School for Startups

CFD 473 – School For Startups

 

Jim Beach is the Executive Director of International Entrepreneurship and Founder of the Entrepreneur School. He is the author of School for Startups: The Breakthrough Course for Guaranteeing Small Business Success in 90 Days or Less and the new book Free Radio & Podcast Marketing In 30 Minutes: Fire your publicist and leverage free radio and podcasting to market your business, brand, or idea.

Podcast Highlights 

  • Who is Jim Beach?

Jim was the guy who got fired from respectable businesses all the time. He saved Coca-Cola over a billion dollars and they still showed him the door. They essentially told him to go be an entrepreneur instead because they thought he didn’t fit in with the culture. Jim went back to school and started looking for ways to earn money to afford the tuition. He ended up starting a summer camp business that went so well he ended up leaving school.

  • Why didn’t you consider yourself an entrepreneur?

Jim always considered himself a corporate person, he always wanted to work for a big company and the security that came with that. It was also before the time that entrepreneurs were considered rock stars like they are today.

Jim had been a summer camp consumer as a kid so he had some experience with the idea beforehand, but it was really just the last idea on the list.

Breaking even on the first year wasn’t actually an issue, since the business had already had the same number of people signed up in the future, Jim knew the business was growing in the future and they had stumbled onto a working formula.

  • School For Startups

You can be cash flow positive year one in business. By leveraging the existing branding and marketing of the schools they associated with and responding to the needs of the consumer, Jim created a remarkable business.

Involving someone else’s brand name goes a long way towards establishing trust with your prospect. Import the best brand names you can, it’s a great way to differentiate your business and it’s not as hard you think.

Go and ask ten businesses to sponsor, put together a proposal and start sending it. There are a lot of businesses that may want to be associated with your company.

There are thousands of radio shows and podcasts that consistently need guests and they are a great way to spread your message. That goes for guest blogging as well.

  • Jim’s Takeaway

Jim is able to shut up his voice by saying one thing: “I’m not going to waste a bunch of money.” Jim promises to experiment with a business but limits his risk to $5000, it becomes an easier way to get started and succeed. The bar to success is significantly lower too. If you reduce your startup capital, you change the game. If you think you can’t start your business with only $5000, you’re probably wrong and someone has most likely already done something similar. Take the small risks, not the big risks.

Links:

jimbeach.com

james.beach@att.net

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