Rajesh Tedla with VRT Management Group

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: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Rajesh TDA with VRT Management Group. Welcome, Rajesh.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:00:44] Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about VRT. How you serving, folks?

Rajesh Tedla: [00:00:52] So we have the management group really predominantly serve small and medium sized companies. So anywhere from one employee to five hundred employees, that is a sweet spot. We have been serving them for the last approximately 14 years

Lee Kantor: [00:01:07] And then we have what kind of work are you doing with those small to midsize businesses?

Rajesh Tedla: [00:01:12] So we predominantly do three things for them. One is strategy transformation. One is people transformation and one is process transformation.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:23] And then how did you get into this line of work, what’s your back story? What makes you good at that?

Rajesh Tedla: [00:01:27] So I basically come from predominantly a very big large Fortune 10 company that is where I spent a lot of my time. I come with a very, very varied background. I come with a mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree, master’s in industrial engineering and an MBA in strategy and finance. And I have worked with several different manufacturing and capital businesses where I have quite a lot of strengths. And the interesting term was when I was with Jim, we had a program where we were helping small and medium sized companies as mentors. This was an initiative way back in nineteen ninety nine by the Vice President Al Gore. And that is where I became very fascinated with the small and medium sized businesses. The first company I worked with in way back in 2001, in less than a few months, we could take a company which was losing money for three years and made them a profit of one million. And that was a huge turning point where I said, man, we have a lot of skills that we have learned which are missing in the small and medium sized companies. And that was the turning point when I started thinking about it. And eventually in 2008, I went back and started my full time management business.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] Now how? What types of things transfer from a large enterprise like a GE to a small business? I mean, is it kind of the philosophy and foundational core values? Is that what transfers or or because the tactics can’t really, I wouldn’t think, transfer as well. So how do you kind of attack it coming from that large enterprise background to a kind of a smaller micro business?

Rajesh Tedla: [00:03:10] So it’s a very, very interesting question. If you go back and look at it, the systems, the processes, the knowledge, everything is very well built for the large companies and they need to be somebody who can take those things, distill them into simple things and really go back and bring it to the small businesses. And the part of the small business is, even if you look at the small business starting with one person all the way to 500 employees, they go through seven different distinct stages of growth within that 500 employees by the time. And there are certain processes and stuff which I leverage from the big companies and then applied some to stage one, applied to stage two, some of like the stage three. And that is the expertize that got distilled to really help small and medium sized companies. Let me give you one example. Sure. And stage two company, basically, they have between 11 and 20 employees. And it is still focused on the business owner or the advocate of the status of the company. But the one big thing is if he or she doesn’t identify two or three key people to start developing and start delegating things once they get into the 30 to 35 employees, they get into trouble. And that is one thing I learned, so. Stage two or what I’m working with when they have between 11 to 20 employees. The biggest thing I advise them is, Hey, have you identified one or two critical people whom you can start delegating some work now?

Lee Kantor: [00:04:39] Right. And that’s a great learning that you were able to pick up. And then, like you say, distill it down into something actionable for for that stage to company. Now, at the heart of most businesses and probably all of the businesses you work with is to have some sort of strategic planning to make sure that they are aiming at a true north that makes sense for them culturally and what their, you know, so their expectations are so they know when they get there, right? So how do you how do you help them kind of put on a strategic planning hat where a lot of people are just kind of immersed in doing the work and the strategy part really isn’t at the fore.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:05:22] So if you go back and look at it, strategic planning can be as complicated with the big companies. It goes on for months and there are several pages to a small business where it can be a simply a one page plan. And that is the difference. There are some wonderful, wonderful one page strategic plans available for small business to take. All but part of the piece of it is there are about five critical elements they need to about every small business in the owner’s mind. They feel like they can go back and serve it. Yes, the product might be required by most of the customers across. But when you are a growing company, you need to be really focused. And the first piece I tell people is focus on the geographic area where your customers. Like, I’m a coach, I can serve customers across anywhere, but do I have the resources to go back and market and communicate with the customers across the. No, I cannot do that, so I need to identify where I can really go deeper and work with the customers, and that’s who’s my ideal customer because coaching is something I can serve a one person business or a fortune. But I really have decided and I’m going to work with small and medium sized companies. Up to five hundred employees, 90 percent of my revenue comes from companies within.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:06:44] And if I take 60 percent, it comes from employees with about thirty five employees, two hundred employees. So I have targeted that customer segment because I can bring the most value to. So every single business should really look at their customer base and try to narrow that to that point. That is the second piece of it from a strategy perspective. And if you look at the products and services, any startup, I would say, should not offer more than maybe two at the most three sources. Because that way, they can be really good at it. They can really serve their customers very well and become excellent in what they. And the third piece of it is how do you reach them? You need to have a consistent way of communicating with your customers. We are almost like the social media plays a big role right now, but if you are not consistent in social media that it becomes very difficult for them to do so, they need to be consistently identifying one two three ways of communicating with their customers and consistently. And the last two aspects of their strategy is what Mr. And then the brand bonds in the value proposition, what is the value you can expect your customers to receive from? Like, if you go back and an example would be Cuba, one of the biggest things when you think of Cuba is convenience.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:08:06] And when you look at the brand promise, the biggest part of it, you think of it, let’s say FedEx. If you think of FedEx, what you think of next year, if you think of GEICO, spend 15 minutes and basically you would say $15. So these are the kind of things the small businesses need to go back and really understand and build their plan around. If you start looking at these five things, then they get a real big clarity around who they are and what their businesses. And then they move into the next part of it is what are my 12 months in the next 12 months? What are the specific two or three goals that I need to accomplish? And then to go back and put all of the ideas efforts into making sure those three or two boats are, if you have more than three to four goals or five goals at the MAX, you are spread so thin that it becomes very difficult for them to go back and they would not accomplish anything. So those are a couple of ideas from a strategy point I always tell people to go back and focus on.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:12] Now, you and one of those points you brought up the importance of kind of owning your backyard. I don’t think you said it in those terms, but that’s what I heard you say. And and this show, we deal with a lot of coaches and this is we’re trying to share a lot of information with coaches out there, other coaches to be better. And and I found a lot of coaches think the world is their oyster. So, you know, any client can come from anywhere. And what I’m hearing you say that it’s maybe focusing on an area that you know, people in real life and then have relationships with and you can kind of have coffee with and get to know and then maybe try to start selling from there and then work your way out from that rather than take on the world and compete with every other coach on the planet as a competitor.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:10:06] That is exactly correct, at least in the initial stages, until you go back and get your foothold, it is always easier to work with people in a specific geographic location. And there is one caveat I would like to add is basically because of these social platforms like LinkedIn, especially LinkedIn, that is where I work. And if you have a good followers and people really trust you and believe in you, that that can be one place where you can go back and part because you’re already having your connections. And geographically, they might be dispersed, but you still have a focus and a way to communicate with them, so that can be the other.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:47] Now, I think this goes a line in alignment with the philosophy of kind of rather than be a jack of all trades, be a go to resource in one area and be kind of known for the being the person that is an expert in a niche rather than, oh, I’m just kind of a general purpose all around. Great consultant or coach.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:11:11] Yes, that is very true, if you look at it, I focus on three things, and that is what I have been doing. When I started my business in 2008, I had almost like 15 services I put off. But as I became learning and I became smarter about it, I have three things strategy, transformation, people transformation and process transformation. And when that is something which we are very, very good at and we can deliver that.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:35] And then when you do that, you get a depth of knowledge in that area that it’s hard to compete with you because you’ve seen so many cases and seen so many kind of issues that people have dealt with it. You truly do become an expert. You truly are able to solve people’s problems faster than if they were to do it themselves or read a book or just have a kind of a generic coach help them. You have depth of knowledge in that space. So that makes you an expert in a go to resource. That’s a better positioning.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:12:04] I think you are 100 percent right. That is exactly why I have so much referral business coming to me now and because people are seeing the results and they really love what I do with them and they go back and send in their friends, their referral network.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:20] So and that’s counterintuitive to a lot of people. They think like, I have to be available for everybody. But when you’re available for everybody, you’re really available for nobody because nobody thinks of you when that specific pain occurs.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:12:34] Exactly, exactly. Very, very valid point. Basically, I would reinforce what you just said is basically become very good at what you do. One, two three at the most. And then really, really become that go-to person, just like what we was addressing. And your business will take off.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:54] Now, can you share a story of maybe you worked with somebody don’t name the name of the company or the individual, but explain what the challenge is that they were having. They brought you in and how you were able to kind of help them overcome that and get to a new level.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:13:08] So basically, I will talk about one of the customer, basically they were approximately a million dollar company when I met them in 2000. Said currently, they are close to 18 billion dollars. I just wanted to show the growth of the top. And in the process, they were twenty seven years in business when I met them first and the founder was pretty close to retiring and basically she wanted to bring the son into the business. So I went there to help them transition the ownership. And as soon as the ownership of that changed, it took us two years and that slowly now I had to implement the strategy piece of it first, then help him develop his people. Number two, because he was a growing company and there were people being added to the system. And third, as they were then doing to 40 50 employees, we had to go back and double up and help them with the process transportation. So each one of those things took us approximately 12 years to go back and help them get. I’m not saying that this is a long example of where consistently companies grow. And the reason I share this example is there were approximately 12 employees when we started. They are pretty close to about 90 employees. So there’s a lot of change that happens through the different stages of the growth. And that’s the reason why I wanted to share this example. They’re very, very profitable. And right now in the next three year plan, they want to be around twenty five million dollars. So that is how aggressively they are going and that’s making some changes.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:44] And if somebody if somebody wants to learn more about you or get on your calendar or speak to somebody on your team, is there a website for your practice?

Rajesh Tedla: [00:14:54] Yes. Basically, they can go to W WW Egos Egos LLC dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:02] And then that talks about your operating system that you implement when you work.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:15:06] Yes. If they want, they can definitely send me an email to Raj at VRT Mine dot com. And one of the things I offer all the business owners is I offer them a one hour complimentary session to help them understand where they are. They get a lot of value from the session, and if they’re serious about their business and if they want to grow, just send an email. They can go back and use the reference of this radio show and just say Strategy Plan. And then definitely I will send them a meeting invite in the calendar and they will get 60 minutes of my time completely complimentary.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:39] Now, before we wrap, is there any one piece of advice you would recommend or some action you would recommend an entrepreneur or small business owner take before the end of the year?

Rajesh Tedla: [00:15:50] So one thing I definitely want them to go back is really reflect on what happened. So let us say they grew their business by five percent or they lost their business by 20 percent. It doesn’t matter. But really, take the time to understand what worked very well for what did not work for them and what are some of the changes things? That is one piece of it from a reflection perspective. And the second piece of it is I really want them to think of two to three major goals. They can go back and verify their success in 2022. So if I have a business, I set up a goal and say by Christmas of 2020, do I need to breach X dollars in sales? I need to reach X number of new customers. I need to serve X number of this. So they need to go back and look at those two or three critical metrics that can be measurable and then do a SWOT analysis. So what are my strengths to accomplish these goals and what are my weaknesses to accomplish this goal? If they identify the goals and do the SWOT analysis, identifying the strengths and weaknesses that would do them a real, real methodology or understanding and seeing if I need to do this, these are my weaknesses. What can I do to overcome those weaknesses, to accomplish them? Once they identify the weaknesses, they can start looking for the resources to really help them and accomplish them. So that is one exercise I tell a lot of people. Identify your goals, do your SWOT analysis, identify your weaknesses and get the resources to go back and overcome your weaknesses. That can be done. If you’re a small business in two to three hours or if you are 200 300 employees, it can be done in a day. Either way, I advise all the entrepreneurs and CEOs to really focus on.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:37] Well, Raj, thank you so much for sharing your story today. One more time on the website

Rajesh Tedla: [00:17:42] Website is W W W E Goes LLC dot com os LLC dot com

Lee Kantor: [00:17:51] Raj. Thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Rajesh Tedla: [00:17:56] Thank you very much. It was a pleasure joining you and the listeners today.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:00] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach radio.