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Taking the Leap: Growing and Scaling a Business Amid Great Resignation
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Many people who started businesses while working from home are quitting their jobs to run their companies full-time.
“I love the independence of entrepreneurship,” said Ramon Ray, founder of Smart Hustle Media, on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
Ray has made a career out of his passion for small businesses, advocating for digital growth tools and community support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the serial entrepreneur saw so-called “solo-preneurship” booming and wrote an e-book guide “Grow Your Solo” in which Ray outlines steps to start and grow a sole-proprietorship.
“You can scale the business to the size that you want and be happy with that and live the life you want,” he told WCBS 880.
A record 5.4 million Americans submitted new business applications in 2021, a number that has accelerated since July 2020 as economists and employers became aware of the great resignation phenomenon.
One of the greatest challenges new business owners face is pricing their products and services.
“Let’s say in the Northeast, right – us people – you want to pay yourself $150 (thousand), $200 (thousand), whatever it is,” Ray said. “Now, maybe triple that.”
The small business expert noted owners have to pay employees and contractors, overhead costs, operating expenses, other unforeseen costs, plus taxes. That’s a big adjustment for entrepreneurs who have left high-paying salaried jobs.
Ray started Smart Hustle while working at the United Nations. He told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso that he was fired about seven years ago with one client on his roster.
“I had a $40,000 client. That’s all I had, Joe, but it was able to give me enough cushion and a starting point, a runway, to begin my full-time business,” said Ray.
He accepted monthly payments from the client to stay afloat and support his family while selling his services to more clients.
He suggests owners secure a few good clients, first, before taking the leap. At the same time, he believes entrepreneurs who are confident in their business will succeed if they are passionate and motivated.
As a small business owner himself, Ray consults with large national and international firms as clients and is the entrepreneur-in-residence at NetSuite, Inc., a leading cloud computing software company.
“If you’re trying to bid or sell for a larger project, don’t try to pretend and say, ‘We, we, we. We have 100 people back there,’ when you don’t. They’ll smell through that, so you can’t sell on that,” he explained, adding, “But, you can sell them on the passion and commitment and your, hopefully, past success and talk about, ‘We’re small, but we’re nimble. Maybe we can be more price competitive. We have an amazing team that will serve your needs and we will be your only focus.'”
Ray also advises to sell services directly to an executive within a company because that person can be a key endorsement and referral to other departments within the firm.
See more advice and inspiration for starting, growing and scaling a business on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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NYC Crime: Mourning and Outrage Over Cop’s Murder
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Grief turns into anger over gun violence in New York City as thousands of NYPD officers and cops from around the country gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue where murdered Detective Jason Rivera’s funeral was held Friday morning.
In her eulogy, Rivera’s widow Dominique gave a pointed message for New York’s leaders who are vowing to act on rising crime. Lynda Lopez examines how they aim to restore safety to the city’s streets on The 880 Weekly Rewind.
Listen to The 880 Weekly Rewind Podcast for a deep dive into the top stories of the week, produced by Neil A. Carousso for WCBS-AM New York.
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Midtown Music Store Attracts Global Audience with Digital Marketing Strategy
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — It’s all about that brass.
J. Landress Brass, a niche musical instrument store on W. 32nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, now has customers all around the world.
“We have instruments that people are sending us to restore from California, from Iowa, from Indiana, all over the United States,” said owner Josh Landress. “Just this week, we’ve shipped out instruments to Germany, to France, to Korea, and that’s all generated through our online presence.”
On the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank, Landress told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso that he focused on growing the company’s Facebook and Instagram accounts during the COVID-19 shutdown in March 2020. They posted videos showing their craftsmanship repairing brass instrument valves and fixing dents as well as showcasing individual performances.
“People have discovered our abilities outside of us helping New York and they really are coming to us for our skills – as far as our craft – and for our products that we’re selling, we’re having a very curated high-end business of retail,” he said.
Landress told WCBS 880 the company’s revenue increased 60 percent since making digital sales and marketing a focul point.
“For many years, my business was kind of derived with local New York business kind of supporting the New York community,” he explained. “I really had to find a new direction for my business in order to keep my employees employed and the doors open and with that was really generating more online traffic so the use with Instagram and Facebook.”
While J. Landress Brass expanded globally, its hometown customers in New York demonstrated why they are the heart and soul of the business.
Several customers created a montage video while the store was shuttered, performing Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” on their instruments at home. When J. Landress Brass reopened, they were greeted with scores of new customers.
“We were still doing what we do once we reopened after being closed for 115 days and people in the community came here just to say hello, and be around instruments, and see other people just to feel normal again,” said Landress. “It was really an honor to be a part of that.”
See this heartwarming story of how the local music community rallied around J. Landress Brass and how the company has amassed a global audience on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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NYC Plagued by Gun Violence; Pres. Biden Aims to Reverse Course in Year Two
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — It’s been a violent start to the year and Mayor Eric Adams’ term in office.
Lynda Lopez looks at how the city and state aim to reverse the trend on The 880 Weekly Rewind.
Plus, CBS News Senior White House and Political Correspondent Ed O’Keefe offers analysis of President Joe Biden’s first year in The White House, which was dominated by COVID-19, and recently, plunging poll numbers.
Listen to The 880 Weekly Rewind Podcast for a deep dive into the top stories of the week, produced by Neil A. Carousso for WCBS-AM New York.
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How ‘SNL’ and Late Night Talk Shows Saved the Transportation Industry
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — One key linchpin is responsible for revving New York City’s economy, according to an influential transportation industry leader.
“I got to give a heads up to Lorne Michaels,” said Jeff Rose, founder and president of Attitude New York on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
Michaels is the creator and Emmy award-winning executive producer of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” He also manages “The Tonight Show” and has an illustrious career producing NBC’s primetime television sitcoms and dramas, late night talk shows and films.
“We do quite a bit of work for the late night talk shows,” said Rose.
Attitude New York relies on the hospitality industry, chauffeuring A-listers to press events and dinners at restaurants across the city. Car and limousine services took a huge hit when the pandemic shut down Broadway and New York’s hospitality and entertainment sector.
“All those shows getting back on the air were huge, not just for the work that they did, but because then, now that they’re broadcasting live, it forces people who have projects to promote to come to the studio, and while they’re in New York, they do other things,” he explained. “Entertainment is something that has a huge multiplier effect on the transportation industry in New York, so props to all those people who got entertainment back on the air and helped revive the city’s economy.”
Rose told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso that his business was down 98 percent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but since last September, Attitude has roared back; although, it faces drastically different travel habits.
“Some of the not so strong operators are going to be out of it, but as I said, I think more capacity was lost than demand and when that demand comes back, I think it’s going to be a very healthy situation as folks are much more interested in having a cleaner cars, more reliable,” he said.
Attitude New York added long-distance trips to meet shifting demand away from airline travel and ride-sharing apps in which some people are apprehensive over the volume of passengers in a still raging pandemic.
“We got lots of calls from studios who were shooting movies up there to drive actors up to Montreal in Canada. We even had one case where we drove all the way from New York up to Plattsburgh, somebody flew in on a jet, and then, we just drove them across the border,” said Rose, adding, “We had a secret weapon and that we had a chauffeur with dual citizenship. He held a Canadian passport. So we kind of became the go to operator for all these companies that had to get actors up to Montreal and Toronto to get to film sets.”
Rose also serves as president of the Limo Association of New York and sits on the board of the National Limousine Association. His father imparted on him the value of philanthropy and explained to Connolly and Carousso his philosophy of giving back during tough times.
“Driving is the number one job in the country, not necessarily limousines or car service(s), but if you include truck drivers deliveries, FedEx, so on and so forth,” he said. “This is a job that doesn’t require a high school diploma, doesn’t require a college degree, English can be your second language. This is an important industry for moving people around and for the jobs that it creates.”
He welcomes people into his growing industry with open arms.
“That’s one of the things I do to give back,” Rose said.
New people entering the vast transportation industry will face several bumps in the road, including an unprecedented and fast change of travel habits and the move to electric vehicles.
Rose said on the Small Business Spotlight that executives at General Motors, Ford and Lincoln have told him there is not enough infrastructure, yet, to support a 50 percent national adoption this decade as the Biden Administration has proposed.
“They’ve said it’s going to be a big problem in the Northeast. Electric cars are going to come on much more quickly in the South and much more slowly in the Northeast, and I asked about it. I said, ‘Is that about climate?’ They said no, it’s about in congested cities, they don’t have places to put charging stations. So, even if you had the charging stations, you don’t have the power generation nor the transmission infrastructure ready to support a significant number of vehicles going electric,” he explained.
See more on the future of New York’s inter-connected transportation industry on the Small Business Spotlight video above.
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