Ted Teo Business Show

Paul Baron is the founder and chief executive officer of The Wall Printer USA. His decades of business experience span B2B, B2C, retail, manufacturing, distribution, international business, and franchising. Paul has personally developed and launched multiple business concepts and he was able to grow The Wall Printer USA to achieve an explosive growth of having over 50 distributors in 90 territories in just 2 years. Today he shares with us how you can explode your business with a distributorship model like him.

Join us as Paul shares about how he exploded his business with a distributorship model, the incentives he built into the distributorship model to encourage his distributors to work with him in the long run at scale, and how Paul managed to secure co-ownership rights in the Wall Printer from his manufacturing partners.

Resources:

https://thewallprinter.com/en/about-company/ - Check out the Wall Printer!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbbaron/ - Get connected with Paul!

Actionable Take-aways:

1. Unlike a franchise model where franchisee fees are charged and it forces your franchisees to follow a strict model from you, an exclusive distributorship model encourages your distributor partners to be creative and to grow more aggressively (because they don’t have to pay you a portion of their earnings). This allowed Paul to explode his business to be in over 90 territories in just 2 years.

2. Set a reasonable fee for your exclusive distributorship rights and provide your distributors with a discount on the product you are selling to them. By giving them the chance to recoup the fees they initially paid, they will be incentivised to partner with you for the long run and work with you at scale.

3. Patents are important for you to be able to protect your right in a certain product. Always seek to protect your intellectual property rights.
Connect with Ted on:
His Website at : www.tedteo.com
LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-teo/
Instagram at: @ted.teo
Facebook at : https://www.facebook.com/groups/tedteo

Nidhi Belani is the founder of Success Talks and she is an Interview & People Skills Specialist with over 15 years of experience in the training industry. With the skills she acquired as a Lead Cabin Crew & Trainer with Singapore Airlines for over 10 years, she has built a community of over 50,000 people on her social media platforms which she uses to help career-oriented individuals globally to ace their interviews and get hired for their dream jobs. In her own words, Nidhi has made it her mission to make both organizations as well as individuals find the right match for one another.

In today’s episode, Nidhi shares her journey, how she niched down earlier on when she started her business to provide a clear value proposition, and the importance of leveraging on social media and building a community.

Resources:

https://nidhi-belani.com/ - Check out Nidhi’s website and get in touch with her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFt-yQpRMkE&t=314s – Check out Nidhi’s Youtube video where she shares some fundamental principles to how you can enhance your personal image as well as tips on how to dress in accordance to your body shape and style personality and get your Free MUST-HAVE Personal Image Interview Checklist specially designed so you can Dress-to-Impress!

Actionable Take-aways:

1. When starting a new business, it is important to choose a niche and make your value proposition clear to your customers. Like Nidhi if you can find a niche that allows your experience and skills to shine, it can really help you establish your authority and credibility quickly.

2. Youtube is a great tool to build your personal brand and is can be a very powerful lead magnet for your business. While it does take time to get it off the ground, once you have traction, it will continue to provide you value even during times when you are not always available to provide new content to your community.

3. Focus on building your community that will support you and your business. They are your greatest advocates and will provide you with the support and feedback you need to grow.
Connect with Ted on:
His Website at : www.tedteo.com
LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-teo/
Instagram at: @ted.teo
Facebook at : https://www.facebook.com/groups/tedteo

Steven Sashen is the Co-Founder of Xero Shoes and he is building a barefoot running empire. When Steven started sprinting again at the age of 45 after a 30 year break, he found himself getting injured constantly. One day, a friend suggested he run barefoot and Steven never looked back. Steven quickly put together his own pair of barefoot running sandals and thus Xero Shoes was born. Today, Steven is a Masters All-American sprinter and one of the fastest men over the age of 50 in the US.

Steven was also a professional stand-up comic, cognitive psychology researcher, and taught Tai Chi and Zen Archery. Steven is also the creator of Scriptware, the industry-standard word processor for film and TV writers.

Join us as Steven shares about his journey with barefoot running, how he built a community of loyal fans, and his shark tank story.

Resources:

https://xeroshoes.com/ - Check out Xero Shoes!

Actionable Take-aways:

1. Giving away your knowledge and best tips for free is a great way to build community, trust and goodwill with your customers. Don’t worry about people “stealing your ideas”. They can steal your ideas but they can never steal your brain.

2. The best way to ensure quality control is to have eyes on the ground. If you are manufacturing overseas, find or hire someone you can trust to make sure that the manufacturers are producing the goods to your required standard.

3. Whenever you are pitching to investors, it is important to know your numbers and to have a very clear range in their mind as to what you were willing to accept.
Connect with Ted on:
His Website at : www.tedteo.com
LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-teo/
Instagram at: @ted.teo
Facebook at : https://www.facebook.com/groups/tedteo

Naomi is a dance teacher who has been teaching Classical Ballet and Jazz since 2011, as well as other genres such as Contemporary Dance and Creative Movement. As a teacher and business owner, Naomi places a strong emphasis on always placing the needs of her customers before hers and she shares in this episode that when you take care of your customers, they in turn will take care of you and your business as well.
Resources:

https://www.lighthousedancesg.com/#home-section – Check out Naomi’s dance studio!

Actionable Take-aways:

1) When you take care of your customers and they know that your heart is in the business, they will in turn take care of you and your business.

2) Pay attention to who are the different stakeholders in your business. If you are in the education industry, your customers are not just the students, but their parents as well.

3) Find ways to provide a better experience for your customers on top of your core service to over deliver in value.

Show Notes:

[1:26] – Naomi shares why started her own dance studio (instead of using a shared space) during the Covid Pandemic. While it was a big risk to do so, she believed it was the right thing to do for her customers (i.e. the students and their parents) and her employees, because it would allow her to provide a safer environment for them.

· Due to her philosophy of always placing her customers’ needs before her own and placing a huge emphasis on the character development of her students, the relationships that she built with her customers over the years (and the belief that they would follow her to her new dance studio) gave her the confidence to take the plunge.

[4:07] – Depending on the industry you are in, there may be various stakeholders to consider when considering who your customers are. As a dance instructor who is in the education niche, Naomi shares that she has to take care of the needs of her students and the parents. When you are sincere and you take care of the customers’ needs, this will help build loyalty and customer retention.

· As an educator, your sincerity has a direct impact on the relationship you develop with your students. Ultimately, the goal is to play a part in the student’s character development and growth.

· Parents will appreciate you for keeping them up to date with their child’s progress and ultimately want to know that their children are in good hands.

[7:08] Taking the time to build relationships with your customers not only helps with customer retention, your customer may also contribute to the growth of your business by joining the business as an employee one day.

[8:35] It is important to stay flexible and adapt in business. If you can adapt to the changing environment and create new experiences for your customers and employee, your business will be resilient.

· By organizing Zoom dance competitions, Naomi was able to keep her students engaged and supplement the income of her employees during the Covid lockdowns.

[13:33] By offering a pay as you wish model during the Covid lockdowns, Naomi was not only able to allow her students’ whose parents who had difficulty paying for the dance lessons to continue with their classes, she managed to do so without suffering a loss of income.

· Giving discounts on your goods and services in a way devalues what you are offering.

[17:03] Naomi’s one key take-away is that being sincere with your customers and when they know you have their interests at heart, they will in turn take care of you.

After 10 years working within the corporate world, understanding what challenges her clients faced and what problems they are trying to overcome and then helping them overcome these problems, Alice Graves Nguyen decided to leave her successful career as a recruiter to start up her own life coaching practice. With formal training as an actress and having spent over 5000 hours interviewing people, Alice is an expert in people and her ability to empathize and connect with her client has set her apart from her competition as a life coach.

On today’s episode, Alice shares her tips on how should explore new areas of interest through play to determine if it is something that one should commit to whether as a new career or business, the important of being able to listen, empathize and connect with your customer and the power of being able to educate yourself with the internet.

Alice works with women to rediscover what really excites them in life. She helps them reconnect and feel confident about who they are. Helping them find further fulfilment after successful careers. She increases people's confidence so they can go after what they really want in life. Book a call with Alice to find out more and click here join her newsletter for your weekly dose of motivation and practical tips.

Resources:

https://alicegraves.com/ - Get in touch with Alice at her website!

https://alicegraves.com/contacts/ - Book a call with Alice!

https://alicegraves.com/join-our-newsletter/ - Join Alice’s newsletter!

Actionable Take-aways:

1. Being able to empathise and to connect with customers is an important skill for any entrepreneur. Always understand who your customers are an what are their pain points to be able to better understand how you can help them.

2. The old school method of picking up your phone and reaching out to your contacts is still a great way to help grow your business and to help others be aware of the services you are offering. So don’t be afraid or shy to do so especially when you are first starting out your business and you should leave no stone unturned.

3. The internet has all the resources you need to learn practically any skill. So make full use of it and educate yourself on new skills. If you need more help there are always great coaches who can help you get to the next stage, but you should not really on them as your first port of call. By educating yourself, you will be able to save money, ask better questions and grow faster.
Connect with Ted on:
His Website at : www.tedteo.com
LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-teo/
Instagram at: @ted.teo
Facebook at : https://www.facebook.com/groups/tedteo