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Empowering Small Business Owners When It’s Time to Sell Their Business

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Ed Reel, Founding Partner  |  Business Listing Service

Small business owners typically had one option when it was time to sell their business.  That option was to engage a business broker and pay a commission, as well as sign an exclusive and restrictive contract.  The Business Listing Service (BLS) solution eliminates the need for a broker and empowers the business owner to price, market and sell their business themselves.  Three significant business owner benefits include (1) maximizing their cash benefit by never paying any broker commission, (2) retaining complete control over the sale process without any restrictive or exclusive broker contract, and (3) eliminating risk with our 100% Purchase Credit if they don’t sell their business.  Business Listing Service is the most innovative and cost-effective “For-Sale-By-Owner” solution for a small business and business owner considering the sale of their company.

The Business Listing Service team has over 75 years combined experience and is led by its two founders, Ed Reel & Casey McEwen, who together have extensive knowledge and experience in small and middle market company mergers and acquisitions, sales & marketing, advertising & promotions, executive management, and franchise systems across a multitude of industries with both Fortune 100 and privately held companies.

 

770-329-6630  |  ed@blsnow.com  |  www.blsnow.com  |  @caseyblsnow

 

Casey McEwen, Founding Partner  |  BLSnow.com

Casey is a successful entrapreneur and executive with a 30 year positive track record with public and private companies to include RTM Restaurant Group, Arby’s, Mrs. Winner’s, Crystal Financial Group, and Peach State Lending. Casey has extensive expertise in franchising, domestic and international business development, sales, marketing & advertising, mergers & acquisitions, capital funding and real estate. His unique background as a successful Franchisor, Franchise Business Owner, and Entrepreneur equipped him with the experience and perspective to create and deliver unparalleled solutions to franchises and small business owners across all industries.

Common Legal Mistakes Made by Small Business Owners, and How to Avoid Them

 

Helen Rice, Attorney  |  Robison & Miller

Common legal mistakes made by small business owners, and how you can avoid them
Helen Rice is an attorney who practices primarily in the areas of estate planning, probate, guardianship, elder law, real estate, and small business law. She graduated from Furman University in 1991 and Lewis & Clark Northwestern School of Law in 1994, and she is admitted to practice law in Georgia and Tennessee. Helen became an attorney because she genuinely enjoys helping people to solve and avoid problems. She began her career working with the disaster assistance branch of the Small Business Administration (SBA) for over seven years. She later served as general counsel to a privately held group of financial services companies with multiple domestic and international offices. She has written and presented proposed laws for passage in the Georgia legislature, and she authored a set of financial services regulations that were adopted by the Prime Minister of Belize in 2008 relating to international commerce. She now works with the small firm of Robinson & Miller in Alpharetta, where she is able to form a personal relationship with each client, getting to know people and situations in depth in order to make custom tailored recommendations. Helen prepares wills, trusts, advance directives for health care, family limited partnerships, powers of attorney, operating agreements, and related documents for individuals, families, and small businesses in order to protect their assets, minimize tax liability, and make sure that their wishes – however simple or complex – are fulfilled no matter what circumstances may arise in their lives.
770-817-4999  |  hrice@robinsonmiller.com |  @robinsonmiller  |  www.robinsonmiller.com

 

 

Making The Transition From Manager To Leader

Randy Goruk, President  |  LeadersEdge360.com

Making The Transition From Manager To Leader
Management isn’t leadership and for many managers making the transition to leader isn’t as easy as it appears. The competencies and practices that leaders must develop are different than the competencies and practices of a manager. We will discuss:
• the primary differences between management and leadership
• the most critical leadership core competencies required in today’s new reality of constant change and uncertainty
• the common mistakes new managers make in transition to becoming a leader 

Listen to hear concrete strategies to help you cross the bridge from being a manager to becoming an exceptional leader.

Randy Goruk is a seasoned business leader with over 35 years of proven success in sales, marketing and executive leadership. He has primarily served in key leadership positions across North America for Trus Joist – A Weyerhaeuser Business, most notably as the President of Trus Joist Canada, and Sr. Vice President of North American Residential Operations.

678.566.3576  |  randy@LeadersEdge360.com |  http://www.LeadersEdge360.com | @RandyGoruk

Master Your Prospecting Cycle | 2012 Small Business of the Year

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Mike Scher, President  |  Frontline Selling

One of the biggest issues facing sales organizations today is identifying net new sales opportunities. One of the main causes can be traced back to the fact that the sales organization is not engaging in enough meaningful business conversations with the right people at the right level in order to uncover those opportunities.
FRONTLINE Selling helps organizations master their prospecting cycle to uncover net new sales cycles. We use a methodology based approach and proprietary technology to identify the right executive, gain access to that executive and to engage effectively in those first meaningful business conversations. We deliver our solutions either as an outsource service and/or as a skills development partner. Either way, our clients experience game changing impact on their sales pipeline. 

As a skills development partner, we teach our proven methods to our clients’ inside/outside sales people, as an outsourced service  we create Meaningful Interactions on behalf of our clients, and as a technology provider we assist with adoption and lead management.

mscher@frontlineselling.com  |  http://www.frontlineselling.com |  @frontlinemike

 

Tony De Feria, President  | T De Feria Media

Winner of the 2012 Small Business of the Year Award

Tony De Feria is a senior media executive with extensive experience leading print and on line products. As an industry expert in “niche markets,” he led major initiatives including those targeting the growing Hispanic population. Tony’s unique 360° expertise offers business and marketing acumen in fulfillment of global expansion goals in consumer, media and rapidly growing business in all markets. Tony’s skills are further enhanced by his ability to speak, read and write Spanish fluently. He started tdeferiamedia in February 2007.

As part of a joint venture between tdeferiamedia, inc. and Appen Newspapers, Tony served as on site General Manager overseeing advertising, the newsroom, operations, technology and on line initiatives. He helped set the strategic direction for the entire company and in little over a year, re-engineered the entire operation to improve productivity, systems and conceptualized Northside Woman, a monthly publication and website, which was profitable from the start.

As Director of Consumer Marketing and Communications for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tony oversaw the newspaper’s branding efforts and was concurrently charged with evaluating Hispanic opportunities for the company. He played a critical role in the acquisition of MundoHispánico, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the Southeast by The AJC in May 2004. Post acquisition, Tony was promoted to Executive Vice President of Mundo. His leadership in creating cross-selling links to the AJC increased revenue by $700,000 per year and 65% over a twenty-four month period.

Previously Tony served as The AJC’s Creative Director and Assistant Managing Editor for Graphics and Photography where he implemented significant improvement to processes including coordination of the newspaper’s page-size reduction project yielding significant savings in newsprint costs, new advertising opportunities and vastly improved processes. He led the scripting of coding that yielded automation of datelines saving hundreds of man-hours. Under his leadership, The AJC was awarded dozens of awards and received special recognition for Olympic body of work by The Society of Newspaper Design.

Prior to coming to Atlanta, Tony served as Co-design Director-Graphics Editor of The Baltimore Sun. As The Sun’s first Graphics Editor he introduced visual journalism and computer graphics. Tony’s career began as an artist trainee and Assistant Art Director/Graphics at The Washington Times.

His graphics, illustrations and designs have been recognized by national and international design organizations such as The Society of News Design, American Cartographic Association, The Associated Press, American Institute of Graphic Arts and Time Magazine.

As a speaker, Tony has given lectures at The Poynter Institute, American Press Institute, NEXPO, Associated Press and The University of Georgia. He’s also taught courses at The Art Institute, Maryland College of Art and The Portfolio Center in Atlanta. As a consultant, he has helped publications in the U.S., Spain and Eastern Europe.

Tony is or has been an active member of the National Association of Minority Media Executives, International Newspaper Marketing Association, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Latin American Association and Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He served on the Board of Directors of The Boys and Girls Clubs of Atlanta, Atlanta’s Tony-award winning Alliance Theatre and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta helping coordinate Latino outreach programs.

404.630.0639  |  tony@tdeferiamedia.com |  http://www.tdeferiamedia.com/

 

In the World of Business, It’s Adapt or Die

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Brad Childress, Partner  |  TechCXO

Adapt or Die

In the world of Business-to-Business commerce, professional sales is changing because buying is changing. Buyers still need salespeople to help, but if all you are providing is product information and price they don’t need you.
Brad is a highly accomplished senior-level professional offering comprehensive background in company operations with deep leadership experience in global sales and marketing, product and services management, financial management, strategic planning and implementation. He has proven success in developing effective product and technology strategies in the software industry to drive profitable operations and integrating successful sales and marketing plans to accelerate and maximize revenue growth and profits. Brad is skilled at establishing programs to ensure improvement in customer experience through sales effectiveness, executive selling and communication initiatives to support overall company goals and achievement. 

Brad’s consulting and sales execution credentials include his role of President and COO of The Complex Sale, a global sales effectiveness consulting and training firm focused on the sales and marketing challenges of B2B selling helping companies drive revenue utilizing sales process, sales strategy, and messaging, which are critical in creating a competitive advantage.

Brad also used his knowledge of what makes salespeople “tick” to lead the successful development and implementation of a a pioneering effort in the integration of methodology and technology or sales effectiveness. Brad spearheaded the development and launch of the Global Planning for Sales (GPS) product suite of sales planning tools that integrate with major CRM systems which became the fastest growing segment of the business. Additionally, Brad effectively managed the company’s largest account (Oracle), which resulted in generating millions of dollars of revenue and 400 percent increase in overall company revenue from 1995 to 2000.

Brad’s corporate career includes his most recent role as EVP, Sales at nuBridges, an enterprise software company providing technology solutions for extended enterprises that share sensitive data and face complex security and compliance mandates In this role Brad exceeded plan in all revenue areas in 2010, notably grew software business by 29% year over year, increased average deal size by over 50%, successfully developed and implemented recruiting, hiring and onboarding processes for sales resulting in 50% increase in time-to­effectiveness for new sales team members, implemented a forecasting methodology resulting in greater accuracy in predicting revenue for license sales and adopted strategic sales approach resulting in higher win ratio and increase in average deal size. The culmination of these efforts led to a very profitable and successful exit through acquisition by Liaison Technologies.

Prior corporate executive management roles include Vice President & General Manager, D&B Software, where Brad directed all functional areas related to sales, professional services and support for the largest region in the company, significantly exceeding its established annual goal and recognized as the Number One Region in the company. Also significant during Brad’s tenure at DBS was his role as Vice President, Solutions Marketing. In this role he led the development of a global solutions strategy where his team developed a comprehensive product I solution marketing approach that led in the integration of all functions of the company including design, development, product certification and launch.

Brad has a B.S. from Georgia Tech, is a guest speaker at the Georgia Tech School of Management, and program facilitator for Georgia Techs’ Executive Program.

Brian Sholly, CMO  |  Chief Outsiders

The Fractional CMO – A New Way To Grow Your Company

Chief Outsiders provides part-time marketing executives to growth and mid-sized businesses for a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Most companies have focused the past few years on operational efficiency to survive. Now, as focus returns to growth, many companies lack the skills and resources to drive knowledge based, efficient growth strategies. Rather than take the significant financial risk to hire a seasoned senior marketing executive, companies can now engage a fractional CMO. We will talk about how fractional executives work – and how it can help you grow your business.

A global leader with a strong growth record in software, technology, consumer products and start-up organizations, Brian Sholly is passionate about building businesses. Sholly has proven his ability to drive growth and profitability at companies such as Procter & Gamble, GTE (Verizon) and his own start-up business. He defines aggressive but disciplined strategies and builds outstanding teams to establish share, volume and profitability growth quickly and efficiently. Sholly has established a strong reputation for his outstanding interpersonal skills, strategic thinking, leadership, collaboration and ethics.

Most recently, Sholly drove his division at Kaplan Learning Technologies from $5 million in revenue to more than $19 million. His two international acquisitions, internal B2B direct sales expansion, and key partnership development transformed the business from a stagnant IT test prep business into a global enterprise software company in the US, South Africa, England and Australia. Sholly also led the development of an innovative new technology called “PerformIT,” which delivers performance-based testing in a scalable, global platform. This technology is now being tested by two Fortune 50 software and Internet search companies. In late 2011/early 2012, Sholly led the successful sale of the division.

In his 15-plus years of senior level marketing at Procter and Gamble, GTE (Verizon) and Qwest, Sholly drove numerous innovative businesses-building programs. For Qwest he quickly turned around an underperforming $800M wireless business by redesigning the pricing strategy and prioritizing feature initiatives — reducing total price plans by over 30% and product features by 69% while delivering more than $8.5M in annual savings. At GTE (Verizon), Sholly pioneered GTE’s entry into e-commerce while leading a total marketing budget of over $160M for the Wireless, Small Business, CLEC and Internet divisions. He also led a national GTE agency review that yielded $10.5 million in annual savings.

At Procter and Gamble Sholly achieved a consistent record of share, revenue and profit growth for such products as Oil of Olay, Clearasil, Crest Complete, and Denture Care products. As brand manager of Denture Care products, Sholly managed the P&Ls of five separate brands with total revenue exceeding $75 million. In two years, he quadrupled total brand profits while increasing market share from 33% to a record 44%. He was awarded the coveted P&G World Class Advertising Award and the Health Care World Class Advertising Award for two consecutive years. Sholly was nominated to participate in the exclusive Agency Internship program where he worked on a creative ad team at a New York ad agency. Here he became the first P&G intern to successfully develop and sell a national ad campaign.

In addition to his experiences with large companies, Sholly also understands the unique challenges of building a successful small business, having successfully founded, built and sold his own start-up firm. He holds a BA degree from Grace College and an MBA from Ohio State University, where he graduated with top honors.

770-598-5445  | bsholly@chiefoutsiders.com |  www.chiefoutsiders.com |  @bsholly

 

 

The Cloud – Mobile Marketing – Fleet Management

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Steven Eppinger, President & CEO  |  Ownersite Technologies
Managing fleet assets from the cloud with Ownersite
Ownersite Technologies, whose customers have maintained nearly 250 million miles of records using our solution, provides comprehensive web-based and mobile solutions to enhance the safety, reliability and value of its customers’ personal and commercial assets and vehicles. Our low cost asset management tools put the advantages usually reserved for large fleet owners into the hands of small business owners for a fraction of the cost. Ownersite.com is distributed directly to businesses and consumers online as well as through our channel of financial service and insurance providers, automotive service shops, and enthusiast networks. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Roswell, GA, Ownersite Technologies is privately-held.
Steven Eppinger is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ownersite Technologies, a personal asset management software company, whose products include Ownersite and Home Ownersite. Ownersite and Home Ownersite provide consumers with the Internet’s most comprehensive tools for managing all aspects of the ownership lifecycle of their vehicles and homes. 

An Internet entrepreneur by trade, Steve earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing from New York University. A brief stint in software service and sales following graduation led him to predict that the web would become the world’s greatest marketing and social networking tool.

It was with this vision that he created, in 1996, the framework for what would become F150online.com, now the largest late-model F-150 site on the Internet. F150online.com draws in excess of 300,000 unique visitors through over 3,000,000 page views each month and provided Steve with several CRM consulting opportunities with Ford Motor Company. In April 2007, Internet Brands purchased F150online.com and Steve’s exclusive focus became Ownersite Technologies.

A frequent speaker on industry trends, Steve was recently featured as a the keynote speaker on consumer solutions at the Jefferson Parish Hurricane Preparedness Expo in the New Orleans area, where he spoke about the importance of home inventories and the safe and secure storage of important home documents.

Born and raised in Danbury, CT, Steve currently lives with his wife Christine and their son in Roswell, GA. In addition to improving his golf handicap, Steve is currently training to earn his private pilot’s license. Steve also spends much of his time studying up on the business and financial aspects of the automotive industry and is an active member of the Roswell United Methodist Church, as well as several charitable organizations.

Larry Block, President  |  Mobile Marketing Technologies

Mobile Marketing Technologies combines an entrepreneurial spirit; a deep fascination with and understanding of mobile communications; and a fierce commitment to client satisfaction to provide creative, value-added, single-source solutions to companies looking to more effectively, efficiently, and affordably communicate with their prospects, clients, employees, and the public in general.

Our mission is to make Mobile Martketing Technologies brand synonymous with innovation and quality. We want to be an integral part of our customers’ lives, providing exceptional and memorable experiences with their mobile phones. By recognizing, valuing and responding to their needs.

Our goal is to empower consumer-facing companies to take advantage of wireless as a content delivery, marketing and communications channel. We want to become the link between the physical world – the world around us – and the digital world. Everything in the physical world has an electronic link, somewhere.

404 775-7982 |  info@rutxting.com |  www.rutexting.com