Tammy Johnston started her career in Financial Services in 1993 and started her first company, The Financial Guides, in 2002. Her focus has always been on educating and getting to the root of the problem. Counseling has consistently been the number one job.
Tammy specializes in working with self-employed, solopreneurs, and small business owners. Teaching them the practical, put it into practice now things, they need to turn a passion into a successful, profitable, and sustainable business. Using a direct, honest, and down to earth approach she has been teaching and working one on one with businesses for decades.
In 2019, she started her second company, KSA Business, so that she could devote more time and energy to helping solopreneurs and small business owners be successful in all areas of life and business faster and with less grief and stress.
Please tell us a little bit about your company – what is KSA Business all about?
I like to describe myself as a Positive Shit Disturber intent on making the world a better place by building better businesses. There are so many amazing people starting businesses that just don’t make it and it isn’t because they don’t have a great product or service, it is because they just don’t have the business skills needed to be successful. Our communities, our families, and our economy needs small business. We are the ones that are growing, providing the jobs, providing the innovation and creativity, but if a business doesn’t stay in business all it leaves is heart break.
So I started KSA Business to help solopreneurs and small businesses with the basic, universal skills they need to not just survive, but thrive. If you know your product or service, I can help you build a successful, sustainable business around it.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
With my first company, The Financial Guides, it wasn’t really planned. I had been fired and realized it was a huge blessing. I was miserable in the job I had and was already interviewing for another job when I was let go. At that moment I decided that I was sick and tired of being an employee and ventured into the world of being self-employed. I wanted to do things very differently from how they are still being done in the financial services industry and I went to work creating useful and fun personal finance courses to teach people the basics about money and running a financially successful family.
I always LOVED business and focused my efforts on solopreneurs and small business owners and ended up helping them a lot with not just their personal finances, but all aspects of their businesses from marketing, systematizing, financials, advisors, everything. I started teaching Small Business Classes in 2004.
In 2019 I decided to separate my business into two. The Financial Guides to look after all the personal finance pieces and KSA Business to focus solely on the business teaching and coaching.
What are your plans, how do you plan to grow this company?
My plans are to go international. Business is business is business and it doesn’t matter where you go the basics are the same. As long as they speak English (because I am learning Spanish but I am far from good yet), I want to help them.
I am working on building up my social media presence on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and my new podcast I will be launching in the second quarter of 2021. I am also actively getting booked as a guest on podcasts.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
I would say the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur are:
- The habit of Kaizen (Kaizen is a Japanese word that roughly translated means constant and never ending improvement) because nothing is static and if you aren’t improving every single day, in some small way, you are falling behind.
- The habit of persistence because business is not a sprint. It isn’t even a marathon, it is an Ultraman. You have to be committed to the LONG haul.
- The habit of planning because if you are not actively deciding how to invest your time and energy you are not going to be achieving much of anything. Planning makes things clear and actionable.
What have been the biggest challenges you encountered with your business and how did you overcome them?
I have faced a lot of challenges over the last 18 years in business, but the two biggest challenges were running a business with a new baby and going from a regular paycheque to eating what I kill.
I started my business and then pretty much got pregnant. I took 30 hours of maternity leave when I had my daughter because I couldn’t take the time off and lose all the momentum I had built up in my new business. My husband was working full time and I did not want to put my daughter in daycare and miss out on being her Mom. That was one of the reasons I started my business, so that I could have the flexibility and control to set up my life the way I wanted. So I had to learn to work in spurts. There was no way that I could carve out a full day to do anything because I was nursing and changing diapers and dealing with being exhausted. I figured out a routine where I could see clients when my husband was home and could do the parenting or when someone else could help for an hour or two. I learned how to be very productive in blasts of alone time when my daughter was sleeping or could be playing on her own. My daughter spent a lot of time with me in my business (she taught a class with me when she was one week old and did her first trade show with me when she was two weeks old.) I just kept going and now she is almost 18 and an incredible, intelligent, and very capable young woman.
Going from a regular and decent paycheque to being fully self employed was a large shock. Self-employment hadn’t really been a goal, I was just pushed in that direction and it worked out, but it wasn’t quick or easy. There was a bit of adjustment to dealing with where and when I worked, but the biggest problem was how do I build a business with no money coming in? I learned quickly how to budget with a lot less money in the household and how to get things done in my business with little to no money. It was actually a blessing because it forced me to be creative and to learn things. I created my very first website in FrontPage because I had to. I learned ways to market cheaply and effectively. I had to move out of my comfort zone to learn how to market myself (I had no problem marketing other people in my past jobs, but it is very different when you have to toot your own horn). The first two years were very tight financially, but since then it has steadily improved.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from them?
My top three mistakes I made when I started my business are:
- Falling into it. My first business I started the day after I was fired from a job I hated. Knowing what I know now I would have started planning a year in advance. Building my business plan, setting up my finances at home to handle the transition to self-employment better, and creating my marketing plan so that when I moved to self-employed I would have been up and profitable much faster.
- Spreading my marketing net too wide. When I first started I believed like most people, that everyone was a potential client. They are not. I would have concentrated my efforts on certain markets much sooner.
- Doing everything on my own. Because money was so tight when I first started I believed that the only way I could get things done and save money was to do it all myself. Coaching was a pretty new thing when I started my business so I dove into reading as many business books as I could get my hands on, but I would definitely advise finding a great, affordable business coach to save me tons of time, money, and grief.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
First off I have a very different definition of competition. In order for someone to be my competitor they have to be willing and able to consistently perform at my level or above. Otherwise they are playing a different game or they are not my competition.
But there are a few things that I believe make me stand out.
- I have a strong background in finance, so that helps me assist my clients in ways that a lot of other coaches can’t.
- I am very straight forward and practical. I want to see my clients actually get shit done without excuses or candy coating.
- I am a very strong generalist. There are many great coaches with amazing specialties, where I am more like a great family doctor. I look after your whole business, and if you need something that is beyond my abilities in a certain area, I can call in the specialist. Everyone that wants to stay healthy needs a good family doctor and sometimes we need an “ologist.”
- I have successfully run a business and a family. I took 30 hours of maternity leave when I had my daughter (out of necessity of having a very new business) and had to learn quickly and effectively how to juggle a new born, then toddler, then pre-schooler, and now teenager and a business.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I believe in learning something every single day so I am an avid reader and fan of audio books. I have a goal, every year, to absorb a minimum of 52 books either through reading or listening. When I workout I always have my iPod on with a great audiobook and I read for 15 minutes when I wake up in the morning and when I go to bed at night. It keeps me focused, positive, and moving forward.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
This is a tough question because there are so many fantastic books and courses out there, but if I have to choose just three they would be:
- The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
- The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
- Start With Why by Simon Sinek
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
I wish I had known in advance that I was going to be starting a business. Being able to set up a foundation and a plan while you still have the security of a steady paycheque is worth its weight in platinum
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
My most effective marketing strategy has been speaking / teaching. I love sharing my knowledge, and I have been told that I have a gift for making things easy to understand and entertaining. So I speak / teach any chance I get. I have spoken to various networking groups, company education days, lunch and learns, taught adult education classes, spoke at community trade shows, and been on podcasts and webinars.
What are the top 3 online tools and resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
The top three online tools I am using to grow my business are:
- Networking (right now with being in the middle of Covid pretty much all networking is online and you can network all over the continent without having to leave the comfort of your office)
- HARO (helpareporter.com)
If you had the chance to start your career over again what would you do differently?
I would spend a year while I was still employed getting everything set up to start my business. You can learn to swim by throwing yourself into the deep end, but it isn’t as much fun and the vast majority of people drown. Learning to swim by taking lessons and growing your skills is much more effective.
If you only had $1,000 to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
Well since my business is fully online, I would make sure I had a good, reliable computer, but if that was already taken care of I would invest in my business education. Hire a good business coach, take a good business course (or two or more), and get a few good books. The great news is so much is available to solopreneurs now that is of great quality and very affordable and marketing can be done through social media for free or low cost that investing in your own business education is even more valuable and accessible now.
What your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Get a great business coach as soon as possible. You can learn everything on your own the hard way or you can save yourself years of pain, suffering, stress, and grief by working with someone that can show you the ropes.
What is your favorite quote?
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
– Robert Collier
How can we get in touch with you?
You can visit my company website ksabusiness.ca, find me on social media via Instagram. You can also email tammy@ksabusiness.ca.
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