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Are you thinking about starting your own business? Know what you're getting into — before you commit. If you're an aspiring entrepreneur grappling with doubts, or just curious about the self-employed life, this podcast demystifies the entrepreneurial process by sharing stories and insights of founders who have successfully launched and built a small business.
Rieva Lesonsky
Episode 35
The Unsure Entrepreneur
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Entrepreneurship, small business, fear, trends, AI and automation, marketing, niche market, home improvement, beauty industry, recession, aging in place, social media, Pinterest, business education, startup support.
SPEAKERS
Roger Pierce, Rieva Lesonsky
Rieva Lesonsky 00:00
You can be fearless. I hate when people say, be fearless. Fear tells you what to look at. Fear is not there to stop you. Fear is there to say, is this right?
Intro 00:13
You're listening to the Unsure Entrepreneur podcast with Roger Pierce, whether you're scribbling business ideas on a napkin or wrestling with the should I shouldn't I question. Get ready to explore the realities, the risks and the rewards of entrepreneurship as we share the stories, scars and successes of small business owners.
Roger Pierce 00:33
Hey, everyone, welcome back to the unsure entrepreneur podcast today. We're joined by someone who spent decades at the forefront of Small Business Journalism and helped millions of people navigate the complex journey of entrepreneurship. Rieva Lesonsky is a trailblazer in the world of entrepreneurship advocacy. She served for over 25 years as editorial director of Entrepreneur Magazine. She's a best selling author of several books, including start your own business and small business hacks, 100 shortcuts to success. She's written about small business issues for The Huffington Post Entrepreneur Magazine and today for all business.com through her company, small business currents and our fantastic website that's small business currents.com she now delivers expert advice and strategic insights for aspiring and current entrepreneurs through tons of custom content, trend reporting and educational resources. I want to talk about some of those trends in our chat now, some of her accolades, which are extensive, include being named a Small Business Media advocate and a woman in business advocate by the US Small Business Administration, she served on the SBA National Advisory Council, received the prestigious Lou Campanelli award from Score, score mentors, and was inducted into the business journalists Hall of Fame. In short, when it comes to tracking the heartbeats of small business in America, there are fewer voices more respected than hers. Riva, welcome to the show.
Rieva Lesonsky 02:07
Oh gosh, I'm blushing, Roger, thank you so much. That's a beautiful introduction. I may borrow it and use it in my bio.
Roger Pierce 02:15
Feel free. And you are you are right to blush. It's all good stuff. You've done so much for entrepreneurs, and you and I were just chatting. I think the last time we saw each other was nine or 10 years ago at a show for business, right? I think it was in Chicago, but it feels like it's just been yesterday. I always feel like I can pick right up again with you, which is great.
Rieva Lesonsky 02:34
I think there's a special bond between those of us in the Small Business Journalism arena. There's not that many of us, and we're all, we all, you know, would pop up back in the day, when there were so many shows and companies were spending money doing conferences, we would all crop up together. And I think it was a really special group. I really, I really do. I kind of miss those days, covid, covid, yeah,
Roger Pierce 03:00
covid got us with all those events. And you're right, there is kind of a I call it the Small Business ambassadors community. You know our mutual friend Brian Moran. Shout out to Brian at the Small Business Edge website and podcast. He is one of those voices. But there's like, a little industry of people who talk about entrepreneurship, isn't there? Yeah.
Rieva Lesonsky 03:19
And there doesn't seem to be a lot of new voices coming in, which is a little concerning to me. I think there's US veterans, if you want to call us that, which I think is, is kind of indicative of kind of the way entrepreneurship is changing, some ways for the better, some ways, I don't think, for the better. So we'll see. It's kind of a different world out there.
Roger Pierce 03:40
We need more voices. I couldn't agree more. I was just posting about that this morning up here in Canada, there was this great article from Royal Bank of Canada, a survey that said 81% of Canadians are interested in starting a small business. And I'm like, yes!
Rieva Lesonsky 03:58
Yeah, yeah. So that's, that's the whole thing. It's about finding them, though, right? It's about finding them and being able to serve them. And I think that's become an issue, at least here in the United States. You know, we're way bigger and way more scattered, and things are kind of weird right now. But I think I don't know economically how Canada is doing. Our countries used to kind of monitor each other pretty well, but we've kind of got, you know, not monitor we. We kind of tracked on the same track, and we're kind of off the track right now here. So it's hard to say, but I think almost everybody I saw Jamie Dimon the other day is predicting a recession. And one of the things that happens in a recession, often is a resurgence of entrepreneurship, because people are laid off from their jobs, and they're smart, educated people, and they turn to business ownership to, you know, keep the money coming in, put a roof over their head. It'll be interesting, I think next year, to see what happens.
Roger Pierce 04:56
I'm glad you said that, because a lot of people think the opposite. I want. Comment on that, a lot of people think, Oh, my God, unemployment and times are bad, and recession and all this scary stuff, too risky, I'm not going to start a business. But the opposite happens, doesn't it?
Rieva Lesonsky 05:09
It is. I mean, I've been around a long time, and the huge, huge burst into entrepreneurship in the United States happened in the 1990s and it was following the recession in the late 80s, early 90s, which is what we call here, the first blue white collar recession. It was professionals getting laid off. It wasn't it wasn't workers, which is, you know, like people working in stores. It was people with MBAs. And at the time, the newest MBAs were minorities and women, and that's when they started flooding into entrepreneurship. And in fact, some congressmen back in the 90s declared the 1990s the decade of the entrepreneur, and that's when all the activity happened. In concurrence with the introduction of the internet. That was a big boost to that. But it's true. So yeah, recessions shouldn't stop anybody from starting a business ever.
Roger Pierce 06:06
And you know, you're the perfect, perfect person to talk about this. I call it the era of the entrepreneur, because I think it's never been an easier time to start a small business, especially with, you know, all the help and resources that you provide, and we'll talk about those in a few minutes. But you know, technology is there for us to make it so easy. I mean, 30 years ago, we didn't have this, this internet thing, and we didn't have this, all these apps and cost a lot of money to set up a basic business. But now there's all these benefits and enablers, aren't there?
Rieva Lesonsky 06:34
It's so much easier. The internet really provides everything, right? You don't have to leave your house if you don't want to, at least here to get a business license, to register your business, you know whether you want to be a C Corp or an LLC or whatever, you don't have to go anywhere. You can do almost everything online, and that makes it easier. You don't have to, this is sounds like a negative, but you don't have to hire people at the beginning, which can be death to a business because you don't have that much money coming in. And if you you have to hire people like, you know, you used to have to hire a bookkeeper, you know, when you started your business, just buying software. You know, it just, it makes it all so much easier, taking a lot of the initial risk out of it, because you're, one, you're spending less money. And two, there's less guesswork, because all these companies have done that for you.
Roger Pierce 07:28
And you're not alone. I think that's often under discussed. A lot of entrepreneurs go, Oh, I'm worried about being alone, and it's isolating. It can't be isolating, especially if you're starting out and you're coming from a big corporate environment where there's lots of people and stuff, but there's such a robust small business community. I mean, you and I could, could name dozens of organizations, you know, you've been working with them, like score, etc. So don't be afraid, if you're starting a business, there's lots of support out there.
Rieva Lesonsky 07:54
Yeah, I used to, I was doing a webinar yesterday for a manufacturing rep, agency organization. So I said that to them too. I said, you know, back in the 80s and 90s, you know, I was working at entrepreneur, nobody knew what an entrepreneur was. When I got there in the mid 80s. Then people would say, what is an entrepreneur? And they say, oh, it's the lone wolf. And I don't, you're exactly right. It's not true anymore. There's so much support, and so many other people out there doing it where you can, you can get help and advice from people you don't know, just by connecting with it. And again, you don't have to leave your house. You can do the whole thing online if you wanted. I think it's the best time in general, in terms of all the knowledge. And I think the difference between starting a business today and back, let's say, in the 90s, when this whole thing started, is people are smarter. They know more about what it is. They're not coming into this totally blind and going, I'm going to start a business. What do I do? You know, they're more educated. Maybe they studied some of it in college. But there's also so much more information out there in terms of marketing and how to market, and again, all these, these digital tools to help us, to help us do it. It's it's take advantage of that. I don't want to say starting a business is easy, but it's not a mountain you have to climb,
Roger Pierce 09:17
Not a mountain you have to climb. I love it. Now. Who are you seeing startup? What's the typical like? Is it? Are you seeing a lot of people in their 40s? Are you seeing a lot of young people?
Rieva Lesonsky 09:26
Well, I think that that's a big common mistake. People look at the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world or Michael Dell and think, oh, all these, you know, tech bros are dropping out of college and starting businesses. But when you look at the typical age of startup. They're in their mid 40s to mid 50s. That's kind of the Golden spot for starting. People are established. They have money. You need money to start a business. I mean, in Bootstrap, but you still need some money. They're a little bit more secure. In who they are and what they know and what they want to do. I mean, that's the age we see it. If a recession happens, who knows what will happen? Like in the 90s, all of a sudden, women and minorities started starting businesses, creating a whole new trend. So could it be younger people? Maybe, but I tend to think it probably won't be. You know, who gets laid off first? People have been there, making a little bit more money. You know, they're gone.
Roger Pierce 10:27
It's fascinating. I mean, you can be an entrepreneur at any age, right? I mean, we've got the Baby Boomers who say, I'm I'm leaving my job, but I'm not ready to retire. I want to do something different. And they go, all right, start a start a small business. So it really, there is no age limit. I love it.
Rieva Lesonsky 10:42
You know what? There really isn't. And I think that part of that, you know, the boomers are the youngest Boomer is now in their early 60s, and the oldest is in their mid 70s. There's a big range there of terms of baby boomers, but because of how we live, right? Because of environmental changes, we live longer, and I think in our brains, most of us think we're younger than we are. I was talking to my friend's daughter the other day, and she is 25 years old and is studying journalism. She said something to me, and so she asked me something. I can't remember what it was. And she said, So, when your mother was my age, she had three kids. And I said, Yes. I said, that's the difference in the generations, the expectations, you know, here she is getting her second master's degree in journalism, living away from home, you know, having a great time. And at her age, my mother had three kids. It's so hard to conceive of that.
Roger Pierce 11:46
It's scary, and I bring it all home. My own daughter, she's 18, just left a couple weeks ago to go off to university, so she's starting that, that whole, that whole process, and I think back to what I was doing or not doing at eight. It's funny how things change when you age. But yeah, it's all good entrepreneurship. You are a grand master at all things small business. But I want to pick your brain a bit. Riva, about some trends, because I know on your website, I've been enjoying catching up on what you're doing. There, you really are on the finger on the pulse of a lot of small business trends. You've got stuff like the growing demand for spicy food. I saw that one the other day…
Rieva Lesonsky 12:29
When I found that I was like, Oh, I have to write about it this week.
Roger Pierce 12:33
And the other one I saw was the comeback of Home Improvement,
Rieva Lesonsky 12:36
yYah, because of the cost of housing, right? And because the baby boomers. So in the old days, at least in this country, you would reach a certain age, and you do retire, and then many people who lived in colder climates. I mean, unfortunately, you in Canada don't have this option. Would would move south, right? They would go to Florida or Arizona or California. But today, people don't want to do that. They don't want to leave their families, right? They want to stay there. So there's, there was a huge, huge push in terms of age. It's called aging in place. It's staying in that home. But maybe that home needs to be retrofitted. Maybe if they're in a wheelchair, or there's certain things that they tell you to soon as, like, when you have a baby, you have to baby proof your house. Well, this is about, like, senior proofing. It's about things like, as simple as, what, what can you reach without bending over? Because if you bend, you fall often, getting rugs off the floor.
So there actually is a, there was a business opportunity created of people going in and baby proofing people's houses. So that started this surge in home improvement, and then also people not wanting to move. The cost of housing can be really expensive in certain areas. I mean, the US the prices are, are just crazy in the terms of the difference in what they cost, depending on where you live. So people were staying home and remodeling. I mean, we've done it here. I live in California, my house, you know, it's really expensive to buy. Nobody I know could afford the house that they own today if they had to buy it, me included. We have slowly like, Okay, we're going to do the kitchen, okay, now we're going to do the bathrooms, and then, you know, now, now we're going to paint the room or something. And so there's a real big resurgence in home remodeling. There's a world there that every one thing leads to another. People remodel their home. So you need contractors, and then, oh, they have, you know, like, a new room or something. So now they need to go buy stuff, furniture, home decor, accessories to furnish that. So there's a really big opportunity in that industry, from construction through buying pillows.
Roger Pierce 14:52
That's fascinating. Now you've also mentioned another trend, beauty. Beauty is a big trend that entrepreneurs can tap into. What have you been writing about that?
Rieva Lesonsky 14:59
Well. So a couple weeks ago, in my newsletter, I think it was actually last I brought up the lipstick index again. I don't know if everybody is familiar, saw that the old lipstick index, and this was from the original. Was several years ago, where people noticed that during recession, particular beauty products were increasing in sales. Other industries were down, and beauty was up. And they did studies about it, obviously, and it turned out that people still wanted to treat themselves. This is mostly women, obviously treat themselves to something. So they'd buy a lipstick, and yeah, they'd buy, like, a luxury lipstick. So instead of $5 they might spend 20, but that luxury item makes them feel better, and it's only 20 bucks, as opposed to something else that you're not buying because you don't have the money. And we're starting to see that there's the cercana, which is a global company that monitors consumer trends. They said that in the second quarter from the first half of the year, the first half of 2520 25 beauty products, beauty sales were up both in the prestige market and the mass market, you know, drugstore sales.
But the other thing I think about beauty is for entrepreneurs, it is one of the best industries to get into if you are not married to your company, because you go into a beauty industry with the intent to be bought by one of the bigger players. That's the deal. Yeah, interesting. It to You know, there's, there's a number of bigger companies like, you know, sa water owns more brands than you can even imagine. There's other L'Oreal based in France. They own a ton of brands that a lot of people don't know that they own, and that that's really the key. One of my favorite stories is this woman. She was a stewardess, right? A flight attendant, and she had rosacea, so she spent a lot of time trying to cover up the red on her face, and she got really frustrated, so she worked with somebody to create a product that did it, and she launched her cosmetics company, basically with this one product. And it just a lot of women have that problem. So it went viral. She had really big sales, and several years ago, she was bought for like, $1.3 billion billion, billion, and she was in business, I think for less than a decade. That's a nice payday.
Yeah, so it's an easy end, because you don't start with a whole, a whole lineup of products you you kind of maybe pick one or two that people tend to be using. And the beauty of beauty is it's segment a lot of it's age segmented. So find your niche. Like, what do you want? People? The woman who started Urban Decay did it because she was wearing she used to go to the store and buy multiple nail polishes so she can mix her own color, because she thought they were all boring. So, and then she started urban decay, and it also sold out for millions and millions of dollars. It's, it's a great industry, and men are now using way more. I don't want to call it. They used to call it grooming. You really can't call it beauty. But grooming is, you know, grooming is like aftershave slapping on and you're done. But there's a whole field now in male skincare that's really booming, but has a lot of opportunity left in there.
Roger Pierce 18:30
I can attest to that my 13 year old son, who is very concerned about his looks, spends money on colognes, facial products, hair stuff, things I haven't even heard of.
Rieva Lesonsky 18:41
So, yeah, so there's a lot of opportunity in that field, because it's so not saturated, yeah, and again, start it with the intent of selling because that's where you make your money.
Roger Pierce 18:53
We couldn't have a conversation though, beauty without touching upon one of your other articles, which I have to mention, the Taylor Swift effect. Yeah.
Rieva Lesonsky 19:02
Yes. So I noticed this, like last year, where my friends daughters, my cousins, kids, everybody was going to concerts, spending a lot of money, coming away with with friendship bracelets and all this so. And then I ran across this article just randomly. I can't even remember where that said, wherever, at the time, during her eras, tour whatever city Taylor went to, not only did she donate ton of money, but everybody in the city because she brought people in, people were going to restaurants. They were just spending more money in the areas where she would give a concert, and then the same thing happened this year. Was smaller, much smaller tour with Beyonce and her cowboy Carter. So it's not just now limited to you know, people like Taylor or Beyonce. It's like, look for big events that are coming to your town, like the. World Cup, right? I think Canada's hosted that a couple of times. So or you may have a World Series this year. I hope you do not, but you might,
Roger Pierce 20:11
being a Yankees fan, you don't want that!
Rieva Lesonsky 20:13
But when you have big events, there's huge uptick in traffic. So there's a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs to make more money, not just from the event. I'm not saying, you know, like, go make T shirts and sell them outside the stadium or anything, but you could. But there's just a big uptick in restaurant traffic, sightseeing traffic, just that kind of thing. And it adds up. I mean, just with Taylor, it was millions and millions of dollars la did when she was here. I think LA said they the city revenues Rose $220 million or something like that, just during the five days of her tour.
Roger Pierce 20:55
My gosh, yeah, yeah. Pay attention to trends. One other hot trend, and I'll get your quick take on this is, of course, not a trend. It's a major shift AI and automation. Yeah, I know you've been writing about that and talking about that in your in your opinion, what do entrepreneurs need to do to you know, stay on top of AI and embrace tech without losing their authenticity.
Rieva Lesonsky 21:15
You can't ignore it, because it's a tool, and it's a tool that's going to help you. But you have to be careful. If you have a website and you want to create content and you you let ai do it, your content is going to sound phony. It just is. There's certain phrases that they it, whatever. I had a label
Roger Pierce 21:36
lots of M dashes,
Rieva Lesonsky 21:38
Yes, lots of M dashes, lots of certain words, like, I noticed, like, the word landscape, would start showing up a lot, like, like the small business landscape or something. So you don't want that, and I'm not telling you not to use AI to create. Like, if you my, my nephew on the side, sells stuff on Etsy. He has, he has AI create all his marketing, but he edits it, and that's the key. You can let AI create something for you, but go over it, and then I'm going to tell you a trick that I used to tell my writers, read it out loud and make sure it sounds conversational and it sounds like a normal person would say this, and then you're okay if you edit it. I mean, I wouldn't. I don't write articles with AI, but I use AI a lot to give me headline ideas, because I feel like I really suck at headline ideas. So I'll ask AI to give me some, and then again, I will go in and edit those, even though they're only five words. But it just gives you, like, a starting off point, and it's kind of funny, like, where you talked about being lonely before this is you can use this as a thing to brainstorm with, you know, where it's it's like, you know, and it's understand that it's not always accurate. It's gotten a lot better.
I would factually check anything you know, like with numbers or stuff like that. But I found it, you know, useful even in my personal life, because partly what it's doing, it's scraping the internet, right? So you can google something, and I personally no offense to Google, have found that Google Search has gotten not really as good as it used to be. So you can google something and it just doesn't work. But you ask that question to your and I don't even use the paid version. I just use the plain old free chat GPT, and ask it a question, and it it scours and brings it together. It's kind of the wonder in the 90s when Google first came out. And you know, when we were sitting there, those of us like you know who've been writing, or you used to have to go to the library to find this stuff out. No wonder you would just sit at your computer and go, Whoa. That's amazing. That's how I kind of think of AI. So I think you can use it, but just put yourself back into it. Don't let it be autonomous.
Roger Pierce 24:03
It's true. And then on your point about fact checking, you can actually ask AI to fact check itself. You cut and copy it back into into the Word. And oftentimes it goes, no, that's not correct. But here's another version.
Rieva Lesonsky 24:15
Or ask for a source. No, ask for its source. I mean, I think that's one thing it added a year ago, where, if you would ask a question, it gave a source. And I find it useful. I think one of the things about being a business owner is you have to be open to the innovations that come. I can remember, I don't know if this company is in Canada, it's gusto. Do you have gusto? Does it ring a bell? So gusto is a big payroll company here, and it does a lot of stuff, and it's not that old. It's probably 20 years old. And I remember talking to the entrepreneur started by one, one guy who was starting it, and I was. Interviewing him, and I said, Why are you doing this? Right? There's ADP there, which is the big player. There's a ton of other companies that do payroll. How? Where is there a niche in this market? Where's the hole in this market? And he said to me, you would be shocked how many small business owners are still doing their payroll manually. Don't use any company at all. He goes, and that's where I'm going. I'm going for the people. I'm not trying to steal customers from the big guys. I'm trying to go into the person doing, you know, doing it in a ledger, and say, Stop wasting your time. Let us do it for you. And they've, they've, they're a huge, success today, and that's the thing. So those people were all afraid of, oh, this is some new program. I'm not going to do that. Or how long did it take people to embrace programs like, you know, I QuickBooks or something, you know, people were kind of initially afraid of that. And if somebody wants to create a product that does something for you that you don't have to do. I'm all for it.
Roger Pierce 26:07
lLke you said earlier, that's what makes us such an exciting period to be an entrepreneur. There's so many innovations out there that we can we can't embrace.
Rieva Lesonsky 26:14
So it makes our life easier. So why wouldn't you want to make your life easier?
Roger Pierce 26:19
It does make our life incredibly easier. I want to ask you about entrepreneurship education, because your small business currents.com website, you know, you produce content for entrepreneurs to consume online, and you also produce content for major brands across the country. You've been doing that for many years. So why do you think entrepreneurship education is so critical for success?
Rieva Lesonsky 26:41
Back at the beginning, it was really critical, because people just didn't know stuff like that. Today, I think the way people brought you mentioned Brian, Moran Brian and I spent a ton of time discussing this. The way people consume entrepreneurial information is so different, you know, back in the 90s, and the, you know, starting with the Internet. So let's say, from 1996 or so through maybe 2010 the business magazines were big and the websites were huge and and people were turning to them, and they don't do that anymore. And I think that's because you have a question. You go online, you get what you want to know. So you're you're not sitting around reading a magazine. So I think there's a difference there. I think today entrepreneurs, small business owners, even startups, are a little bit more knowledgeable. Where before they knew nothing like, like, Huh? So now they even they know the question to ask, Where? But you know the question the problem before was you don't know what you don't know, so you don't know how to find it out, because you don't know that. You don't know it. Today, I think people are more aware of that. So I think education is there because one things are still changing so rapidly, so so rapidly, like AI, right? Three years ago, you're running your business. You don't know what this is. They introduce it. It seems kind of wonky. It's like, okay, I'm going to leave it alone. And then all of a sudden it becomes a valuable asset and resource for you. But if you're not reading about it, if somebody, if someone like you, somebody like you, or somebody like me, doesn't say, hey, AI has changed. Take a look at this. Here are several products that can that you ought to check out, that can help you, and you don't have to spend a lot of money doing it. So it's there to fill in the gaps, because things change so rapidly, and because markets change so rapidly demographically, and I know that Canada and the US are kind of in lockstep here the generations. There are so many different generations We have never had in history, so many different generations of consumers in the marketplace, because we have the Baby Boomers, but we still have seniors still buying stuff. My mom is 92 and she doesn't go shopping, but she sends my sister, you know, like, here, I want this product. And so you have that we just, just started what? Not just started it. Gen Alpha exists and, and so we're going down, you know, from and there's a lot of what they used to call pester power in the younger markets, the kids, the pre teens, pestering somebody. I want this. I want this, finding this. You go from them, and I think maybe they're alpha to Gen Z to millennials to x, to Boomers to seniors. I don't think we've actually named that market yet.
And so there's so many more opportunities for entrepreneurs to aim, like to pick a market, and you don't have to stay in that market. You can start in one market and then expand. You know. Go to another there's because taste change. There was a lot of companies in the last 10 years in the fashion industry that would get their hold in the junior market, you know, marketing to teens, but they were styles that they're those teens moms adopted, so they were able to expand and double and even triple their market by not having to do something different, other than make clothes in different sizes, you know, or accessories, hair accessories, my seven year old niece, or soon to be seven, or actually, my four year old niece is really into headbands. They wear the same headbands, you know, that I have. I'm like, Okay, I don't need this one anymore. I'm just gonna send them like, you know, it's and so I think there's a lot of opportunity there, so you need to, but people don't know about it.
And the different generations have different tastes and different standards, Gen X, Gen Z. You want to talk to them, and they're the ones now with their money, right? They're in their 20s, they're spending they're having fun, they're soon to be settling down. They're going to be spending even more money. But they're more exacting than a lot of other generations, so you better, you better meet their standards, or they're going to find somebody else who will.
Roger Pierce 31:16
You touched upon so much there, including the power of a niche or niche, depending on where you're listening from, you know, and and focus. I mean, what bothers me in my years of working with entrepreneurs is when someone says, Oh, my market is 18 to 65 like, no, that's not a target. You gotta like you're saying, start with one niche or niche, and then evolve from there, don't you?
Rieva Lesonsky 31:36
Yes, you start because you want to start small. You know, you're not, you're not gonna come in. And so you want to say, right, right, but you start small. And the end, the key to that is then you you start small. People start talking about you and and what it's still, you still need. What, like the USP, your unique selling proposition, what is setting you apart as different? And I know we're I have a really cute story. So here Honda, the cars do an advertisement calling the Honda helpful, whatever. And one of my friends is in her car, and this commercial comes on the radio, and they they interview some woman who started a lip sort of like not gloss, but like just a basic lip, thank you. Bomb business with her sister in law, who happens to be autistic. So my friend hears this, tells my other friend, who happens to have a son who's highly functioning autistic but has had a little bit of problem holding down jobs. So that friend calls the company. They talk to him, he gets hired. They now have four, what they call neurodivergent employees working at this company. The company has now introduced like their fourth product. It's a feel good story, right? Because you're helping. And the co owner, she's really very involved, and she's participating in this company, and she is definitely autistic and and yet. So they started with one product, this lip balm. There's news hook is that the company is CO owned by this autistic woman, and now, like I said, they just introduced their fourth product. So that's how you do it. Start small and expand from there.
Roger Pierce 33:31
I love it. That's great. Yeah, you don't, you're not gonna. Rome wasn't built in a day, you know, pick a niche, develop a differentiator, be fast, better or different. You don't, don't have to reinvent the wheel. It could just be a twist on something that's already working, but you've got a particular idea, right?
Rieva Lesonsky 33:48
Yeah, and it all still comes down to the one thing that never changes in business, is marketing. You got to market. Marketing's kind of easier today. You know, in the old days, you had to spend a ton of money, and you don't anymore, because social media, you can invest in social media marketing. It's a little different today. Social media has become more of a cesspool, especially here in my country, but there's still, you know, you can, you can find your spot and let people know and let them help take it viral. And one of the things that we've noticed in the last few years is a resurgence in the use of Pinterest, which is about product sales, right? So people are because the others have become noisy with other stuff Pinterest. There's no political stuff. You're just there to buy something or sell something. And so it's become a lot more people are turning to Pinterest in order to sell product.
Roger Pierce 34:47
Another advantage of the era of the entrepreneur, like you're saying, marketing is so much easier. I'm old enough Riva that I will admit, 25 years ago, 20 years ago, I had a small business training course. Yes, I wanted to get people to come and take the course, so I printed off a couple 100 flyers and went and stood outside office buildings when people left work, thinking they're probably sick of their job. I could give them the flyer… to Start your own business.
Rieva Lesonsky 35:12
That's pretty funny, actually, but yeah, flyers are electronic. I guess you could say now all I have to do is go viral.
Roger Pierce 35:23
As a bit of a wrap. Can you think back to someone who's starting out a small business? This is a show for people who are, you know, thinking about getting into business, maybe hesitant about it all. What would you say to someone who's on the fence about getting into this world?
Rieva Lesonsky 35:39
People get held back because they're afraid of something, and they think being afraid is is a bad thing. And I don't believe that being afraid is a bad thing. Being afraid, I don't think you can be fearless. I hate when people say, be fearless. Fear tells you what to look at. It doesn't it's not. Fear is not there to stop you. Fear is there to say, is this right? Have I done this right? So fear that, whatever fear you're feeling, go check it out. What are you afraid of? To me, starting a business, it's about, if you fail, what do you lose? You're going to lose some money, sure. But if you're young enough, in your 40s is is young enough you can make that money back in your lifetime. It's about thinking about what's holding you back, what your fear is, and answering that question, calming your own fear by finding out the answer. If you're afraid that no one's going to buy your product, everybody's afraid before they start that no one is going to buy their product. That's common. It's it's part of going into business. I've been in my own business now for 16 years, I think. And while I loved being in the magazine business, totally loved it being your own there is such there's pride and joy and accomplishment in just in doing it on your own, you will feel so good about yourself and about everything else if you start and so I get why you're afraid, but I just think, figure out what it is and cover you. And then once you conquer that theory, because something else is going to crop up, you're going to get afraid of something else. So again, just, I use fear as a okay, I need to do more research about that.
Roger Pierce 37:31
Look into the fear, break it down, and you won't be as afraid of it anymore. Again, right?
Rieva Lesonsky 37:36
Exactly. And, and again, you're starting in little steps, and it's so much easier today to tackle a startup in small steps because of the technology. You don't have to invest a lot in startup, because you can start at home. You don't have to invest in an office building. You you can, you know, I'm talking to you from I mean, I have an office, but we had a flood, and my office is a nightmare. So I'm just talking, I'm sitting here on my living room couch, and that's where I produce my content, you know, I just my husband that sits there across the room for me with the TV on, and I'm just, you know, producing content and and looking things up, and I don't pay any rent. I mean, that's and then you get to deduct part of your mortgage from, you know. So it's really, win, win, win. It's, it's so much easier today. Just, I hate to say, Just do it like Nike, but just do it. Just do it. Examine research and do it.
Roger Pierce 38:31
Is your husband distracting you by watching a baseball game on TV?
Rieva Lesonsky 38:35
No, I sent him to another room, but I think he has a baseball game on. We are a big baseball household here.
Roger Pierce 38:44
Well, good luck in the baseball I hope things work out for you there.
Speaker 2 38:49
You don't really mean that, Roger, we're in the same division, so you don't mean that at all.
Roger Pierce 38:59
But listen, I want to wrap it up here with with Rieva, thank you so much for sharing such an honest and insightful look into the trends and entrepreneurship fears and entrepreneurship tips and everything you've done here today. I really appreciate
Rieva Lesonsky 39:15
Well, thank you for having me. It really was, it was fun and really my pleasure to be here with you
Roger Pierce 39:21
before we go. If someone wants to get a hold of you, what's the best way to connect?
Rieva Lesonsky 39:24
Email me. It's rieva@smallbusinesscurrents.com . I check my email constantly, so I'll get back to you. Perfect.
Roger Pierce 39:37
Thank you for that. And again, as you said, if you want to read more of Rivas work, head over to small business currents.com and to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to the unsure entrepreneur. If you like this episode, leave us a review or visit unsure entrepreneur.com and if you're on the fence about launching something of your own, just remember that being unsure is the first step toward doing something bold. Thank. For listening,
Intro 40:02
that's it for this episode of The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss other candid conversations with small business owners, and be sure to check us out at UnsureEntrepreneur.com