Having a Brand Doesn’t Mean You Have a Business

Natasha Bowles Professional Services

Natasha Bowles is a naturally insightful powerhouse of a woman with perception and vision that looks to make the impossible, possible. As an entrepreneur, writer, mother, speaker, executive assistant, consultant, and digital nomad, she has provided freedom and exceptional support to her clients since 2016. Often referred to as “Wonder Woman” by her peers, tempt her with your hopes and dreams, and you’ll often be met with a smile and the words “That’s crazy! Let’s do it!” This attitude led to the creation of Natasha Bowles Professional Services, a remote staffing agency that supports the growth of your business and dream. Natasha’s staff supports everyone from C-Level executives to creative types such as podcasters, authors, and coaches.

http://linkedin.com/in/natashabeingww

Marlana: Natasha Bowles is a woman that makes the impossible, possible. She’s an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, executive assistant consultant, and the powerhouse behind Natasha Bowles Professional Services. No wonder she’s referred to as wonder woman! Welcome, Natasha.

Natasha: Thank you!

Marlana: So, you are deep in all things business, and you make the lives of some very busy and very successful entrepreneurs seen.

Natasha: I do.

Marlana: Recently you and I had a conversation and you had mentioned in there that just because you have a brand doesn’t mean you have a business. So, first tell us what you mean by that.

Natasha: I love what you do and people that create brands. So many people have an idea, then they spend all this money getting their brand created, they get an email, they get logo, they do all of the stuff and you’re like now what? Just because you have a brand doesn’t mean you have a business, because having a business is actually more than just having a name, connections, where people can reach you. You have to figure out how this people gonna reach you. What am I gonna do once they reach me? Who’s gonna help them out? Those standard operating procedures are so important and it’s a step that so many people skip. What is in my mind is how many people skip this step, and also the step of getting additional help. Most companies that fell in the first three years, fell because they don’t have standard operating procedures, they don’t have back-office help, and they don’t know what to do.

Marlana: So, at the very list, what should we have in place?

Natasha: At the very list you need to have your plan of action (your business plan). That needs to go, actually that needs to happen before your brand even happens, you need to have a business plan. So I suggest, there are tuns of resources online to get a business plan together if you don’t know how, or you can hire a business attorney – they can help you get a business plan, and there are also business coaches. That’s actually something my team and I pitch to people. We’ve come to situations like; “okay guys, what are you doing here?” and we’ve actually helped them do step by step business plan and we charged them a fee. It’s a one-time fee, so definitely put that in your budget if you don’t know how to set up a business plan.

Marlana: Okay then, Let’s say we have a basic business plan, how many things can we tackle on our own and how many things should we be handing off?

Natasha: So, I always recommend, and I actually give credit to Michael Hyer because it was his idea. I think the best way to do this personally, is just like, take a week of being you and have a book with you everywhere you go. Everything you do, everything you do, even the tiniest small stuff, jot it down, and you can go make a little diagram where you put the stuff that you do, that you love – the stuff that you have to do, the stuff that you don’t love. This makes you figure out the stuff you don’t know how to do, that’s the important thing. So, as soon as you figure out those things, like what you’re all day every day, how you’re spending your time, what you’re doing to make your business work or even not work, cause sometimes you figure out this’s what’s not working for us, then that’s the time to hand off stuff. Often, it’s at the very beginning, especially if you’re working at stuff, you don’t know how to do. You don’t know how to do accounting? Hire it out, even if you just hire it out like; I don’t like them, but I have Path Works services, is not that I don’t like them…

Marlana: Hm! There is not such a thing 

Natasha: Right! And I will contact them to say I do. The thing about them is that they really are helpful, but also at another level you really have to know what you are sending them and stuff like that, so they are not always the best if you don’t know what you are doing, or you need to be sending them, but there are a lot of accountants that do. I think a lot of people don’t understand when they start a business, when they get the brand together, stuff like that is that (Covid had open this up a little bit more) that any and every kind of support that you need is available out there, you don’t have to hire a full-time accountant, you don’t have to hire a full-time secretariat, you don’t have to hire a full-time office manager – none of those have a full-time positions. Most executives is between forty and sixty hours per month. 

Marlana: Hm!

Natasha: So, when you are actually using only hours to do work, most executive are only to get paid between forty and sixty hours. Most small business owners can get started for twenty hours a month, and that covers everything they could possibly need. So, a lot of people are like, “well I can’t afford getting help” because they are thinking of the traditional way of getting help, paying taxes and all that stuff. Honestly, you can contract it out, you can get any kind of help. You can even get or hire board members and they would sit on your board. They give each company ten hours over a month. 

Marlana: Its interesting that you bring this up because I was thinking as you were saying it, originally, well what about people who are just starting and are like I can’t afford to do that, but you are saying that at any point, you should afford to do that. 

Natasha: At any point you should be able to afford to do that because you can make an investment of $500 a month and get help from someone. Someone that knows what they are doing, knows what happens, and knows how to answer questions for you, can actually get a lot done in ten hours a month. Like I said, for most busy executives can work for forty and sixty hours a month, so these guys they are running eight figure companies, nine figure companies can do it in forty to sixty hours, a small business can be done in ten hours and that’s a 5 USD investment.

Marlana: So, then, my next question is, because you said if you found somebody that knows what they are doing, and I know that you know what you are doing, what if you are not available for somebody, how do they find somebody that knows what they are doing? 

Natasha: There are lot of companies that do what I am doing, so I am not the only one and there are a lot of VAEs. I actually support, I know that some people don’t, I know that some people get bad about that people; “okay let me go to another country that will do for a very very cheap”. I have never met such people; I have several that I have contacted in the past that sent tasks to me. A lot of them are smart, capable, amazing. They don’t always know US law or US business procedures. Often, I will say, “please don’t skimp on hiring. You could hire someone at my level for example, and just interview people – ask them, do you know how to do this? This is my business. Tell me how you will do this.”. So, I have a lot of people that I show them the hows, and the whys, and the whats. I even manage, and they are able to use more hours of simple work at that level, but they also have someone that’s supporting those people, and making sure that everything is done right. There are multiple ways you can find people, I’m not on Facebook anymore, but there’s a lot of VA groups on Facebook, you can join VA groups for a discussion. But I do recommend that when you are hiring someone or you are looking for someone to help you, ask them, send them a task. You may even have to pay for it, even if it’s a real task that you need done actually, I do recommend giving them $10 for doing it and you should expect there’s a lot of negativities around that, but for $10 to actually find out if they know what they are doing. I recommend sending them a task and say, “hey! This is what I have to do next week.” For example, you are a photographer, you say; “I have these clients, Covid shut down the place we booked originally, I need a place that is Covid safe, that has what we need. These are the recommendations, I need you to find me a list of five places that will be within a driving distance up here”, and that will be a good task you can give to someone and a good example of wether or no they can actually do the work.

Marlana: That’s a great advice! When we are having an initial conversation, are there any red flags that if they say this or if they do that, you think well you better move along to somebody else?

Natasha: If somebody says they could do everything, that is a huge red flag because no one can do everything. You want assistance, but if you do need multi-people support, pick a company like mine, that has a team. I can do a lot of things because I have worked with a lot different clients,I learned a lot from working with each one of them. I don’t like to do social media, I know how, but I’m not passionate about it, so I’m not giving my best effort on it, but I have someone in my team that can do it. I can do basic text, not passionate about it, I don’t like it, somebody from my team can do it. So, if one person tells you they can do everything, then that’s actually a red flag because I think… I don’t know if you ever heard what my grandfather said of those things, he used to say all the time was he is a jack of all trades, a master of none.

Marlana: MH!

Natasha: So, someone who tells you they can do everything, is probably not a master at anything.

Marlana: You know! I think that’s with any business because I know even when in photography, I’ve seen people’s websites and things like that. They will list; “oh, I photograph- babies, weddings, interiors, portraits, landscapes”, then you’re not doing any of them well.

Natasha: Right!

Marlana: So once we find someone, do we have to make a long-term commitment? Can it be a shorter-term commitment?

Natasha: You don’t, and actually anyone that want you to sign a long-term contract, that’s difficult to get out of, I would take that as a red flag because you shouldn't. Honestly. First of all, I don’t think it takes you three months to work well with someone, so I usually recommend that when someone wants to work with me, I do recommend that let’s sign three months together and see what happens, and I mean unless we’re completely not clicking from day one then I recommend they stay for 3 months and either one of us can end it with a 45 days written notice, so that way they are not committed for years and I mean things can happen, COVID happened and a lot of my clients had to scale back. I didn't really lose anyone and there had a couple of people that we changed what they were doing and then had another person ,like okay; what are you able to do now during this time and needed someone at that level and if you want to settle back with me later, I'm available, I'm here because it wasn't in their best interest to stay at work so if someone tells you, you are allowed to do a contract for like a year, don't do that. So you need to be, you need to have the type of contract that will protect you with both sides and also you need to be building that relationship that's meaningful so that you can stay with that person when you are not required to.

Marlana: So, if we can’t find a company like yours, that is multi-tasking, and we have all of these different things that need being done, cause part of my brains kicks into – oh my gosh! What a nightmare to be dealing with all these vendors for different things! Or is that not as bad as my brain is currently making it up?

Natasha: It really depends on whether or not, like, I have a couple of clients that use multi-people and like I said, 160 hours is a full-time job. Unless if you need a full-time, you can afford, but there’s no such thing, there really isn’t. If people tell you they are, then they are lying to you. So let's say you need a full-time unicorn, you know you can have an accountant that works 48 hours a month, you can have an online business manager that works 48 hours a month, you can have a social media manager that works 10 hours a month, I mean you can have 1 full-time employee.

Marlana: With your company, what services to you take care for your clients?

Natasha: We pretty much do take care of everything. And one of the things I offer that makes people sort of like pay us more is, I manage all that. You don’t have to worry about managing all the different vendors, someone is doing your social media, someone is doing all of your back-office stuff, someone is doing your travel agent stuff, someone is doing your calendar stuff. Even with us, we’ve helped so many people start business, we can even be there from the beginning (this is how you set up your business) because we know how. I wanna know how my clients are, so that I can share that with my other clients and anything I learn I take to my next client. So, that’s one of the things I offer, like I mentioned there are people who don't like to manage people, so I recommend using Trello, Asana, 17 Hats and so many out there but I kinda recommend using project management if you are going to be managing a lot of people.

Marlana: What if we have already built this personal brand? I know a business brand is a little different than a personal brand, same principles apply and vary. So, let’s say we have this personal brand and we have developed it, can we work backwards to make it into a business?

Natasha: You can! Yes, you can definitely work backwards to make a personal brand into and actually I thought about my social brand. My story is, I became an entrepreneur, so definitely, you can make a personal brand into a business brand. There’s never a bad time to start that, once you realize that this is bigger than a hobby, I would like for it to be a business, that’s when you start making it into a business, and it's a little less difficult starting from scratch, so it’s difficult to do a re-model. So, that's when I will recommend getting help more so even starting a business, it’s kind of re-defining your brand into a business.

Marlana: Which is so important. You know! I have people that I work with too, that, they kind of stumbled into their personal brand, and it’s kind of like a runaway horse. They are trying to put the saddle on, and they are trying to put the reins on so they can steer it, but the horse is already moving. 

Natasha: Right!

Marlana: So, I know it’s easier, I can still go-in there and do what I do with that, but it’s a little more difficult for the business under that.

Natasha: Yeah! Like I said, it’s a type of remodel a lot harder to deal with than that of total build.

Marlana: Okay! If somebody needs to start today, and they are starting from scratch, what would be your advice? What’s the one thing they should take away from this conversation, that they need to start with?

Natasha: My advice is, if they are starting today, the one thing they really really need to take away is, decide what you want, decide where you wanna be, decide where you want this to be, what do you really want and then go from there. If you say I want a 8 figure business, let's get you being started, and my Grandfather used to say, “begin as in the finish”, always begin where you want to finish, you can scale it to where you are right now ,if you want a 7 figure business, you need to treat your business as a 7 figure business from day 1.

Marlana: Is it the same advice, if the horse is already moving?

Natasha: It’s the same advice when the horse is already moving. Even when the horse is running, you gotta know where it is going.

Marlana: Love it! Alright Natasha, that was a great advice, with that, I just have four final questions for you. The first one is, what’s the best piece of advice you were ever given?

Natasha: The best piece of advice I was ever given, was by my grandmother and she always used to say, “no matter what is happening in your life, remember this too shall pass.”

Marlana: Yeah, you know! Similar to that, I read recently something I felt it was beautiful that said, “you have survived 100% of your bad days”, and I think sometimes we forget that.

Natasha: We forget that.

Marlana: Share us one thing in your bucket list.

Natasha: I’ve been actually running my bucket list for years because, but one thing I have not done yet that I really really wanna do, I would like to take some time and go to an island for a while, and that’s part of my little business that I did, and Covid kind of like put a little bit of oops! On it, cause I still have the flexibility of working from home, working remotely, building a company that can be run remotely, but trouble is what we are right now. I still have that dream, I wanna go and spend like a year or another one.

Marlana: Nice! When the toys companies finally get around to create a non-action figure of you, what two accessories would you come up with?

Natasha: I think it should be the crown, because it is never wrong to think that you are fabulous and I think she will need an organizer because there is so much happening in my life so if I don't write down ,I don't remember it.

Marlana: Love that! Natasha, if everybody is interested in working with you and your company, how do people find you?

Natasha: Right now, the best way is to find me on Linked In. I am Natasha BWW.

Marlana: Perfect! And I will make sure that that’s in the notes. Thank you so very very much for being here and thank you.

Natasha: Thank you for having me! I always enjoy our conversations.

Marlana: Me too.