000 – The Story Behind Gift Biz Unwrapped

Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire,

and you're listening to The Gift of Biz Unwrapped,

and now it's time to light it up.

Welcome to Gift Biz Unwrapped,

your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop and

grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Monheit.

Hi everyone.

This is Sue Monheit and I wanna welcome you to the

first episode of Gift Biz Unwrapped.

This will be a little bit different than future shows in

that I wanna lay a foundation as to what you can

expect moving forward and why the podcast is here in the

first place.

The purpose of Gift Biz Unwrapped is to provide insights and

actionable strategies to grow your business.

At the end of each episode,

you'll walk away with new ideas or tools or processes that

you can apply to grow your business.

What it will not be is salesy or self-promotional.

I can promise you that.

Lemme tell you a little bit about myself.

I come from 15 years working in the corporate environment in

sales and marketing consultation.

During that time,

I worked with several hundred smaller retailers as well as some

of the big guys.

I was in a lead position for the McDonald's salad rollout

way back when,

as well as working with companies such as Pizza Hut,

oco, save on Drug,

Kohl's, and more.

And I'll tell you a secret that I discovered during that

time, the larger businesses had the same challenges that we face

every day.

Sure, they may have more resources at hand,

but they also have a lot of politics and procedures.

This makes instituting changes a really long and tedious process.

What seems so obvious in terms of business improvement just don't

ever seem to get implemented because of the complication of larger

business structures.

Many times one department doesn't even know what the other is

doing. You've heard that saying often,

I'm sure a small and medium-sized business,

on the other hand,

is nimble and quick.

You can discover ways to enhance your business and then take

action immediately.

This is a huge advantage for you,

and that's where we come in.

We'll bring you these ideas and you can incorporate the ones

that are right for your business.

Back to my story,

there came a time in my corporate life when I became

a candidate to run one of our production facilities.

That would've meant that I would've been in charge of all

the departments such as finance,

sales, hr,

production, all of that.

It was exciting and I was totally motivated to make this

change, and then all of a sudden I stopped in my

tracks. My children were growing too fast and their childhood was

passing too quickly.

I was traveling all the time,

and it just hit me that I really didn't wanna miss

out. I wanted to be a traditional mom,

if there is anything such as that these days.

So I came home and had a heart to heart with

my husband,

and luckily he supported me and we created a plan.

So two years later,

I left a job that I loved to stay home with

my children,

and that was a job that I loved even more.

About four years after that though,

the bug was back.

What can I say?

I love business.

David and Nicole were getting older and more independent,

and I decided that I really was ready to go back

to work.

I think it was my husband who said,

well, why don't you just start something for your yourself?

And I thought,

okay. You know,

for years I've been helping other people start and grow their

business. Now I'll see if I can take my own advice

and do it myself.

Fast forward,

I've now started two successful businesses.

My current business is the Ribbon Print Company.

We provide custom ribbon printing systems so businesses can offer personalization

of products right on site in their shop or their craft

room. I mentioned this because it is what led me to

creating this podcast.

We do between eight and 10 trade shows a year at

the Ribbon Print Company.

I'm also a speaker and teacher at several of these shows,

and I love it because our booth is always really busy

and we get to interact with lots of customers and prospects.

Inevitably, I get into conversations about starting or growing a business.

There are questions about setup,

marketing plans,

social media strategies,

product fulfillment,

all sorts of things.

These conversations energize me.

It's so funny because many times people who don't buy a

Ribbon printer still come back to the booth the following year

to say hi,

and then we talk about how their business has grown and

get into yet another conversation about where they can go from

here. I've met and become friends with so many business owners

this way,

and it absolutely just totally energizes me.

So through these shows,

what I found is that there's a huge need for sharing

this type of information over and above what can be done

at my booth at a trade show,

and that my friends is the inspiration for Gift Biz Unwrapped.

Now, I don't profess to know everything about business,

especially because things change so quickly these days.

That's why our program will be interview based.

Every week,

we'll interview someone who either owns a successful business or provides

services to our end industry.

They will share insights,

tools, strategies,

sources, lots of tangible and valuable information that most importantly,

you can take away and use.

Every Monday,

you'll get a new dose of information to jumpstart your week

with energy and determination.

So you may be asking,

why a podcast?

Why not just a newsletter?

I have to tell you,

if you asked me last year if I'd be doing a

podcast, the answer would've been absolutely not.

I already do newsletters and YouTube videos for our customers,

but over the last eight months or so,

I've fallen in love with podcasts.

They integrate so easily into your daily schedule.

You can listen while you drive to work in your shop

while you're walking your dog or at the gym,

even when you're cooking or doing laundry.

It's so easy to capture information in this way,

especially since our lives are so jam-packed already and dun dun

dun. It's free valuable content you can access on your schedule

without adding another task that will take time and add no

charge, our gift to you and almost too good to be

true. So if you own a gift shop stationary,

store, a specialty shop,

perhaps like chocolates or gourmet foods if you're a crafting artisan

and make jewelry,

purses, quilts,

or clothing.

If you sell on Etsy,

have a brick and mortar store or are home-based,

literally, if you have anything to do with gifting,

then you are in the perfect place.

It's a place to learn,

grow, and prosper together both emotionally through inspiration and support and

financially since that's why we're in business in the first place.

Our first two episodes are already up and waiting for you

in the iTunes store.

Jump on over and subscribe to Gift Biz Unwrapped so you'll

always know when the next episode is live and waiting for

you. We have a fun and unique interview format on this

show, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is here

because I want you to go over and experience it for

yourself. Then remember to catch us bright and early every single

Monday morning for a new dose of inspiration.

Thank you so much for joining me here today,

and I look forward to having you as a listener on

Gift Biz Unwrapped.

Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business.

Download our guide called 25 Free Tools to Enhance your business

and life.

It's our gift to you and available@giftbizunwrap.com

slash tools.

Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the