Starting a Small Business - An interview with Amanda Nauman

Summary

The transcript summarizes a podcast interview with Amanda Nauman, owner of Zenliven massage therapy business, covering her background and experiences starting up her own practice. Key topics include challenges faced as a recent Midwest transplant with limited business knowledge, the importance of finding good advisors, learning accounting and finances, not paying herself initially, focusing on health and wellness, fear of undressing, therapeutic massage techniques, insurance barriers, and business growth mindset.

Chapters

Introducing Amanda and Her Business

The host Ralph introduces Amanda Nauman, owner of Zenliven massage therapy business, and asks her to provide some background on her journey into massage therapy and passion for helping clients achieve better health.

Obstacles Faced Launching a New Business

Amanda discusses the various obstacles she faced starting her business as a Midwest transplant to the East Coast, including lack of familiarity with the area, limited business knowledge, learning administrative tasks like payroll and licensing, and opening without loans using her own savings.

Importance of Finding Good Advisors

The discussion covers the importance of finding good advisors like lawyers, accountants and marketing help when starting a business, with Amanda sharing how connecting with Ralph's accounting firm was invaluable.

Services Offered and Client Hesitations

Amanda outlines the therapeutic massage, lymphatic drainage and assisted stretching services she provides, tailored to individual client needs. She notes some clients hesitate due to fear of undressing or insurance barriers.

Rewards and Continued Learning

In terms of rewards, Amanda emphasizes her dedication to continual learning and business improvements to better serve clients. She also notes the first year she did not pay herself, hoping to give herself a raise soon.

Action Items

1. No explicit action item identified.

Welcome to the Ask Ralph podcast. We're listening to an experienced financial professional can help you make sense of confusing questions current headlines and industry trends about taxes, small business, financial decision making, investment strategies, and even the art of proper budgeting.

Ask Ralph makes the complex simple by sharing his real world knowledge with all things financial. Now here's your host, Ralph Estep Jr. Thank you for joining us on the Ask Ralph show. Today I've got an interview with Amanda Nauman.

We're going to get to it in just a minute. We're going to talk about her massage therapy business, but more importantly, we're going to talk about the situation she had with starting a new business and what she ran into in creating a small business and all the obstacles she ran into.

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Get your copy now at Amazon.com or visit askralph.com. Start building the foundation of lasting prosperity. And now back to the podcast. Welcome back to another episode of Ask Ralph to show where we tackle your financial questions and dive deep into the lives and experience of other small business people.

I'm your host Ralph Estep Jr. and today we have a very special guest joining us. Please welcome Amanda Nauman the owner of Zenliven a licensed massage therapist. Amanda, thank you for being with us here today.

Thanks so much for having me. I really am excited to be here. Yeah, it's great. It's an honor to have you. Now, before we dive into the specifics of your work, could you give listeners a brief overview of your background and how you got started in the field of massage therapy?

Yeah, so I went to school for massage therapy and got out there and started working in the field and realized that I really have a passion for helping people move better, be pain free and have a good quality of life and stress free.

Yeah, you know, that's something we talk about all the time on the show from a financial standpoint, but it sounds like your focus is more on how to get them pain free. I know it myself as I get older.

You know, it seems like it's a daily struggle to move even the way I moved the week before. You know, so I'm sure that that is a great gift that you're giving people. Yeah, and you know, it's funny because financial health and wealth actually depend on our physical health and wealth.

And what I mean by that is if you invest in your health and wellness, then that's going to feed your wealth, your health and wealth, if you will. No, absolutely. And I think you're right. I think you have to pull all those pieces together and it's sort of like a puzzle.

You know, you got to fit all those puzzle pieces together because they all, you know, interplay with each other. Absolutely. And if you invest in your wellness, then you won't have to invest in all the doctors long term.

I mean, things could still come up and happen, but the results of taking care of yourself, you're going to enjoy life more versus going to a lot of doctor visits. No, I hear that. And so it's clear you have a genuine dedication to your client's well-being.

Could you tell us more about the specific services you offer? Oh, yes. So I do... therapeutic massage. And I incorporate a lot of different elements that I've learned along the 20 years that I’ve been in practice.

And I also do lymphatic drainage massage, which is something new that I've learned. And that helps people with swelling. I also do, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no, that's fine. Go ahead. Continue.

I also do assisted stretching, which helps people get a deeper stretch than they can on their own. Well, that makes a lot of sense. Do you find that a lot of people come to you with the traditional aches and pains, but not really sure of what's triggering it?

Yes. Or I have a lot of people that have seen their doctor and come in and they have their x-rays, their MRIs, and they're like, this is what I've got going on. With that information, it helps me better understand what's going on versus just doing a few tests, muscle tests, and trying to figure out how I can help them.

And what do you see as the biggest obstacle to people deciding to use your services? People have a fear of getting undressed for someone else. And it's not that I'm standing in the room and watching them get undressed, but it's, hmm, that's a good question.

No, I just, I think traditional medicine would, you know, you go to the doctor, the doctor orders some lab test or some x-rays, you know, and the doctor's going to prescribe you some medication or some pain pills.

But it sounds like your approach is really a deviation from that. Not that you're moving away from the doctor's approach, but a way to find solutions for them outside of the more, you know, traditional, let's throw medicine at it chanel.

Absolutely. And, you know, with that being said, I do the best I can. There are situations where I've had to turn people away just because it's out of my scope of practice. And I want them to seek help where they need it.

Well, sure, that makes sense. Now, I will share with the listeners that, you know, you just started recently, and I don't remember exactly when, but to launch your own business. So one of the reasons I had you on the podcast today is to kind of let people understand like what you ran into starting your own business.

So I just wanted to sort of start there and talk to you about, you know, what was the biggest challenge you think you found in starting your own business? Because I know you've been working as a massage therapist for many years, but you made that, you know, that leap, if you will, and jumped into your own business.

So I just wanted you to have a few minutes to talk about that. Absolutely. So I had a lot of obstacles. The first one was, I am not from the area that I've opened in. I was from the Midwest and moved to the East Coast.

And so I knew nothing of the area or where to open would be best. So you were literally flying blind as a recent transplant to the area from the Midwest. Yes. And another issue that I have, let's see, or I'm sorry, what was your question again?

Because I know I'm saying like, what did you see as like the obstacles to, you know, you worked for somebody else, you know, they provide your place of business, they provide your book of business for lack of a better way saying it.

But you made that decision, you're like, I'm going to go out on my own. And a lot of my clients, you know, they make that decision as well. And I always like to talk to clients and find out, you know, what did they find was the hardest thing about making that that move, you know, was it finding a location?

Was it, you know, getting all your ducks in order for licensing? You know, what was it for you? So yes, that the move and not knowing the area was an obstacle. Also, another obstacle for me was I had not a clue as to what I like what a business takes to open and to actually function.

So every day I have a commitment to myself and to my clients to dive deeper into learning those things. And that has been a huge learning curve, if you will, an obstacle to overcome. How do I make a website, you know, those kinds of things and finding out the right licensing so I don't get in trouble.

And those things aren't intuitive, are they? I mean, it's not like you can go and say, well, I just assume that I need to do this, this and this. And I'm going to throw a little plug in there. I think you found that connecting with Saggio Accounting was a good fit for you as well.

Absolutely. It was like a godsend. Well, I love to hear that. And the reason why is because I know nothing about taxes and or finances really. So it really has helped my business grow, like keeping me on task of what's needing to be taken care of, how payroll works, different aspects of that.

And I still have a lot to learn and a lot to work with you with. And I say this to clients all the time, you know, let us be your partner. You may be very good at what you do. You're good at doing the massage work and the stretching work and all those other things.

But the other side of that is the financial side. And I think a lot of people have a hesitation to partnering with someone like that. But I tell the clients all the time, you need to build your partnerships with people that have knowledge and experience in that area because I always tell clients, look, you run your business, we'll run the back end of this financial and keep you out of trouble.

And that's what I was looking for. Absolutely. Another thing is that I still, I'm about a year and a half into my business, and I still have no, I opened with no loans or help. I just opened up with my own cash, and it was a little scary, but things have really developed, and I think that's part of my dedication to finding the right people, like lawyers, accountants, that will help with growth.

And I tell clients this all the time. I look at it like I always give them the vision of it's building a house, right? And you've got to make sure you start with a strong foundation, and I think you nailed it.

A good accounting connection, a good legal connection, a good insurance connection, a good marketing connection, all those things are so important and so critical for small business success. And I think a lot of people, they try to do one piece of it, or try to do it all themselves, and what they find is they run into things that, well, I didn't even know about that.

And I think you've had some of those wow moments as well. Absolutely. Well, I mean, just with our accounting experience, because you're like, okay, tax season is approaching, and we need to look at your finances and see where you're lacking and what we need to do.

And it's a different mindset with money for business versus personal money. And I've never had to figure that out. And so having good accounting help has been great. Yeah, and people don't realize, the way you run your personal finances as a mom or a wife in your home is considerably different than the way you run them from a business perspective.

And I think you've kind of learned as we go as well. And it's just a completely different mindset. It is. And I wish I would have been able to learn a little bit more before. beforehand, but, you know, kind of, if you don't jump in at some point, you're never going to get started.

And yeah, and I think you also, and I don't want to speak for you, but I think you've also learned what not to do. And I think that's part of what a lot of our clients, you know, they find out the hard way, you know, don't spend your money in this area and don't connect with this type of situation.

I know you've been through some like virtual assistance and all that sort of things. And I don't know that they all quite, they kind of fit with what you were looking for. And I, you know, they get marketed to these new business people, you know, in a new business business person's lookable.

Oh, I really need somebody to handle this. I really need somebody to handle this. But I think what you're telling me, what you're telling our listeners today is that you've had to learn to kind of juggle and allocate a certain amount of time for each of those areas in your business to handle it yourself.

Yes. I work every day. Even on my days off, I'm networking. I am, I keep a checklist, an ongoing checklist of things that I can do. And I prioritize those things to where they, you know, they might take five minutes and I might write five minute task.

So if I'm waiting on a client, I have something I can check off my list or... Yeah, I tell clients this all the time. You sort of have to take your day and allocate, all right, I'm going to put so many hours a week into marketing.

I'm going to put so many hours a week into the financial side. I'm going to put so much of a week into strategic planning. And you know, you go into a position like, you know, open up your own business, you figure, well, I'm just going to be hands-on.

I'm going to be doing massage work. I'm going to be stretching work. But you don't think about the commitment that it takes on the outside. And I tell clients this all the time. If you work, you start your own business, you're going to work harder and make less money than anybody else.

That's just the truth. Yes. And since you're my accountant, you know this. The first year, I did not pay myself at all. I just recently did. And Lord knows I could use a raise, but you know, I'm playing the game of long run.

And at some point soon, I'm going to come to you and say, okay, let's give me a raise. What can we do? How can we be strategic about this? So that leads us into a more positive thought, right? So what are some things that you really have enjoyed about being in business for yourself?

You know, what are some things you're like, you know what? Yes, it's been difficult. Yes, it's been hard. I've had to do a lot of things that are sort of outside my comfort zone. But what are the things that you've really enjoyed being in business for yourself?

So many aspects. I really have enjoyed the learning aspect of what it takes to open your business and to run it and how to make things easier for your customers and your clients and how to just keep improving.

Like, okay, we've tried this technique. We've tried this, you know, sending out this email, but that didn't work. work, so what would be better? Oh, absolutely. And I tell clients all the time, you know, I truly believe that as a business person, you have to reinvent your business every day.

I'm not saying completely, you know, flip it upside down and start over, but I think every day you have to dedicate time to like, what does that look like tomorrow? What does this look like next week?

And I think a lot of problem with small business people is they're constantly just putting out fires. You know, they're not looking at strategic planning or intermediate planning. And I always encourage clients, you know, I think you and I have even talked about this, this whole like green light thinking, you know, just talking about like, let's just throw it all on the table, you know, some what if scenarios, but don't restrict it.

And I think a lot of small business people just don't take the time to do that. Would you agree with that? Oh, yes, for sure. All right, well listen, Amanda, I just want to give you a couple more minutes to talk about your business.

You know, how would somebody get in touch with you? What's the best way for them to do that? And what does your process look like for scheduling? Okay, so that's a great question. So they can go online to Zenliven.com and that's Z E N L I V E N.com and they can schedule online through the link there and then they can also call, text, or email as well.

If you call, please leave a message because I cannot pick up the phone all the time because I am with another client. And my phone number is 302-464-8825. Awesome, and now where is your business located?

Like where do you meet with customers? So I'm downtown in Middletown, Delaware and I'm in a little blue house right now. It's a cool place actually and I've been there, and I will share with the listeners that I am a customer of Amanda's.

Well, I think it's been over a year now, pretty close to that. And it is kind of a cool place where she has her office. It's sort of, I guess, a place where there's multiple businesses all sort of co-located in the same place.

So it's a quaint place right on, it's not Main Street in Middletown, but it kind of gives you that Main Street feel. Awesome. Now, listen, so one of the questions that I would have if I was one of your new customers is like, how do I know what I want to get from you?

If I'm just, I'm a traditional guy, I work behind a desk every day and I have those aches and pains, but I could go to your website. Is there some things on your website that sort of talk about what your individual services are?

You know, is there, are there timeframe things? Are there stretching exercises? You know, what do I, what do I ask you for? If I don't really know, let's say I've never had a massage before. You know, I've never been through that process.

You know, do you have like a step-by-step guide of what I should do? Absolutely. The best thing to do is to reach out and ask, send an email, let me know what's going on and I can probably pair you up with what would be best for you.

Most people tend to get the therapeutic massage because I do customize that session for each individual walking in.  And I think people need to understand because I will tell you now this I'll share a little personal information So the first time I ever had a therapeutic deep muscle massage I had no concept of what I was getting into and this wasn't Amanda This was a different practitioner before and I remember going to the massage and I was like this lady has pushed me so hard I thought she took a mallet to my body and the next day I felt horrible So I think that you know Amanda you might want to talk about that for a second is like people's expectation might be like Oh, there's gonna be like a you know a nice little rub down or something like that But true therapeutic massage is something that's really going to get deep into the muscle, right?

I do work differently than a lot of other therapists and my belief is deep tissue I move the body around to create space and get down deeper without pushing without using the mallet as you called it and get those therapeutic Um releases without that. Yeah, I will be honest with my listeners, you know sometimes after a massage with Amanda I feel like I've been in a 10-round Heavyweight boxing match.

So you gotta have a set of expectations not that that's a bad thing But I will tell you personally, you know at 51 I've got a lot more flexibility and movement than I have before I started the process So well, Amanda, I just want to thank you for joining us today If you want to give your website and phone number again, go ahead.

Yes. So it's then Zenliven .com Z E N L I V E N.com and it's 3024648825 Thank you and to our listeners. Oh, I'll no problem Amanda I appreciate your time and thank you for our listeners for tuning in today stay tuned for more inspiring conversations and episodes to come take care and have a great day Thank you for joining us on the Ask Ralph podcast and with the simple click to subscribe We'll invite you back to our next episode and remember financial financial issues don't have to be complicated.

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