Become Your Own Boss: Tips for Starting and Growing Your Own Small Business
Dive into entrepreneurship with Monica Allen, an entrepreneur with over 23 years of business ownership. This podcast is for you if you desire to start your own business & defy the odds of failure or you are less than 5 years into your business & desire to grow your revenue and profit. Learn from diverse entrepreneurs and experts about marketing, team dynamics, finances, social media, and more. Entrepreneurship might feel isolating at times, but with this podcast by your side, you'll never walk alone. Elevate your business game and master your entrepreneurial life and truly become a BOSS.
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320 - How to Stop Being Your Business’s Best Employee
<p>When was the last time you spent an entire workday actually leading your business instead of simply running it?</p><p>Small business owners often start by doing everything themselves. That hustle can build a business from nothing, but as the company grows, staying involved in every task can keep the owner from doing the work only a CEO can do.</p><p>In this episode of Become Your Own Boss, Monica explores the difference between leading and managing a business and why entrepreneurs can easily find themselves stuck in the weeds. Drawing from her own experience and leadership...
319 - How You Can Make Your Business Easier for Customers to Choose?
<p>In this episode of Become Your Own Boss, Monica explains why social media and a business’s online presence do more than attract followers or generate leads. They help potential customers decide whether a business is credible enough to earn their trust.</p><p>Monica explores the important difference between simply being visible and showing evidence that a business can deliver. She shares how recent work, behind-the-scenes content, customer reviews, testimonials, and a well-maintained digital presence can build confidence before a sales conversation ever happens. She also challenges business owners to look at their online presence from a customer’s pe...
318 - Why You Don’t Have to Be First to Win?
<p>What if someone else already has your business idea? Does that mean you’re too late?</p><p>Not at all. In this episode of Become Your Own Boss, Monica Allen challenges the pressure entrepreneurs feel to be first to market. Drawing from more than 20 years of building her own businesses, she shares how studying existing competitors helped her uncover opportunities to improve customization, customer service, packaging, and the overall buying experience.</p><p>Monica explains why competition can actually validate an idea, and why simply offering the same thing isn’t enough. She shares a practical approach entrepreneurs can...
317 - The Business Asset that Every Entrepreneur Must Protect
<p>After an annual physical reveals that her cholesterol is trending in the wrong direction, Monica gets an important reminder: business owners cannot separate their health from the health of their businesses. Entrepreneurs protect equipment, monitor finances, track sales, and create systems to prepare for problems, but they may postpone the very things that protect their own well-being.</p><p>In this episode, Monica shares why preventative care deserves a place in every entrepreneur's business strategy. She explores the connection between personal health, leadership, and business continuity while challenging business owners to put themselves back on their priority lists.</p><...
316 - Will You Step Into Growth When Change Gets Uncomfortable?
<p>Change can be uncomfortable, frustrating, and even emotionally exhausting. In this throwback episode of Become Your Own Boss, Monica shares why this message remains just as important today. Drawing from changes in podcasting, her business, and her family, Monica explores what happens when the familiar is no longer an option. For entrepreneurs, change can show up through new technology, industry requirements, staffing, the economy, or unexpected shifts in a carefully made plan. Instead of retreating to what feels safe, Monica encourages business owners to recognize the opportunity hidden inside discomfort. She shares practical strategies for adjusting their mindset, staying...
315 - Do Your Customers REALLY Know What You Do?
<p>Business owners spend so much time inside their businesses that it’s easy to assume customers, friends, and referral partners understand everything they sell. But that assumption could be costing them sales.</p><p>In this episode of Become Your Own Boss, Monica shares an eye-opening experience that made her question how well people understand her own business. She explains why repetition is essential in marketing, how educating customers can create new opportunities, and why business owners shouldn’t assume that one purchase means a customer understands everything else they offer.</p><p>Monica also gives listeners a simple chal...
314 - Are You Showing Your Work but Hiding Your Expertise?
<p>In this episode of Become Your Own Boss, Monica shares a simple customer interaction at Zeus’ Closet that sparked a major marketing realization: business owners often show their work without teaching customers what they know.</p><p>After more than 20 years in business, Monica discovered that something that seemed incredibly basic to her was not obvious to her customers. That knowledge gap revealed an opportunity every entrepreneur can use.</p><p>Monica explains how answering common questions, clearing up misunderstandings, and teaching customers about an industry can turn everyday knowledge into valuable marketing content. More importantly, educational content can es...
313 - How You Can Turn Customer Frustration Into Business Growth
<p>In this episode, Monica explores how unclear pricing, surprise charges, poor communication, and unanswered questions can slowly chip away at customer trust. She shares how entrepreneurs can use their own frustrating experiences as customers as free consulting for their businesses.</p><p>Instead of competing only on price, business owners can create an advantage by making it easier for customers to understand what they’re buying, what it costs, and what happens next. Sometimes, one small change in the customer journey can make a major difference.</p><p>Episode Quote: Building a good customer experience does not happen by ac...
312 - How You Can Build a Business While Working Full Time?
<p>Many entrepreneurs dream of turning a side hustle into a full-time business, but few have a clear strategy for making that transition. In this episode, Monica shares the lessons she learned while building her company after work, on weekends, and during lunch breaks before leaving her corporate career. She explains why success isn't about finding more hours in the day; it's about making better decisions with the time available. From prioritizing revenue-generating activities to building systems and knowing when to make the leap, this episode offers practical guidance for entrepreneurs at every stage. Whether listeners want extra income or...
311 - What Are You Hiding From Your Customers?
<p>Have you accidentally hidden the very thing that makes customers choose your business? A family trip to a famous amusement park sparks an unexpected marketing lesson every entrepreneur needs to hear. Monica shares how discovering an award-winning roller coaster that was barely highlighted on a company's website led her to examine a common business mistake: burying the feature that makes a brand truly stand out. Instead of chasing new ideas, business owners may already have their biggest competitive advantage. They just aren't putting it where customers can see it. This episode challenges entrepreneurs to view their marketing through fresh...
