Business Growth Strategist Cory Mosley Discusses ‘5 Strategies Profitable Business Owners Use To Thrive In Any Economy’

On today’s show we’re pleased to welcome Cory Mosley, Founder of Mosley Strategy Group, business growth strategist, and best-selling author. He joins the show today to discuss his latest ebook titled, 5 Strategies Profitable Business Owners Use To Thrive In Any Economy.

Transcription:

Jim Fitzpatrick :
Thanks so much for joining us once again on the show, Cory.

Cory Mosley:
Hey, always happy to be with you in the ASBN family, Jim.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
Great. So these are very unique times that we’re in and there’s a lot of business owners that are listening to us right now that have listened to you before on the show. So thanks for all of your contribution in the past. So let me ask you this. Why is it so important right now for leaders and business owners to focus so much in these different areas that we’re going to be talking about today?

Cory Mosley:
Well, listen, I think right now there’s this two thought process, right? There’s people who have struggled for the past year that are now seeing the lighter day and there’s people that have been hitting home runs throughout this whole thing. So I think everybody now has opportunity to get on the same page, right? I believe that sales should be up, customers should be raving fans, your team should be evangelists and cash should be flowing in your business. And if it’s not, there’s a couple of key areas and reasons why.

Cory Mosley:
So one of the things that we did is, as you know because I actually debuted here over a year ago. We launched a coaching program to help entrepreneurs save their business a year ago and from all of the work that we were doing there, I saw these things that came out of this top five in this ebook that we’re putting out. There was this trends and this trends that we were seeing. So the people that were winning, here were some of the things they’re doing consistently and that’s what we poured into the ebook that we put out.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
So Cory talk to me about the five strategies.

Cory Mosley:
Yeah. So we looked at… We found a couple of things. Number one, a continued strategic investment showed not letting off the gas, not contracting, going okay, great. So many people said we have to stop spending money because we don’t know this. We’re uncertain about what’s going to happen. But they continued to invest. Those business owners continue to invest. Now, they do it strategically, right? Maybe you don’t invest in some of the luxuries that were typical, but they continue to strategic investment. Number two, is they followed a simplify to multiply model. So they looked at where not they can contract financially, but where they could get lean to actually grow the business.

Cory Mosley:
The third thing they did was they cross train their teams. So, a lot of people got laid off or furloughed. So what these business owners were doing is they were cross-training. So someone that didn’t know how to do a skill before, they taught that person. So now they had people that were doing two jobs or three jobs. One person doing it, but that was a way that they could stay effective and stay profitable. Four, they evaluated their brands. A lot of people refresh their brands. You see a lot of logo changes. You see a lot of website updates. Just like people were doing stuff to their home during the pandemic. Businesses and successful businesses were refreshing that.

Cory Mosley:
And finally, number five is they were adding product extensions to increase revenues. So they weren’t… We talked about the pivot. They didn’t abandon their core business. They just found ways to drive revenue within the products that they had.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
And an example of a restaurant that might have done 5% takeout that pivoted and said, “No, let’s go after the takeout business in a very big way.” In fact, maybe it’s even to your point, add some items on the menu that are more takeout friendly, per se, than if somebody came in and had a sit down meal or a sit down dinner because of the pandemic. In fact, some of the restaurant owners that we’ve spoken to here in Atlanta have reported that their business has done so well in that area. That now that’s an area that they’re going to go after in a very big way. In fact, maybe even open up other types of restaurants that cater to the takeout business. Have you heard of pivots that have taken on their own business within a business?

Cory Mosley:
Yeah, absolutely because in those scenarios and let’s just take the restaurant. In those scenarios, you have people now that can re-evaluate their investment square footage, right? So if I can find a high traffic area and get a 700 square foot outpost where I’ve got a kitchen and a to go operation, that’s running successfully, then I don’t need the 15,000 square foot or worry about table turns and all of these things that go into larger operations. That’s why Fast Casual has taken off so well. And some of these franchises that don’t rely on sitting down and staying, they rely on getting your food and going, or the Grubhubs and the delivery services to drive that. So you have people that can enter the market at a lower dollar value and not increase their margins.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
That’s right. And so many other industries, we talked about restaurants obviously, and it seems to be one of those areas that everybody thinks right away. Oh my Gosh, these poor restaurant owners are out there. They can’t do any business because people can’t come in the restaurants. Certainly, that’s opening up now state by state, but back in the thick of things with COVID, it was a very unfortunate situation. However, there’s so many other types of businesses that have been able to pivot, right? That we think of commercial Real Estate for instance. One of our… Here in the studios that we’ve got. We’ve got a cleaning company that’s come in. They come in two times a week as typical for an office. But they said during the pandemic, they switched their business model and said, “Now we can disinfect homes and businesses alike.” And that was a very big part of their business. One that they’re now going to stay in.

Cory Mosley:
Jim, so that’s a great example of number five, right? So they were already in the cleaning space and now they’ve found a way to do a product extension. So now you’re wanting to feel disinfected. Now they want to go into residential from commercial. That’s an exact example of that process. You hit the nail right on the head there.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
Let me ask you this. Well, we get a lot of questions about franchises. Should somebody consider if they’re going to be a small business owner, should they consider a franchise before opening up their own company or their own type of business? What’s your take on franchises? Are you a proponent or?

Cory Mosley:
Yeah, at least I think franchise is a great. I have to… I’ll be getting a lot of messages. I have a good friend who I… Who’s in the franchise space, that’s all he does. And we have dinner every month. And we talk about what’s going on in the market. And franchise is a great, because it creates a turn key opportunity. You have people who are great operators, structurally, right? They’re analytical, that’s where their brainpower is. They’re not necessarily creatives. So walking into a structured business where if you do this, this, this, and this, you have a great opportunity to be successful because you can create leverage on a brand name. Starting something from scratch is hard Jim and you know this.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
No question about it.

Cory Mosley:
You have to have creativity and you have to have operational skills or the right partners that you’re working with. So I think franchises you’re seeing are red hot right now, people are filing new takes on things that you thought were done already. And now there’s new pizza concepts, there’s new burger concepts. So a franchise can definably be a lower risk way to build an explosive business opportunity.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
And then there’s so many franchises now that are home-based. Whether it be a consulting business or whether it be an accounting or you do taxes or whatever the case might be. Maybe it’s a home inspection business where somebody buys a house and you want to go out and check it out, or what have you. So there’s a lot of those popping up as well that have a great business model and maybe even some, either regional or national exposure. So when you step in and somebody knows the brand and you happen to be the franchisee for that area, that plays a big part.

Cory Mosley:
When you see new people coming to the marketing and accelerating, or in the comfort space, in the convenience space. So give me an example, my mother’s a notary, right? So on a normal circumstances, right? You’re driving all over the place to do notary services. Well, she found an online service that now you can do via FaceTime basically. And some electronic things-

Jim Fitzpatrick :
Wow, that’s cool.

Cory Mosley:
Company has put in place. So she can literally sit at home and do virtual notarizing.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
Never thought. That’s kind of cool.

Cory Mosley:
And not drive all over town and just sit there and make money in and be quasi-retired.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
That is fantastic. I never even thought about that, but you can do that virtually now. You can do everything virtual, that’s incredible.

Cory Mosley:
Yeah, absolutely.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
So well that’s great. So Cory, where can our viewers learn more about your offering? I know that you work with entrepreneurs and small business owners and large business owners for that matter and can help them get to that next level that we all want to get to. How can they learn more about you?

Cory Mosley:
Yeah, absolutely. So we just published actually six ebooks overall on a wide range of topics from sales and marketing, and we’ve released a 15 day business growth video series. All of these things are free. They can just head over to corymosley.com and get access to this content. One of our first tenants that we teach business owners is give value first. So this is our commitment to that mission.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
That’s fantastic. That’s great. Well, we’ll show all the information on the screen there. Cory Mosley, principal and founder of Mosley Strategy Group. As I said, working with small businesses, entrepreneurs, people that were entrepreneurs, people that want to be entrepreneurs and big businesses too, that need that third look, somebody that can come in and say, there’s a problem, there’s a problem, there’s a problem, there’s an issue. Let’s talk about it. Let’s fix it. So, Cory, thank you so much for joining us once again on the Atlanta Small Business Show. I really appreciate it.

Cory Mosley:
Hey, always a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick :
Thanks.

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