Andrew Frazier With Small Business Pro University

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to BRXambassador.com To learn more. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. Today we have with us Andrew Fraser with Small Business Pro University. Welcome, Andrew.

Andrew Frazier: [00:00:43] Hey, Lee. Thanks for having me on today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about small business Pro University. How are you serving, folks?

Andrew Frazier: [00:00:51] Ok, great. Thanks. Lee created Small Business Pro University as a way to really help entrepreneurs and business owners learn some of the key things they need to know, because at the end of the day, your business can only be successful as you’re prepared to take it.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:07] So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in helping entrepreneurs?

Andrew Frazier: [00:01:12] Well, I started as a paper boy in fourth grade and have had different corporate was navy officer ran a nonprofit but really loved business and solving problems, and became an entrepreneur. Found that I can take, you know, the myriad of things that I’ve learned about business and really help other people to grow and be more successful and change their lives.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:36] So then how did you develop this university where you’re always a teacher?

Andrew Frazier: [00:01:42] I’ve done coaching, consulting and training with entrepreneurs and business owners the last 12 years and worked with over a thousand. So just you start seeing patterns and things that are common challenges. So that led me to write my first book Running Your Small Business like a pro and you know, from there, developing additional tools to really, you know, help them to learn what they need to do because a lot of times they don’t. They can’t afford to hire me, but they can still benefit from my expertize.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:15] Now, having worked with so many business owners and entrepreneurs, do you see kind of a thread of a mistake that they typically make or that you see over and over when you go? Here we go again?

Andrew Frazier: [00:02:28] Definitely. So actually, each chapter in my book outlines one. So the first chapter is how did we get here? Many times they lose focus and forget about why they’re doing it or what their goals are. You know, they also don’t know what their most important job is as an entrepreneur and business owner. So we cover that many times, you know, there’s a greatest fear that I find among business owners and really, that’s around basically finances and analysis. You know, they don’t know their most important job in terms of it being marketing and selling. So how are you going to be as successful as you could if you’re not doing the most important job that you should be doing?

Lee Kantor: [00:03:18] All right. So let’s kind of dig into those you said the most important job is selling or marketing. What are some kind of low hanging fruit that people can be doing to do better in that area?

Andrew Frazier: [00:03:28] You know, one of the things is as a small business, many times you have to do what the opposite of what a larger business would do. So, you know, understanding that is key. And, you know, understanding that one piece of it is you have to have the smaller, a smaller target market, you have to narrow it significantly into a niche. And you know, it’s counterintuitive because usually you think, Oh, well, I want to sell and market to the most people possible, but it’s really the least people possible, but the most likely people to buy from.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:02] So that is counterintuitive because, like you said, people don’t want to miss out on anybody. So how do you kind of narrow it down? Like, say, you’re an accountant and you’re say, Well, I can help everybody because everybody needs their taxes done or everybody, you know, needs help with their books in business. You’re saying that it’s better to be like the accountant for dentist and be the the ninja accountant for dentists that know everything about dentistry and and the best way to leverage accounting in dentistry to help them the most rather than just being the accountant.

Andrew Frazier: [00:04:39] Correct. Because it’s more likely a dentist is going to hire you because you’re the best, you know, expert in dentistry than, you know, maybe one out of three dentists may hire you. Whereas if you’re just the general accountant, maybe one out of 20 people will hire you. So you’ve got to take more time, more money and more energy trying to market, and you don’t have as effective a market of a message to them.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:05] So now when you tell this to your clients, are they like, I can’t I’m? I’d be afraid to do that because, you know, there’s only one hundred dentists in my market. I what if I don’t get enough of them? Then I’ll, you know, I’ll be out of business. Is there a lot of fear around that?

Andrew Frazier: [00:05:20] Well, I actually came up with an analogy, a way to really that helps people understand it. And really, it’s called. Market your business like a drug dealer, and one of the key things is they don’t sell to everyone and they don’t even really sell. They offer them, you know, so they don’t try to make anyone buy any drugs. They just offer them to people and they offer to the right people. So when you offer what you have and what you have is a value to the right people. You don’t even have to sell it. They’re going to be like, Oh, that’s what I need. And that’s really what you can do by narrowing your target market to the right people.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:05] So now do you have some exercises that you help people kind of decide who the right people are because it may not be the obvious people it might be, you know, might require a little digging deep.

Andrew Frazier: [00:06:19] Yes, there’s a couple of ways, I mean, depending on the business and how many customers you need, you know, you may only need 10 customers. So rather than try and market to a thousand companies, maybe you pick the most likely twenty five to focus on, you know, one of the key things is, you know, you want to target, but you also have to think about how many businesses do you have the money, bandwidth resources to market to effectively. And when you break it down from a sales thing, you need to have seven to 12 touches. So that means everyone you’re marketing to, you have to market to seven to 12 times. So you know, how many people can you realistically do that with? And you know, how many customers do you even need?

Lee Kantor: [00:07:12] And that and you mentioned this earlier, and I think it’s a critical mistake that a lot of small business people make is that they see the big guy doing something and they say, Well, I’ll just do that. And the big guy can afford it. No one and the big guy can make a lot of mistakes that you can’t afford. So by copying the big guy is not really a great strategy for the little guy.

Andrew Frazier: [00:07:37] Correct. I mean, you have to go where you have an advantage. And you know, you don’t you want to focus on smaller niche that the big guy. It’s not worth their time and effort to focus on because that’s where you’re. You could provide a more valuable offering than what they could provide because they’re providing general solutions and you can provide something more specific and have a better message to the people in your market.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:10] So now let’s talk a little bit about your master preneur playbook. How did you come up with that? That’s a great name. And and what is it?

Andrew Frazier: [00:08:19] Ok? Really, you know, one of the key things is, you know, a lot of business owners get stuck because they don’t know exactly what they’re supposed to do. So what I laid out is a playbook that gives you the path that you need to take to create a sustainable business that can run without you. And it’s a five step business growth plan. And by having that layout, you know exactly what you need to do to move forward with your business. So we look at it in terms of the five steps know there’s a path. Your path is working on the concept of your business, working in your business, working on your business, working on the future of your business and working on scaling your business. And there’s different things that you need to do in terms of a business goal that you have to achieve to make it from each step. There’s a key challenge that you have to make you have to overcome to make it from each step. You as a business owner, you have to evolve each each step and there’s different leadership skills that you have to exhibit and develop in each step. And then you need to build and structure organization behind you so it can support you moving on to the next step. So it really just gives business owners and understanding of what they really need to put into place and how they and their business needs to move, evolve to move forward effectively.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:56] So now you mentioned earlier your first book, but there’s a book out right now. Can you talk about that one?

Andrew Frazier: [00:10:05] Yes. So this is that that’s actually this one. The Master,

Lee Kantor: [00:10:08] The Master Preneur is the latest book. Yes, I thought it was called Running Your Small Business like a pro.

Andrew Frazier: [00:10:14] Actually, that’s the first book. So we got him. Ok.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:17] So the first book was running your small business like a pro, and then the latest book is the master preneur book. Yes. And then so is, have you always been a writer?

Andrew Frazier: [00:10:28] Actually, I studied mechanical engineering at MIT undergrad and actually went there because I didn’t want to have to take a writing course. So I had to develop my communication skills over time, and I had to seek help help, you know, as a business owner, many times you, you have to seek help because you can’t do everything and you’re not an expert at everything. So, you know, I have a great book coach consultant who I work with and probably would have never finished my book had I not worked with them.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:04] So now in your business, a person could tap into what you have in terms of taking courses online. But is there coaching also available from you? Or is this primarily kind of online courses?

Andrew Frazier: [00:11:20] Actually, you know, its online courses, we have online certification programs that are combination of courses, live and virtual or virtual, live and independent learning. And then I do small business pro coaching programs. So you know, there’s many ways depending on your needs and you know your abilities and where your business is.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:46] So now what was it like to go from the transition from being a mechanical engineer to being in kind of a coach the way you are to helping entrepreneurs? Because that seems like two different worlds?

Andrew Frazier: [00:11:58] It is. But I actually split off real early because when I was at college, I was in ROTC, so I went and served as a U.S. Navy Supply Corps officer where I ran all the business functions for a ship. So from there, I really found that, you know, business is just like engineering where you’re solving problems. It’s just businesses shorter term problems and you get to solve more of them and see the results faster and easier. So, you know, I’ve got. I guess almost 30 years of experience on the business side.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:39] So now, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, is the website the best place to go,

Andrew Frazier: [00:12:46] The website or, you know, connect with me on LinkedIn? Andrew Fraser, CFA

Lee Kantor: [00:12:53] And the website is SB pro-EU the letter UK.

Andrew Frazier: [00:12:58] Yes, let’s sb for small business.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:00] Pro-eu good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success, Andrew.

Andrew Frazier: [00:13:05] Ok, thank you, Lee. Thanks for having

Lee Kantor: [00:13:07] Me. Well, you’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Andrew Frazier: [00:13:10] Okay, great. And so are you. This it’s important to get the word out and communicate.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:16] All right, this is Lee Kantor will sell next time on Coach the Coach radio.