Speaker 1: 0:22

Hello world, welcome back to Not Just Candle Talk. Today's episode is going to be centered around strategies to smart strategies to succeed in 2025 for entrepreneurs. Right, we're going to get right into it. A few topics I want to hit on real quick, the first being adapting to the digital evolution which is AI. Of course, everyone sees that you can't open up your newsfeed anywhere without seeing something about AI and how it helps productivity and efficiency. It helps productivity and efficiency. I'm going to talk about the importance of your online presence. Of course, no matter what your business is, big or small Having a strong online presence is important. We're going to touch on diversifying your revenue streams, having multiple streams of income.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Leveraging. Another topic real quick is going to be leveraging your community and networks, which is always key. You got to have a network, you got to have a community. That's one of the most important aspects of having a small business or any type of business. It doesn't have to be small. I tend to go to small businesses because I'm, you know, advocate for small businesses always. Last but not least, smart financial planning, how we implement that in our business today and how we implement AI in that strategy. So let's get into AI real quick Because AI can help free up a lot of your time as an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 2:24

If you're using the AI powered tools on your website, it can automate a lot of your customer service through managing schedules. It can process data entry tasks and it can also be your virtual assistant with the chatbots and everything. You can implement that into your website. If you have any type of access to that type of software, To have it on your website is definitely a plus. Your website is definitely a plus. Ai can also analyze large analytic database. It can be a database for your analytics so you can foresee marketing trends, what your customers prefer, what your customers prefer. It can also be a strategic planning tool when you implement AI in your website or your content that you're creating online. It can also be an advocate for your personalized marketing how you want to market your brand. It can analyze customer behavior depending on what your brand is. That's part of your community, right? Your customer behavior is tied into your network and your community. Ai can help you with that To your network and your community. Ai can help you with that To stay Consistent right with your With your people.

Speaker 1: 4:11

Um, it can also help with inventory, which is by far. Well, if you're selling, right, if you're selling Retail or whatever business, it can definitely help with Um, overstock, um, well, I guess that can be in any form. But overstocking, overestimating what your product levels are AI can help with that. Reduce waste which is by far one of the biggest things in business is reducing waste and improve your supply chain efficiency AI can help with that. Also, it can help with being creative, right, if you visualize the type of content that you want to present, especially on social media.

Speaker 1: 5:13

Ai, they have tons of AI um enhanced software to help you with your um content. Um, you can definitely take advantage of that. It's so much software out here for that Um. And how do you um put that into your, your business and reduce time, reduce your time in marketing? Just create some good content for social media and you can also use it for customer feedback, right, which is that's probably one of the biggest things, especially if you have a website. That's probably one of the biggest features uh to to have have a website. That's probably one of the biggest features to have on your website is the customer feedback, customer reviews. That's how you stay competitive as well, and let's get into. So those are some things that AI can do and I think it's important, especially if you have a website, to incorporate as much AI software as possible. Just to say competitive not really ahead of the game, because competition is competition, but it can help you improve, catalyze or not catalyze, but it can help you stay, Stay Relevant looking for the word it could help you stay relevant in your field of business that you're in. So let's get into, like the website aspect of it, the importance of having a strong line presence. I think to me, the website is probably. Having a website is probably one of the best ways you can control your business. Having your own website as a small business owner, social media is good, but to have to have something more personal, build your website or have someone build your website and have someone put those AI features in there is definitely a game changer. Of course, social, I'm sorry. Having AI boost your content levels on social media definitely implement that in, especially if you create short form content on TikTok or Instagram, definitely put AI as one of your assistants. I think to me, ai is an assistant, right, a virtual assistant. That's a step above the human aspect of it.

Speaker 1: 8:12

Next I want to touch on so that was my little bit about AI. I know it's quick, brief. It's so much stuff out there. I mean I can't just. You know it's a lot of information about AI on there, but I think it is important to learn about it, implement it as much as you can, just to stay in the know. Right, a lot of, a lot of small businesses that's part of our juice is to stay in the know, and AI right now is staying in the know. Uh, let's.

Speaker 1: 8:47

I want to get into um, having multiple streams of income. Now, this one to me is it's like it's important, but you have to know what is important for your business when it comes to because you can go all over the place with multiple streams of income. I mean it's so much stuff out here that you can really get overwhelmed. So I think the most important thing is to within your niche, because everyone has one. Try to have your multiple streams of income close to what your business is already doing, because you can get overwhelmed if you're having multiple streams of income in different things, if that makes any sense. I mean I've tried it myself, trying different things, but if I'm all over the place, it's not going to hit the same as if I stay within my context of what I'm already doing. If that makes any sense to you, thumbs up, okay.

Speaker 1: 9:56

But having yes, I agree, having multiple streams of income is very important, especially now. That's not even small business stuff, that's just that could be personal as well, but staying close to what you know, as you know, what you know, will help you minimize a lot of being here, being there just stretching yourself out too thin, um, but there is so many. To have multiple streams of income, um, and if you're, you know, if you're one of those type of people that, hey, I can do this, I can do that, I'm all you know, go for it. But to stay strong and less stress on you, I think, like, say, like, having digital products, if that, if you're going to do digital products, have it to to where it is something close to what your small business is already the forefront of your small business. If you're going to have a digital products, if you're going to have memberships, all of that, consulting courses, subscriptions have that in the same category as and I think a lot of people don't touch on that they say, yeah, get multiple streams of income, but have it so it's close to your niche as much as possible, all right, so that's all I'm gonna say on that one, because you know, I think a lot of people they miss the ball on that when they, when people say, um, multiple streams of income, because you literally can be all over the place, it's mind boggling how much stuff is out here. I want to get into less. Let's get into networking and leveraging your community on your. As far as social media, that's definitely the package, comes into creating content. Okay, that's how you leverage your.

Speaker 1: 12:03

To me, this is just my opinion. I'm not an expert, I don't pretend to be. This is these are just my, my views on how to leverage your business. And when they say leverage your community, that has to be. To me that's social media. Right, when it comes to networking, I think I'm old school. I think getting out there in the world is the best. Sure, you can do it on social media, but to actually get the real feel of people, I think getting out doing social events to me is the best way to network. That's just my opinion. That's just my opinion. Again, whatever works for you, works for you. But at the end of the day, to me, when I, when I hear. Networking. I'm thinking people to people. You know, let's not get away from that. But, like I said, if you are one of those people that can, can do the content and get that following on social media, absolutely go for it, thumbs up.

Speaker 1: 13:15

The last part I want to get into is smart financial planning, and this is like crucial right. Being financially literate is crucial to all small business businesses, any business. I can't just say all small, I'm just a small business person. But being financially literate and what works for you and what you're trying to accomplish Now, when it comes to AI and financial planning, yes, absolutely, because you have to have a plan when you want to go, where you're at, where you want to go, I think it's important To budget so you can get a financial picture Of where you're at, where you're going, how you get to the next level.

Speaker 1: 14:15

I think right now, 2025, financial planning is should be at the forefront of any entrepreneur. Pick up a book, look at a video, look at several videos, look at, read several books about financial planning, because you will see that uh, because you will see that that's something that's not taught right. That's something that's not automatic when it comes to having your own business. It's probably not even at the forefront of a lot of people's mind. It's financial planning. That's one of the hardest things people struggle with and if you have to use AI which I now, I would say yes, I would any type of form of put those numbers in, see what comes, you know, pushes back out at you and you can go from there.

Speaker 1: 15:15

Ai definitely, or any software, doesn't even have to be like Just AI stuff, but any type of, any type of Financial planning you can do, even if it's with an accountant, a human accountant. If you don't want to even go the software where you don't want to even go the software where you don't understand what you're putting in and what was it's like, what, what is this? What am I putting in? What am I putting out, what is the, the software getting putting me at, you might not understand that if you need an accountant to, you know, put those numbers down on paper so you can better see whatever works for you.

Speaker 1: 15:59

But having some type of financial plan is so important right now. I mean myself, I, you know, I, with my business, I have started using a certain software and, trust me, it it works and you can separate your personal from your, your business and, um, I recommend. I won't say you know what I recommend, because I'm not. You know, that's not, that's not my job here. I'm just saying, like, have some type of plan, have some type of guide. It's so worth it when you have a small business, because the money you putting in you might not be seeing it on the other end. Right, and you think you are right. You think you are like, hey, I put this much money in. Why I'm not getting this in return is because you're not planning. Like, hey, I put this much money in, why I'm not getting this in return, it's because you're not planning. It's not you, you're not planning, you're just putting money out there and nothing's coming back.

Speaker 1: 17:05

So, anyway, I don't want to go down a rabbit hole, but that is my take on strategies. I hope I hit the mark my strategies for entrepreneurs in 2025,. I hope it helped. If it didn't, sorry, those are my thoughts. I'm not a professional podcaster. I'm not a professional anything. I get on here and I do my thing. So, with that being said, I want to end this podcast right now, in this episode, and stay with me. I have more to come. Thank you for listening. Bye.