IMPACT OC

PROFIT TALKS: Finance Consultant Craig Russom

Craig Russom, Finance Consultant for the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) joins us to discuss the murky world of small business finances and sourcing capital. And his own background from studying aeronautical engineering to opening his own chain of sporting goods stores in Colorado. And then onto California where he earned all his financial licenses and began his own consulting practice specializing in Strategic financial planning, cash flow analysis, projections, project management, QuickBooks, P&L, Balance sheet analysis, debt financing and securing loans.

As we continue to highlight the many skills and backgrounds of our extensive network of SBDC consultants. Here on The Profit Talks Podcast. Brought to you by your Orange County/Inland Empire Small Business Development Center (OCIE SBDC). Funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.

PROFIT TALKS: Meet SBDC Consultant Lisa Napolitano

Meet this week's Small Business Development Center (SBDC) consultant Lisa Napolitano. And hear her amazing story of being hired as the only employee of a failing trade association at 23. How 15 years later, she turned it around and grew it into a global organization with lots of other employees. Leaving to start her own high powered, sales strategy firm working with big companies she'd met from her years with this sales association like UPS and Pfizer And how she now spends part of her time mentoring and guiding small startups and SMBs (ie-small-to-midsize businesses) thru her work with the SBDC. As she continues to grow her own "small business".

You'll particularly enjoy how she answer some age old sales questions we put to her like "is raising sales the only goal that matters for most sales organization?" And "when might it actually do more harm than good?" As we continue to highlight the many skills and backgrounds of our extensive network of SBDC consultants. Here on The Profit Talks Podcast. Brought to you by your Orange County/Inland Empire Small Business Development Center (OCIE SBDC). Funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.

PROFIT TALKS: SBDC Leasing Consultant Karie Armstrong

Join SBDC Leasing Consultant Karie Armstrong as she looks back at her 25 year career in major mall management (including her last stint overseeing the huge Brea Mall). And her recent 13 year career as a Small Business Development Center consultant (working out of their Cal State Fullerton center). Helping small businesses and retail startups from restaurants to stores navigate the difficult world of commercial leasing. From finding the right location to negotiating the best lease and all that follows from securing financing to securing all the needed permits and licenses needed to open your business (and everything in between). Taking you through the countless obstacles and hurdles to opening a "brick and mortar" business on THE PROFIT TALKS today.

Brought to you by your Orange County/Inland Empire Small Business Development Center (OCIE SBDC). Funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.

OUR COMMUNITY: Rima Nashashibi, Founder, GLOBAL 365

Meet the amazing Rima Nashashibi and learn about the organization she founded GLOBALHOPE 365 to end child marriage, human trafficking and other forms of gender based violence.

OUR COMMUNITY: Hear About FOSTER LOVE

Meet Cyndee Albertson, Director of Development SoCal and Mario Gonzalez, Dept Manager for Academic Services for FOSTER LOVE and all they do for foster kids nationwide.

OUR COMMUNITY: Meet Chiropractor Dr. George Ujkic

Meet Dr. George Ujkic, a Chiropractor in Orange, CA and hear the amazing story of what led him into this field.  Thru the healing it brought him. And how he's shared that gift with so many others thru the years thru his work at the Chiropractic Center of Orange.  On OUR COMMUNITY podcast. Powered by the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Orange County's only community radio station, OC TALK RADIO.

STREET PRICING WITH MARCOS RIVERA : Srinivas Somayajula from Tropic

Welcome to Street Pricing, the only show where proven SaaS (Software as a Service) leaders share their mindset and mistakes in pricing so we can all stop guessing and start growing. Street Pricing is hosted by Pricing I/O CEO and Pricing Coach, Marcos Rivera, sought after slayer of bad pricing. With 20 years of pricing expertise, he has helped price over 200 SaaS products and coached over 100 SaaS CEOs and counting. From the streets of the Bronx to CEO, Marcos wants to take the guessing out of pricing.  

Today’s guest is Srinivas Somayajula, GM of Data at Tropic. Srinivas overseas all the data solutions and wants to bring transparency to SaaS pricing.

Srinivas talks about his time with Calendly, he suggested they look at the pricing around March 2020, and that maybe they were giving away too much value for their current pricing. (2:40) He looked into the data and spoke with customers and decided on two principles that would work for the company; everything has to be as frictionless as possible, and they had to do no harm to the customers. Existing customers needed a packaging and pricing model to migrate to and new customers were coming to Calendly with the pandemic happening. (7:40)

Marcos and Srinivas emphasize how the actual execution of price changes can be a big problem for companies, and how thoughtful planning and tests are key. (8:52) Srinivas wanted to make the product easy to sell, using the website, marketing, and building sales teams to communicate the value to the customers. (10:00) The important questions that companies need to answer are Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we want for the company? Who do we serve? (11:00)

Srinivas listened to the customers by doing multiple rounds of interviews and surveys and also did internal voting with the sales team. (16:15) He thought the internal viewpoint would give signals to understanding but could also give biased opinions as well. Both things partnered together can give a balanced perspective. Srinivas also suggested looking into support requests and using AI to analyze the billing data.

They discuss what Srinivas is hoping for in the future of pricing, hiring a senior pricing manager, and his current position at Tropic. (24:04)

Marcos and Srinivas close out the show by discussing Srinivas’ favorite song growing up was “Momma Said Knock You Out” By LL Cool J and “Money Ain’t a Thing” By Jermaine Dupri and Jay Z.

Street Pricing streams live on OC TALK RADIO, Orange County's only online business channel, every Friday at 9:00 AM PT and is available for download on all major podcast platforms.

Follow Marcos on LinkedIn

Get your copy Street Pricing: A Pricing Playlist for Hip Leaders in B2B SaaS here

Want a consultation? Email Pricing I/O at info@pricingio.com

 

DAZED OR BLAZED: Fantasy Football Predictions-NFL Week 9

The boys are back with more outrageous comments and stellar picks for Week 9 of the NFL on our exclusive FANTASY FOOTBALL PODCAST Dazed or Blazed.  So don't be shy, jump in and see how you score.  It's now just if you win or lose, but how you play the game.

Warning:  there' is some rough language here, but hey, FANTASY FOOTBALL is a rough sport...

All Over the Map Family Podcast-The Ancient World of Turkey

Follow along as Michael and Caitlyn Doehmner wander the world in search of their forever home (with three small kids in tow). This episode finds them in Turkey at a moment of reflection for that country as they celebrate the 100th anniversary of their secular republic. While forces within and outside the country pull it back into more and more of a Muslim state. On this week's ALL OVER THE MAP FAMILY podcast. #travel #internationaltravel #family #familytravel #digitalnomads #octalkradio #ucicove

OUR COMMUNITY: Meet Denise Gutierrez, CALIFORNIA COUNCIL ON ECONOMIC EDUCATION

Denise Gutierrez, President and CEO of the California Council on Economic Education (CCEE) and the work they do teaching financial literacy to students thru places like the Boys and Girls Clubs.