00:14:01] First, we find out about Melenie. Coding is a why it's a vital job skill for the future. And before we discuss the various ways, you can get started with coding along with her quick wins to speed up that process. So if you wanted to understand coding a bit more in layman terms, this episode is for you.
[00:14:20] So here we go, Melanie. . What are the kind of three quick wins that you would give to anyone and who is thinking about using coding for the business? Or do you just want to start to learn how to code what's your three quick wins.
[00:14:38]Melenie Schatynski: [00:14:38] Three quick things. I would have a look. So there's a you mean as if they want to learn how to yeah.
[00:14:47] Yeah. However you say it. Okay. So cricket veins, the biggest thing that I, or one of the big of the questions that I come up a lot is, or complaints, not complaints. I don't get complaints is I don't have time to code. So I'm going to go on that whole elk curve, like I don't have time to. Okay. So you only have 20 minutes.
[00:15:06] So what I would do is I would look at a website called project ULA, which is spelled project E U L E R. It has a collection of some really small projects, which are, print out some prime numbers. And then that gives you that in that 20 minutes time, you could just do some quick sort of little exercises like that.
[00:15:25] There is also another website called code Wars which is again little exercises, which you can do in that 20 minute gap to get you using some of these basics that you learn. And in that One thing I haven't mentioned is there isn't one way to code there's like hundreds and hundreds of ways to code.
[00:15:42] And what code was does is it will show you how you've done it and it will show you how everybody else has solved it. And you'll be so surprised how such a simple problem can be solved and so lots of different ways. And it really opens up your eyes to that. And then the third setting I suppose it's going back to this start simple.
[00:16:00] So you don't have to, I talked about Python being, there's very little setup, but those are actually really useful sandboxes and the sandboxes is a webpage, which acts as a coding editor and de compiler, which translates your code down into machine code. You can see lots of pretty things.
[00:16:18]And there's one for JavaScript called JS fiddle. There is one for Python. Can't remember the name of it now. But if you just type Python online editor and then that means that you don't have to actually even open up an app and wait for that to apron or install anything. You can just go and you can start putting little snippets of code into your web browser.
[00:16:38] So that's my three, I only have 20 minutes is not an excuse anymore.
[00:16:44] Chris O'Hare: [00:16:44] And that's, and that is a big one, right? That's exactly what people will say is that they just don't have the time to code. So I love those. Thank you for those. We'll be talking to Toby Moore, an expert content strategist. Toby runs a local group called content club.
[00:17:01] He's a director of TEDx Brighton, and he's just released a new software app to save time creating content using AI. And that's called poster works. You'll get to hear what makes Toby get out of bed in the morning, how his priority has shifted to purpose led objectives, along with some incredible insights into why content is important beyond the SEO and how you can get started with your own content strategy.
[00:17:27] So here we go. Toby Moore. Let's talk about the, your top three quick wins that are enabled people to accelerate their content creation whether that's skills or the actual content itself in the shortest amount of time, do you think those would be
[00:17:45]Toby Moore: [00:17:45] first one is built templates? So like for example, I have a pretty standard set of blogging templates.
[00:17:54] And particularly if I've got a big client piece of work on I need to write 10,000 words in a month or something like that worth of blog content, it's not going to happen unless I've templated my work. And I've got a really simple template. I use, which for most of it, which is like, What why and how, and it's 20%, what?
[00:18:12] 30%. Why? 50%. How now I know that if I write a good what heading and why heading and how heading, give myself a fixed work count within those headings. That's what allows me to produce lots of content very quickly. So the first thing is to go before you go and create your next piece of content, go and create templates for those bits of content.
[00:18:32] That's thing. Number one, I think number two is to write a list of questions. Ideally think about it from the perspective of a person that you have a customer like relationship with. Think of five questions that customer might have, and then come up with five ways of answering each question. And this is a 10, 15 minute activity, five questions, five answers, potential answers under each heading.
[00:18:57] And then what you're looking at on your piece of paper is 25 potential ideas for content. If you then have three different types of templates to apply to each of those things, like that's a year's worth of content nice way. And you can create, you can create a year's worth of catalog content in 15 minutes, if you want to, if you follow that process I would highly recommend to anyone who's sitting there going, but I don't know what to create a content around about.
[00:19:24] Do that, imagine someone write the questions, write the answers, look at it on a piece of paper, put it on your wall. And then the next time you come to create content, you pick a question, you pick a template and you go and that allows you to create content at 332 times faster than you ever have done before.
[00:19:44]And then the very last thing, the number three would be track to do less. I think much like everything else that we worry about, whether it's like eating more healthfully, doing more exercise, looking like the person that we saw on Instagram this morning, all this sort of stuff. When we get, when we start getting a bit stuck in on things like YouTube, LinkedIn, and so on, we can get really nervous about how little content we're creating and then the reaction to that is to give ourselves some. Unobtainable goal, just like we would, if we get, we see lots of skinny people on the internet and they may have some unobtainable goal to be skinny, or might we see someone like running three marathons a day or something like, Oh God, now I need to be unobtainable fit.
[00:20:32] And it's exactly the same with content production. Because it's not, unfortunately like content production gets like in some worlds, get thrown in the bucket with being like a millionaire in three weeks or something like that, and we have to definitely stop listening to those people, but we also have to stop looking at those people and other people that we like and respect.
[00:20:53] And I think that sets a bar for what we should be doing because I haven't created a piece of video content for months. But people are still talking about my video content. Do you mean like it's still considered useful and available and it pops up enough, for people to, if I can get away with not creating a video for months Everyone else says they can, because I'm supposed to be waving the bloody flag on this thing.
[00:21:19] You know what I mean? And so I think half give yourself less to do because a you'll just feel happier because that's more achievable. And be like, that's a good step towards not comparing yourself to everyone else all the time. You decide what's manageable. You decide what you can achieve and just be happy with that.
[00:21:41] Because as soon as you set that objective too high for yourself. You'll fail to reach it, and then you'll be demotivated to do anything else again. And then you'll just get into this like stupid spiral of getting angry yourself because you didn't create content. And then another week goes by and you get even angry at yourself and then you talk yourself out of it.
[00:22:00] Doing anything ever again. And then as soon as you don't believe in your content, you stop believing in your business. As soon as you stop living in your business, you stop believing in your ideas. And as soon as you stop believing in your ideas, you stop believing in yourself. And, that's a very dangerous slope to be sliding down.
[00:22:15] Pick an, a manageable goal and just do that. And don't worry about other people create. And as a staff, Don't worry about what I do either. If I tell you to create templates and I don't have time to create templates, just do your best
[00:22:33] Chris O'Hare: [00:22:33] bordering on life coaching now.
[00:22:37]Toby Moore: [00:22:37] Yeah, definitely. And you definitely don't want me to be a life coach.
[00:22:39] That would be a disaster. I can promise you that would be a disaster. Topics types templates three days.
[00:22:48] Chris O'Hare: [00:22:48] I love it. We have the privilege to talk to Alex. Chisnell the owner of a number one entrepreneurial podcast called screw it. Just do it with over 300 episodes and charting worldwide you're in for a tree.
[00:23:03] Alex is the definition of consistency on a weekly basis. Alex asked world famous entrepreneurs about the startup journey and what advice they can give fellow entrepreneurs. And his guests include he'll founder, Julian Hann, dragon piers, Linnie grenade, founder, Juliette Barrett. Alex is now teaching his podcast secrets in his course ultimate podcast mastery.
[00:23:29] It's going to be an interesting episode learning from the owner of a number one podcast. So here we go. Alex Chisnall, you'll talk three quick wins for creating a podcast. What are the three things that you have to get people to do? When they're creating a podcast,
[00:23:48] Alex Chisnall: [00:23:48] top three things that get people to do when I'm creating a podcast for me would be.
[00:23:57] Working out exactly who your dream listener is. Okay. And literally building out a profile, giving them a name, if that's Sarah or Bob or whatever is, what age they are where do they live? Are they married? Do they have kids? How much money they what they do for a job? What problems, what situation are they at in life?
[00:24:17] Are they struggling? Are the successful, getting that hone down means that every question you ever have about your podcast. You are bubble Sarah, to give you the answer instead of asking me or crowd sourcing your entire audience. So I would say that's the first one. For me, the second one is picking a subject that you can talk about.
[00:24:40] And a passionate about talking about the, you're not going to be bored about talking about in three months or a year or three years. For me, I feel I haven't even scratched the surface when it comes to entrepreneurship and where, yeah, for nearly, we're in year four. That is key because I see so many people drop out, get bored, and they've just picked a subject that they thought might've been sexy or there might have been of that time, people doing podcasts, for example, just about the pandemic or COVID.
[00:25:10] On board about that after nine months, they know who else has bought about that. I'd imagine it's quite a lot of people then it has successful as pokers are anymore, but they were flying back in April 20, 20. They were the most popular subjects to actually listen to podcasts about. I don't think that's the case anymore, to be honest with you.
[00:25:27]And for me, the third one is look for me. I started my podcast because I wanted to. To learn and to connect with the people that I admired that I looked up to the likes of Richard Reed from innocent, I always thought that's an amazing company. I consume your products. I love it. How did you do that?
[00:25:45] I literally use this as the equivalent of a Harvard MBA, and I've done it for, pretty much free. For me it's used this, to connect with the people that you wouldn't otherwise able. That you wouldn't otherwise think you would ever be able to connect with, use it as a tool for that to build your network, to connect to those people.
[00:26:07] And therein lies the opportunities, not just for podcasting, but for life, without sounding too dramatic. Cause it's been the case for me.
[00:26:17]Chris O'Hare: [00:26:17] Really good, quick wins. People are going to get a lot of value from those. And we're learning about paperless digital transformation today with Josh Walman co-founder of software company Capja.
[00:26:28] Now Josh used to be a digital transformation expert for cannon before branching out on his own with clients such as the labor party is well versed in helping companies get to grips with their paperless ambitions. And in this podcast, we get to learn how your business can go paperless. And the many reasons it can boost the productivity of your workforce.
[00:26:49] We also get to learn about Josh, a bright entrepreneur with a sales acumen to be jealous off. So here we go, Josh. Wallman what are your top three quick wins for getting going with paperless digital transformation,
[00:27:05] Josh Wallman: [00:27:05] top three quick wins. Map out a structured process. Again, structured is the key word there. I think if you start mapping it down it's easier to start seeing where the bottlenecks are. One, one program that I use, which I think is really good. It's free. It's easy to get on, to read, easy to understand is this thing called a diagrams.net and it's it's just a tool to build up workflows.
[00:27:31] And it's. Absolute simplicity. It's quite easy to view a work workflow and just go put it in and then see what, why are there so many steps in there and start questioning it? That way is probably number one. Number two ask your staff, ask people, ask colleagues everyone's going to have a different perception and a different way of dealing with things.
[00:27:52]And basically just asking how a process could be done better. Simple as it is. I don't think there's a, there's enough of that going on in terms of trying to move and get to that paperless stage. Number three it might be. Quite a simple way, but it's basically speak to and looking to your current suppliers and what they can offer.
[00:28:12]It might be a case that actually, you need that, you don't know what the possibility is. It's a quick win to go and ask your current supplier the salespeople consultants to see what's. What they can offer, what they can, what can, how can they make it better?
[00:28:28] What are their observations about it? Again, they're going to be working with multiple industries and they're going to have different ideas to how to approach that. I think there's one might be going onto a fourth quick wind. I don't know if I'm allowed to, but one thing for people out in the field.
[00:28:43] And one thing that I've noticed is that there's there's a product called a remarkable and I've seen it. I've worked with so many people, salespeople and consultants and people going out and just taking notes on paper and books and this and the other, which is great. It's some people really like that.
[00:28:58]But actually then when they're spending the time to convert that into a. Into a digital format, it's a very manual typing up sort of process. Whereas this product remarkable is Kindle that you can drop, jot notes down and it converts everything into a digital format for you.
[00:29:14] So it's something that's, it's getting into that mindset and taking the lead, having faith in those different products, but there's no, I don't think there's any reason to be. So your paper we've got products that are got those. There are things out there that allow us to have a go ready.
[00:29:31] Chris O'Hare: [00:29:31] It's a great quick one sec, Josh really appreciate that. Talking about SAAS. What is SAAS otherwise known as software as a service? And that's the question we'll be answering with serial entrepreneur. Jonathan Markwell. Now Jonathan's business plane, scaling advisors, businesses, how they can implement SAS with impressive results, such as helping three businesses go from zero.
[00:29:55] So 1 million pounds in annual revenue, including seven, over two and a half thousand businesses and employing 20 people along with several SAS businesses, obviously under his belt. Now Jonathan's resume, certainly demonstrates his credentials, but not only this, you might have heard of the Skiff, but Jonathan established the scare for coworking space in central Brighton with what over 100 members.
[00:30:24] And they've been supporting entrepreneurs out the pandemic. But also a bit of a side hustle. He established a new initiative called kind ops, and that initiative was to help businesses, put people first supporting the wider community and prioritizing the planet. This is going to be a great live episode, finding out why SAAS is going to be the best business model of the world.
[00:30:50] And it's already the best business model in the world. So here we go. Jonathan. Markwell. What your quick win recommendations are. If we had three of the bits of advice that you would recommend what's the three things that you would give us?
[00:31:09]Jonathan Markwell: [00:31:09] Yeah. So the it's looking back over what I've already shared.
[00:31:12] It's like build Build that audience of some sort make sure you're you start to build relationships with the people that could be your SAS software company customers one day. And and do what you can to solve their problems as soon as possible, and really get to know them and know what their problems are and be open-minded because you might find out that the thing that you could create that's of most value to them is not the idea that you have to sell to them.
[00:31:40]And so getting to know them earlier and and helping them in smaller ways first can can de-risk everything that you're doing. Significantly number two would be learn to how to go at learning to code in some way or undertaking some kind of technical activities. And this is particularly if you're not a technical person, because then you have more empathy for technical people when you end up working with them, when your SAS gets to that stage.
[00:32:09]And. I've worked with with people that have, very light skills in HTML and, they put together a couple of their own websites before quite crudely. It was wonderful working with them and and we got them to we were able to teach them as we were going and show them how to use, get as a version control system, for example and level up.
[00:32:27] And they were able to go in and change some copy in the app and do that first commence and that, that you can. Yeah. Having that as a goal, as a founder, to be able to contribute in some way alongside the other technical people that you want to work with rather than trying to distance yourself from it is gonna make you much better to be a software business owner.
[00:32:49]The next final third thing is to start selling in some way, sell something, get used to. To doing that. And I mentioned Gumroad to sell a product like I've lectured many kinds over the years where I've said this one and they're often reluctant to do it, but the ones that are most successful at some point end up writing an ebook anyway and selling it even when they don't need the money from selling it, because they realize the value exchange from doing that and how it creates a completely different dynamic with your audience.
[00:33:22]Getting used to selling things online where something like Gumroad or even if you make something, the simplest version of your SAS using something like Stripe which is a harder thing to integrate at the moment that we'll get it will get easier. And and I actually personally use puddle, which is a slightly different way of selling software, where they handle all your taxes and everything for you.
[00:33:44]Using one of those free tools. Other ones like mighty networks might podia is another good sort of platform for just selling things online, building up an audience and and learning all those skills that are required wherever you're building a SAAS or if you're selling any. But there's some basics that you need to be comfortable with.
[00:34:05] Chris O'Hare: [00:34:05] Okay, 3 quick wins. I really love those, but this week we're talking about website builders, which most business owners have dabbled with at some point in their career, but that's Wix Squarespace or the company that we'll be talking to today create and create was established by Simon Kimba and has been around since 2001.
[00:34:26] It was actually the first website builder stablish in the UK. Simon has a really interesting story growing, create and speaks of the husband and wife team in the early days of websites to a successful business, serving 30,000 websites, some of which have multi-million pound turnovers. And if he wants to know the secret of creating your own website, using an easy to use website builder, then this episode is for you.
[00:34:57] Here we go. Simon Kimber, let's talk about your your top three quick wins of using a website builder. What are the things that you really recommend that people think about when they start doing this?
[00:35:12] Simon Kimber: I think as we've talked about, I think it's using it to test out ideas.
[00:35:16]We've got, we've got loads of stories of customers who have, maybe had a, had an idea for something and used us because, it was affordable and it wasn't, they maybe had this idea and got quoted tens of thousands of pounds and then found us and, Try to out and it didn't work.
[00:35:34] They throw it away. They came up with another idea that new website and maybe, maybe that one was the one. So I think, yeah using a tool like that to, to try things out that just would be prohibitive. If you had to employ someone or find a web designer and give them a spec and go through the process with them and pay them Every time you had a new idea.
[00:35:59]So I think that's a fairly key Sort of use? I think about, like I said before, getting something up quick the tools back that can be a that can be an issue with working with a with a web designer, is that they often want all the content and say, okay, so we don't want to be going backwards and forwards with you.
[00:36:18]We want all your content, we want your images, and then we can build a website for you and then hand it over to you. You're not in that position. If you're using a website builder, you can build that one page website. In a day or in a couple of hours and get something out there and then come back to it later.
[00:36:36]And and then I'd say that the third thing is, as I said before is then regularly review that and hone it and make sure it's not getting. Make sure it's not to get, not getting bloated, not going the other way. And make sure it's really getting your message across because yeah, again it's at the end of the day, it's all about the content and that's really advice for any website.
[00:36:59]Regardless of what platform it's on is Is make sure it's you're constantly reviewing it and because things change the way people use websites, change your services change. And hopefully it's just tools like ours. Make that a little bit easier to keep on top of because you're not having to, go to a designer and say actually this the way this page is designed now doesn't work.
[00:37:22] Even though, if you've maybe got some simple content management tools on it, maybe the design of this page no longer works for, but what you're now doing or how things have changed. So being able to have that quick control of it yourself can make a big difference.
Chris O'Hare: But also, I guess your skills changed as well as you're learning about what works and what doesn't work.
[00:37:41] You can go back and review and go, hang on. I know what I should do here now. But also in terms of that. Th the testing and measuring over time. So knowing what works and what doesn't work again, that kind of fits quite nicely in with the review. Very much lean startup kind of methodology.
[00:38:02] [00:38:02] So yeah, love those quick wins.
[00:38:04]Really nice. And people are going to get value from those and this week, we're talking all about how to build outs with no code and yes. You've heard me. You can build an app with no code and James Wood will be enlightening us a product expert who has gone from having his own VC back startup with many developers to take him back the power and creating his own apps, no code platform, bubble James, even creators soldiers.
[00:38:33] Oh, no code app over lockdown and even built a new app over his Christmas break and already has monthly subscribers when he's not building no code apps. James is the chief product officer at software company user replay. This episode is highly recommended for those who have considered making their own app.
[00:38:55] Honestly, this is one of my favorite episodes. Your minds will be blown. The, here we go, James Wood. What are your all three quick wins. Then if people want to get involved with starting or using a no code builder,
[00:39:14] James Wood: So I think first thing I would say is try and automate one process in your business or your day-to-day life.
[00:39:21] Maybe try out a platform like Zapier to start with, get used to some of the core concepts of building workflows and just try and automate one thing that is mundane that you have to do every week. So whether that's sending an email invoice, Or, Slack message or whatever you have to do every week, try and automate one thing using a no code platform.
[00:39:43] And that will get you on the journey to, automate more and building apps and all of that other stuff. But try and start simple to begin with. The other thing I would say is, like I said, do those bubble tutorials. So if you sign up for a free account just run through those tutorials.
[00:39:59] It literally guides you around how to build an app. It'll give you a real feel for what's possible and just teach you some of those core concepts without you having to put too much time in each one's about 20 minutes. So once you've done that, it's, it gives you a good boarding and the other slightly more out there, one that I would say is that One of the best things that I've done over the last few years is really learned how to use an API.
[00:40:25] I know that might sound a bit intimidating, but again, there's, it's a lot easier than you think. And if you're just dealing with something very simple, like pulling in, let's say recipes from a recipe API, there, it can be as simple as calling a URL and pausing. The data within the bubble app.
[00:40:45] So I would watch some tutorials just around basic API APIs, how they work and try and understand that a bit, because that is something that is really going to be beneficial. If you're going to get the most out of these no-code platforms, is that understanding of what API APIs work, what they are and how they work.
[00:41:03] Chris O'Hare: [00:41:03] Love that really good, quick wins. And the API one. Yeah, man. After my own heart, definitely think not that I don't think people really realize the value that they can get from that.
[00:41:22] I hope you love that super quick day. So these entrepreneurs quick wins. They're some iconic ones for sure. And some I've even used myself since hearing them. On the podcast, but what was your favorite bit of the show? Tell me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik, TOK, or YouTube. But you can find me with at Hare digital and there's another platform I'm frequenting daily, and that is clubhouse.
[00:41:47] And you can also find me with the app digital. I remember there are 10 episodes that you can go and listen to. You can find them on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. And why should that? I'd be so grateful if you could subscribe and writes a review, but until next time, I'm your quick wins CEO signing out.