Podcast Episode 15 – Growing Your Business with Sharon Cowan, CBSE

Networker for Business Women with Lourdes Welhaven

Sharon Cowan, CBSE

I interviewed Sharon Cowan in this episode. Sharon is all business and we have a lot that we can learn from her. She purchased a small local cleaning company in order to grow it and position it for sale. The company had 4 employees when she purchased it and she grew it to over 120 employees serving 4 counties.

This is someone who knows how to create the systems and the structure to make a business grow – not because she read about it in a book but because she has done it herself and helped countless clients do the same.

Along the way she learned eveything there is to know about the cleaning industry and has achieved so much. For example, she is also one of only 40 women in the world (at the time of this publication) that has a CBSE “Certified Building Service Executive”

Listen to Sharon talk about the benefits of local networking groups, industry associations, and online networking.

Sharon recommended the following book.

But I’d love for you to check out this book too. It’s similar but I find that it has more actionable advice.

Sharon challenged us with the following ” (In business) Everything you do should take you closer to your goals and nothing should take you away from those goals.”

You can contact her as follows:

Website: Cleaning Business Consulting Group
Phone: [phone] (Country Code 01 for the USA). Sharon is on Eastern Standard Time.
Email: [e-mail]

You’ll find links to Sharon on all of her social media properties via her website.

The biggest GIFT though is that Sharon is offering all of us a free 30 minute one-on-one strategy session. Here is your chance to ask someone who took a small business and grew it into a multi-million dollar company just about anything about how to run your business. Don’t waste this opportunity. Make sure to tell her you heard about her “from Lourdes.” I don’t get a thing out of you doing business with her or taking advantage of her free session. I just think that it’s potentially that valuable to you regardless of your business model but especially if own a service business.

Thank you to the following:

New Directory Listing

A. Petit & Associates

Wondering what the Directory is all about? Just click here:

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Business Tip of the Week

Have you ever wanted to be “paperless’ but found that trying to run your office without paper actually generated more paper? The paper monster in my office reached a critical high and I searched and searched for a paperless solution. Sure there’s lots of scanners out there but I wanted something more. What good is scanning something if you can’t organize it and find it again when you need it? After a lot of research I settled on Neat Receipts and I’m so glad that I did.

Here’s what I love about Neat:

Nea Receipts is more than just a scanner, it’s a system that comes with very powerful software that recognizes the writing on the scanned documents. This allows you to scan for a document based on just about anything that you can remember. One of my biggest fears in going “paperless” was not being able to find my documents after they had been scanned. Neat makes finding documents even easier than in a physical file because you can search by whatever word or string of words you can remember.

Neat has a built-in system for storing your scanned documents in “The Cloud.” This is significant! I can now have all of my documents at my finger-tips no matter where I am in the world so long as I have Internet Connection. We are truly no longer tied an office or a desk. Then, if you want to go a step forward, like me, you can even add Neat Mobile, so you can scan receipts and documents from your phone or tablet and be instantly up-to-date on your filing.

This little system has revolutionized my office. The link below will give you a 30-Day free trial of Neat Cloud with your Neat Receipts purchase. (affiliate link).

Your homework for this week is to consider what additional systems your business needs to have in place,

Related posts:

1. Podcast Episode 18 – 5 Critical Steps to Create Business Relationships Through Networking
2. Podcast Episode 13 – The Business of Publishing with Bette Lee Crosby
3. Podcast Episode 12 – Happily Every After with Janet Parks