Barry Moltz, founder of Shafran Moltz Group, LLC, is a well-known small business speaker who has delivered hundreds of speeches to groups of 20 to 20,000 people. He is a member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame and has served as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he has taught entrepreneurship. He has made numerous TV and radio appearances, including those on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC, Your Business on MSNBC, and The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR. He has been a 12-year host of his own weekly radio show on AM820, The Small Business Radio Show, and a consistent contributor to American Express Open Forum and other publications.
Barry helps business owners that have not yet reached their full potential to expand again. Barry is an expert in small businesses with decades of experience in his own business efforts as an entrepreneur and an angel investor. He has figured out the recipe to help business owners become unstuck. He emphasizes marketing and sales, management and leadership, cash flow and finances, customer satisfaction; and productivity.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between World’s Leaders and Barry Moltz:
Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.
I help small business owners get unstuck in marketing, sales, leadership, management, money, customer experience, and personal productivity. I work a lot with family businesses and help sell companies. Outside of work, I am a long-distance cyclist, an avid hiker, a third-degree black belt in karate, and a technology lover.
Describe your background and what did you do before you started/joined the company?
I worked at IBM for 9 years right after college. I then became interested in small businesses, so I left IBM to work as Director of Sales for a client, Whittman-Hart. After I was fired from that job, I started three of my own businesses. After going out of business and then getting kicked out of my next company, I sold the third business in the Internet bubble of 1999.
Tell us about the inception of the company. How did it all start?
My spouse forbids me from starting any more companies after the sale, so I started an angel fund, and I also started speaking, writing, and consulting to assist other entrepreneurs in their small businesses. While I still have an itch to start another operating company, I have been doing that for the last 20 years.
What has made you successful? What do you value?
My favorite sayings are:
“Love everyone, trust a few, and paddle your own canoe”- What this means to me is that I give people the benefit of the doubt when meeting them, but trust is earned. Your success ultimately lies with the actions you take, and don’t solely rely on others for that.
“The only way out is through” (Robert Louis Stevenson). In life and business, we spend a lot of time avoiding things. The easiest way is to deal with them directly and get on the other side of it.
What has made me successful is the ability to bounce back from failure and always find a solution for the pain my customers have.
Which are the major services of the company and how do the company to get ahead in the competition? What value-added services does the company provide?
Whatever an entrepreneur is experiencing, I have been there before. Lost your best person? Done that. Lost your biggest customer? Check. Sued by a vendor” That too! I am not a business advisor posing as a small business owner. This is the advantage I have.
What are the most important aspects of a company’s culture? What principles do you believe in and how do you build this culture?
Set a mission for your company and get them to rally around it. For me, it’s about truly making a difference for small business owners to get them unstuck in a new place. Plus, it’s about really caring about your people, not just paying lip service to that principle. Get to know what is going on in their lives, not just at the office, because people don’t leave companies; they leave other people.
What is the significance of innovative ideas in the company?
Most successful companies are not about ideas but the execution of those ideas. I am much better at figuring out how to improve the implementation of “the wheel” and building on your ideas than creating “the wheel” from the beginning. This is still innovation.
Give us your opinion on; do organizations rely heavily on individual heroics or team processes?
Heroes can be inspirational in the moment but don’t impact the team over the long term. The key to success is this formula: “People X Process = Profit”. Most small businesses never focus on the process and every day becomes an improvisation on what to do next.
What are your responsibilities as the Founder/CEO/MD of the company? What is the happiest part of your daily routine?
You are the leader. You set the goals, the mission, and the culture. People are looking to follow you. Make sure you set an example of what to follow.
The best part of my day is talking to other small business owners about the issues they face and brainstorming solutions. When they implement something that works, it is rewarding.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
Listen for the first 30 days before you take any drastic action. Find out what works and what needs to change. Ask a lot of questions. You should really care about your staff’s concerns both personally and professionally.
