Sam and Josh Ovett, A Dynamic Duo.

So we've got the people who are successfully running a business but overwhelmed by the volume of work they have to do to run it.

Many of them don't even realize how much they do. Their growth has been steady and incremental, so they've not noticed the amount of work they have to do to run their business, until they try to take two to three weeks off, and get off the grid and out of their daily grind. Reality smacks them hard in the face, and they realize their business would stop functioning if they left for that long.

What we do is aim to make it more profitable for them to run a business, and do it with less hassle. We focus on two things. Number one, knowing your numbers so you can make better decisions. Number two, being human where it counts, and otherwise automating, so you can take the time away from your business, and it still runs. We try to make it so the only thing you need to have to be able to check-in on your business is your cell phone, hence the name Mobile Pocket Office.

MO Which aspects of Ontraport do you think are most useful, or underrated?

JO The most useful part of Ontraport is using all of its features in concert with each other, allowing you to build a great and repeatable customer experience. Most people we work with use less than 20% of the features. The wild thing is, many people we meet buy tools they don't even need — tools that Ontraport already has features for, that they just didn't realize, and it becomes what I call the shiny object syndrome. 

With our programming and process background, for us, it's a literal toy chest of tools we can pull out and assemble whatever we want and need that also will be supported by Ontraport and not have to be custom-made or third-party.

This way, if something breaks — and sometimes it does — there's only one support team to call to get it resolved. 

The most underrated thing is the amazing and dedicated team and leadership behind Ontraport. Hey, y'all, I'm not sucking up here. I've been a part of the Ontraport community for over six years, with satisfied service. I’ve attended great events like Ontrapalooza and been provided help from dedicated humans who offer automation and back up the customers with care. 

SO One of the things I noticed is that people get really focused on building marketing automation campaigns, which is great and important, but they forget that if you take a little extra time to think through what you're doing in your business, and how Ontraport can power it, you could set it up to track all the numbers you need to keep track of the health of your business. And you can do it all right in Ontraport in a dynamic way. That means there's no manual reporting, and that's a really amazing opportunity everyone should be taking advantage of. If there's one message to convey, it's that you really need to know your numbers to run your business more effectively.

MO You have your finger on the pulse of the small business owner and entrepreneur. What gaps are you seeing? What’s your advice for them?

JO The worst thing we see is silos in automation — automation that works but requires a human to manually connect the dots for it to continue. They are usually yes or no, true or false decisions to connect the process together, or they have to export/import things from different systems to make it all work. If somebody gets sick, leaves or dies, the whole process breaks. I’ve never met anyone who wants to do more manual work. They usually just don't know it's possible to not have to do things like moving data around from one system to another or completing a step manually to get somebody to the next process.

My advice is to peel back the layers of the onion that have been added over time mostly as workarounds in a manual process. Be ruthless at it. Find out what you're actually doing, down to every detail. Map it out, and then try and put it all in one system. Kill all the time wasters, and build bridges. It is not unique to small businesses; all the large corporations I've worked with over the last 30 years have had the same problems. They're just larger, more complex and more political. 

Change management is the biggest thing that you have to project manage. There is one caveat: If you don't know it's a bad process, you may never realize there is a better way. Sometimes the best way to fix that is to take a new person who does not know anything. Teach them and document the process along the way. Then let them work your process and give them permission to ask why we do it this way. The people on the front line can spot wasted effort real quick; it’s usually the boss who doesn't like to be questioned.

SO Tracking. People get confused about how tracking works. I think that's because they perceive it's complex to set up, but once you understand what you're trying to track, you can work backwards from there. With Ontraport, it's all dynamic when it's done right. As soon as we get good tracking set up for customers, they tend to be more adventurous and willing to try new marketing ideas, because they can see and measure in real-time if it was effective in getting more revenue or raising key indicators of the results that they're after. Most people are excited to see more revenue. That's why we were big on getting people to a point where they actually know their numbers and not just whether or not they got more sales.

Of course, more sales will cover up a multitude of sins and bad decisions, but gut feel can be deceptive. My advice would be to ask yourself how much it costs to acquire a new customer, how long that takes, and how much your average customer spends over the time they are a customer with you. Knowing this type of info makes all the difference. Now you know what to pursue.