In this episode of The First 100 Freddy Shelton of the Fifth Marketing interviews Scott Paul, CEO of Wooly. Tune in to learn about simplifying your message, building a team to support your growth, and advice for the upcoming entrepreneur.

The Power of A Network  What is the secret to obtaining customers through networking? It may not be what you think. Tune in to this episode of The First 100 to find out! Kate Bowcut, CEO of RapidFire IT , joins Freddy Shelton of The Fifth Marketing on this episode of The First 100 to discuss obtaining clients through networking, work-life balance as an entrepreneur, and marketing lessons learned while starting her company. To be, or not to be? Kate’s introduction to entrepreneurship came in 2008 when both her and her husband were let go from their jobs in IT due to the declining economic environment at the time. After they were both let go, she thought to herself, we could totally do this ourselves! The decision to start a company can be difficult. For Kate, the decision was nerve wracking because of the state of the economy in 2008 and the worry that her investment might not be a profitable one. After consulting with her Father (an entrepreneur as well), they projected she could make up her initial investment in RapidFire within the first year of business and that starting the company was well worth the try. The First 100 During the initial phases of building RapidFire, Kate had a lot of questions about business, growing the company, and how to succeed as an entrepreneur. She decided to join a business networking group called BNI whose objective is to aid business owners with a network of talent and referrals to grow their companies. At these networking groups she learned an important lesson that has guided her in obtaining customers to this day: “don’t expect to be given anything, just ask yourself the question, how can I help?” Giving, not receiving, was the key to building relationships, trust, and obtaining her first customers. Other tips for networking: When meeting someone new, start small and say hi. Ask what they do for work and find out something interesting about the person. Ask for help. Asking for help provided Kate the tools to succeed as an entrepreneur, but it also provided the relationships that have continued to refer her customers to this day. Contributors Guest: Kate Bowcut , CEO and Owner of RapidFire IT Host: Freddy Shelton, Founder of @TheFifthMarketing Audio edits by Casey Yardley Show notes by Mason Smith

How do you grow a business during unprecedented times? For Johan Colvig of MoreReporting the answer has always been the same: you solve one problem and move onto the next. Johan Colvig, Co-Founder of MoreReporting, joins Freddy Shelton of The Fifth Marketing on this episode of The First 100 to discuss creating a product story, marketing tips, and why agility should be your strategy for growth. Johan's Journey As a native of Denmark, Johan studied physics and IT development from the University of Copenhagen. After university, he continued to advance his career in IT development throughout the early 2000’s. In 2008, he co-founded Infotrust, a business intelligence (BI) implementation partner for SAP . During his tenure at Infotrust, he managed an expansion of operations into the Baltic region of Europe and was awarded SAP partner of the year. After a few years, the Infotrust team wanted to create a BI platform of their own. When given a quote from their partner SAP, Infotrust felt like they could build their own personalized software for less. While this software was being made, Johan quickly realized his company would need to headquarter in North America to capture a larger market. In relocating from Northern Europe to the United States, MoreReporting was born. MoreReporting Headquartered in Provo, Utah, MoreReporting began operations in 2014. The company uses their BI tools to help bookkeepers automate their client reporting, provide analysis and industry benchmarks, improve budgets and forecasts, and turn external accountants into advisors. MoreReporting has also created a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness calculator for small businesses. This PPP forgiveness calculator guides business owners to receive 100% forgiveness for Small Business Administration (SBA) loans taken out during the COVID-19 crisis. The First 100 Tradeshows and webinars helped MoreReporting obtain their first 100 customers. Johan’s marketing tip for tradeshows: take up as much space as possible. As seen below, being visually available from near and far helps catch a lot of attention (and complaints from other tradeshow booths).

Former pro snowboarder Jib Hunt is the CEO of Kemper Snowboards, a co-founder of Octane11, and a digital marketing ninja. In 2018, Jib revived the legendary Kemper snowboard brand. Today, Jib joins us to talk about how his prelaunch campaign and Instagram account helped him gain his first 100 customers.

Why do you need an email list and what should you do with it once you have it? These are 6 ways you can get more out of your email list.

Instead of making content for an algorithm you should make content for your customers. Obsess with your customers, use good principles and your business will grow. Lead with your customer in mind not with SEO.

It’s amazing to me that many financial planners know a variety of important numbers. They know the federal interest rate, the current yield on a treasury bond, and even how many points the market has gone up or down. What is even more amazing are the two numbers they don't know: 1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): how much money you need to spend to acquire a new client 2. Life Time Value (LTV): the value of all the amount of money a client spends on your services over time Knowing and understanding how these two numbers work together is essential to growing a successful business. According to a recent study, a larger percentage of financial planners are acquiring one new customer a month, if any at all. Understanding how these two numbers work together will unlock the potential of marketing efforts and help advisers get a steady stream of new customers to exponentially grow their business.

I talk a lot about knowing your numbers. One of the most important numbers for service businesses is the appointment show rate. Getting people to schedule is easy. On the other hand, getting them to show up and then close the deal - well - that's a different story. What is your appointment show rate? Your appointment show rate is the percentage of people who register for an appointment and actually show up. For example: 10 people register 7 people show up 7/10 = 70% Therefore, the show rate = 70% Your no-show rate is the opposite number: How many people who register for an appointment but don't show up. In the above example, the no-show rate = 3/10 or 30%. Both the show rate and the no-show rate tell the same story.

Here is a little secret about advertising: If you were advertising dog food, you could have the most well-crafted, well-written, perfect ad, but if it only gets seen by people who own cats... it's not going to work. The secret is this: It all starts with targeting.