Entrepreneurship with Heather Zeitzwolf: Learning from Successes and Failures
DJ Skoob interviews Heather Zeitzwolf, an experienced entrepreneur and accountant, in this episode of 'The Undiscovered Entrepreneur'. Heather shares valuable insights from her journey as a late-life entrepreneur, leading with authenticity and leaning on her previous career as an accountant. The openness about the importance of self-education, embracing failures, and the significance of financial planning in entrepreneurship provides a relatable perspective for up-and-coming entrepreneurs. She also discusses the importance of market research, having an understanding of your target audience, and treating your venture as a legitimate business from the start, reiterating the importance of continuous learning and adaptation to changes.
00:12 Introduction and Welcome
00:38 School Believer of the Week: Renee Friedman Watts
01:07 Introducing Heather Wolf: The Experienced Entrepreneur
02:39 Heather's Entrepreneurial Journey
05:29 The Importance of Authenticity in Business
09:14 Overcoming Challenges in the First Year of Business
12:58 Attracting the Right Clients by Being Yourself
15:43 Adapting to Changes in Business
17:33 Inspirations and Mentors
18:00 The Role of Podcasts in Business Inspiration
18:30 The Importance of Mentors and Conferences
18:46 Learning from Others' Business Mistakes
19:25 The Value of Self-Education in Business
21:11 The Impact of Failure in Entrepreneurship
21:28 The Importance of Unique Approach in Coaching
23:45 The Challenges and Lessons from Social Media Marketing
26:02 Proud Business Accomplishments
27:53 Advice for New Entrepreneurs
31:39 Promoting Your Business and Services
34:52 Setting Goals for the New Year
Mentioned in this episode:
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Hello, school believers. I welcome to another episode of the undiscovered entrepreneur and it's me DJ scoop.
Coming at you on whatever device you happen to be listening on. All right. And welcome also to. Never one of three of experienced entrepreneurs. We are now in the experienced entrepreneur mode. And we're going to be talking to three. Amazing entrepreneurs. But first before we get into anything else. I want to go ahead and talk about our school believer of the week.
So we're on another Tik TOK, ladies and gentlemen, our next scoop believer over the week. Is Renee Friedman Watts from tick tock. Renee has been liking all my stuff and I really appreciate you Renee. So I'm going to go ahead and like everything , in the show notes about Renee and her Tik [00:01:00] TOK.
And if you'd like to follow her and figure out who she is, I look in the show notes because
that's where her Tik TOK is at. Okay. Now that we've got that out of the way. We are talking to
heather Wolf. Now, Heather. I don't know if you remember in my last episode, but she's the one that actually gave me the ticket to pod Fest. Almost there. Y'all we got to get there anyway. She is actually a speaker from pod Fest among other amazing things that she does. If you are listening to this on Spotify or any of those things. You might want to take a couple minutes and check over at the YouTube channel because she does this amazing stuff in the show. It's a visual, she's a visual type of person, so let's check it out. But for now, let's go ahead and listen to one of three of our experienced entrepreneurs. Heather's. Zeit Wolf.
Salutations school believers. And we are here again with another amazing entrepreneur today. We're interviewing an experienced entrepreneur. So today, [00:02:00] hi to Heather. Hi,
Heather. Hi scooby doobie doo, how's it going?
I love it already. This is going to be such a great conversation. All right. So before we get started, I want to ask you a semi serious question. Okay. All right. Oh, she's ready for it. Look at that. All right. Are you a school believer?
Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? Yes, I've been listening to your podcast.
Yes. Oh, thank you so much. But I do have some questions about the DJ and the Scoob part. So at some point, maybe we can discuss that. Yeah, we
could I'm sure we'll interweave that in there somewhere. That sounds like a lot of fun. Okay. Sounds good to me. But we're here to talk about you first.
So we're going to, we're going to talk about you here. So Heather do me a favor. Just describe for me. Your entrepreneur adventure. What do you actually do for your entrepreneur adventure and how you got it started and how long you've been doing it
for? Yeah, it's an adventure. I love the idea of being like a superhero in our brand.
So it is an adventure, we got the [00:03:00] ups. And we got the downs. I started my adventure in my fifties. I'm in my fifties now. And so late in life, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I always had that in my mind, but I'm also, one of those people that's now I turned out to be an accountant.
That you can be very conservative with, your money and all of that kind of stuff. So I knew that, Oh, it's like taking this. Leap of faith that you're going to be able to make money, pay the bills, do all the things and really I had to be brave enough to do it. And by the time you're in your fifties, you're like heck, if I'm not going to do this now when am I going to do it?
So I just took the leap. So that's how I got started.
Oh, and and you've been doing it for, since 2019?
2019? About yeah, so about 2019. And, just like a lot of people when they start a business, there's a lot of trials and errors. And what am I gonna do? And who am I gonna reach?
And who's, who do I know that I could, bring on as a [00:04:00] client? And there's a lot of I, I like to think of ourselves as, scientists and we have to experiment with different things and figure things out. And I went down a lot of different paths. I'm a vegan. And so like, when I was going to start a business at first, I was thinking like, do I want to be a vegan coach?
You're like, do I still want to do accounting? What do I want to do? So then you have to ask yourself like, okay, what can I see myself doing for several years? What can make money? And so I decided, Accounting was probably the better path, and so I stuck with that, and then it was like, okay, am I going to work with older folks, and then I realized no, I love technology, and sometimes older people don't like technology, so it's you gotta find all those nice little things that fit together nicely, so I totally identify with your audience of people that are just starting out because there is just so much that is it's all new and it's, but that's the kind of exciting part, right?
You get to dream about things and test them out and on all the things. So [00:05:00]
there's nothing wrong with actually starting an entrepreneur adventure later in life. I Don't think there's any kind of age or anything like that, even if Colonel Sanders started when he was 60. Wow. Okay.
So not too many people know that he was actually in his retirement when he actually started KFC. So there's nothing wrong with starting a little bit later in life. And I like the point that you're talking about niching down, not just accounting, but accounting for specific type of people. That really makes a big difference in your entrepreneurial adventure.
So I'm going to be honest with you here Heather, you don't come across as an accountant to me. You have such a great personality and you're, you look awesome. That's not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about an accountant, so I don't want to question why, but why?
Okay. So this I will go a little bit deeper into this because I, this might be important for the people listening out there that.
If they are going out there and putting themselves out there as their [00:06:00] brand and they want people to maybe take them seriously and all these things like you may feel like you have to pretend to be somebody else as an accountant were thought that we wear suits and you know The ties and we have, we carry a briefcase and all these things and at first, I was wearing the costume, I call it a costume and meet clients with that, the uncomfortableness.
And after a while I was like, COVID hit and we're working out of our PJs and all that kind of stuff. But. And what happened was that I actually had a client who I met with on zoom. She had never seen me in real life. What was all our communication over COVID was just through email. And when she saw me, she, and she was a marketer.
She said, Whoa, I had no idea that you had, pink hair, had I known that the whole time I would have felt more comfortable around the whole, or, deal, because people have these things of what a CPA accountant supposed to look like and they're like they're intimidated by it. I was like, [00:07:00] She's you've got a brand there.
You've got to double down on that. And so that was the moment where I was like, okay, let's do this. Take the costume off and let's like show the real me. So I've been doing it ever since. And sometimes, I've got some, I'm pretty wacky. I was a clown. That was my first career. It started at two and a half years old.
You can't take the clown out of me. I do not have floppy shoes on right now, but, , I am wearing a hoodie. If you're watching the video, you can see I'm wearing a hoodie, not a suit.
I like, we have a lot in common when it comes to things like that. People normally have a certain perception of how somebody is going to look, but Hey, I'm a zany guy.
I wear a piano tie. I have the. My pups behind me I love your cat. If you're watching on the YouTube, she has a huge cat and a space suit behind her, and that's so awesome. And I love how you ha you keep to yourself, who you are and your brand, and that really makes you, who are people are drawn to that, to, I'm definitely drawn to you.
You don't have to have a suit and tie on be yourself. That's what you really do is be yourself when it comes [00:08:00] to whatever
you do. So yeah, so important. Don't hide behind a costume, but I have to say, I do love costumes. And so I might pull out a few props while we're on our call. So I do love costumes, but I, but you be authentic about it.
So
if she, ladies and gentlemen, if she does pull out, Oh, there she goes. If she does pull out something, it looks like you're going to. Oh boy. Look at that thing. Oh, okay. If you're listening on the podcast right now, you have to go to the YouTube channel. Just go right now and just watch the rest of this.
She's so amazing. She has a really Julie. I don't know. It's beyond bedazzled. It's It's
beyond bedazzled. Yep.
And it says party. Yeah. Cause
I want people to party in their business. I want them to have fun in their business. I talk about financials. Financials can be very scary. I actually just got off a zoom call with someone that was terrified about.
Filing their taxes and stuff and can be scary, I want people to have [00:09:00] fun with their business. Yeah, so I bring the party. I love disco and all that kind of stuff.
Nice. All right. Thank you so much for that. Okay. In your first year of your accounting business, we had talked about a little bit, but did you have any problems or pitfalls actually getting started?
In your accounting business. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Yeah. Highly regulated kind of business, ? And so there's a lot of , things I had to set up, , insurance and then getting certain numbers from the IRS and like things that like you have to put in place before you can really get started.
So there was like, , I had to get all that all my ducks in a row and do all those kind of things. And then, , you then you're like, Oh my god, what am I going to do for technology, , because Technology, once you start going down one path with one piece of software, you want to make sure that other piece of software talks to that software.
[00:10:00] And if you start stacking the wrong things together, then it's Oh, your workflow is all off and stuff. , that's a huge learning curve as well as just like figuring that out. Also where are you going to get clients from? I did a lot of experimentation with getting clients and, , until you start getting out there and known and all that kind of stuff.
So all those things are all like things that like you try something. And then I thought. I just was remembering this morning because I was reading about life insurance. And I remembered in my first year, I thought I met somebody that sold it. And I was like, Oh, that's a good thing. I should just I should also, sell life insurance is, just one of my things I do.
So then I started going down that path of, learning about life insurance and taking the test. Yeah. Oh, my God, so boring. Oh, my God. And people think. The IRS code is boring. Oh my God, learn about life insurance. I was like, no way. So I spent all, I spent money on, , taking the [00:11:00] courses, getting, , signing up with these different things and all that I went down that path.
That was not the right path, but sometimes, you just have to cut your losses and be like, okay, move on. Don't. it's okay. This is like I said, it's all an experiment in the beginning. You gotta be okay with failing and okay, that didn't work.
Oh, it's okay.
Yeah, failing is definitely part of kind of the price that we paid for excellence and, moving on to that next step that we move on to because we don't know until we actually get into it, if we're going to like it or not. But don't count failing as an actual fail. It's a learning experience.
It's a stepping stone into something else. Okay. I didn't like that. Good. Now. I know I don't like that. I can move on to something else and not spend any more time on that. Wondering if I need to do it or not.
And there's so many like gurus and specialists out there that tell you like, oh, you got to do this.
You got to do that. Oh, this is going to save you time. Oh, you'll make so much money with this. So you play around with like courses and coaches and like all these things. And, I'm a, [00:12:00] I hope, my, my community and I teach courses and have group programs and all that. I don't say that there's anything wrong with that, but it's just you got to watch out the shiny object thing.
Like you could go down a rabbit hole. Like I was telling a friend yesterday, how I was addicted to going to AppSumo like every single day to see what they had on sale. And I gotta tell ya, I have spent money. On software that now I'm finally getting around to use and it's terrible and it's too late for me to return it.
So that was a mistake, it's a mistake and it costs you money, but you gotta be okay with that. For me, I don't like to spend money on things that I'm not going to use, but sometimes it's like you said, you don't know until you try and it's. It's just all part of the experiment experience, yes,
definitely be aware of squirrel syndrome.
That's what I call that too. It was just like, Oh, look over here. Oh, look, we're here. We got to do this. Try to concentrate on what you're working on one thing at a time. Don't go too crazy. Cause then you have a bunch of software that you don't use.
So let me we talked about clients a little bit. Do you find yourself [00:13:00] that it's easier for you to get clients? When you're yourself, , earlier talked about being behind a, , a mask or a costume or something like that. You find it easier to be able to find people. In your field and, , clients by being yourself.
I definitely get better clients or clients are more aligned with who I am. So I'm also a vegan. That's very important to me. And so when I, besides the colorful hair and the flamboyant kookiness that I have, , you're zany. I identify as zany as well. Wacky, so some people don't like that, and, and they're not my people, because I am, I'm smart, but I'm also, kooky and all that kind of stuff. I'm not flaky, , that's not part of my MO. Getting, at first I had some clients that they were not a good fit. Yes, I, now I attract my tribe as they say, and it's.
It's much better. I work mainly with creatives now. That's really where [00:14:00] my niche is. And I have been a creative myself. So I understand how they work and, their brains and maybe their business challenges and all that kind of stuff. So it's a much better fit for me now. And they're the kind of people that Probably would not want to have somebody that is in a suit and tie carrying a briefcase and all that kind of stuff.
They're like, they see me on LinkedIn and they're like, Oh, this is more of what I wanted. And then to circle back to my original thought of the vegan part. So I am also known as the vegan CPA on online. I like come up ranked number one, I'm like, I don't know how I did it. I got ranked first for vegan CPA, but so I do attract a lot of vegans and I do give a vegan discount, but it can be confusing because I don't do any nonprofit work.
I don't work with like people that like make vegan products and all that kind of stuff. But I, so I have been able to find other accountants for them, but yeah, so is. Yes, the answer is yes[00:15:00]
I'm glad we got that straightened That's great. No, that's good stuff I mean you being able to align with people that yourself within people that don't align with you are not sure either give out to somebody else who you think that actually might fit and they actually thank you for that later on too because you're like Oh, thank you for referring me to that person.
So you still have some kind of, camaraderie with this person, even though they don't quite match up what you're looking for. But you can fire your clients because they don't fit. You just go, no, go over here. We don't, this, we don't match. So go to this guy over here. Yeah, that kind of thing.
Don't be afraid to be able to do that when you're actually putting clients together and you find one that doesn't quite fit the
bill. Yeah. And as your business changes over time, which, as you start to settle in with what you're going to do, what your offers are, clients may not fit that mold anymore.
They may be great clients, but maybe you don't want to do those perform those services [00:16:00] anymore. And you want to switch over to something else. And so then maybe you have to find something else. Or find something that you can have that client adapt to or, so it is like we have to be nimble right as entrepreneurs and be able to change with the wind and we know not, we have goals and we have services and all those things but if the world changes there's COVID or something else, we have to be able to modify and change with the changing of the whatever's happening.
Pandemics weather. We don't know what's going to happen in this world, so
yeah it's been amazing to me. And I think a good example is COVID and saw the whole world had to change the way they did business, , without the interaction, that kind of thing. The other thing we all have to get used to using AI for different specific things too.
And so we don't fall behind on that. New wave that's happening. So yeah, us as entrepreneurs, we have to pivot. We have to go with the flow of things so we can keep up. We don't want to fall behind.
Yes. Look at [00:17:00] Blockbuster. I always use them as an example. There's Netflix and Blockbuster was like, stood by their DVDs and then Netflix had DVDs, but then they went to streaming.
And so they adapted and. Look what happened to Blockbuster. I think there's one left and I think it's in the state I live in Oregon. Yeah,
it's more of a tourist attraction now than anything else. So the kids know what actually Blockbuster was. I'm glad we're around to know what Blockbuster is between the two of us know what Blockbuster is now that to age myself, but yes.
Okay. So that's great. All right. What I'd like to know is back when you actually got things started. Did you have somebody that you idolized or somebody that you followed was like a kind of a mentor to you?
Oh, I love this question. DJ Scoob. Love this question because you're a podcaster and I'm a podcaster and I listened to a lot of podcasts in the beginning.[00:18:00]
I remember, now the podcast that I listened to back then, I don't listen to, it's just like adapts over time, you get those people that really inspire you and are there for you and I listened to podcasts. When you first start your business, you're not always busy.
Let's just put it that way. Like maybe you have a little bit more time on your hands. And so you start getting like clients or you start getting in that flow of like, where to network and do all those kinds of now my day is like full all the time, but but in the beginning, I listened to a lot of podcasts to get inspired and think about things.
So I would say that the mentors were those type of people I'm in various business podcasts. But that, that has changed over time because as things grow you discover new podcasts and that sort of thing. And, I love going to conferences and, seeing people there.
So I've had a lot of inspiration. Over the years and also I would say that part of my inspiration was also the fact that I had family members who had businesses that I did not like the way that they ran their businesses. So I knew to do [00:19:00] differently than them. So sometimes the people that inspire you are the people that are not necessarily doing it the way that you want to do it.
Yeah, it's funny how that works too, because they show you what not to do. Exactly. And you take an opposite approach what they do. I don't like the way they're doing it. So I'm going to do it the exact opposite. They're doing it and it's actually going to work out really well. So that's awesome.
We have a lot in common when it comes to the podcasting too. I have several virtual mentors. That's what I call them because they don't, they don't call me and like, how's it, how's your week been or anything like that. But, people like Pat Flynn, Cliff Ravenscraft people like that, that I do have it.
Contact with, I, it's just so awesome to be able to listen to them because they're basically telling me what to do to be able to succeed in what I'm doing and that'll go really breaks down to self education. And I talk a lot about self education when it comes to my podcast and it's so vital to be able to educate yourself in those things that we were talking about earlier.
I love how this all comes [00:20:00] around. I love how this all kind of, we got to educate ourselves to the new things that are happening in the world, the new programs or, whatever it is that happens to be going at that time. Self education is so important.
I love that you say that because I've got over here on my bookshelf, you can't see it, but not only do I have some random dolls because I collect weird dolls, but I also have a huge bookshelf full of business books.
And I love to read. I got I probably, or I think I ordered four books this week already to read. And so I love, I have a couple of business degrees, I've, it's but things change and, it's and you don't learn everything in school, business school either.
The world is different. I have a degree in advertising and that was, came from the nineties before there was like websites. So a lot of what I learned is like obsolete. We have to always be expanding our brains.
That's right, because we got to keep up, we got to keep up with the new trends, just like we were talking about earlier, the AI and that kind of thing, [00:21:00] trying to keep up with that, so it's really important.
So I really commend you for that. Thank you so much for talking about that. My next thing I want to talk about here, it goes into failure, but at the same time is there a failure that you're actually proud of? I'm so glad this failure happened, because I wouldn't be where I am now.
Do you have anything that like that? Yeah. Do you have anything like that's happened to you at one point or another?
Yes. Yes, exactly. I, there's so many things that, you can think about a launch that failed or this and that, that failed. I had mentioned going to, coaches and that sort of thing.
And not all the coaches that I've gone to have been like panned out, you spend a lot of money on that kind of stuff, but. You see how that works and it was like, it feels like a failure at the time, but then it also teaches you the things not to do as a coach. I think from, , you've beat yourself up, especially when you [00:22:00] like, you think Oh, this is going to be the right thing.
I spent all this money and I spent time on this and you start to follow this. And then it's doesn't really work for you because not everybody's cookie cutter thing is like going to fit your. Cookies, cookie batter. I don't know what we want us. How do we want to talk about it? But cookie dough. I don't know.
But, , yeah, so it is. It inspired me to do things differently. And so as a coach I've had people tell me like, I'm so much different than other people that they've gone to before. And not just because I'm a wacky and all that kind of stuff, but my approach is so different and so hands on and not cookie cutter.
And I have frameworks. I have worksheets and templates and all that kind of stuff. But I also look at people as every entrepreneur is unique and has their own unique story. And that can't be like wedged into one little. Pro set program that, I have, I like to have a [00:23:00] little bit of fluidity to my program so that way I can kind of mold it to what the needs are of the people.
So that, that has been like one of the big things and just not beating yourself up over. Things that you've thought were going to work and then they totally didn't work, that's a huge one for me.
Yeah. And you're right. Not everybody will fit the, the same mold as the next person.
So being able to be able to get to know that person that really goes into listening to that person, listening to what their specific needs are for what their specific questions are, to be able to mold your. Your coaching or whatever it is, it doesn't have to be coaching. It could be anything that you're working with when it comes to an entrepreneurship to the customer or to the guests that you're working with, that's a really important skill
to have.
I got another failure I can talk about. Oh boy. So would you like another one? Sure.
Everyone's thinking like I got to be on social media, social media is and you try to do all the things you try to [00:24:00] be everywhere, and it's so difficult and and it's one of those things that like you put yourself out there and you have to. Be brave and fearless sometimes because it's going to be up there on the internet and maybe maybe you have wrong information or you stumble over your words or whatever you have to get over yourself with that.
But last year I went to FinCon. And I sat in on some, classes about short form video and I started making short form video and people are like, you got to do, you got to be original you got to be yourself do all this stuff. And I tried that and it did not do and I had no idea what I was doing but right now I'm in a program.
And Learning new things. And I'm like, Oh my God, I feel like I just wasted the last year on doing poor videos. And, , it's just a learning experience. You just start to learn, , and it's again, you can't beat yourself up. It's all testing and you just gotta go out there and just try.
And geez, when it comes to marketing like we said, [00:25:00] things change all the time. Now we got AI, we can utilize AI with helping us with our social media and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, don't beat yourself up over social media.
Good. Yeah, that's good advice. I love, I've really liked that advice being able to get out of your comfort zone to find new and exciting things, even though it's, you're not sure, like we said before, what's going to happen.
You never know until you only know what, so being able to give it a try and know that, you know what, I've tried it and this is not where I want to be. That's okay. I'm tried some short form videos myself. I do okay with it. I, I'm not like any kind of influencer when it comes to anything like that.
So I like doing this. I like being able to talk and meet new people instead of it. Just go with it from there. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Thank you so much for that. That's it. Thanks for going over that extra failure.
I love it. All right. We're going to, we're going to turn the tables [00:26:00] just here a little bit, and we're going to look at the other side of this. And in hindsight, is there an accomplishment you're most proud of something that you've done that really stands out? You know what? I'm so glad I did that.
It was such an amazing thing to me. I'm sure you have a story about that.
Oh, okay. So I did. So PodFest, I've been involved with PodFest and I've done presentations for them. And I did this thing as the radical prophet fairy and I spent a lot of time.
Writing a script for, it's like a once upon a time fairy tale kind of thing. And I give a lesson and I was just like, how can I make accounting more fun? And how can I talk about pricing and scope creep and make it all fun? So I made this character, the radical profit fairy, and then this whole tale did a lot of slides that were really wonderful.
There wasn't a whole lot of people that showed up for my thing, just because it was the last presentation of the. The event, [00:27:00] but I'm going to be doing it live in Orlando in January for podfest. So I'm very excited about this because now I get to bring this into three dimensional land. So I'm really super proud of that project because it took a lot of work and hopefully it's going to pay off on stage.
I actually might be there to find out. One of my goals, one of my goals is actually to make it out to PodFest this year over in Orlando, Florida. So yeah, so hopefully I can actually shake your hand and
say hello. Yes, that would be awesome. And then you get to find out about the legend of scope
creep.
Yeah. I would like to see that. Hopefully I get to see a pop fest. If everything works out the way I hope they do. All right. One last thing I'd like to talk about here is, you're an experienced entrepreneur. You've been doing this for a while. What I'd like [00:28:00] to know is what kind of advice, if somebody was just to jump in entrepreneurship, can do you say, Hey, can you give me some advice about.
Being, doing what you do or anything along those lines. Do you think you could give us some advice for getting started?
Oh, I got a lot of things. Okay. So when you're starting a business, cause I'm an accountant, right? So it's I help people set up businesses and things like that, We have passion when we start our business.
So we have some idea, something that we're passionate about typically, unless you're just like want to make money and you're like, renting out vending machines or doing something like that. But usually we have a passion for something. We don't normally think about the financial side of things.
And for new business owners. Before you start like spending all this money on putting up a fancy website and buying a whole bunch of software and doing all this stuff like you're like thinking like, Oh, I got to set up my CRM and all these things like first come up with an idea and [00:29:00] try to sell that thing.
And. See if it's even viable. Do the calculations. How many of these things do you have to sell to actually make the money that you want? What are the expenses that you're going to have? Think things through. Don't just jump into it just because we think it just sounds like fun. Also, if you are starting a business, treat it like a business.
Go, get an EIN from the IRS. Get a business bank account. Stop commingling your funds of your personal and your business. Just from day one, just start treating it like a business. Keep track of all the expenses that you have. Chances are you're going to have expenses before you have income.
Income! Yes, think about how you're going to collect income. That is so important, because someone wants to pay you, you better know how you're going to collect payment. So have something in place for that as well. And so you just want to make sure they have all your ducks in a row so you can contact on like the small business.
[00:30:00] What is it? The SBDC or yeah. And score is another nonprofit that can help you. They've got all kinds of things that you can make you think about things that you might need for a business plan. Now we may not really need a business plan unless we're trying to get a grant or a loan or something like that, but you do want to look at the elements that are in a business plan.
So you think about oh yeah. Market research. I guess I should do some market research. Who are my competitors? What am I going to charge? How much is it going to cost me? Like a business plan does walk you through the things that you should be thinking about. So whether you fill one out or not.
So hopefully that is helpful. DJ Scoob.
Very helpful. Yeah. You just mapped it all out there in less than a minute and a half. I love it. We'll have to play that slower a little bit. No, I'm just kidding. That was great. Always test your product with whatever it is that you're doing.
Make sure you test it out before spending too much time and money on it, because you [00:31:00] don't want to go. through the whole process and realize it doesn't work, put out that smallest viable product versus as soon as you have something that you can use it or sell, check it out first, check the market, get a couple of people's opinions on it.
Hey, would this work for you? What would you change about it? And since we're on the subject here, I'm going to mention a book and I've mentioned this book several times in my podcast written by Pat Flynn, will it fly, which basically. Gives you a step by step of how to get a business together and test the market before you spend too much time and money on it.
So yeah, that's good stuff. Heather, thank you so much for all that great information. Thank you. All right. So now is the time to shine. I want you to be able to go ahead and tell us who you are, what you do and advertise your little self a little bit. Okay. Oh, okay. All
right. Ready? Set. Go. Okay, so my name is Heather Zeitzwolf, and I have a business called Zeitzwolf Accounting, and that is a mouthful, but I also go [00:32:00] under the moniker of Get Radical With Your Business, that is the name of my podcast, and I have a separate business incubator where people go in there, and it's the support system, we have community, accountability, and you get access to meet through Slack and ongoing sessions every week.
And you can find that at getradbiz. com. So getradbiz. com and find out more about that. I have group programs. I've got workshops. I got a lot of free workshops. So if you go to getradbiz. com forward slash. Events, I believe is yeah, events you can see what's coming up and, I've got all kinds of free things and find me on Instagram, hit me up, say that you heard me on the, on DJ scoob and yeah, let's chat, you can set up a profit strategy session with me if you'd like for free.
So just hit me up. All right. Thank
you so much, Heather. Do me a favor and spell your last name for me. Just so we got it out. Yes.
So it's Z [00:33:00] E I T Z W O L F E. So it has an extra Z in there, so it's not like Zeitgeist. But my last name was Zeitz, my husband's name was Wolf, and we did a mashup and we got married.
So it's Zeitz Wolf.
Nice. I love the sound of that too. That's awesome. So everything that she said here as far as links or we're going to go ahead and link her podcast, we're actually going to go ahead and link her her freebie stuff that she was talking about all in the show notes. So you could just click in that and check it all out.
Heather, thank you so much for coming on the Undiscovered Entrepreneur. This has been probably one of the funnest interviews I've ever done.
Oh thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. This has been a pleasure to be on
here. All right. All right. Thank you. Scuba labor. Stay tuned for the wrap up.
All right, everybody. Thank you. Have a good evening. Bye bye.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, that was Heather. I got to tell you, I don't think I've had anybody with that much energy and off. That was just amazing. She had so much great [00:34:00] information for us about not just starting a business, but being yourself when you actually do these things, when you're actually in your entrepreneur venture, she really gives you a nice, just.
Be yourself because people that want to be around you, you will attract. And the people that don't, fit that brand or don't fit your personality, they know not to go to you because you're you. And that's one of the biggest assets we have as entrepreneurs is we have the one thing that nobody has.
And that's us. We have ourselves. So us having our own Personalities are the way we do things as what's going to attract people to us that are like us. So let's all keep that in mind in our entrepreneurial adventure. Thank you so much, Heather, for all the great information. Thank you so much for being who you are.
All right. So now a little bit more about me. What's going on with me and my. Stuff that's happening right now. Happy new year. First of all, when this episode goes out, it will be the new year. So happy 20, 24. I would like to know what your new year's [00:35:00] resolutions are going to be. What are your goals for 2024?
Send them to me on any of the social media is you got for me, I especially do pay attention to X, Twitter, or whatever it is. So at DJ scoop that's S K O B 2021. You could always just tag me in there. Let me know what your goals are, or what do you want to get made for 2024? Uh, I'll definitely let you know what mine is. So, , you know, what's going on there. Uh, my very first ones to actually make a, to pod Fest. Uh, these actually are my last couple of episodes. I'm going to be making before I have a chance to go to pod Fest.
So this is kind of my last ditch effort to kind of get out there. So tell me where you can, if you can. Whatever I need to do. If I need to stand my head, need a bug, whatever I gotta do. Also a new goal that I have for myself. For 20, 24. And I think I made mention to this once before I am going to start live, speaking on YouTube and Facebook and probably the others later on, but those are going to be the two ones I concentrate on.
[00:36:00] So subscribe to the YouTube channel. So you don't miss that and find me on Facebook, undiscovered, entrepreneur. Or I am scoop. Uh, I guess that's how you find me. So working all those things, but definitely me on the Facebook follow me there. All right. Also, Look out for new products that I'm going to be making for you.
The new entrepreneurs are out there. I would like to know. What you would like to see me make what you would like to see me make for you. So I'm really excited to hear from you what you would like to hear, what you would like to have. What can I do to help you in your entrepreneurial venture? All right, that's going to be it for me.
For tonight. We will have two of three of our next experience entrepreneurs coming up this next Tuesday. So make sure that you're here for that or everybody. Thank you. Have a good night. Bye-bye.
CPA, Business Mentor, Radical Profit Fairy
I LOVE helping creative entrepreneurs build profitable businesses! I am a CPA and former project manager, and I have a creative spirit at my core. I “get” creatives because I’m one, too (I just happen to be a nerdy numbers person. Left brain, right brain, Libra all the way!!).
As a long-time vegan, Gen-Xer, cat mom, drag queen enthusiast, and collector of weird dolls and lunchboxes, I totally understand what it's like to be a square peg in a round hole. If you’ve got a freak flag, break it out! Authenticity is key around here! I want to help you build a business based on your unique superpowers!
Admittedly, I enjoy number crunching and designing spreadsheets (nerd alert). However, I’m more apt to have pink hair than a pocket protector. My professional experience includes fashion design, market research, management, and live theater (oh, and I taught clown class). I’m a lifelong learner and went back to college in my 40s, getting my degree in accounting. In my 50s, I took the plunge and became an entrepreneur.
What distinguishes my business programs from others is that I bring a holistic, shame-free, fun, and strategic perspective to your business, with the ongoing support that will push you from penny pincher to profit protector! I help digital creators and fellow service-based solopreneurs monetize their passion.
These episodes are some of my favorite and most downloaded. Please enjoy and learn!!