IAM1115- Business Strategist Ignites Fire Back into Businesses

Neeta Solanki is a leading-edge Business Strategist to Entrepreneurs and Small to Medium Business Owners, ready to elevate their performance and reignite the fire and passion back into their life and business.

Using her tailored unique agile framework that encapsulates her 20 years of experience in change management, accounting, marketing, process improvement, scenario planning, and using analytics, Neeta works directly with those entrepreneurs, small to medium business owners who are looking for a competitive edge, those ready to make the difficult decisions that provide the cashflow to bridge & navigate any terrain facing them.

Given Neeta’s extensive corporate background, this enables her to partner with leaders who wish to transition any doubt or fear hindering their performance and re-energize their teams to experience exemplary results. With the current economic challenges in these unprecedented times, the pressure and stress are also at an all-time high. The old mindset will not address the new challenges facing leaders in the new normal.

• CEO Hack: Learning through podcasts
• CEO Nugget: Learn how to unlock the profit base hiding in your business
• CEO Defined: Someone who wants to grow while transferring skills

Website: http://neetasolanki.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamneetasolanki/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamneetasolanki/
Podcast 18th May – https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/birth-your-vision-podcast/id1493405653

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Transcription

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00:16 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:43 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nita Salonky of Nitasalonky.com. Nita, it's great to have you on the show.

00:52 – Neeta Solanki

I'm going to say good afternoon because I'm in the UK and it's an afternoon for me. So thank you very much, Gresh, for your time to, you know, for the opportunity to speak to your audience. Thank you very much.

01:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I'm super excited to have you on and get to touch all parts of the globe, it seems like, and hear the good morning when it's good afternoon and all of that is super exciting, the time and place that we live in. And so Before I jumped into the interview, I wanted to read a little bit more about Nita so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Nita is a leading-edge business strategist to entrepreneurs, and small to medium-business owners ready to elevate their performance and reignite the fire and passion back into their lives and businesses.

Using her tailored unique agile framework that encapsulates her 20 years of experience in change management, accounting, marketing, process improvement, scenario planning, and using analytics, Nita works directly with entrepreneurs, small to medium business owners who are looking for a competitive edge, those ready to make the difficult decisions that provide the cash flow to the bridge and navigate any terrain facing them. Given Nita's extensive corporate background, this enables her partner leaders who wish to transition any doubt or fear hindering their performance and re-energize their teams to experience exemplary results.

And with the current economic challenges in these unprecedented times, the pressure and stress are at an all-time high and the old mindset will not address the new challenges facing leaders in the new norm. And I absolutely love everything that Nita is working on. And when we initially connected, we had an awesome conversation. I like to read about during times like this and during times like this, you can't do the old things in order to see the new. So I love everything that you work about is about helping people to thrive in these times. So, Nita, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:31 – Neeta Solanki

I am ready, Bush. Thank you very much.

02:32 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:40 – Neeta Solanki

OK. So I think to kind of summarize my story, it's all about resilience in terms of when I was 24, I qualified as a chartered management accountant. I got promoted, but then I got challenged. My manager gave me the pay miles. She gave me the promotion. But then she said, you won't get anything better elsewhere. And I was like, oh. And then literally that was my moment of pivot where I was expecting to move on to another company and work as an accountant. I actually got offered a job as a software business consultant.

And I did that for the next 20 years. What I gave me was exposure to different industries, exposure to change management, not in terms, you know, as well as business processes, but also people in terms of, you know, helping them go through the changes through their working life, but also analytics, as I mentioned before.

And so another reason why I say resilience is because I actually got made redundant 3 times. Now, even though without looking for a job, I managed to get a job within weeks, it is a case of how that made me feel during that time. OK. And so why I started my business is because if you don't believe in yourself, the others do, or if you're stuck on the next step and you need guidance.

Well, I've been there, you know, and so I hear you, you know, the business owners that and so even though I got a job straight away when COVID hit, oh my God, it was literally 0. And so what I've learned is that, and through working with other businesses as well, is that so many businesses out there that are just surviving, yet there are so many opportunities to actually thrive in business.

And so, 1 of my reasons for starting my own business is to help business owners take that courageous action. And as I said, as you said, ignite the fire and passion back into their business, which they already had. Yes, but what I found is many business owners are feeling, you know, they want to grow, yet they, they, they're feeling stuck. Yes, Or they're confused and stressed because they're too busy working in their business rather than on their business.

And there is a difference. And yes, you can still work in your business, but if you want to grow, or if you know where you want to go, then you need to plan working ahead of yourself as well. And so it's all about championing and helping them transform their business ideas into exponential financial success.

And so what in terms of what I offer is I offer a 15-week one-to-one program with business owners who, and it is a case of, you know, again, I'm in the UK, but 1 thing the pandemic has taught all of us is that we can reach out to anybody. Yes. So I offer bi-weekly virtual Zoom call meetings to go through the framework that you mentioned that I actually designed over basically encapsulating all my years of experience. But I also offer like half days or 1-day boot camps as well with the business owners or their teams as well.

And this is about helping them not only just maintain the way their business is today but actually, you know, kind of go into a kind of say where do you want to go and how can you gain, you know, transform your ideas into reality, shall I say?

As I just said, competitive edge, a lot of people, a lot of business owners, say they find themselves competing on price because they compare themselves with the business owners, whereas if you actually look within, it's all about awareness actually, in terms of aware of what you've got to offer to them say well how can I, how is this unique to what I offer compared to other people, but you shouldn't really be comparing yourself?

And so what's unique about my business is about taking what I call a balanced approach to success. Okay. I've got proven powerful strategies that I use to help business owners to enable that growth mindset. So my model is called the success accelerator, and it consists of 5 pieces. The first 1 is the persona.

So I wanna go and understand the business owner first in terms of what makes you and what breaks you. And I love it because of my background, I mean, the last corporation I worked for was IBM and they're known for their acronyms. So when I say, what is your persona code? The code is an acronym. You know, what is your charisma, your personality? What are your objectives? Why did you start your business? Why now? Yes.

And then go into what I call peeling the layers. Now I was my first customer, so I've kind of gone through all of these stages myself in terms of where are your doubts? Why haven't you got to where you want to be? Yes, but also what are your ethics, your values?

1 thing I found is that where you could find there's lots of competition out there if you know your values, and in a way, who you are as a person and you want can portray that into your business culture. And the next piece is the people in terms of who are the people that you interact with.

Is it, you know, and when actually, but the acronym is stick with the right people and the C is your customers to know who are your clients. Do you want to be in a position where you can choose your clients, what problem are you trying to solve? Is there a problem or is it a gain? By putting yourself into the shoes of the client, you get to appreciate why customers buy from you so that you can gain loyal customers rather than competing on price.

As we all know when competing on price, it can be very stressful. Then it's about stamping your presence in the market in terms of your digital voice. If you don't put it out there, then chances are somebody else will. And we all know about, you know, the power of social media. Then I kind of get a bit more into getting smarter with the numbers. First of all, start off with the water in your pool of cash, because if businesses want to grow, they need to have a steady cash flow. Yes.

And so they need to understand what it takes to have a steady cash flow. And then finally, how to spice up your profit, knowing the numbers, whether it's your price and strategy or looking after the bottom line.

And so what I've learned, just from looking at what's in the market and I found 1 of my unique offerings is this 20 years of experience of not only different industries but going for the economy. So when I was made redundant the first time, that was in 2009 when the economy literally went into depression. And so how do you overcome that? You know, not only myself, but also businesses as well.

And what I've also found is yes, business knowledge sells and the market also be counted because it is at the end of the day, all about the numbers. Because, you know, in most cases, we think profit, but we spend cash.

Yeah, and that's, you know, a lot of people need to look at that. But also thinking outside the box, you know, because I've been exposed to not only retail, manufacturing, service, power, all these different industries, you know, a lot of people, what I've also found a lot of businesses want to think outside the retail industry, maybe look at financial services.

And because I've had experience in those industries, it helps them to actually think outside the box. So I probably put a lot into there in terms of who I am, what I offer, and what I believe is unique about me.

10:45 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And so I want to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:58 – Neeta Solanki

My biggest CEO hack is actually learning through podcasts. Okay. So I listened to your podcast. I've recently joined a membership called it's a leadership global, so leadership global, which has been great because you hear from CEOs, But also Jay Shetty, he's been a great inspiration, especially on the mindset and understanding of what's going on. Also Rich Roll as well in terms of the health side.

11:25 – Gresham Harkless

I appreciate that. You might've already touched on this, but I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget, which is kind of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be what you touched on, but it might be something you would jump into a time machine and tell your younger business self.

11:36 – Neeta Solanki

So my nugget is to learn how to unlock the profit that is hiding in your business. Now a lot of companies, you know, want to obviously start the business because of fulfilling their passion, but that doesn't automatically qualify them to know how to run a business. Okay. And so, you know, unfortunately, you've got to understand the numbers and as I said before, we all think profit but we spend cash, you know, and you know, it can backfire in so many ways.

And so think about each of your expense lines, okay, in terms of 1 example could be the payment terms, whether it's your supplies or when you pay your taxes, you don't want to pay too early, you don't want to pay too early, but you don't want to pay too late.

So you want to pay roughly on time. Now that difference in terms of paying today compared to tomorrow could make a big impact on your cash flow, which might make your cash available to buy new equipment for future investment. Another 1 could be, to look at your expense lines and see what is a necessity and what is luxury.

Now, if I was making cupcakes, for example, and I was using Belgian chocolate, okay, what value does that bring to my client? Do they notice the difference? In which case, yes, great. If I'm cooking cupcakes for kids, most likely they don't appreciate the Belgian chocolate, in which case, I'm actually, the price is going to be too high.

So you've got to look at your necessities and your luxuries to kind of say, is this bringing value or is it actually hitting my bottom line in terms of profit? If you've got premises, look at your running cost. Opening times to when your clients actually come. And if there's an idle time, that's costing you money.

And again, so all of these little areas are, you know, it's potential profit that is hiding that you can release and then it will automatically affect your bottom line. There you go.

13:33 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping that different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Anita, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:42 – Neeta Solanki

Okay. I'm going to step a bit. It's a little bit back first. First of all, I want to say, what does success mean to you? Okay, because people interpret success in different ways. For me, it's to have, I call that moment of contentment. Okay, I feel free, but I feel satisfied. Okay, so what a CEO means to me is someone who wants to grow but is not alone. Okay, you know to transfer skills, so that everybody shines in their own way.

14:12 – Gresham Harkless

I truly appreciate that and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic so to speak just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:25 – Neeta Solanki

Okay, thank you. First of all, I tend to hang out on LinkedIn so you can find me at Nita Salanki which is N-W-E-T-A so I will say I'm the Nita, not Anita okay? And the 1-bit advice I want to give well actually there's 2. 1 always put yourself into the client's shoes. So think of your ideal client, always put yourself into the client's shoes. Because 1 thing I found, especially from coaching other businesses, is that there was 1 lady who was like, I don't know why no 1 signed up for my course. And I said, well, I pretended that I was interested in your course. I clicked and the link wouldn't work. Okay.

A couple of weeks later, I clicked and it took me to another website, Facebook. It was just too much. Yeah. And so think about your client's journey, but put yourself, you know, think about when you're buying something, how would you expect to be served? In which case, make sure you're delivering that to your client as well.

So one of my mottoes is always treat people like you want to be treated. Okay. The second 1 is don't be perfect, just be real. That's what I want to say on that 1.

15:28 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's definitely a mic-drop moment, to say the least. And I think that authenticity is something that allows us to kind of connect with so many people but I think you're absolutely right where we understand that not only are we going through a journey ourselves personally but we also understand our clients and the people around us are too so it's so important to kind of you know switch the vantage point I guess that we're looking as well too, to be able to see and put ourselves through that to see how we can create success for so many people. So Neeta, truly appreciate that. We will definitely have the links and information that's shown us as well too, but Thank you so much for all the awesome work you do, loads of gems and knowledge that you provided for us today as well.

16:05 –  Outro