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Ask the Expert—Most Important Thing, Most Urgent Thing

Continuing our series where we met with small business experts who solve problems for entrepreneurs and small business owners every day.  We are joined by Mauricio Rodriguez, Director General of mit-mut.com (listen to find out what that name means) and Erin Case, Partner Marketing Manager at Infusionsoft. Find out what Mauricio means when he says small business owners are terrible, and the how to overcome small businesses most common problems.

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Transcript:

Dusey: Hello listeners. This is Dusey. I am the producer for the Small Business Success Podcast. And we have a special treat for you today. As I mentioned last time, we have some of our various partners that work with us here Infusionsoft that are experts in small businesses and how they can be successful. And today, we have Mauricio Rodriguez with us.

Hi Mauricio. How's it going?

Mauricio : Fine, [00:00:30] thank you.

Dusey: Thank you for joining us. He's the owner of MITMUT. That's M, I, T, M, U, T. And tell us a little bit about what you do.

Mauricio : I am a business consultant for the last 15 years. Since five years ago, I started implementing software with my customers. From the last year to now, I am implementing Infusionsoft.

Dusey: Fantastic. We also have another guest who is first time on the podcast, Erin. Hey Erin. How's [00:01:00] it going?

Erin: I'm good how are you.

Dusey: I'm doing great. Tell us a little bit about what you do with Infusionsoft.

Erin: Sure. I am the partner marketing manager here at Infusionsoft.

Dusey: What does that mean? What do you do?

Erin: That means I help bring on new partners into our partner program, and also work with some of our strategic partners to create marketing programs to help both of our businesses grow.

Dusey: Fantastic. So, Mauricio tell us a little bit more. You said you've been doing this for about 15 years, the business consulting and recently started doing software implementation. Well, not recently but in the past fiver years. What has [00:01:30] that change been like for your business?

Mauricio : First of all, I started doing software implementation because I saw that when I work with one of my [inaudible 00:01:41] we arranged to do some things. After a while, they go back to the old practice.

Dusey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Mauricio : Then, we need something that to keep it going and they change in his companies.

Dusey: Gotcha. So you would have them ... you would set up these [00:02:00] practices and they would kind of slowly start to drift, and then probably become less successful because they're not following these practices ...

Mauricio : And that's correct.

Dusey: ... and then you're finding that implementing software like ... and I would love to hear kind of all the sorts of things that you do like Infusionsoft, and I'm sure other technologies.

Mauricio : Yes.

Dusey: You do it in such a way that it keeps them on track without them having to like being driving it all the time.

Mauricio : Yes. Small business owners are terrible. Just [00:02:30] like myself, I have been a business owner for maybe years.

Dusey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Mauricio : I go broke twice and I learn that somethings are very important to keep on track.

Dusey: Oh Okay. Wow. Yeah, they got a lot of things ... small business owner has a lot of things to keep track of right?

Mauricio : Yes.

Dusey: I just think that's really interesting, that point of view, of like, "You know what? We're just going to set this up for you so you don't have to worry about cause [00:03:00] we keep seeing that people are drifting all the time." Is that something you've seen other partners struggle with when working with their clients, Erin?

Erin: I do. We see that a lot and that's why we have them constantly work with a partner so the partner can help stay on track on what they're doing, and be focused on what's important. All of our partners work with our customers to help them realize where their focus should be, and allow automation or the other resources and tools to do the other parts of the business so they stay focused.

Dusey: How do you help [00:03:30] figure out what somebody's focus should be? We talk about this a lot on the podcast whether it's finding your target audience or what you should be spending your time on, what you shouldn't be spending your time on, so maybe what are some questions that you might ask or how do you start with when you're first meeting with a new client that's a small business?

Mauricio : I think the most important thing is that you know where you are going to have ambition. I think that ambition maybe is different [00:04:00] for everyone but we need to grow happy. The business need to grow happy and the small business are not growing happy. They have a lot of problems, problems to pay to the employees, problem with the customers, problems with the suppliers, problems with the bank, and that is not the happy life. For me the goal is to grow happy. That is new for me. Before, I think, the goal [00:04:30] was grow fast. Now for me the goal is grow happy.

Erin: I love that. Grow happy. That should be a tagline that we use.

Dusey: That makes such a difference because that's something that's sustainable too right?

Mauricio : Yes.

Dusey: Not only is it great to be happy and to have a good life with everything else that you're doing but, it's something that you're feeling excited about coming back to.

Mauricio : Yes. I realized this after many years. You see my mission is that [inaudible 00:05:00] [00:05:00] long, and then I keep it simpler, and simpler, and simpler and arrive to helping your business grow happy. This is my mission. I think that if your business is growing happy, you're happy, your customers are happy, your employees are happy. In order to get this goal, you need to do something because it's not free. You need [00:05:30] to focus on something, and for me the MIT, in my name, in MITMUT, MIT means 'Most Important Thing.'

Dusey: Oh Okay. You're helping them find that, what is that most important thing that they need to be focusing on.

Mauricio : Yes. After, to have a [inaudible 00:05:49] you need to do something to get there.

Dusey: That's fantastic. I want to step back for a second, when you said that you kind of went through this process of simplifying your mission statement. I'd love to hear what that process [00:06:00] was like, why that was important, how impacted your business getting really clear on your mission.

Mauricio : Yes. I have a difficult life as a business owner. I made all the mistakes that a small business owner can do. That's because I am very, I don't know, I want to make things. But that could [00:06:30] be a trap. If you are doing things that you're choosing to do, maybe you have problems to get there and you lose focus on your target. You need to take care of what you're doing. You need to be focused. I said, I believe a lot in the [inaudible 00:06:53] principle few writers and many[inaudible 00:07:00]. [00:07:00] For me, like MITMUT, most important thing, then you focus it.

Dusey: Yeah.

Erin: When you're working with your customers, how do you help them decide what is the most important thing? When they're struggling besides, is it spending more time with my family, or is it having this legacy that I leave behind, or being successful. If they're struggling with understanding what is that most important thing, what do you do for those clients?

Mauricio : We need to make and assessment to see what problems the business [00:07:30] has. Most of the time is that they are doing many things. They have many products, many different niche markets and one of my recommendations is to focus in one market, focus in one solution, and become a specialist. Then do it again, and again, you get better, and better, then you can after this process to take another line of business or line [00:08:00] of [inaudible 00:08:01]. I don't know. Many customers that you are attending maybe are not fit customers for you're business. You need to focus on one market.

Dusey: You know, I'm the type of person that I'm a people pleaser and I also like to dream big and, despite not often getting to those big dreams, so I can see how enticing it is to want to be everything to everybody. Right?

Mauricio : [00:08:30] Yes.

Dusey: It feels like a big vision, and it feels like you're being productive and doing something that's changing the world, but you know, you going to have actually be more likely to accomplish your thing that will change the world even though it might be in a narrower target.

Mauricio : Yes. Yes.

Dusey: This group of people that are really going to benefit from your service and your business's existence.

Mauricio : I said that to my customers, before you save the world, yo have to save yourself, and your business, and your [00:09:00] life, and your family life because if you're doing great you can do deeper and deeper into one problem and really change the world.

Dusey: Yeah. Well, I've got one last question for you before we wrap up, and that question is just, if there was one thing that you wish every single small business owner, entrepreneur knew, some piece of advice that you would give them, what would that one thing be?

Mauricio : [00:09:30] The most important thing.

Dusey: There you go. That's it. I'm fine with that.

Mauricio : You see, you need to see the chain of reactions from your actions to the results in what you are doing. You have to measure this results in order to realize if you're doing it correct of not. Then understand your process to get your results and for me [00:10:00] the most important thing when you are starting a business. Sometimes you get a result because something happened, nothing to do with you but something happened and you cannot reproduce this. When you have a thing that you can control at your will, then you can have a business, a successful business.

Dusey: Very cool. Very good advice. Well, thank you very much for joining us Mauricio, [00:10:30] and thank you Erin for jumping in and joining us on the podcast.

Erin: Of course.

Dusey: If you want to hear more from Mauricio, you want to check out what he does remember his website is MIT-MUT.com. That is M, I, T for the most important thing, dash M, U, T for the most urgent thing right?

Mauricio : That's correct.

Dusey: MIT-MUT.com.

And a quick note for our listeners, if you like free stuff, and I'm guessing you do, if you're trying to boost up your own business, then you should get your free trial of Infusionsoft. You can use our CRM, email, marketing and campaign tools, and [00:11:00] get coaching for two weeks without spending a dime. I recommend it if you've been thinking how to organize your sales in marketing, but aren't sure you're ready to take the plunge. You'll quickly see the value you can get out of having everything in one place with Infusionsoft. Just go to bit.ly/sbsfreetrial to sign up. That's bit.ly/sbsfreetrial. SBS as in 'Small Business Success' Free trial. That is it for this episode with the small business success podcast. We will see you all next time.

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