Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kenneth Pujdak, Founder of Small Business Is MY Business, LLC., located in Greenville, SC, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Focal Point Transnational LLC is a management consulting firm that serves owners of companies around the globe by providing COO, CFO, CRO, and CIA advice, direction, and education on a fractional basis. Small Business Is MY Business, LLC is a division of FPT focusing on providing mini-MBA training to small firms under $1mm in annual sales.
Tell us about yourself
Since 1992, I have helped business owners across different industries get back to what they do best, providing a quality product or service. I started and ran several small businesses. A former CPA with one of the (then) “Big 8” firms, I founded a CPA practice, going from zero to over 500 tax and 120 bookkeeping and consulting clients within three years. The sales platform credited with the lion’s share of this success included a curriculum I taught through local Technical Colleges called, How to Start and Run a Profitable Small Business. My clients included manufacturers, retailers, construction outfits, financial institutions, including banks and investment firms, supply chains to international manufacturers as well as not-for-profit organizations.
I also formed an insurance and investment firm that raised $44 million in capital in two years. Recognized as the 5th highest sales producer (out of 20,000 agents), I was able to successfully train other producers with many more years of experience. I was also instrumental in getting an AAA+ insurance carrier’s product licensed into the state.
My wife of 35 years now operates the real estate, housing rehab, and appraisal businesses we spent 14 years building, as I'm once again focusing on my primary service, producing sales management excellence in small B2B firms in the Upcountry of South Carolina. Within a few moments of your time, I will gladly show you how you can take advantage of my broad experience in creating profitable sales growth and enhanced management. The best part of my program: It won’t cost you a king’s ransom to hire a great sales manager.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My first client was 60 days away from bankruptcy when I started to systemize and coordinate the sales, marketing, and production divisions of the family-run company in Greenville. Within twelve months, sales doubled, profits tripled, and all debts were cleared. The sales platform that I installed and managed allowed the customer base to grow from 8,000 to 40,000 in those same twelve months. The owners were free to pursue the creative side of the business and regained a comfortable living. Thirty years later, a granddaughter runs the company, making it possible for her husband to serve our great State in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Learning from your own mistakes. Anyone can learn from their own mistakes. A truly wise person learns from the mistakes of others. There is a solution to every problem.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
There are three areas in business that you, as a business owner, must excel in if you are to remain profitable. Failure in just one of these areas will result in a 90% chance of your business not reaching its tenth birthday. You must excel in your operations (your product or service), in administration (managing the business – aka the legal paperwork), and in sales (getting your product or service to market in a timely, cost-effective manner in a way the consumer will pay handsomely).
Operations are generally not a problem for business owners. They started the business because of a grand idea they had and have become experts at it. No one in your firm is going to know more about your product or service than you do.
Most successful entrepreneurs did not go to business or law school. They will hire accountants and lawyers to handle the “paperwork” to keep the government out of their profits.
As a result of your expert knowledge and love for your product or service, you, the business owner, will always be its top salesman. You have done a fantastic job selling, then you hired a sales team to assist with expanding sales, and now sales management is eating away most of your day. You find yourself spending vast portions of your day not doing what you went into business to do. Your primary focus ought to be on your product or service.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://smallbusinessismybusiness.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smallbusinessismybusiness
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3xSEhkc
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.