108: A New Small-Business Blueprint

1. Instead of looking for work-life balance, focus on calibrating the different areas of your life. And don’t forget that love and relationships make up one of those important areas.

2. Sometimes all you need is one person to believe in you. When you find someone who’s willing to invest in your vision and cheer you on through hard times, it’s much easier to persevere.

3. A successful entrepreneur is a teachable entrepreneur. Never lose your willingness to learn more.

Monica Allen on LinkedIn

Become Your Own Boss Podcast

Cumulative Advantage by Mark Schaefer

(2:53) Monica tells us about her favorite new activity in Atlanta

(4:32) Monica explains how she discovered entrepreneurship at a young age

(8:15) How does goal setting help you manage your time, energy, and focus?

(13:33) Persistence is the key to entrepreneurial success 

(16:26) How to determine the right pricing for your business 

(20:43) Why is it so important to be a teachable entrepreneur?

(23:48) Monica shares her favorite resources for other business owners

(26:09) This week’s one next step: Subscribe to Monica’s podcast, “Become Your Own Boss”

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Hey, y’all. Ryan here, and before we get started, I have to tell you about a special, limited-time offer from BELAY. At BELAY, we know that time is money, and now through the end of August, we’re doing something that will allow you to save on both. For the first time ever, we’re offering $300 off your startup cost with a BELAY virtual assistant. $300. All you have to do is book a call with our sales team by August 31st to qualify. There’s no better time than now to accomplish more and juggle less. Head to BELAYSolutions.com to get started.

Monica Allen:

So goal setting allows me to set goals for my business, set goals for myself personally when it comes to staying healthy and working out, set goals for my kids’ education, set goals for everything that I do for getting involved with the charter school. All of that is really important to me. And so I write it down. I actually ended up creating a planner around that.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Wow.

Monica Allen:

Because it’s so important to write down your goals, and then you can break them down even further to actually get them accomplished, and that is what I’ve managed to do.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step. The most practical business podcast in the world. You’re now one simple tip, practical tool, and small step away from growing your business. One Next Step is brought to you by BELAY, the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with virtual assistance, bookkeepers and social media managers. Accomplish more, juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. And now to your hosts. Welcome to One Next Step, the practical business podcast that helps you run your business so it stops running you.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

I’m Ryan, and on today’s episode, LZ is chatting with Atlanta based entrepreneur, Monica Allen. Monica is the co-founder and COO of Zeus’s closet, the owner of Monica Allen Interiors, and the host of the Become Your Own Boss podcast. She’s going to chat with LZ about her journey as an entrepreneur, some tips and tricks she’s learned starting and growing multiple businesses, and some of the most common issues she sees facing entrepreneurs today. But before we get started, let’s talk about BELAY.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

As a business owner, you eventually realize you can’t do everything yourself, but hiring is complicated. And what if you only need part-time help? Your job is to be the visionary. But instead, you spend countless hours on tasks that could be done easily and arguably better by someone else. That’s where BELAY can help with modern staffing, offering virtual assistance, bookkeepers and social media managers for growing organizations. Accomplish more, juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. Well, let’s jump into today’s conversation between LZ and Monica.

Lisa Zeeveld:

All right. Welcome, Monica. I’m so excited to have you a part of One Next Step. Thank you for being here.

Monica Allen:

Thank you so much, LZ. I’m so excited to be here.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Well, I have done my work on you, looked at your LinkedIn and your Twitter, and you are so amazing. I feel like I have so much to talk to you about today. I’m going to keep it in the lines. I know we have one topic we’re going to talk about, but I just have to tell all of our listeners out there, if you do not know who Monica Allen is, you need to go check her out because you are amazing.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I just love your background. I love what you do. I love the fact that you just kind of said, “I’m tired of doing A and I’m going to go do B,” and you just went and did B. And not only just went and did B, but you kicked B in the butt, and you just rocked it. So seriously, it is an honor to have you, I’m curious as an Atlantian here in the A, what would you say is your favorite thing to do in our city?

Monica Allen:

Well, I will say just recently, I had a great adventure out in the city. My son turned eight years old, and we took him to Puttshack, and I’d never been there before, but it’s indoor putt putt basically. And it’s high tech, the balls have little chips in them, so it counts all… It was just amazing. It’s such a family friendly place to go. But my husband and I were both looking at each other like, “This is going to be date night real soon.” So it was so much fun, and we just had a blast. And then we took him to Skyline Park, which is just always so much fun. It’s family friendly, but we also like to go there for date nights as well, and just eat dinner, look at the city.. it’s just wonderful. I love living here.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I know. I always say that myself. I don’t think I have been to another big city that has the same energy, any city for that matter, but that has the same energy of Atlanta. I think New York is cool. One of my favorite places to visit, Minneapolis, LA, Chicago.

Monica Allen:

For sure.

Lisa Zeeveld:

But I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve made Atlanta home, but I just think we have a really cool vibe in our city. And I think that we’ve been able to bring in the best of all the other areas, best dining, best shopping, with an eclectic group of people who all respect each other. And I think that’s what makes our city really great.

Monica Allen:

Yeah, I agree. And it’s nice to see the green trees.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Right.

Monica Allen:

And get out in the parks and have all the fun. It’s nice.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, yeah. I love that too. Well, I know that you’ve been an entrepreneur and running businesses for more than 20 years. Don’t know how that’s possible. You don’t even look a day over 25, but…

Monica Allen:

Thank you.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. In addition, you are also a board member at a charter school and running a podcast. See guys, I told you she is amazing. So I want to know how did you get into entrepreneurship and everything else that you are doing?

Monica Allen:

Yeah. So for me, entrepreneurship, I really feel like it’s in my blood. My grandfather was a business owner. And though I never met him, I feel like he left something inside of my DNA that just pushed me towards entrepreneurship. I started my first business in fourth grade, selling candy and soda pops out of my house because I lived out in the country in a small town., And there just wasn’t a convenient place for kids to get sodas and freeze pops. And I thought, “Well, my house could be that place.”

Monica Allen:

And so I did that for about five years. And I like to say that my grandmother was my first employee, because if I happened to be at school or if I was away, she would, help the kids out, take in the money. And I would then reconcile my books and go shop for more stuff. So that was my first bout into entrepreneurship. And I always knew in my heart that I wanted to own my own business, even though I didn’t know what it was.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah.

Monica Allen:

When I was an intern during Christmas break, once for an insurance agent that was in our small town, I told him, I said, “I want to have my own business someday, but I have no idea what.” And he told me, he said, “You’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about it. It’ll come to you.”

Lisa Zeeveld:

Wow.

Monica Allen:

And it did.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Wow. You had incredible adults who supported you as a child. I think that’s such a gift. And for all of us who are parents, I think that’s something really good for us to remember too. Do you find yourself sort of encouraging… You let the cat out of the bag that you have a son, so have you started to encourage him along the same route to be an entrepreneur? Does he have a little business?

Monica Allen:

Well, he doesn’t, but I also have a daughter.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Oh, okay.

Monica Allen:

I have a daughter who’s 12 and she’s very entrepreneurial. And one of the reasons I got involved, for example, you mentioned the Charter School is because I feel like education is so important. That is the best thing that we can do for kids in our community, because that reduces crime. It makes the world a better place when kids are educated. And so for my kids, education is super important, but creativity is important for us.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah.

Monica Allen:

When we put them in preschool, we didn’t just look for a preschool that only had the academic side. We looked for one that also allowed them to paint and color and dance and do all the artsy things as well.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Sure.

Monica Allen:

Because that creates a creative mind and an exploratory mind. So both of my kids always talk about, “When I own my business.” My daughter, she’s a YouTuber. So she has a channel with about 12,000 subscribers, and she gets money from that. And she always is thinking about ways to make money, always.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I love that. Well, and I think it speaks volumes to who you are as an individual too, because you started out in a very traditional business kind of role, got into this entrepreneurialship, but also, started taking design classes for interior design. So I love that you’re saying with this charter school, that it’s not just education things that are in the books, but that you also really want to encourage your children and all children to be creative as well. That’s such an important outlet for who we are and who we’ve been created as, as humans.

Monica Allen:

Exactly.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Well, what’s been your key for starting and building multiple businesses while also managing your time and your energy and your resources. You’ve got a lot going on in your life right now, so how do you manage all that?

Monica Allen:

Well, I am a big goal setter.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Okay.

Monica Allen:

And I have been since I was in college. Honestly, one of my… I was a resident assistant and my boss, one of my bosses had us all write down goals for the year. And that parlayed into me realizing how important writing your goals down, whatever they may be, because I accomplished every single goal I wrote down that year, and I’ve never stopped doing that. So goal setting allows me to set goals for my business, set goals for myself personally, when it comes to staying healthy and working out, set goals for my kids’ education, set goals for everything that I do. Getting involved with the charter school. All of that is really important to me. And so I write it down. I actually ended up creating a planner around that.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Wow.

Monica Allen:

Because it’s so important to write down your goals. And then you can break them down even further to actually get them accomplished, and that is what I’ve managed to do. And I absolutely love goal setting.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, yeah. I think that’s really important too. How do you find that goals also work in your energy and your focus? Because I think I have met people before who get so focused, no pun intended, so focused on achieving their goals, that they also don’t fill in time for themselves and like to recharge. You’ve got a lot of businesses going on and a lot of opportunities. Do you actually have goals around time away from your businesses or goals around spending time with your family? Is that sort of how you manage all of it without burning out essentially?

Monica Allen:

Yeah. So I will say for a while, I probably focused a lot on my business because I didn’t have kids. My husband and I, when we got married, we actually started our business when we were dating, our first business together, when we were dating. And people would ask us after we got married, “When are you guys going to have kids?” And we were like, “Well, our business is our baby right now.” And so we really focused on that for a long time, but I find that there, and I’m going to give my hubby a little plug here, but he did a speech, maybe 10 years ago, around not work life balance, but around calibration of areas in your life.

Monica Allen:

And when he and I talked about that, it was just so moving for me. And it’s these six buckets that your life is balanced around, or I should say calibrated around. And part of that is love and relationships, which is my family. Part of that is my business, but all of those things are calibrated. So I do my best to not get out of alignment with those things. And sure, sometimes Christmas time is super busy for us in our business. And at the time, I have to talk to my kiddos and say, “We’re going to be really busy over the next three weeks.

Monica Allen:

Mommy and daddy may not be around as much, but you’ll have a good meal, you’ll have your sitter.” And so it’s about communication too. And so they know what to expect during those times. But yeah, so goal setting is super important, and I do try not to get too focused and bogged down on it because you have to ebb and flow. Things change, and you have to be okay with that.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah.

Monica Allen:

And we all saw that in 2020.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

For more than a decade, BELAY has had the privilege of helping thousands of leaders with their bookkeeping. For some, they just need help with accounts payable, accounts receivable, and credit card reconciliation from our accounting clerks. For others, they need all the financial bells and whistles from our bookkeepers. Then we realized there was yet another way to meet their needs, to equip them with the confidence to climb higher.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

So we’re proud to announce the addition of CFO and tax prep and filing services to our bookkeeping service line. Our new CFO services include financial review and analysis, strategic profit planning and execution, cash flow projections and forecasting, and liaison with tax experts. And the best part, both new and current clients can take advantage of these additional services to learn more, visit belaysolutions.com.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I love the idea of calibration. I hadn’t really thought of it that way before, but I see how… I’m thinking of a car, a tune up really, right? Everything has its own time to shine and it has a specific, dedicated job to do. And so when you calibrate everything together, then you are running at your best. And so I’m going to have to write that down and put that in my notes. What does it mean for LZ to be calibrated well? Because I’m definitely one of those people who’s very goal driven, and I find that a lot of people on our team are the same, but we don’t always calibrate the time off section of our life, and that gets a little bit… It needs some oil. Needs a little oil change from time to time.

Monica Allen:

Definitely. You’ve got to take that time to just regroup. You have to do that.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Well, I know that you have a phenomenal podcast that helps entrepreneurs and people who really want to start this entrepreneurial journey. What would you say is the question that you get asked the most?

Monica Allen:

I would say the question I get asked the most at this point is, “How have you managed to be successful for so long?” And my answer is typically persistence, because there are ups and downs throughout the process. I have cried, there have been tears. There’s been stumbling over whatever the incident may be, but it’s about pushing through whatever happens and being persistent in the ultimate goal of making your business survive. And I can remember when our business initially was… Our main business was out of our house and we needed a space. We needed to get out of our house.

Monica Allen:

We had hired people and it was like, “We’ve got to move out of our neighborhood with this business.” And we were told no by banks one after another, but we just didn’t give up. We kept going to another bank, to another bank. And one gentleman, he understood our story, he understood the potential of our business, and he would not give up. He was like a bulldog with a bone. He just wouldn’t let up on it. And so we were very blessed in that way.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I also think it’s really important. Like you said, that gentleman who came alongside you. Having a partner or someone who believes in what you’re doing, I imagine that that also gives you a lot of confidence.

Monica Allen:

Yes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And that what you’re trying to build is really good. And other people see the value in that too.

Monica Allen:

That’s very important. I often say, and this is one of the reasons I started my podcast is because entrepreneurship can be very lonely if you don’t have someone that understands you and supports you. Your family can be great, but they can also be a hindrance if you’re not careful because they can kind of talk you down, and make you feel bad if you don’t hit that business right out the bat, and you’re not making tens of thousands of dollars right off the bat, which most of us don’t start off that way. It’s really important to have people around you that understand that journey and understand the road bumps that you’re facing, and they can support you and cheer you on and be there for you when those times get hard. I do think that’s really important.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, yeah. That’s some really good counsel, especially when you said that you have to have that perseverance and push through. I think that if you don’t have a cheerleader in your corner, it would probably make it really easy to give up. And that’s probably why the statistics around entrepreneurialship and small business are the way they are, is because they just don’t have the stomach to keep persevering and push through it. And then there’s no one there who’s telling them they’re doing a great job and supporting them.

Monica Allen:

Right.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah.

Monica Allen:

It’s very true.

Lisa Zeeveld:

What’s one of the most common problems you see entrepreneurs facing today?

Monica Allen:

I think the biggest thing I see is pricing. And especially in a service based business, even in a product based business, I find that a lot of people look at pricing as either one, they feel like they need to be the low price leader. And I always say, “You don’t want to be Walmart. You don’t want to be the low price leader. You have to get your pricing right, and truly know every single cost that you bear in your business.” And this can be very difficult for service based businesses because you’re not adding up, not only your time, but what about all those subscription services that you have to offer the service that you’re providing to your client?

Monica Allen:

What about, are you paying someone to write blogs for you? Whatever that is, you’ve got to make sure you have that spreadsheet with the entire total, and even with your product based businesses, are you adding in? And this is what I find, a lot of people don’t think to add in actually the cost of delivering their product, both to them, as well as to the customer. They’re quick to offer free shipping, but we all know free shipping is not free to the business.

Monica Allen:

It actually does have a true cost. So knowing your pricing is really important. And I feel like that is why a lot of businesses don’t survive. They try to undercut the competition, and that’s the fastest way to the bottom. Your business can’t make it on nickels and dimes. You have to charge the right price.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, yeah. Do you suggest that they do any research, competitive research? How do you know that you’re undercutting yourself or that you are being Walmart? Because I think that when you have a great idea, you just want someone else to buy it. You just want your first client. And so you’re like, “I really think this is probably worth $500, but I just really want a client, and so I’m going to charge a $100 for it instead.” You know what I mean?

Lisa Zeeveld:

I feel like when you become an entrepreneur, you’re creating something. As we talked about before, there’s a lot of vulnerability in that. And so I think at some point people are just looking to be validated and not feel like they’re a failure. And so they start to cut their prices because they’re hoping that someone’s going to buy it or like it. How do they combat that? Is it just research? Is it confidence? Is it a little bit of both of those?

Monica Allen:

I think it’s a little bit of both. Research is definitely important. I can remember when we first started our fraternity and sorority business, our prices were probably a fourth of what they are now. And like you just said, we just wanted to get the sale. We wanted to make the money and validate that our business was a legit business. But what we found really quickly is that when you do that, you can’t scale. You cannot grow your business if you’re undercutting yourself. You can’t hire anybody.

Monica Allen:

You can barely pay yourself. So getting your price right is very important and research is part of it. Actually asking yourself, especially again, if you’re in a service based business, “How long would it take someone who doesn’t have my skillset to do this?” And looking at how much you want to make an hour to do that because someone can’t write a blog as fast as this blog expert. You know what I mean? It’s really a matter of, and you mentioned it, confidence.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah.

Monica Allen:

You can test run things. You can start with one price to get that sale, and then you may tweak it up a little bit, go up on the next client. Who’s to say you have to stay at that same price point. You’re your own boss. You don’t have to stay at that price point, you can change it and just see how it goes, because at least you would know, “Okay, well, someone is still willing to pay $500 for this, not the $250 I was charging.” So it’s definitely important and it’s okay to beta test. It’s okay to say, “Okay, well I want to get myself out there, so I’m going to start at this price point,” but definitely, raise your prices.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah.

Monica Allen:

Recommend it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

The price just went up. There we go, folks. You heard it here. Raise your prices. Is there anything that you could tell those who are thinking about starting this entrepreneur journey, or maybe we have a listener out there who has started, maybe they’re like six, eight months in, things are pretty slow, they just haven’t started to speed up? Is there anything that would greatly improve their chances for success?

Monica Allen:

I’ll give you two things. One, definitely surround yourself with like-minded people. And that means, join a mastermind. And I’m not saying spend a lot of money because that’s a whole nother podcast episode on business coaches and all that stuff. That is not what I’m saying doing. But what I am saying to do is find other entrepreneurs who you can talk to and experience share with, because one they’ve they’ve walked in your shoes perhaps, had similar incidences.

Monica Allen:

And so talking to those people open your mind up to so many possibilities. When you surround yourself with people and you’re just having conversations, things will pop up for you. And you’re like, “Oh wow. I never thought about that. Oh, I should try that.” And you can’t get that if you’re just in your four walls. So it’s really important. And then the second thing is very similar actually, but read. Reading is so important.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah.

Monica Allen:

Listening to podcast, great. But also just picking up a good book on management, leadership, money management, whatever you can get in your brain space. And I love Audible. I love to listen to audio books. Now, usually when I’m doing a audio book, I usually will listen to it two or three times because I miss things because my brain will wander off as I’m listening to the author or whoever’s reading the book, but it’s so important to have that mindset. And if you’re surrounding yourself with the right people who are lifting you, talking to you, encouraging you, and then you also have these books that are feeding into you, you’re going to learn so much more than if you just are in your four walls and you’re closed off to learning new things.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I think that’s one of the keys to being a good entrepreneur and business owner, is being teachable.

Monica Allen:

Yes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

You never know it all. Every single day, you’re going to learn something new, something that you thought you knew like the back of your hand is going to change. And I think when you surround yourself with other business owners, other individuals who are maybe a little bit more seasoned than you are in a particular area, or like you said, reading those books, I think it gives you a leg up on the competition, and really sets you apart from everybody else too.

Monica Allen:

Definitely, definitely. And LZ, I’ll say that I had such a difficult time with managing people because I often thought I was a people person. And I’m like, “Well, I’m a people person.” Being a people person and managing people are two totally different things. So I had to read a lot of books, and I’m still not perfect, but I’m much better.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah.

Monica Allen:

I’m much better.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I love that, I love that. Well, speaking of books and people and just resources, are there any resources that you would recommend for somebody who’s wanting to start this journey or again, who’s maybe new to the journey?

Monica Allen:

Well, of course I’d love to recommend my podcast, yes. To Become Your Own Boss podcast. But I definitely recommend picking up books. My most favorite book, I call it, my book of 2021 was Cumulative Advantage by Mark Schaefer. And what I love about this book is because we often get sold down on ourselves because we aren’t moving. We feel like we’re not moving fast enough. “Oh, my gosh, that person has thousands of followers on social media. This company has this much money.” Well, you can’t give up on yourself because you have… The more you work towards something, I think about it like a snowball, you have accumulative advantage because you’re accumulating more knowledge.

Monica Allen:

You’re accumulating more finances and all of that just grows and grows and grows. But if you stop, it’s not going to grow. And I just love that book because during the pandemic, I really went through a phase where I was like, “I’m done with this embroidery business. I’ve got to take a break. I just don’t want to do it anymore.” But after reading Mark’s book, I realized, we’ve been doing this almost 20 years. We have such a cumulative advantage. Our name is known in the Greek market space across the country.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Wow.

Monica Allen:

Why would I give that up?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Right. That’s a good one. I have not read it. So I’m going to take a note and make sure I read that one.

Monica Allen:

That’s very good. I’ve read it three times now. It’s really good.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Whoa, three? Okay. Now I definitely have to read it. Thank you for that. Well, hey, listeners, Monica has agreed to stick around and offer us a bonus answer to that bonus question that you guys love so much, and it’s going to be around the critical milestones on an entrepreneur’s journey. You absolutely don’t want to miss it, but in order to hear it, you must subscribe to our email list, and we’re going to send you a link to that bonus content, or you can always visit onenextsteppodcast.com, where you can find a link in our show notes.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Gosh, that was such an incredible conversation between LZ and Monica. This week, we have a pretty simple one next step for you to take. And that’s where we think you should go subscribe to Monica’s Be Your Own Boss Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. If you thought today was helpful, we know you’ll find her podcast helpful as well. And thank you so much for tuning in to this week’s One Next Step. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or follow us on Spotify. And if you’re ready to start accomplishing more and juggling less, go to belaysolutions.com. Join us next time for more practical business tips and tools to help you advance your business one step at a time. For more episodes, show notes and helpful resources, visit onenextsteppodcast.com.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Next week, BELAY’s Vice President of Operations Matt Seaton will join us for a conversation about communication. He’ll explain how you can start eliminating misunderstandings and getting better results from your team with just a few simple strategies. Here is a quick previous of our conversation.

Matt Seaton:

It was a Harvard business review article mentioned something in the neighborhood of 80% of employees are feeling stressed because of poor communication. And that number really stuck with me. As a servant-hearted leader, this is the last thing that I want for my teams and those people I’m leading. There’s so many other things in a business that can cause stress. Being stressed because of communication’s something that we as leaders really can address quickly and turn around. We have to be better here.

1. Negotiation is a soft skill we use daily to live with our families and work with our teams.

However, most people don’t consider themselves to be strong negotiators. There are three steps to negotiating in life, and as you repeat these three steps, you’re negotiating power becomes stronger:

Building influence with a reputation communicating what you stand for.
Negotiating deals that benefit both parties.
Nurturing relationships with people you meet and work with.

2. In addition to profit, measure the progress of your business by its scalability, which Daymond defines as ‘the ability to grow.’

Daymond typically looks at how little the organization has to spend to produce its current results, the current processes ability to be replicated to further growth, and the awareness of the organization is of the customers’ needs.

3. Education is the x-factor for every business leader.

Daymond emphasized the reality that we’ll make mistakes. However, our ability to learn and grow will be the best determining factor in how far we go. There’s a new challenge at every stage of our journey, and the only thing consistent will bring to those experiences is ourselves. To make sure we’re ready, we must continually invest in ourselves through podcasts, books, online courses, peers, and mentors.