Celebrate National Small Business Week with Angie as she brings to light stories from the entrepreneurial world. With insights from Aaron Stark of ADP Small Business Services, discover the challenges and triumphs of small business owners. Tech trends, from AI to streamlined operations, are changing the landscape for these enterprises. Hear how adapting to new technology and finding the right talent impacts the success of these establishments. Throughout the discussion, listener engagement is sparked by understanding how small businesses are truly the backbone of the economy. Appreciate the crucial role they play and learn how businesses can leverage incentives
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 05 :
Angie Austin here with The Good News along with Jim Stovall. We’re speaking about his Winners of Wisdom column. This week it is Listening and Understanding. Welcome back, Jim. Always good to be with you. Okay, so you’ve been traveling and speaking. How is all of that speaking stuff going?
SPEAKER 04 :
It is going great. I spent my hour on stage yesterday, actually, for a credit union banking convention thing. And it is good to be back out in front of people and doing that. And I didn’t realize how much I missed it until the pandemic kind of took over everyone’s lives. So it’s great to be back out there.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. One of my friends, Ross Schaefer, is a speaker as well, and he traveled extensively prior to COVID. And boy, talk about an industry being completely shut off, like the water or electricity being turned off. I mean, it wasn’t just a drip. It was nothing during COVID. So that’s not a very easy work from home kind of thing, public speaking. You can still do Zoom meetings, et cetera, but it’s not the same as a full auditorium, I’m sure.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. I mean, yeah, I did a number of those, but doing them from my conference room or my living room at home certainly leaves a lot to be desired.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. Okay, so in listening and understanding, what are you teaching us this week?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, we live in a world where it’s so easy to… converse with people or communicate with people but we need to realize just because we’re talking doesn’t mean anybody’s listening and even if they’re listening it doesn’t mean they’re understanding and you know and there are So many permutations of that. So many people think a conversation is I’m waiting until you take a breath so I can jump in and say what I want to say. Or, as contentious as the world has gotten, Angie, a lot of people are just waiting for you to say something that they can disagree with and dismiss you from that moment forward. And I have a good friend in Washington. We’ve worked together for 25 years through the Department of Education. And she knows I’m totally blind. And she sent me a photo. And it’s a photo, it’s almost 100 years old, of two gentlemen in tuxedos at a formal event. And, you know, it’s Albert Einstein. And, you know, and he’s there. And, you know, you think of Einstein and all his stuff. And, you know, and then you think of who would he be with. And then here’s this iconic figure, Charlie Chaplin. And, you know, it’s just, wow, the two universes collide. You don’t expect to see Chaplin and Einstein together. But what’s amazing is under the photo are a quote from each of them, and Einstein says, you know, the whole world understands you and they can’t hear you at all because he was in silent films. And Chaplin’s response was, everybody hears you and respects you even though they have no idea what you’re talking about. And that’s, you know, obviously most of us would relate to Einstein that way. And so, you know, I think we need to, I always go back to my late great friend and colleague, Dr. Stephen Covey, who said, in any encounter, seek first to understand and to be understood. That is such a powerful thing, and it’s not easy to do. Covey always said, unless or until I can understand your position and say it back to you in a way that you approve. You agree that I now have articulated your position. I should do all that before I even tell you what my position is. But I have found that in that process, sometimes of just trying to understand What both parties find out is we’re not that far apart. We’re really not that far apart. And I think particularly in the world we live in now, you should deliberate before you debate, and you should learn how to disagree without being disagreeable.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and I think that’s an art that many people aren’t interested in learning or practicing in their day-to-day lives. I don’t really like dissension, and so I kind of like to figure out a solution or if it’s something that’s really not that important to kind of, you know, the whole agree to disagree or, you know, kind of just let it go. Especially like in a relationship or family, like your goal really is to raise healthy kids who are well-adjusted, that people want to be around, that they want to employ, they don’t get fired for being jerks and being late and being inconsiderate and talking back. So my husband and I have the same goal. And so when we do have disagreements, I’m not really that intent on pursuing it till the death until – Let’s duel this one out. I kind of try to work out some amicable solution or whatever. And sometimes he does want to keep it going. And I remember we were trapped in the car going to some tournaments. We were going to be in the car for quite some time. And I said, well, we don’t have to beat a dead horse, do we? You know, because I obviously wanted to let it go. And he didn’t. It’s So he said, I’m not beating a dead horse. I just want to find out why you said that in the first place. And I said, it doesn’t really matter because we don’t really agree on it. It was about mothers, my mother-in-law and my mother and comparing how we treat them. And we’re never going to agree on that. So I said, well, let’s just let this one go. But normally he can, but he just couldn’t find it himself to let it go. But after I said that, he kind of realized that, oh, my gosh, I’m arguing with myself at this point because she has no interest in this debate.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and it’s impossible to argue with someone that won’t participate. Right. You just can’t. You know, I think your first goal in any discussion should be, at the end of this, regardless of what we both think at the end of this, the lines of communication should remain open. You know, if you win an argument but the lines of communication are forever shut down, you’ve lost. There is no winning that. And when we really understand, my first big interview on television, I used to do a political show out of Washington. the Washington Reporter, and the very first guest was Senator Ted Kennedy. And if Senator Kennedy and I ever agreed on anything, it was probably an accident. We got to talking, and I realized he doesn’t want to ruin our country. He doesn’t want to destroy our children. We just had a different method in how we thought we would get to this same place. In fact, our goals would not have been that far apart. It’s just our mission was the same. It’s our method that probably is what we disagreed on.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, what’s interesting about that is you two being so far across the aisle from each other in terms of maybe your political beliefs, I find friends of mine that I’m so similar to that feel like family that I can just go to their house and hang out. One of my girlfriends, we cook together and we pick up each other’s kids. She’s like a sister to me. And, you know, we walk our dogs together. I mean, really, I mean, if you’re cooking together, helping take care of each other’s kids and walking dogs together, you are like family, you know, and I go to all of their family parties. Well, one day we started talking politics a little bit. And I found out we were polar opposites. And she started like yelling and crying. And I looked at her husband because my husband and I think, you know, we’re on the other side of the fence as well. And they are too. She’s a liberal and he’s conservative. And so we were all four of us sitting there with these couples that are divided. And I just said, look, here’s the deal. You’re family to me. And we obviously have the same goals. And how we get there might be different. But you and I care about exactly the same things. And we love each other. And so we just have to drop this. This can’t continue. But I think a lot of people get a charge or like adrenaline or like they’re like, oh, I can change this person or I can convince them. And what you’re doing is just driving a stake in the middle of your relationship and severing it further and further. And like you said, what we have the same goal. So why would you want to do that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, and the world becomes a better place, and you become a better friend, relative, and companion when you give up the need to be right. You know, I’m going to convince everybody I’m right and I have to make them wrong. When you give that up and, you know, hey, it’s okay if we don’t agree on this. It’s okay. I mean, you know, I mean, somewhere there’s probably somebody that doesn’t like chocolate chip ice cream or the Dallas Cowboys. It’s hard for me to imagine that, but I’m sure there is.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that’s the chocolate chip ice cream. Are you kidding me? Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, but there are all kinds of things, you know. And Crystal, my wife, and I were at a place the other day, and they’d remodeled this wonderful hotel near our home. And we went in, and here’s this three acres of carpet in the entry. You know, and she said, this has got to be the ugliest carpet I’ve ever seen. And I said, what’s amazing is somewhere in a room, somewhere in the country, a group got together, looked at samples, and decided that’s the best one right there. You know, I mean, obviously that’s why, you know, that’s what makes a horse race is different opinions and, you know, two extremes and a million in-betweens. And that’s what makes it all go around.
SPEAKER 05 :
That is funny. All right. So in terms of Dr. Covey and his seeking to understand and then to be understood, I know you’ve learned a lot from him. What do you want us to learn from this article?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, every conversation is not a debate. It’s not a discussion. There’s no reason you have to make other people right or wrong. They’re entitled to their opinion. Differences is what makes us all great. And, you know, you hear so much today about diversity and all the things that make us the melting pot, and it’s the strength of our… And then we want everybody to agree with us, and we want to disagree with everybody that doesn’t already agree with us. And, you know, it’s OK. You know, it is really, really OK. And I remember back to 9-11 and people who were on both sides of the aisle, extreme. Well, my my senator, Jim Inhofe, who was selected as the most conservative senator at that time, he is standing on the steps of the House. holding hands with Hillary Clinton, singing God Bless America. And you think, okay, these people have never agreed on anything but on the important issues. When it comes right down to it, they’re together. And so I think that’s the takeaway here.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. Now, in terms of these people, because you’ve had so many powerful, influential and well-respected friends, anything else you can think of that when you think about Dr. Covey that you think, wow, I really learned such and such from him?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, Covey was such a powerful guy. I mean, people, if you’re not getting the things done you want in your life, I always tell people to read his book, First Things First. I mean, most people, if you’ve read any of his work, it’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. But First Things First is just such an amazing book. And I remember he used to do this thing on stage when we worked together. And he would call someone out of the audience, and he had this big glass tank there. And he’d say, put these rocks in there. Put as many as you can put in there. And they’d say, that’s completely full, right? And he’d say, yeah. Well, then someone would come up with gravel. Say, now, put as much gravel in it. Well, they could pour a lot of gravel in there. And he’d say, now, that’s completely full, right? Yeah. And then here comes a guy and said, now, you come up here and fill it with sand. And they could put more in, and then it’d sand all the way to the top. And he said, so that’s completely full. Can’t get anything else in there. And then he handed somebody a bucket of water. He said, pour that in there. And you could put gallons of water in there. It’d fit. And, you know, so he uses that as an example of how you should do things in your day. And you’ve got to do first things first. Because you start by putting the water in there, then the sand and the gravel. You’ll never get it all in.
SPEAKER 02 :
Ah.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s the power of prioritizing our day and taking control of our schedule instead of letting it control us.
SPEAKER 05 :
And so first things first, equally as good as seven habits of highly effective people does not as well known?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I think so. I really do. And, you know, of the seven habits, the sharpen the saw is the powerful one. Most people forget, you know, you’re trying to saw down a tree and you saw faster and harder and harder, and you think that’s the only way to get it done. And sometimes the very best thing you need to do is stop and sharpen your saw and take care of your tools, and then you’ll get done faster. And that goes with us. I mean, there’s so many people out there burning the candle at both ends. If you want to get more done, stop and get some sleep. I remember reading about a 14th century pope, and he said, before I was pope, I could not get through my day without two hours of prayer and meditation to face all my tasks. Then when I became pope, I got busier, and I had to change that to four hours a day.
SPEAKER 02 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 04 :
And, you know, that is so counterintuitive, but it’s true. I mean, if you do first things first.
SPEAKER 05 :
I love that, Sharpen the Saw. I’ve read that book and I forgot about that one. I need to reread that. JimStoval.com. We’ll talk to you next week. Thank you. Be well.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s that time of year to start cleaning out your closets, basement, and garage by donating to Ark Thrift. With 34 thrift stores and 15 donation centers across the Front Range, you have almost 50 different locations to donate your gently used clothing and items you don’t need anymore or are taking up space in your home. Ark will also take large furniture off your hands by scheduling a pickup through the Ark website. Any soft goods you choose to donate, you can just put in bags, while hard goods need to go into boxes. This helps ARC turn their 5,000 weekly donations per store into resaleable items immediately. With spring around the corner, donate the spring and Easter clothing that is too small or just sitting in a closet to help out another family. And while you’re there, get your Easter decorations and clothing. To schedule your large furniture pickup or to find the nearest ARC Thrift Donation Center or store location near you, go to arcthrift.com.
SPEAKER 05 :
Cheyenne, Wyoming is tuned to the mighty 670 KLT Denver. Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. Well, the good news is National Small Business Week is right now. And as many of us know, small businesses can make a big impact. It’s pretty much how our entire family runs. My husband has a business. I have a business. And my Son is a freshman in high school. As you know, I talk about him all the time. He’s had a business for seven years, freshman in college, pardon me, since he was 12. So I’m excited to welcome Aaron Stark, general manager and vice president with ADP Small Business Services. Hey, Aaron. Hey, Angie. Thanks for having me. You are welcome. OK, so obviously Small Business Week, you know, you want us all to know about it. Just tell us why it’s important.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, well, for companies like yours, your husband’s, and what an awesome story about your son, the small business community makes up 46% of our workforce and 61 million employees. So you think about the backbone of our economy and having an opportunity to recognize all those tremendous stories and be able to reinvest back into that community, I think this week is just a small token of our gratitude for what that means to our country and our economy.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you guys are very well known for what you do and not a small business, but you help so many of us. So let’s talk about what’s top of mind for small business owners right now, because you’re in the know.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, in no particular order, we see three things consistently in the conversations with our clients. One is technology. Another one is around talent. How do I find the right talent and make sure I keep the right talent? And the last one is compliance. This past year alone, Angie, there was 170 different laws that were either changed or added that a small business owner needs to be aware of. and some of them might be yeah some of them might be headwinds but some of them are actually opportunities that you know again if you’re not aware of them there are 5 000 different business incentives that you could be taking advantage of that puts capital back into your business and those are the conversations that we get excited about to introduce those opportunities and help them find them apply for them and put that capital you know to make their businesses that much more successful you know the laws and the rules and regulations
SPEAKER 05 :
I am feeling right now my husband’s anxiety because he’s in a business where he markets for people who are highly regulated. Right. And so just maybe like a month ago, something changed where they had to get information from 300 clients. But I’m not talking like a phone number. I’m talking about detailed, highly sensitive information that you wouldn’t just get from somebody over the phone information. And I have been helping him, and I can just feel his pain. It’s unbelievable to me that a business that’s been in business for well over a decade, very successful, that could really plummet if we didn’t follow these rules and regulations that just got thrown upon him. Literally, the business could have gone under just over this one little thing. So I feel the pain of these small business owners. With my business, it’s basically just me. But in terms of trends that you’re seeing for small business owners, what trends are you seeing emerge now?
SPEAKER 03 :
So I’ll start with technology. And I’m sure your son is, you know, the emerging generation, you know, AI and Gen AI, you know, these seem to be the buzzwords that we’re hearing a lot about. I have a 12-year-old daughter who just put together a presentation to convince my wife and I to buy a dog, which we now have. But the content and the amazing production quality that you could put together with these tools is simply amazing. And you see it a lot in social media campaigns for small businesses. You see a lot of it in website design. And I think those are the flashy ones that we tend to see, but There’s also technology that can help streamline the back office for a small business. And a lot of the clients that we have the opportunity to work with, they have so many different applications and so many different data points or data entry points where you have an employee that’s clocking in, and then you have to take those hours and earnings, and then you have to key it into payroll, and then you have to go from payroll, and then you have to key that into a general ledger or an accounting software. And then you have a variety of other applications that you also have to operate and use to run your business on a daily basis. But imagine a world, imagine if you’re a retail shop, And you had one tablet, one point of sale system that you went to where all those other applications are embedded into that one tool where the data just sings together. And you don’t have all those different keystrokes. It’s one keystroke that now enables you to go out there and run your business because you’re spending less time on things that tend to not add value to your organization. Those are some of the really cool conversations that we’re having with companies today. Sheesh.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. Yeah, I’m overwhelmed sometimes by the tech stuff myself. So I’m having to adapt. In fact, interestingly enough, today, I’m having to do some changeovers that for, you know, a soccer mom with three teenagers, basically, it is a little bit perplexing to me. So and I can see why people throw in the towel or they don’t get a good website or they don’t go get an app. You know, there’s the expense, but there’s also the challenge of like, doing it right or understanding it or getting the proper person to help you. I mean, it’s kind of like a sea of questions and figuring things out. I mean, it’s challenging and it’s good for the brain. But, you know, at my age, I do find it to be like, I even thought today, like, should I keep doing my show? And I’ve been doing this, Erin. I’ve been in the TV news business and radio business for over 30 years. And I actually thought today, like, should I keep doing this because I’m overwhelmed by the tech?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. By the way, it’s funny, people ask all the time, Angie, how do you find it? And where do you go? And if you were to just go and Google it, it probably has that overwhelming effect, that fire hydrant effect where all of a sudden you’re drowning. But if you have the right advisor, consultants, we see a lot of our small business clients lean on their accounting community to stay on top of these trends, to not only help them identify the right fit for their business, but also help to activate it, as you were talking about before, because you could spend the money to acquire it, but if it’s not doing anything for your business, that’s probably not a great investment. And I’ll give you a perfect example of this, Angie. Imagine you’re a daycare center in Colorado and you’re about to hire your first employee and you didn’t know that there is a work opportunity tax credit that by hiring that employee, you could put capital back in your business. but you need the right tools and tech in order to identify if you’re eligible and then to go through the application process. Well, we have actually had over 65% of all the different tax credits and business incentives that we apply for on behalf of our clients were referred by the accountant community. So they’re the ones that are aware. They then know which partners that you can tap into. So as opposed to going at this alone, Angie, and I’m sure based on your successful businesses between you and your husband and your son, one of the things that we’ve heard even in our Grit and Wisdom campaign was this is a journey that you shouldn’t do by yourself. And having those right advisors and consultants and partners that can help you identify those things and implement those means that it could take some of that burden and stress off of your shoulders.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I agree with you. I mean, I can attest to you guys. My husband’s used AVP almost since the beginning, so for over 10 years, and it simplifies things for him because I think in the beginning they tried to do it, I don’t know, for their accountant or something. But like you said, when laws change, rules change, you’ve got, you know, whatever, like a million clients. Right. So you guys are on top of it. But like they’re one one person trying to figure out all those laws. So they changed over to you guys pretty quickly. So getting the right tools is obviously extremely important. We also talked about, well, there’s a adapting to the changing business environment and then getting the right talent. So let’s tackle some of those, you know, because those are in the top three you mentioned at the beginning.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you can have all the great tech, but if you don’t have the people that operate it, that’s probably not going to be too helpful. So we hear the talent conversation all the time, and it’s broken down into three different areas. So you have, how do I find the right talent? And not just finding a person, but the right quality person. And we have tools embedded in our application that help a small business identify and find a quality candidate within 24 hours. And then once you find that right individual, how can I keep them with my company? Because it’s not cheap to continuously hire new talent for your business. And we actually did a survey recently, Angie, and they said that the employees of the company said 80% of those individuals felt valued when you invest in me in things such as health benefits or a retirement plan. So when you talk about running a small business, it’s how do you find them? How do you keep them? And then we talked a lot about the technology before. And because that’s not replacing people, but it’s changing some of the tasks and functions that they may be responsible for today, how can I cross-skill and up-skill and give them new things that they could be focused on so that way if there’s a manual task that potentially technology can help augment, I have now kept that employee both engaged, I’m growing their skill set that can add more value to my company without having to hire somebody new.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, speaking of hiring new people, I know a lot of people have a concern that some of these jobs might be taken away by AI, but I get how it can just be a tool as well for a business and a tool for the employees that they would still need. I’m fascinated because I’ve started using AI because my three teenagers have kind of taught me about it. In fact, One of my kids, she goes, you know, there’s a humanizer, mom. I go, what is that? She goes, well, you do the AI, right? And then you put it through the humanizer. So it seems less AI. I use it for helping me write blogs. And so, you know, I come up with a topic, but then I rewrite it all in my own language, you know, because it just works better for me. And then I add points that maybe it didn’t embrace or a topic I might know a little bit more about or have a different take on. But it is fascinating. So and it’s so useful. So how do you think that small business owners can embrace new tech like A.I.? ?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think what’s really cool about what’s happening today and similar to the story that you just told is that AI and Gen AI and these new emerging technologies, they’re showing up in ways where it’s almost behind the scenes. And an example of this is in our payroll application, which is known as Run, we created a search bar. So that way, if you have a question that you want to ask, Most people didn’t wake up when they were building their business to be subject matter experts in payroll or HR or benefits. So the way in which they might ask the question may be in their language, not our language in the human capital management industry. So we’ve now leveraged GenAI to take that question on how the client asks it the way that they normally would ask it and convert it into our language. and then give them back the answer in a way that they can digest it. So almost like codifying the information. So that way now our clients are becoming payroll experts without actually going to school for payroll. Not that there’s a school for that, but imagine a world where now the tools and the technology are empowering our clients so they could just move faster and they can get those questions even for their employees answered quicker so they can get back to doing what they do best.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hmm. Okay. I, um, you know, I’m, I’m fascinated by this because I feel like some businesses, not even that small are embracing this without really understanding it yet. For instance, we were going to buy a truck and it was a big dealership and we got this message through what we thought was the salesperson saying, oh yeah, come in today. It was an hour drive, by the way, for the test drive. So that’s two hours round trip. We get there and then a bot had messaged us. So this woman wasn’t there. And then we couldn’t even figure out, like, was she actually a real salesperson or did they just draw us into this dealership with a bot? And so they were kind of embarrassed. They’re like, well, you know, it wasn’t really Sally that messaged, you know, it was a. it was a bot but there really isn’t sally and then my husband messages back the bot and says they’re telling us here that you’re not even a real person well sally was a real person but the bot had been messaging for i mean they’re they’re trying to use technology that’s kind of almost messing up their business so i see that they need to maybe take baby steps first because i had no idea a bot could tell me to come in for a test drive when the person wasn’t even working that day so I really appreciate your expertise. I love asking people, too, how they get into their area of expertise because there’s so many. I’ve interviewed a lot of interesting people, thousands over the years. So how did you get into this area? We only have like a minute and a half left.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, I started close to 20 years ago. I was actually a sales representative for ADP back then in the small business community. And I will tell you that not much has changed. This area of owning a small business I have great admiration for. put a lot of trust into their service, their product that’s going to put food on their table, clothes on their back, a roof over their heads. And there’s just so much respect for those that are willing to go out there and take that leap of faith. So anything that we can do here at ADP to help support that community. I talked a lot before about those tax credits and the different business incentives to put the capital back and also the tools that can remove that administrative burden. Those are the things that we get really excited about and how we can support all those entrepreneurs that are out there, especially during Small Business Week. But at the end of the day, this is what ADP has been doing for 75 years.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you so much. I learned a lot today. I appreciate all you do for small businesses.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, we really appreciate you having us, Angie. Look forward to next year. Excellent. Thank you. Take care.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
