The Business of Life with Dr King
Dr Ariel Rosita King brings on a variety of International guests from various countries, cultures, organisations, and businesses to talk about turning
problem into possibilities! Let's turn our challenges in opportunities together!
The Business of Life with Dr King
The Entrepreneur's Journey: From Itch to Success with Anthony Jones (USA)
Have you ever felt that entrepreneurial itch—the burning desire for freedom, financial independence, and a legacy that a 9-to-5 job simply can't provide? Before you leap into business ownership, listen to Anthony Jones share profound insights from his 25-year career helping startups and small businesses navigate the rocky terrain of entrepreneurship.
This eye-opening conversation explores why so many passionate entrepreneurs fail despite their best intentions. With refreshing candor, Jones reveals the critical intersection where skills meet passion—the sweet spot every business owner should identify before investing time and money. His practical approach to market research demolishes the myth that you need expensive consultants to validate your business idea. Through simple strategies like customer surveys and networking groups, Jones demonstrates how anyone can test their concept's viability.
For those hesitant to start from scratch, Jones offers compelling alternatives that provide immediate cash flow. From trending low-involvement businesses like laundromats and vending machine routes to acquiring existing operations, he presents paths to entrepreneurship that minimize risk while maximizing return. His recommendation of the business model canvas as a daily visual guide transforms abstract business concepts into actionable plans anyone can implement.
Perhaps most valuable is Jones' advice on finding quality business guidance without falling prey to slick marketing. "If they don't offer like a free session or something, and then let the person decide if they want to work with you," he cautions, "I would be a bit leery." This authentic approach to mentorship reflects his overall philosophy: start somewhere, take action, and remember that even the thousand-mile entrepreneurial journey begins with a single step. Ready to take yours?
Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King
Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....
The Business of Life
Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King
Original Song, "Teach Me to Live one Day At A Time"
written, guitar and vocals by Dr. Ariel Rosita King
Dr King Solutions (USA Office)
1629 K St, NW #300,
Washington, DC 20006, USA,
+1-202-827-9762
DrKingSolutons@gmail.com
DrKingSolutions.com
And welcome to the Business of Life. Today we have a very special guest, Mr Anthony Jones. Welcome, Mr Jones.
Anthony Jones:Thank you for being here. Great to be here.
Dr Ariel King:Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?
Anthony Jones:Sure, for the past I'll say almost 25 years I've been a business development and financing consultant. Years I've been a business development and financing consultant. I've worked primarily with startups and small businesses under $5 million a year in revenue and I helped them with everything from planning to Z as far as business growth and development goes.
Dr Ariel King:Wow, wonderful, okay, so let's start. We were talking about the entrepreneur's journey. So excited to hear more about this, sir.
Anthony Jones:Yeah, yeah. So you know it generally starts when people kind of get the idea you know, I don't want to be shackled to a nine to five for the rest of my life, I want something more. I want, you know, I want freedom. I want financial independence. You know I want something to leave to my family. You know I want something to leave to my family. You know I want a legacy.
Anthony Jones:And often you know careers or jobs or whatever just don't you know, lead to that particular path. And so you know you'll get what's called the entrepreneur itch. Problem is a lot of people get that itch and you know they scratch it wrong. Basically, you know there's, you know there's generally a high rate of small business or startup business failure because of things such as lack of planning, undercapitalization, failure to actually research the market for their particular you know product or services and a lot of other factors. And part of the entrepreneur's journey is to lay out the.
Anthony Jones:I think the most important part of the entrepreneur's journey is to lay out those features or lay out those aspects of running a business or owning a business, whether it's something that you want to engage in full-time or something that you just want to do on the side to, you know, create additional revenue or, you know, tax benefits, which a lot of people are doing nowadays. You see this big craze and people starting LLCs, which are for, you know, people sell them on the fact that they're beneficial tax-wise, but then they don't provide them with any other support, you know, other than to say you know, hey, get you an LLC and, you know, go to YouTube to find out how to use it. So you know so there's a lot of steps.
Anthony Jones:You know there's a lot of stages in the entrepreneur's journey that you know that I think should be carefully researched and planned out, but it's an exciting journey to partake, you know. To you know, something that I often quote to my coaching clients is that you know the thousand mile journey starts with the first step. So whether it's developing a full blown business plan or just taking an accounting course or contacting, you know, here in the States we have an organization called SCORE, which is the Senior Corps of Retired Executives. It's a free resource offered through the SBA.
Dr Ariel King:Sorry, SBA is Small Business Association.
Anthony Jones:Small Business Association. Yes, thank you, sir. You know, and there's lots of low-cost or no-cost resources out there. You know, I would prefer for most people to, you know, if they have the means to, you know, engage a consultant or a core coach so that they can kind of avoid some of those, you know, startup nightmares, or actually even do a thorough evaluation to see if that's even the route that they want to go. You know some people want to, you know, start businesses from scratch. You know some want to, you know, go the franchise route. Some are even, you know, one of the popular things nowadays is even acquiring businesses that are, you know, currently for sale, which is what I generally try to suggest, instead of just going the total startup route, because you could be months or years before you even see any kind of profitability, whereas if you just, you know, if you can purchase an existing business and then just kind of tailor it to your particular concept, you at least have cash flow going, which is kind of king.
Dr Ariel King:Yeah, they do say that, quote-unquote cash flow is king, makes all the difference. Yeah, makes all the difference. May I ask, sir, for someone who's just starting and who's used to being employed, rather than going the entrepreneur route, basically making their own path, what do you suggest first, what the coach do suggest own path? What do you suggest first with a coach? Do you suggest a business plan, or do you suggest they even look at what they have to offer, what their talents are, and then looking at that as a possibility for starting a business?
Dr Ariel King:Because a lot of people are talking about their passion rather than what their competencies are.
Anthony Jones:Right, that's exactly what I would do. First is see where skills meet the passion, Because a lot of people start businesses just with the idea of making money, but it's not their core competency. And then, on the other side, they have something that they're really passionate about, but they have no idea how to make it into a business. So the first step is to evaluate what kind of skills you have in inventory, or, even if it's not something that you're totally passionate about, what do you have the capability to do? You know, like a vending machine route.
Anthony Jones:Now you might, you know, doesn't really involve any kind of business intelligence or whatever. It's just getting machines and placing them somewhere. But you got to know how to do that and it might not be something that you're passionate about, but it's at least something that will produce cash flow and it takes very little you know business education in order to run and operate, unless you're growing into a really big concept and then bring on some additional. So that's definitely the first and most important step is to take an inventory of things that you're passionate about, things that you have skills in, and then research your market, see if it's something that you can actually make a living doing.
Dr Ariel King:See if it's something that you can actually make a living doing. Thank you. And when you say research the market, there's so much out there how do you do that? Are there resources? Or do you look, for example, where you are, your local market? How do you look to see what's out there and whether or not it's profitable and whether or not it's a way forward?
Anthony Jones:Even with a coach. How do you do that? Market research can be done a few ways. You can, you know, you can do an email survey. You can join some networking groups and run it by actual business owners and everything. Hey, I have this concept for ABC and I'm going to do this, this and this. What do you think about it? Contact your potential consumers and ask you know, hey, would this be something that you would be interested in if we brought this type of offering to the market?
Anthony Jones:It can be something as simple as you know, even if you're just doing something small like making wax. You know flavored or scented candles or whatever on the weekend and everything. See if that's in your area, see if it's. You know flavored or scented candles or whatever on the weekend and everything. See if that's in your area, see if it's. You know if you have some kind of unique spin on it, see if that's something that's looked for in your market.
Anthony Jones:You know, are there any kind of local fairs or vendor events that you can, you know, sell your wares at? Just researching your potential customers is going to give you all the feedback that you need to know about it. If it's not something you know, if people say, yeah, it's too oversaturated, price point is too high, quality is low, you know, or any of the litany of you know reasons that they might give for not you know supporting a particular endeavor that's going to let you know, you know what the likelihood is of success for it that's so good to know, and many, as an entrepreneur, um, those who use their skills, for example, um, they're entrepreneurs that use their skills as their persons.
Dr Ariel King:they go to speak, um, they go to help to speak at schools or they help to do some kind of training. Um, some people are using, uh, you know, a different type of physical training and so on and so forth, and then, of course, you have skills with as you were talking about businesses actually selling items, and so can I ask you are there any trends right now that we should be looking at in terms of businesses, and also businesses that don't cost very much to actually start to enter?
Anthony Jones:Well, the trend right now as far as like acquiring businesses, would be those businesses that require, you know, low service involvement from the actual owner. Things like car washes, laundromats, detail services well, maybe not a detail, you know, vending machines, what else would be? What else was one of the things that were trending? There's a few others, but generally things that you can, you know, just kind of, like, I say, with minimum owner involvement, be able to monitor, provide a little maintenance for, and then, you know, leverage your time and everything.
Anthony Jones:I know laundromats are kind of the big thing right now, but not everybody wants, you know, wants to get a laundromat Start up. There's nothing you know, particularly that I'm seeing service wise people doing. You know a big seasonal thing is always, you know, a lot of business have financing needs, so there's a lot of people getting into. You know, uh, loan brokering, um, but that too is kind of getting oversaturated, um, you know. Then there's the, the crypto craze, um, and even though, uh, you know we, we kind of, uh, we have kind of a course on it, you know, showing how to, how to do it, it's not, it's not something for you know, it's not something for the inexperienced, for sure.
Dr Ariel King:Right, right, that's. That's really amazing. I love that. And on the entrepreneurial journey are there there? Are? Are there some common factors? No matter what you're doing, whatever the entrepreneurship whether you're making money while you're sleeping or you're only making money while you're awake, doing something you know, giving some type of one-on-one service or service to a particular group Is there a set of, I guess, rules for entrepreneurs, no matter what they're doing and how they're doing it?
Anthony Jones:Yeah, I would say, just always have your okay. Yeah, I would say just always have an actual operational plan in place. One of the things that we've started doing, you know, for the past. I was actually introduced to it a couple of years ago by a business associate. It's called a business model canvas and it is an excellent tool for startups. A business owner can access that shows their you know their customers, suppliers, vendors, vertical markets, what their purpose is, all in an easy to understand, comprehensible manner that you can actually access on a daily basis, where it's supposed to. You know, a business plan might just be specifically for the purpose of you know your initial operations and possibly, you know, raising funding.
Anthony Jones:You know a lot of people don't want to refer to a business plan every day and everything but a business model canvas. You can easily see it every day. It's right in front of you and so you know. You know this is my market, these are my customers, this is how I'm going to reach them. These are the vendor resources I need. This is my market, these are my customers, this is how I'm going to reach them. These are the vendor resources I need. This is my differentiating points and a lot of critical information is all in that one little visual graph that you can see Operations. And having a definite process in place saves a lot of problems. I mean it saves a lot of trouble. It saves a lot of you know problems. I mean it saves a lot of trouble, saves a lot of headaches. So you know, let's just take the candle maker, for instance.
Anthony Jones:Knowing you know, knowing your cost of customer acquisition, knowing how much you need to charge your cost of supplies, your suppliers, where can you take your goods, you know. So a lot of those things are things that you need to have a handle on before even starting Again. Even research is a part of that. Knowing your customer, knowing the price points, what are people comfortable paying? You don't always need to offer the cheapest product or service if you're offering a premium one.
Anthony Jones:What are people? You know? See what people are willing to pay If it is a high quality product or service. You know, don't necessarily try to you know, because people, you know, price point isn't always the big seller for people. Even though we're, you know, we're kind of in recessionary, we're kind of in recessionary, inflationary times, people still will pay great money for great products or great services if they are premium. So those are kind of the things that you know that would save you a lot of headaches as far as just getting on just having a good process in place. Fulfillment If you make a product and everything, are you going to give it to consumers? Are you, you know? Are you online? Do you have an e-commerce site? Do you have credit card processing? Do you have an accounting software? Do you know accounting? You know just those kind of things that that seems like a lot.
Dr Ariel King:It seems a little bit daunting. So I think that that's why perhaps? Self-coaching is the way to go.
Anthony Jones:It's a, you know it is a lot and that's why, you know, some people come to us with just all they know is they want to do something, you know, and it's like that's fine. You don't have to have a clear, defined vision. You know we'll brainstorm, we'll see where your you know, your skill, competencies are. You know something that you might be passionate about. And you know, sometimes you're going to have to go through several phases of, you're going to have to go through several ideas and everything. You know I didn't start out being a you know business consultant or coach, believe it or not. I wanted to be an accountant. You know I started, you know business consultant or coach, believe it or not. I wanted to be an accountant. You know I start. You know I was in accounting for 10 years before I started doing, you know, consulting and everything, but I just kind of got into it as I started dealing with you know more businesses that needed.
Anthony Jones:You know financing and other issues. I just kind of morphed into it. But yeah, you know you can go through. You know just saying, you know I found my one passion. You know it's it's kind of cliche and everything You'll. You'll go through several passions. You know you may be. You know you can be passionate about several things at the same time but you know having a clear path as to how to do it, you know, will save you a lot of time, money, headache in the long run.
Dr Ariel King:May I ask how does your average person who is not necessarily in business for example, I mean, you started as an accountant, so you're in business. I mean at least you had some connection to it connection to it how does a person who doesn't have that kind of connection start to look for and find help, find some type of coaching, some type of mentoring? How do they find help that is not necessarily predatory, but help that actually helps them move forward to do what they'd like to do?
Anthony Jones:Do research. And you know, even though you know well, I'll say that you know, research is on the surface level and everything. A lot of companies can seem good, a lot of coaches or consultants can seem good because they got a lot of clients, they got a big fancy website and everything I would suggest interviewing. And you know, I know this might sound a bit airy-fairy, but I believe in kind of the heart connection you can generally feel if someone is kind of BSing you or if they have your best interest at heart. You know, even the slickest salesperson has a tail, you know. You know, if it's too polished, if it, if it's too, you know, if they can't talk to you on a heart level, I would be a bit leery and everything. If it's just all you know thousand dollar terms and it's all you know, hey, what you know, what can I get you and everything, uh, if they don't offer to help you with your unique situation in a way that's going to be, you know, personally and financially comfortable for you, then move on to the next one.
Anthony Jones:Now it's, you know, consulting and coaching is kind of one of those referral, you know, based businesses and everything, those referral-based businesses and everything. And so whenever a consultant does outbound marketing and everything, you generally have to position it in a way where the potential client is going to gain some benefit, whether they engage your services or not. And if they're, you know, so it's like some of these guys, you know, if they don't offer like a free session or something you know, and then let the person decide if they want to work with you. If they're just right off the back, hey look here. You know I'm 750 bucks an hour. You know we're going to do dot, dot, dot and everything and that's. You know we're. We're so high class. You know we deal with Tony Robbins and and you know Chad Johnson and all these kinds of you know they get to rattling off their their A-list name of clients and everything they're like.
Anthony Jones:Well, you know I'm an, you know I'm a startup entrepreneur. I don't necessarily have $6,000 to invest in your program right now. What advice would you give? Contact someone else Click that's going to be their advice, mostly that's great advice.
Anthony Jones:I would also suggest utilizing resources, classes or courses that you can probably take. You know, adult education is such a large field and everything, and there's some, you know, there's some really good programs out there that can educate you on the necessary areas of you know business that you need some knowledge in. You know. Like I said, you know, engaging a consultant or a coach can definitely shorten that gap and everything, and it's something I would suggest for every you know business owner or a potential business owner, but it's not a necessity. You know, you know and I, you know, I say that you know, even though I, you know, I at one point or whatever, I did kind of say you know it, you know. I say that you know, even though I, you know, I at one point or whatever, I did kind of say you know it's it's an absolute decision.
Anthony Jones:You got to have a consultant or a coach and everything you don't, but it cuts, you know it. The asterisk to that is that it cuts out a lot of time, expense a headache or whatever, and getting through the startup process.
Dr Ariel King:Like getting to the express line. You know how sometimes you pay a little bit more to not have to wait in the bigger line. I mean, I know something different, but you go through the express line. I think that's true.
Dr Ariel King:It depends on how much time and energy you have and also how much time will it take you to gain that expertise, because I think a coach or a mentor comes with that expertise and that's basically you know. What you're engaging is that expertise, so then you don't have to put in the years trying to make that happen and that right the mistakes. That's amazing, really, really interesting. Can I ask for what is your most interesting story of either a startup or a company and it doesn't have to be a name, but someone that you worked with or a company that you worked with that started at point A and was able to get to point B, c and D? I'd love to know one of your stories, or more than one.
Anthony Jones:Well, recently we and you know I'm going to, you know I'm going to preface this with they're still on the journey. So recently a friend of mine referred her husband who's's a truck driver and he wants to start, you know, wants to start his own trucking business. So that's going to involve a few things, you know getting the licensing, getting a truck, getting, you know, financing for working capital. We were actually able to line up financing, you know, for working capital. We lined up, you know, a truck source and we lined up an existing trucking company that just wanted to sell what's called an MCA and a DOT, which is, you know, the licensing that trucking companies need in order to operate. You know the licensing that trucking companies need in order to operate. So when you buy an existing one, it cuts down on about six months to a year's worth of time before you're able to start carrying loads, and so we lined up several of those for them, now the um. So we did all this work, we got them approved for everything. The guy is still working for the trucking company and his availability is really limited and everything, so there's been great delays as far as getting those things executed, but he's able, you know, once he's able to kind of settle down, he'll be able to access all of those you know at once and everything, because we took the time to.
Anthony Jones:You know, research this particular market, get the resources in place. You know, some know, financing, marketing, uh, access to an existing business again cuts down on the startup process. You know, you could, you know now it costs a lot less, uh, with that particular industry it costs a lot less to start from scratch, but you're going to be waiting so long before you can actually get on the road and start taking loads of stuff unless you already have, you know, a contract, know a contract in place or something you know most of your trucking companies are. You know they work through dispatch companies, but you have to have your DOT and MCA existing for so long before they'll actually assign loads to you. So that you know. So that cuts down tremendously on the time involved and, you know, like I said, speeds up the cash flow process, which is, you know, which is what you're going to be mainly in business for. But, yeah, we're able to help them, you know, we're helping them realize this dream, you know, and that's, you know, that's pretty exciting to me.
Dr Ariel King:That's a great story. I really love the fact that you're saying that he's still at his job. Of course there's a lot of work to do, but when that starts to slow down or when he actually changes some of that, that he's actually along with you, put something in place to replace that. That's fabulous. So then you don't have somebody just saying I don't want to work anymore and quit, but somebody who's actually laying out a future, piece by piece and bit by bit. That's wonderful. Thank you, our time has gone by so quickly, sir. May I ask for the entrepreneurial journey, is there any words of wisdom, like you'd like to say to our audience who want to be entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurs who are now on this journey?
Anthony Jones:Get a system in place, get the resources you need. And if you're unsure where to start, just start somewhere. Again, a thousand mile journey starts with the first step. I don't care if it's just reading a book, I don't care if it's just, you know, maybe interning somewhere. Get the knowledge that you need, get the. You know there's, like I said, tons of resources out there. Just start something. You know it doesn't care how you start or what you do, just do something or start something. You know a lot of people kill themselves because they have that paralysis. By analysis. They're like man, I have to have this, I have to have that, I have to have this. And yes, it's nice to be concerned about all of those things, but they're never going to come all at once at the same time and everything. It's a process. Just start it somewhere, just do something.
Anthony Jones:Take action. Get a business plan, an executive summary or something, contact someone that owns a similar business, just do something and just gradually build on that and you'll see this. You know, there's a talk that I give called how to Eat the Elephant, and that's where you just, you know, you do it one chunk at a time. You know that's what I tell them One chunk at a time.
Dr Ariel King:Thank you so much, anthony Jones. It's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you today and to our audience. Thank you so much for joining the Business of Life. I'm Dr Ariel Rosita King and we look forward to seeing you in our next podcast.
Anthony Jones:Thank you. Thank you for having me.