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Erin Marcus, founder of Conquer Your Business, is not one to mince words. She's a no-nonsense “tough love” coach for startups. But given that most entrepreneurs are pretty stubborn and laser-focused, that's what most of us really need. She joins The Savvy Entrepreneur to talk about why having absolute clarity about what you want from … Continue reading "Entrepreneurs: What Do You Really Want, And How Badly Do You Want It?" The post Entrepreneurs: What Do You Really Want, And How Badly Do You Want It? appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Dawn Hryshko is truly passionate about saving her business clients money. She knows that most businesses pay more in taxes than they need to. She founded her own firm, Hryshko & Associates, because she felt that was the best way to form the deep advisor relationships needed to truly help them with their taxes. Many … Continue reading "Business Tax Strategies To Save You Money!" The post Business Tax Strategies To Save You Money! appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Victoria Thayer came from a working class family in Venezuela. Raised by a single mother and her aunt, both of whom were maids, Victoria got her big chance when she was offered a college scholarship in the U.S. She had never been to the States before, and spoke little English. Classes were so difficult that … Continue reading "The Story of Novii CPA" The post The Story of Novii CPA appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Barbara Provost and her daughter Maggie Nieman created Purse Strings, a platform dedicated to helping women make better financial decisions. They joined The Savvy Entrepreneur Radio Show recently to share how they got started, and some of the challenges they've faced along the way. Barbara spent many years working with financial institutions as a consultant. … Continue reading "Purse Strings: Helping Women Make Sound Financial Decisions" The post Purse Strings: Helping Women Make Sound Financial Decisions appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Balancing life with our business is one of the fundamental challenges of any founder. There is always too much to do, and never enough time! And women business owners often find it especially challenging to balance everything. Jenna Piche, creator of First Light Health, joins The Savvy Entrepreneur Radio Show to share some of the … Continue reading "First Light Health: Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time!" The post First Light Health: Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time! appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

When people think of entrepreneurship, usually they assume it means starting a new business. But there are other pathways to entrepreneurship. The Savvy Entrepreneur has previously looked at entrepreneurship in non-profits, as well as franchise ownership. In this episode, Deb Curtis, founder of Curtis Business Solutions, shares another pathway: buying an existing business. It's a … Continue reading "Pathways to Entrepreneurship: Buying An Existing Business" The post Pathways to Entrepreneurship: Buying An Existing Business appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Your business' brand (or your personal brand) is the market's perception, and the value that it/you have. Sometimes, your company or product/service needs a refresh, or maybe a complete rebranding. Maybe your product sold well at first, but sales are tapering off. Maybe your industry or the demographic for your product has changed significantly. Or … Continue reading "Does Your Brand Need a Refresh?" The post Does Your Brand Need a Refresh? appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Have you ever wondered if you could turn your passion for fitness into a business of some kind? Marisella Villano, founder of Marvil Fit, has done just that. Marvil Fit offers spin-related fitness classes (including some unique spin and floor combination classes). She also offers personal training. She's tried different combinations of offerings over the … Continue reading "How to Build a Fitness Business: Marvil Fit" The post How to Build a Fitness Business: Marvil Fit appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Laura Gallagher, the founder & CEO of The Creative Company, talks with The Savvy Entrepreneur about some of the many challenges women entrepreneurs face. Laura started The Creative Company, a full-service marketing firm, during her senior year in college. That was in 1989, the year after Wisconsin finally allowed women business owners to sign for … Continue reading "Entrepreneurs: Say “No” to Silos!" The post Entrepreneurs: Say “No” to Silos! appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Ever dreamed of making a living by singing, acting, or dancing? If so, this is an interview you need to listen to! Jamie Blythe Martin is a self-professed “Enterpreneur” — a successful entrepreneur in the entertainment world. She found success on the stage as early as middle school, and was buoyed by lots of support … Continue reading "Blythe-Martin Productions: How to Be a Successful Enterpreneur" The post Blythe-Martin Productions: How to Be a Successful Enterpreneur appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Building a business with your child can be extra-rewarding, but also riskier. Scott Nicholson has not only successfully done that, but has built businesses together with all three of his kids. Scott built KO Business Solutions with his daughter Brianna. KO Business Solutions is a consulting and recruiting company. It helps organizations create hiring strategies, … Continue reading "Building a Business with Your Kids" The post Building a Business with Your Kids appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Being the founder/CEO of a startup or small business can often be lonely, confusing, discouraging, and downright overwhelming. Most of us start a business around an idea we're passionate about, and it often revolves around something we're good at or know well. But building and running a business requires many skills, and few of us … Continue reading "Advantages of CEO Peer Group Mentoring" The post Advantages of CEO Peer Group Mentoring appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Are you insured for the risks your small business presents? Anna Maria Viti-Welch, principal of the Viti Companies, joins The Savvy Entrepreneur Radio Show to talk about some of the many misconceptions people have about business risks and insurance coverage they may want or need. For example, a common assumption is that, if you work … Continue reading "Business Risks and Insurance" The post Business Risks and Insurance appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

What do you do if, six weeks before the biggest and most important marathon race of your life, you tear your calf muscle? Jennifer Conroyd's 5 siblings were all coming to town to run the Chicago Marathon with her. They were raising money for Juvenile Diabetes, a disease her nephew had been diagnosed with at … Continue reading "Fluid Running" The post Fluid Running appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Thinking about scaling your small business? There's lots of great reasons to scale your business. Scaling often makes you more attractive to potential investors. It lets the founders/owners and other key people in the business grow professionally or allows them to focus on doing the things they are best at and enjoy most. And it … Continue reading "Tips to Successfully Scale Your Business" The post Tips to Successfully Scale Your Business appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Making the right hire for a small business is absolutely critical. If you don't hire the right person with the right skill sets and culture fit, it may sink your business. Al & Sarah Katz from FirstSearch share with The Savvy Entrepreneur Radio Show practical tips to help ensure the right people join your company. … Continue reading "Making the Right Hire" The post Making the Right Hire appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Allison Staiger's company, The Matriarchy, is a great example of a company building a business around a very specific niche. The Matriarchy coaches feminist women, helping them build caregiving businesses. The Matriarchy is Allison's second business venture. Her first, Highwire Therapy, is a counseling practice focused on perinatal mental health. Allison joins The Savvy Entrepreneur … Continue reading "Matriarchy: Coaching Feminist Businesses" The post Matriarchy: Coaching Feminist Businesses appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Nora Kerr's company Memoir For Me began when her father was dying of prostate cancer and was told he only had 6-8 months to live. Nora took that opportunity to sit down with him over the course of several months. She asked him many of the questions she'd always had about him and his life, … Continue reading "Memoir For Me: Custom Memory Books" The post Memoir For Me: Custom Memory Books appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Trina Ntmere and her company, Lavender Eucalyptus LLC, are passionate about helping nonprofits become more strategic. By helping them do that, they raise more money, provide more valuable services, and make better use of scarce staff resources. She shares with The Savvy Entrepreneur some of the ways she and Lavender Eucalyptus do that. Non-profits struggle … Continue reading "Lavender Eucalyptus: Helping NonProfits Be More Strategic" The post Lavender Eucalyptus: Helping NonProfits Be More Strategic appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Nicola Brown, Founder & CEO of Kokoro, is driven to help entrepreneurs and small businesspeople stay in touch with their human side. Rather than try to explain what that means, she takes both me and my listeners on a taste of what that journey might look like. At her suggestion, I turned the lead over … Continue reading "Grounded Entrepreneurship: A Guided Journey with Kokoro" The post Grounded Entrepreneurship: A Guided Journey with Kokoro appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Andrea Herran, an experienced Human Resources consultant, shares tips on things for startups and small businesses to consider before hiring their first employees. Some of the most common mistakes are: Andrea's company, Focus HR, provides not only question- and project-specific H.R. assistance, but is also the outsourced H.R. department for several small companies. She brings … Continue reading "What You Need Before Hiring Your First Employee(s)" The post What You Need Before Hiring Your First Employee(s) appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Everybody knows video is hot. It continues to draw viewers and potential customers. Nathan Wiens joins The Savvy Entrepreneur to share tons of practical video marketing tips. He's a video marketing expert with more than 20 years' experience. He runs two video-related companies, NWC Media, a full-service digital marketing company, and UAV Chicago, which provides … Continue reading "Video Marketing Tips" The post Video Marketing Tips appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Charlotte Trecartin founded CharCharms while a student at the University of Illinois in Champaign. She's proof that Covid actually had many silver linings. So, she took advantage of some of the many resources that the U of I, an engineering and business powerhouse, offers. And, when Covid hit, she decided to use the extra time … Continue reading "CharCharms: Cool Water Bottle Accessories & More" The post CharCharms: Cool Water Bottle Accessories & More appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Since 2004, Wisconsin's Annual Governor's Business Plan Contest has been fostering startups. More than 4500 startups have participated. Category winners have gone on to raise more than $300 million, win more than $2.5 million in prizes. Even more amazing, 77% of the competition finalists are still in business, a statistic that defies the notoriously high … Continue reading "Annual Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest" The post Annual Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Lori & Traci Tapani are true unicorns. There still aren't many women in senior manufacturing positions, and even fewer who own a manufacturing business. There are still fewer that whose companies thrive in small towns, and when you add in the fact that both are blond and beautiful and uber-competent besides, they are rare indeed! … Continue reading "Wyoming Machine: Innovation in Manufacturing" The post Wyoming Machine: Innovation in Manufacturing appeared first on The Savvy Entrepreneur.

Jill Salzman, Founder of Founding Moms, didn't intend to create the organization.  She was managing bands and also running her baby jewelry business.  But she said she "freaked out" when she was pregnant with her second child, trying to figure out how to juggle everything. She created a simple local Meetup group for moms who were also entrepreneurs.  The group kept growing, and she tells The Savvy Entrepreneur that about six months in, she realized she was onto something.  From there, she formally founded Founding Moms. In time, it grew to chapters in 30 cities, and eventually incorporated an online platform with virtual events and on-demand training.  The Founding Moms has been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, Business Insider, and a host of others. Jill is sassy, smart, and funny.  We laughed our way through the interview, and you will, too! Click on the arrow to listen!

Heather Wentler, Co-Founder of The Doyenne Group, joins The Savvy Entrepreneur to talk about how the group was founded to help women entrepreneurs. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Heather and co-founder Amy Gannon, Doyenne was born when Amy and Heather's husband organized a Startup Weekend.  And they notice that of the 130 attendees, only 10 were women. Amy and Heather started on a quest to find a way to change that.  They organized a women's business breakfast during Madison's Annual Forward Fest, a 5-day event for entrepreneurs.  The breakfast sold out rapidly.  At the breakfast, they polled the attendees about what they were looking for and needed help with. From there, Doyenne took off.  Today, it consists of workshops, online courses, mentoring, and connecting women entrepreneurs with all of the many groups and resources that already exist.  Plus, their signature Triple Threat Venture training, which is similar to an accelerator program. Heather candidly shares how Doyenne has morphed over it's 10+ year history, from changing its funding model to moving to online offerings.  Its members are enthusiastic champions (see my interviews, for example, with Richelle Martin and Karen Renee), and it boasts numerous success stories. And it's creating a cadre of self-described “badass women entrepreneurs” who clearly love helping each other. Click on the arrow to listen to this inspiring interview!  It's a testament to what two women can do who are on a mission to create change.

Jordy & Jahna McNamara took a novel approach to starting their app company, Critter.  They decided to quit their jobs, pack up everything and take a cross-country road trip in a van.  Their road trip allowed them the focus and freedom to finally start the business they'd dreamed of. Traveling for months out of a van isn't the easiest way to start a business.  But it got them out of their old routine and into a new one. And they were disciplined enough to work hard almost every day on their new business.  It also had the unexpected benefit of getting lots of in-person customer feedback, with a geographic and demographic breadth that would be hard to do any other way. Critter was born because Jordy & Jahna wished there was an easy way to summarize everything their dog Lucy needed for various caregivers.  They found themselves writing the same information over and over on scraps of paper.  They knew there must be something easier. Creating a new app and a company around it was right up their alley – Jahna has a software background, and Jordy a consulting and business background. The app launched in October 2022, and for now is free.  But they are exploring “freemium” tiers and other options to help monetize the business.  Their long-term goal is to create a suite of apps that would also include pet professionals as well, such as vets, groomers, and boarders. It's a fun story about how to navigate the hassles of living in close quarters and moving constantly while trying to start a business together.  It's the ultimate challenge in being flexible. But then, that's what the couple says is one of the keys to a successful road trip, but also building and marketing an app from scratch – have an overall plan, but stay flexible! Click on the arrow to listen to this fun interview!

Ed Dernulc. He is the Foundation Director of something called Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs (or "NBT," for short). It's the foundation arm of the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA).  He joined The Savvy Entrepreneur recently to talk about future manufacturing talent, including entrepreneurs. NBT's mission is to connect that next generation of entrepreneurs and manufacturers to consider careers in the manufacturing industry. Ed says that the number one thing that keeps him up at night, along with NBT's and FMA's members, is not supply chain, it's not the cost of raw materials, and it's not finding parts.  It's is human resources. The U.S. today has about a 2-million-person manufacturing skills gap -- meaning there are 2 million jobs in manufacturing that employers can't fill. And it's only growing, so the need is definitely there. Truly, Ed says, one of the biggest things that Nuts Bolts & Thingamajigs tries to tackle is to change perceptions about manufacturing.  Manufacturing has changed dramatically over the past few years.  It is no longer the dark and dangerous place people might envision.  There are also misperceptions about salary, and skills needed, as well as expected salaries and career paths (hint: the growing labor shortfall has driven up salaries, and by quite a lot for certain skillsets). To help address those gaps, Nuts Bolts & Thingamajigs offers scholarships, education, and outreach.  But it's probably best known for the week-long camps that it hosts to expose 12-16 year-olds to the world of manufacturing. In 2022, NBT has grown to 165 camps in 25 states and Canada.  The camps are structured building some kind of project, and also around local industry sponsors, who give students insights into what it's like to work in manufacturing. NBT also offers Glow & Gadget camps for young women.  Today, women represent only about 12% of manufacturing employment. The overall goal of both camps is to spark curiosity and open students' minds to the possibility of careers in manufacturing, including many different types of entrepreneurial opportunities. Learn more about the important work of the Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs Foundation in fostering future manufacturing talent by clicking the arrow.  You can also read a transcript of the interview here.

Ashley Moy joins The Savvy Entrepreneur to share how Cast21 is making radical improvements on the traditional orthopedic cast for breaks & fractures. The novel cast is lighter, waterproof and more comfortable than traditional plastic and fiberglass casts. It takes only three minutes to apply, and has a open lattice net-like design.  That design is hard for support, yet open so that the skin is accessible and air can circulate.  Plus it comes in several cool colors! The idea came about when Ashley and her co-founder participated in an accelerator program at the University of Illinois.  Her co-founder, a gymnast with a birth defect, had been in 60 different casts, and knew first-hand how miserable they can be. Their flagship product is a wrist or arm cast and sold in the U.S., but as you'll hear in Ashley's interview, the opportunities for new products and new markets are enormous. That said, creating a novel new medical device -- especially in the U.S. -- is no easy task.  Designing, manufacturing, marketing, and dealing with a host of regulatory issues, Ashley and her co-founder have carefully but determinedly pushed on. Cast21's story is inspirational and Ashley's interview is full of great tips. Click on the arrow to listen, or go here if you'd prefer to read a transcript of the show!

SBA loans offer a number of advantages for small businesses.  Chris Hurn, the CEO and Founder of Fountainhead Commercial Capital, joins The Savvy Entrepreneur to talk about the ins and outs of both types of SBA loans:  7(a) loans, and 504 loans. Fountainhead Capital is one of only 14 non-bank SBA lenders nationwide, and also one a small number of preferred SBA lenders.  As a specialist in SBA lending, Fountainhead Capital prides itself on providing great service and support to its customers.  He also says that it really helps to find a bank or non-bank lender that truly specializes in SBA loans to ensure you get the best experience. Chris talks about the 3 key advantages of SBA loans over conventional lending:  (1) lower downpayments; (2) longer repayment terms, both resulting in typical lower monthly payments.  A third advantage is typcially the lack of loan covenants that commercial lenders include. He talks about the differences between the two SBA loan programs, and also gives plenty of tips for pitching to lenders, as well as how to keep your relationship smooth with your lender. Click on the arrow to listen to an insider talk about SBA loans, or go here to read a transcript of our interview.

Nikyra McCann is living proof that mental health issues are not well-understood -- not by employers, not by law enforcement, and not by society in general. She was detained and incarcerated several times when she should have received institutional care because of her mental health issues. She's taken those painful, terrifying experiences and turned them into opportunities to help others. She's become a licensed rehabilitation worker, gives frequent seminars and workshops on mental health, and even has her own public-access TV show. To try to amplify her voice, she's created Still Standing Enterprise to educate on mental health issues, as well as provide hope and inspiration. Although focused at the moment mostly in the Madison, Wisconsin area, Nikyra hopes to partner with more mental health agencies to grow across and U.S. and even become international. The need is out there -- more than 1 in 5 Americans will struggle with mental health issues. The rate of teen suicide is growing. The pain is real, and Nikyra McCann is out there doing what she can to educate and inspire. Click on the arrow to listen to her inspiring story, or go here if you'd prefer to read a transcript of the show & learn more about Nikyra and Still Standing Enterprise!

Click on the arrow to listen, or go here to read a transcript of our interview.

Amie Kesler shares her quest for the perfect plant-based cookie cracker with The Savvy Entrepreneur.  She started with her favorite grandmother's recipe for a cookie-crisp.  Then she experimented with how to replace some of the traditional ingredients with plant-based ones. She started making Carolyn's Krisps (Carolyn was her grandmother) in a shared kitchen at The Hatchery. Click on the arrow to listen, or go here to read a transcript of the interview.

Click on the arrow to listen to the amazing story of Neopenda!  Or go here if you'd prefer to read a transcript of our interview.

Click on the arrow to listen to our interview, or go here to read a transcript of our chat.

Kevin Finke, Founder & CEO of Experience Willow, shares with The Savvy Entrepreneur how more acceptance of our differences and more openness to gender inclusion can spark more creativity, make organizations more adaptable, and help people contribute their best. Click on the arrow to listen to this uplifting interview, or go here for a transcript of the interview.

Jackie Comacho Ruiz is the self-professed "Make It Happen Director" at JJR Marketing, her marketing and PR firm. Jackie not only helps entrepreneurs, but she is an entrepreneur herself, several times over. So when she gives advice, she knows what she is talking about! She joins me on The Savvy Entrepreneur Radio Show to share marketing tips, and specifically, her "5 Types of Marketing" framework, which is the topic of her upcoming book. The 5 Types of Marketing are:  (1) Foundational Marketing (2) Executional Marketing (3) Time-Bound Marketing (4) Innovative Marketing and (5) Cause Marketing. She talks about why each type is important and gives examples. She also talks about common marketing mistakes small businesses make, and offers some suggestions on how to balance each of the types. Our interview is chock-full of free, practical marketing tips -- there's something in her interview for everyone! Click on the arrow to listen to our interview, filled with marketing tips for small businesses.  Or go here if you'd prefer to read a transcript.

Ever thought about having an independent record label as your business or side job?  Rob Sarwark, Co-founder of Tiki Core Records, shares with The Savvy Entrepreneur some insights about how to go about doing that.  He talks first about  the label typically does and doesn't do, and the decisions made by the label vs. those made by the artist.  He shares tips for finding artists to sign to your label, and ways to help artists monetize their work, including merchandise, tours, and recordings.  He also explains some of the key considerations related to music royalties. It's an interesting glimpse into a world most people never see.  For now, it's Rob's side gig, so he also talks about some of the challenges of building the business while holding down a full-time, more traditional job. Click on the arrow to take a listen to this interesting corner of the business world.

James Wilkinson and India Henderson are a husband-wife duo who are the co-founders of their side hustle, Blank Space Coach.  Lots of people have side hustles, but India & James' side hustle has a twist:  their business is intended to help other people establish and grow their own side hustles. They started this business after India had successfully grown her own home daycare business.  She has also had a creative side business for a while.  James, India says, is the “numbers guy,” because he has an MBA and also has worked in the financial services industry.  The two of them decided to take their shared learnings to help other entrepreneurs. They joined The Savvy Entrepreneur recently to share the story of Blank Space Coach. Blank Space offers online courses for a modest fee, and also coaching and consulting services.  They describe coaching as a 50/50 partnership, where Blank Space provides guidance, but the client does most of the leg work. The consulting offering is envisioned as 90/10, where Blank Space provides guidance but also does most of the work. The two of them are likeable and play off each other in the interview.  It's clear they are still experimenting with their offerings and their marketing -- consulting and coaching are notoriously difficult to get started in and keep viable over the long term.  But it's also clear they are having a lot of fun in the process, and that the process of building Blank Space Coach is helping them learn more about each other. The interview has lots of ideas and thoughts for setting up a new consulting business, especially one that is a side hustle, and one that features a husband-wife duo. Click on the arrow to listen to our interview, or go here to read the transcript.

Why are jar and bottle lids sometimes so darned hard to get open?  Brandon Bach is on a mission to make jars easier to open, especially for the elderly and disable. He's the CEO of Consumer Convenience Technologies, a company founded by his father and a friend of his father's, and they have developed and are marketing the EEASY Lid which makes opening jars much easier.  Brandon says it's the first real innovation in jar lids in over 75 years. Not only does the EEASY Lid make jars of all kids much easier to open, it's made from aluminum -- not steel -- and so is lighter and easily recyclable, and will help many elderly and people with disabilities who struggle to open certain food & beverage containers. So why isn't the food & beverage industry pounding down the door to get the EEASY Lid on their containers?  It turns out there are several reasons.  First, the food & beverage industry is complicated because there are several players in the production and supply chain, and the decision-maker differs, depending on the product.  Second, it's hard for the industry to change -- the food & beverage industry is hardly the only market segment highly resistant to change, something many entrepreneurs struggle with. Brandon shares how the company has successfully worked through numerous challenges in design, manufacturing, and sales & marketing, and offers some advice to other entrepreneurs. Click on the arrow to listen, and be on the lookout for an EEASY Lid on items in stores near you!  

Click on the arrow to listen, or go here if you'd prefer to read a transcript of the interview.

Click on the arrow to listen to the interview, or go here if you'd rather read a transcript!

Professor Mukila Maitha from Harper College talks with The Savvy Entrepreneur about the many business opportunities that drones will offer. Click on the arrow to listen, or go here if you'd rather read a transcript of our interview.

Did you know there are astrologists who focus exclusively on money matters?  I didn't, until I re-connected with Susan Abbott Gidel, an old high school mate. Susan, a Financial Astrologer, joins The Savvy Entrepreneur to share her journey from commodities trading and journalism to a self-employed astrologer.  You'll hear how to become an astrologer, and what financial astrologers do. You'll also hear how one entrepreneur methodically and internationally pivoted her career into something entirely new, and some tips for coping when your planned side hustle becomes suddenly becomes your full-time business. Click on the arrow to listen to the interview, or if you'd prefer to read a transcript, go here.  

Laura Barnard, CEO of BREAKTHRU Brands, joins The Savvy Entrepreneur show to talk about personal branding.  She shares what personal branding is, how to tell if your brand is strong or weak, why a strong personal brand is so powerful, and tips for helping build a stronger brand. Laura works with women to help them find their voice -- their passion, their purpose.  Then she helps them craft that into a powerful story and then shows them how to amplify that voice.  And she helps them uncover hidden obstacles that stand in the way and how to power through them. We chat about some of the things that hold women entrepreneurs back, including self-confidence and the imposter syndrome.  And talk about some of the ways to overcome those fears and voices inside our heads. Laura's passion for what she does is clear from the first few minutes of our interview.  She offers tons of tips and suggestions to help women entrepreneurs -- all entrepreneurs, really -- improve their personal branding.  And to find and amplify their voice and make a bigger impact in whatever they're doing. Don't miss this episode! Click on the arrow to hear the interview, or go here if you'd prefer to read a transcript.

Popular YouTuber ProfessorBlackOps joins The Savvy Entrepreneur to share his top cybersecurity tips for small businesses.

Kavnia Coffee Company was established by Olivia vonNieda as part of her quest for perfect cup of cold drip coffee.  For non-coffee afficionados, cold-drip coffee is the next evolution beyond cold brew coffee.  Cold brew is made by soaking the coffee grounds in cold water.  Cold drip passes a mist of water over the beans, creating coffee one drop at a time, creating a more intense flavor and picking up more of the subtle flavors of the coffee. Cold drip coffee is beloved by coffee buffs, but to date, it's difficult and expensive to produce at home.  It's really only available at high-end coffee houses.  vonNieda set out to find a way to make it more accessible, applying her formidable engineering and business skills. Along the way, she needed to find money and resources to help her.  She found resources at mHub and The Hatchery, both incubators based in Chicago.  And she was eventually successful at pitching for funding, although it required a major pivot in Kavnia Coffee's business model. vonNieda shares the story of Kavnia Coffee with The Savvy Entrepreneur, along with plenty of advice and tips on pitching for funding and how and when to successfully pivot.  Not to mention it will whet your appetite for cold drip coffee! Click on the arrow to listen, or go here if you'd prefer to read a transcript of our chat.

Rieke Office Interiors, owned & managed by Melissa Kehl, is no startup business.  It's been in business for 27 years.  But Melissa explains why small businesses today need to think and act like startups, and why you need plenty of entrepreneurial skills to meet customer needs, keep ahead of the competition, and stay in business. She explains to The Savvy Entrepreneur some of those entrepreneurial skills.  She stressed the need to delegate early on, even when cash is tight, and offers some creative ways to do that.  Doing that, she says, allows you to work ON your business, not necessarily IN it.  She also articulates why it's so important to take time to step back from the urgent, day-to-day crises, and always stay focused on the strategic. Both startups and established small businesses today also need leaders who are willing and able to take big risks, she says.  If you're not comfortable with that, you're probably in the wrong spot. The interview is full of candid, no-nonsense advice from a CEO that has regularly pivoted her company in a market space full of competition and highly susceptible to economic downtowns.  And yet, under Melissa's guidance, the company continues to grow.  Her advice is relevant to both startups and small businesses. Click on the arrow to listen, or go here to read a transcript of the interview.

America's nursing shortage and lack of healthcare access for many people are well-documented.  Bre Loughlin and her company, Nurse Disrupted, are actually doing something about it.  She recently joined The Savvy Entrepreneur show to share her story. Nurse Disrupted provides a turnkey system where healthcare access is limited, and staffs it with online nurses who screen patients and either assist them or get them to the next step in healthcare treatment.  The company started with homeless shelters during the pandemic in Dane County, Wisconsin (the home of Madison).  It has since expanded to locations in Milwaukee and elsewhere in Wisconsin, and the calls for help are starting to come in from all over the country. The system is anonymous and super-easy to use.  Payment for the systems comes from public health grants as well as large health systems who are desperate to reach rural, inner city, and other poorly-served populations.  The company is now funded through outside investors, and is growing rapidly. But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.  Bre shares some of the challenges she faced and how she overcame them.  She also offers her thoughts on lessons learned that may make the journey easier for others. Nurse Disrupted is the inspirational story of a startup company that does well by doing good.  It's a clever product and service, and helps meet a desperate need. Click on the arrow to listen and be inspired!  Or read a transcript of the interview here.