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Small Business Bestie
Entrepreneurship is hard, and sometimes we could use a friend to walk a mile in our shoes. Small Business Bestie is here to provide that friendship, support, and inspiration that small business owners need from time to time.
Small Business Bestie
47: From Corporate Giant to Wellness Pioneer Anna Shulgina shares it all!
Anna Shulgina transforms a wellness gap in Louisville into Bodhi Salt Center, a mind-body balance center where families experience holistic health solutions together without compromising relaxation for either parents or children. Her journey from multinational corporate executive to wellness entrepreneur demonstrates how strategic business principles combine with genuine care for human wellbeing to create innovative service models.
• Globalist background with fluency in multiple languages and leadership positions at Nestlé and Ferrero across five countries
• Developed innovative category strategies that "make the pie bigger" rather than competing for existing market share
• Created separate salt therapy spaces for kids (play-friendly) and adults (relaxation-focused) after experiencing Louisville's allergy season
• Offers Ayurvedic oil treatments providing deep relaxation "equivalent to nine hours of uninterrupted sleep"
• Incorporates yoga in salt rooms with simultaneous story time for children
• Steam barrels complement treatments with herbal infusions being introduced
• Implemented comprehensive business planning including brand book, phased growth strategy, and potential franchise model
• Partnership approach balances strategic business development with exceptional customer experience
• Emphasizes importance of partnership alignment on long-term vision while leveraging different strengths
• Prioritizes mindfulness in both business strategy and customer wellness journey
Take care of yourself - there's nobody else who would take care of your health. Do it in a wise way with means that nature has provided and that have proven effective over years. Be happy.
Follow Anna at:
https://www.facebook.com/anna.shulgina.357
Follow Bodhi Salt at:
https://www.bodhisaltcenter.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bodhisaltcenter
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Check out the Small Business Bestie Website
Hey everybody, thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Small Business Bestie. Today I'm talking with an amazing entrepreneur who has spent years and years in the corporate world and has now turned her attention to a wellness business in Louisville. Anna, thank you so much for joining me and, if you don't mind, just take a moment. Kind of tell us who you are and what you're up to these days.
Speaker 2:Hi everybody. My name is Anna Shulginna. I come from Russia originally, but I've lived in many countries, so this is my fifth country to live in. I like traveling and that's part of my passion. I studied nine languages. I speak a few. Still don't remember all of them, but this is kind of. Yeah, I call myself a globalist because I like traveling, I like living in different parts of our world and learning different languages, which actually helps me a lot to get to know different cultures and how would I approach different people. What I find really important for entrepreneurship is to define how would you treat your people that would come through the door that you open for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. That's so interesting that you've learned so many languages and that you've been able to use that to connect with people on a deeper level to understand them. I was reading over your bio before we started recording and the leadership positions that you have held in some really major companies is very impressive. Do you mind telling us a little bit about those positions that you've held and kind of what you were able to accomplish?
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I was 13 years old I decided I put an objective to become a top manager before 30. And my eyes laid on a big corporations and it happened to be Nestle that I joined and I worked for Nestle for 12 years and within that period I reached that goal. So I did become a C-level manager before 30. And going through that process and I'm really grateful because the company spends a lot of and invests a lot of time and efforts into education yes, languages indeed helped me, because Nestlé is a Swiss company but it's a French-based area, a French-spoken area, but also English is the language that we all used because we had people working from different nationalities and cultures. We all spoke English. So at Nestle I started my position as the category manager for, like big customers, but then I slowly moved to different positions, to the national position and it was all in Russia, and at some point of time we realized that the company needs to take a different direction, which is more the category approach, so not to steal the shares from the competition, but making the pie bigger and in order to make the pie bigger. That's where strategy is and that's kind of my philosophy that resonates with me a lot. We shouldn't be competing with each other because the pie is not big enough. We can make the pie bigger and thus get more shares, and that's exactly what worked. And that's when I started building my new department from scratch. It was not existing. It was actually available only in two countries those days, only in the UK and in the US, so the other countries didn't have that kind of approach. It was 14 years ago when I came to the US.
Speaker 2:I worked in St Louis, missouri, in the headquarters of Nestle Purina, so the pet care business. I worked here to get to know how the department is shaped, what are the objectives and how. Just to make it differently, not to fight against each other as competitors, but how to make the pie bigger. And by building that department back in Russia. My responsibility was Russia, ukraine and CIS markets, and I reached some of the tremendous goals together with my team, and I had by far the best team. They were so good and we were so well together. We kind of we started working three of us and then my.
Speaker 2:Within the three years, my team increased up to 20 plus people, and that's when I got promoted to the headquarters of Nestle in Switzerland, where I spent three years working on strategies for 50 countries, and that's another challenge because I was responsible for Europe, middle East and North Africa, so some of the cultures where it's really hard to do business on a kind of the corporate level it's door to door business. The corporate level it's door-to-door business. And that's when I built the program. That was a trade program for small entrepreneurs who were struggling to get the traffic flow because of the growth of e-commerce, and my strategy was implemented in 15 countries for over 500 customers, which is a huge, huge number of customers, trust me, and they and they came from all over the world, starting from the UK, not all over the world, but all over the region, starting from the UK up to Lebanon or some other Middle East countries.
Speaker 2:So it was fun. It was really fun to see how the strategy has been implemented and this seed which is planted strategies planted once and then you see the fruits of it in a few years. Yeah, and it was so fun to see so one of the products that I worked on to be launched. It was launched after I left Nestle, like really, yeah, so it's so fun because, um, I left Nestle, really yeah, so it's so fun because I left Nestle in 2018 and the product was launched in 2021.
Speaker 2:But it was the product that I worked on.
Speaker 1:That must have been really fun to see.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. I was like checking all the boxes Okay, did you do that? That was a part of strategy? Did you implement that? It was so fun. And then I joined Ferrero so the confectionery company In the position. I was responsible for category development and customers development for the region and that was really, really an interesting company because that's where I learned certain things about occasional marketing, which is really something that in confectionery world. You have a few seasons or a few time slots during the year when you sell a lot, so what do you do during the other periods? How do you make these sales during those periods higher? So those are the questions that I learned and it was really, really exciting to get to know something new, and that's an Italian company, which helped me also to use a bit of my Italian. That's so I really enjoyed my corporate career.
Speaker 1:I did it sounds like an amazing career and the I think especially that last part you were talking about with the marketing of like just trying to get super creative, like our sales need to be higher during the non, you know, seasonal months, and trying to get super creative, and I'm sure that you led an amazing team there as well. It sounds like you're a fantastic leader and know how to implement strategy. So what landed you in Louisville?
Speaker 2:Well, my husband got a job offer here, and that's how we ended up being in Louisville, because the job offer was really good and we accepted it.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so since you've been in Louisville, your new venture we kind of alluded to at the beginning is a wellness business. I'm somewhat familiar with the services that you guys provide, but if you tell me a little bit about kind of how did you guys get started and what is it that you guys provide? But if you tell me a little bit about kind of how did you guys get started and what is it that you offer, Louisville.
Speaker 2:That's different. When we came here we didn't know what allergies are, so we're kind of we're not allergic at all. And that was the first fall that we realized. I thought that we just got some flu, you know, yeah, and that was it. But it was not a flu, it was heavy allergies and we had different symptoms with me, my son and my husband.
Speaker 2:And I just happened to know and it's kind of probably part of our culture to be more holistic, less on pills dependent. It's seriously more cultural, because back in Russia even the hospitals would have a salt room in it and it would be covered by insurance. So before treating you with any pills or medications, they would tell you, like, do the 10 sessions in the salt room and we'll see how that goes. That's what I like. Okay, I need to boost my immune system, my son's immune system. I need to get rid of all the symptoms because he was not breathing. So that was for my son. Basically, he was not breathing properly and I found a place here in Louisville, but the hours of operation didn't really work, so it was like 10 am in the morning, they would welcome us and he's at school. So how would I do that? I needed to be at 4 pm in the evening or 30 in the evening.
Speaker 2:So the hours separation didn't work and that's when I said, okay, that should be something different and I realized that there's some bits and pieces that I'm missing here in Louisville which are kids-friendly places where actually parents can have their own time and kids can be playing as minimum as that at the same time, somewhere not far, because back in my home country we would have restaurants having the kids areas and even the tutors or animators spending time with them. So even if you have a one-year-old, you can go to a restaurant for a date and take your one-year-old with you, leave him in that room and have an hour on yourself, but you'll be watching him from far. Yeah, so that's what I'm kind of. I was missing a case. Yeah, that's basically how the business plan started. So how can we merge the two the kids and parents doing wellness and making themselves healthy at the same time? But the kids need some fun. They are always loud. They start to create mess. That's part of their nature. Right, with the parents. They need some relaxation, some no noise time.
Speaker 2:So, that was the whole kind of thing that started cultivating in my mind how do we merge the two? What do we do and what other services could be really helpful that would serve that purpose? And that's how I came up with the salt room for kids separate one salt room for adults, with a totally different why and the steam barrels, which are truly part of our culture to do the steam barrel, so the steam barrels. And then I said, yeah, I'm talking about relaxation for parents. So what do we have, like what can provide the deepest, deepest relaxation? And that's the oil treatment, which is like for one hour on the couch during the oil treatment equals nine hours of sleep with no interruption. That's how relaxed the body is during that treatment.
Speaker 1:Wow, so tell me more about the oil treatment. I'm intrigued.
Speaker 2:It's a nascent Indian technique. It was born in Kerala. It's one of the regions of India 5,000 years ago and I did that one first time in Kerala, like the full process, and it was fantastic. It was something unbelievable.
Speaker 2:It's when the hot oil it's not really hot, it's really really warm oil is being poured on your forehead, in the area of the third eye. It goes through the scalp and hair and that's the side effect, which is really great because it nourishes scalp and hair. But the purpose of that oil is to balance three elements in our body, which is air, fire and earth. And by balancing these three elements, our body feels so relaxed that you either fall asleep if you're too tired, which is usually the case, or you start thinking about the things that you don't have time to think about, like what's the purpose of my life? What do I want versus what do others want me to do?
Speaker 2:Some people say that they stop feeling their head completely. That's how relaxed it is. The others would say that at some point of time they stopped feeling their body at all. So that's how relaxed it is. It's that moment. It's premeditative state, and meditation is a very powerful technique, but not many people can really meditate, so that they forget about anything and they focus on one particular thing they're meditating about. During the oil treatment, the meditation happens by itself.
Speaker 1:Right, oh, my gosh, I want to go so bad. I've been lucky enough. My history is also in the health and wellness business, and so I've actually experienced the hot oil treatment, and it is incredibly meditative, very nurturing and healing, I think, for the whole body, you know, mind, body and spirit. I did not know that you guys do that and I'm so excited. I'm definitely booking a session immediately after this interview. So I'm intrigued for all sorts of reasons right now.
Speaker 1:From the business perspective, when I owned a spa, I often thought, man, wouldn't it be amazing if there were a way that our clients could bring their kids, have a spot for the kids, and then the moms, the dads, the grandmas they get to go have their massage, have their facial, do their float, do all the things. And from a logistics point of view, we just could never figure out how to make that model logical. So I would really like to know did you come up with the, the revenue model and all of that on your own? Do you have other advisors that are working with you, kind of? How did that all come to fruition?
Speaker 2:um, I was. I was doing all this spreadsheeting. That's where my corporate career is really helping me because, yeah, I've been doing spreadsheeting for so many years. So all the models and just a sneak peek in the corporate world. You have a lot of steps you have to go through so that the model is approved and then it can be implemented. Like before implementing the model that I told you about, the trade model, it took me one and a half year to get all the approval. So about half a year I was working on the model and then one year was only going from manager to manager to approve it, and so that's basically that used to be my life. So for me, doing this it's not something new, and the way I treated it is from again, from the market perspective, from the category perspective.
Speaker 2:So, what is the wellness business? What are the trends in wellness business Overall? What are the mega trends Like? One of the mega trends at the moment is teen wellness, and there are not so many sources, except for Instagram influencers, that, yeah, that teens can get, and not everybody on Instagram is speaking the truth, yeah, so that's why it's like. That's. That's why it it's. It became a big mega trend because teens need some direction and they don't want that direction from their parents.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I started from the big picture and I'm that type of person that starts from big and then goes to the granular level. Yeah, so how can we do that? Starting from the? How many customers do we need to get through the door up to the? What should be the layout of the place? What should be the size of the place?
Speaker 2:How to put the services together so that the parents? They know that they're on the same ground, but at the same time, they don't hear. They don't even hear their kids screaming, and kids they need to scream. That's part of their nature. Right, we won't stop them from doing that. So they are there to create masks. So how do we make sure that this mask that is being created by them is not taken to the adult area? Yeah, all those little things and that's where.
Speaker 2:So, from the spreadsheet, you know the financial model perspective. I was working on that, on myself, but then my partner, dasha, she was like she had the task to put it all into the real life because she was doing the layout of the physical space, okay, and um, it's um, it's kind of these things is when can we or what do we offer to the families so that they would wish to come as the family here? Yeah, and the other day we had a family of five adults and seven kids, siblings, cousins, so the whole, and they, just they went to do yoga. So the whole family did. The adults they went to do yoga in the salt room because that was the only moment they can do it, and all the kids were in the kids' room having fun at the same time and everybody was happy.
Speaker 1:So in the kids' room you offer salt therapy in the kids' room as well. So they're playing, they're having a good time making noise, but they're also receiving the benefits of the halo therapy. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. You know it's when you have. When someone tells you that you need to do the nebulizer for 15 minutes for the kid, it's like how am I going to make him sit for 15 minutes to breathe it in? And he needs that In the salt room. They don't have to sit, they can jump, they can run, they can build castles, they can do salt angels or they can bury themselves in the salt as if pretending they are on the beach, and at the same time the salt will be infused in the room we actually started having. So we started the business with 30 minute session for kids, but very fast we realized that they don't want to leave the space. So we added 15 minutes at no charge extra, no extra cost, just for them to play. The salt is still infused for 30 minutes in the air, but because in the kids' room that's the only room where we have salt on the floor they play with it there is salt still in the air and it doesn't go down until probably the next 15 to 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredible. So I've tried salt therapy for my daughter. She's six now. Excuse me, it sounds like I need salt therapy now. But when she was three or four, when we first moved to Kentucky, her allergies were so terrible and there's a salt room that's kind of on the other side of Lexington from us and we went a couple of times but that's kind of what we ran into. She's three, she's four, she wouldn't be up and run around and it felt. As a parent.
Speaker 1:I always have this fear that like, oh, my child is going to disturb somebody else, especially if you're in a relaxation environment you know, and I'm like shush, shush, you know, sit down, be quiet, stop jumping, don't move and so it wasn't a super inviting experience for us not to say anything bad about the salt room here, because they're doing a great job, but for me, I had so much anxiety about trying to keep my daughter quiet because other people are getting massages and they're trying to do their relaxation, that it didn't seem very accessible. So I think it's a fantastic idea that you guys have there and super excited for all of the families who live close enough to use it regularly. But, like I said, I'm definitely booking some sessions for us to experience that. It's so incredible. Thank you for doing what you guys do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well in our kids' room we have two rules. It's absolutely not allowed to throw salt into each other and to throw it outside of the room. The rest, whatever you do, stays in the room. And the best thing they don't have to clean up after themselves in that room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredible. So you mentioned yoga. Yes, okay, you offer yoga classes in the salt room, absolutely yeah that's what we offer. Okay.
Speaker 2:And at the same time, we offer story time for kids so that parents can come leave their kiddo and do the yoga. Yeah, so our adult salt room has a totally different layout. So the floor is like the normal floor because we take the couches out and we let people experience yoga in the salt room. And while breathing correctly and yoga is always comes with a good breath work breathing incorrectly, the salt gets into the lower levels of our respiratory system and that's even more beneficial.
Speaker 1:Wow, that sounds amazing. How often do you guys offer the yoga classes?
Speaker 2:We offer it twice. So the common sessions, the groups, are twice a month, but the private or semi-private yoga can happen anytime people need it. So, like tomorrow, we're going to have a couple yoga, and the couples yoga is complemented with the steam barrels, because after stretching your muscles and if you're not even used to that, your muscles might tell you I need something different. Yeah so, and the steam barrel helps to get relief, muscle relief, and this soothes all the stretched muscles so that they don't hurt.
Speaker 1:So in the steam barrels, is it like pure steam or is it infused with any sorts of oils or essentials or anything like that? We don't use oils.
Speaker 2:But starting from next weekend and thanks for the question, by the way, you're welcome, it's going to be a new thing starting from next week, we will offer different herbs in the steam barrels. We have herbs which would help you to get rid of flu or get muscle relaxation, or we even have a herb which is really good for the women's health. It helps to balance hormones, but without any. Again, it's not going to an extreme, it's all holistic, which means that it cannot do harm to you, right, basically? So we we will offer that starting from next week. So the herbs that's another thing. Yeah, that I had on my mind is like, in terms of the business planning is organizing a chill-out zone, because obviously, after doing some treatments, you shouldn't be in a rush to your life. You should digest that and enjoy that. We have a chill-out zone and we provide with some refreshments and we always have herbal tea available Anytime, just help yourself. So please come over, we have the tea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so. It's so interesting, as I've been from the outside of the health and wellness field now, like not being in it, when I talk to other entrepreneurs who are in that and hearing like little bits and pieces, where I'm like, oh my gosh, we did that too. And it's like such a beautiful connection that you form, because I think that it takes a different type of human to stop and say, like how can I give my customers the absolute best experience? You know, overlooking something as simple as providing some herbal tea in a chill out zone, or we called it our relaxation area.
Speaker 1:When you finish a service, a massage or a steam bath or a salt therapy, the tendency of our world is like, okay, I've done, I've checked it off my box, I did the thing, and now I've got to go pick up my kids, I got to go to the grocery store, I got to do all the things right, but you miss like being able to incorporate what just happened back into your body, you know. And so we've really encouraged our guests and it sounds like you do the same to say, hey, slow down, like let that all soak in a little bit. You know, don't just jump right back on your phone and start checking your email and your calendar and all of that. Let's have a minute to appreciate what you've just experienced.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited to come over and see your spot and we always encourage people to drink more because you need to stay I mean, in general, you need to stay hydrated and I don't think that we have enough pure water during the day and not so many people do, especially with all the sodas that people like to drink. And I'm really big on hydration because I drink only water. I don't drink any other. I have two of my favorite drinks, so one of them is water, the other one would be coffee. I'm big on coffee and that's what I'm looking into as well.
Speaker 2:So, and we're like, please stay hydrated, please have a cup of water. It's like we're almost enforcing people to to do that and um, and then I'm with you on that, incorporating, like what you've just had. We're very big on mindfulness. So what you do, you need to do it, keep it in mind, like what you do at the moment. And um, in some business schools well, the one that I attended in Switzerland we even had a course on mindfulness and how that could help your business to grow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay. So all the small business besties that are listening to this, we need to plan a day to all meet at the Salt Cave. We'll do some yoga together. We will spend some time supporting one another and loving on this amazing new business. I don't think we've even mentioned the name of your business. We haven't. That's true. It'll be in the description and everything. But, yeah, tell us about the name and does it have significance? How did you guys come up with the name?
Speaker 2:So the name of our business is Bodhisalt. It's spelled B-O-D-H-I-S-A-L-T, and Bodhi from Sanskrit means awaken. It has a very deep meaning of bringing the again. It's about mindfulness, it's about connecting to your inner self. It's about going to a deeper level of understanding your needs, your health and wellness needs than just fitness, doing fitness, which is important I'm not saying that it's not. It's really important. But fitness is all about body and the descriptor of our business is mind and body balance center. So that's where you of our business is mind and body balance center. So that's where you reconnect with your body and that's why we like no guys, just chill out in the zone, connect to yourself, try to understand, be aware of all the small things that are happening in your body after you did the treatment or while you're waiting for a treatment. Yeah, this is uh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was not an easy decision on the name, because we did struggle for some time because we wanted to have a different name, but it was already taken, so it was like okay, so what do we do next? And that all was a part of the branding journey. And then, just one day, my partner, dasha. She texted like we need to register. Well, I texted her like Dasha, we need to register a company, so we need a name, whatever it takes, just we need a name. And that's how we pushed ourselves to take a decision on this one and that's how the branding story started.
Speaker 2:Again, we have a brand book and I just know I was consulting businesses a few years ago and I just happened to know that small businesses don't usually have the brand book. They don't usually do the fundamentals that would help them to in their marketing journey, in their promotion journey in the future. And I was like no, we need to do the brand book. That's part of the corporate me talking again, we need to have it. So we did the brand book and with all the logos, words, everything, so our brand book is literally the Bible of our brand and it does help. So each time we want to be more creative, we're like, okay, does it resonate with our brand book? If it doesn't, then forget about it. Or if it does, then let's work on this, let's make it better, think about it thoroughly. So, yeah, that's how we chose the name. It was like, yeah, we need to register the company, let's do this.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I think it's so interesting because, as a small business owner, entrepreneur of any sort, a lot of times we can have that like paralysis by analysis.
Speaker 1:So we just get stuck in this loop of trying to say I could do it this way, but I could do it that way and I could do it this way, and you just you don't always have that other person to kind of push you, to say, okay, enough thinking, just act, you know, so I'm I'm happy to know that you guys are kind of balancing each other in that way and that you have somebody to say, like, okay, it's time to move, like we have to do this now.
Speaker 1:I wanted to touch just for a second when you're talking about the brand book. I think oftentimes what we see is that I kind of talk about it as small businesses happen by accident. Sometimes we don't even realize we're starting a small business. It's like something that we love doing, and then over time we go oh my gosh, I think I have a business, and so we don't always start out with that super clear marketing image. And so, as you guys grow, I'm going to be really interested to see your marketing journey as compared to, like, maybe someone who didn't have those same assets going in, and the consistency that you're going to be able to bring to your brand and to the name, and that's going to be really exciting. So congrats on like having the foresight to sit down and say we've got to have this set from the beginning, because to go back two or three years later and try to implement is really difficult.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we had in mind and that also resonates with the business plan, because in the business plan I have three or four phases of business development and we're at the phase one, which the brand book and building the assets was the phase zero the phase one. And then we also have the future, things to be launched, and so phase one.
Speaker 1:I'm so sorry, but phase one that reminds me we also haven't talked about the fact that you guys just opened recently, right Three months ago, okay. So phase one is kind of the launch, rolling things out, and then you'll move into phase two and beyond.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's slightly more than that. So the phase one is not only the launch. So launch is part of the phase one, but phase one is testing the business model or fine-tuning the business model, making sure that it works, creating the assets that will work, like the website, the social media, some PR activities. So building all of that to make sure that it works and then it can be multiplied. So because one of the phases and that's part of the development is go franchise and in order to do franchise, you need to be sure that the model works and you have all the right assets.
Speaker 2:And kind of, we see that we miss bits and pieces. We even missed our headshots. It's like, yeah, we need to put something on the website and if you go on our website, you wouldn't recognize me or Dasha, because we now look differently, because those are the small things that we miss and we realize that after we're already in the journey. Yeah, and that's kind of the phase one is more to make sure that the business model works, that we have all the assets, that this can work and this can be implemented in some other area, whether that's going to be a new location here in Louisville or a new location outside of Louisville. The assets are there. Just find the right place and all the requirements for the place, how big that should be, what should be the layout, how to build the walls, so all the basics, so that when we go into that phase we wouldn't have to think about it again.
Speaker 2:Like oh, my God how did we come up with this layout that works?
Speaker 1:Right, that's great, and so I'm assuming that, with all of your corporate experience and everything that you've said, you're really big on systems and documentation would be my guess.
Speaker 2:Yes, I am. I'm not the one who likes paper, to be frank, I'm not the one who likes it but I absolutely recognize the need of keeping the things clean. I have the systems like starting from the emails even no personal emails, only the corporate we have the generic one we have access to, so, like basic things that, again, you wouldn't think about when you launch it by accident, as you said, these small things that make a big difference because then everybody can reach you and I don't have to be 24-7 online. Audacia doesn't have to be 24-7 online because we know that someone would pick it up, because we have the kind of the place where everything goes right and that's like a very little small thing. But let's say that she's on vacation or I'm on vacation. We know that what I get as an email, my partner gets the same email and she will respond because she's in charge at the moment.
Speaker 2:Right Systems like the waivers or bookkeeping. Or I'm really big on financial things. I'm making those look neat because every single dollar matters, right and it needs to be documented. It needs to be in, because if you start losing like $1 here, $1 there, I don't know I stopped by a shop to buy some lemons for my lemon-infused water. It's just one box. I wouldn't record that. No, that's where the problem starts. It starts with that. One thought that, oh, it's fine, it's just $1.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, that is such a valid point. I see that all the time. I co-own an accounting company and we specialize in bookkeeping for small business, and the number of times that, especially around tax season, people will come to us and be like, oh, I used my personal card to buy all of these other things, Like, is there any way that we can record that now? And I'm like but now your financials have been off all year, Like, you don't think about, you know that a hundred dollars you spent on something that you got off Facebook marketplace. It's going to be helpful for your, your business or whatever. But those, those tiny little things, they do add up, you know, by the end of the year, if you've overlooked $10 here and $100 there, by the end of the year it's thousands of dollars. So, yes, accurate bookkeeping and record keeping is huge, especially when you're first starting out, right you?
Speaker 1:need to know am I profitable, like what's happening on the P&L?
Speaker 2:So it's like a job, it's like business model, and the only way to prove whether the business model is viable or not is by numbers, and I'm a big fan of numbers. Even when I talk, I use a lot of numbers, like the prices and all of it. So Dasha might speak to a customer and she would go Anna, what's the price of that? And I'm like here you go. Yeah, business is about numbers. It's not about the customer service, it's about emotions, it's about experiences, it's about being friendly, but business is about numbers.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, it sounds like you guys have a beautiful partnership to kind of have both aspects really well cared for in the business. So you've got the business side of things on lockdown and you also have that customer experience at the top of mind as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very true. So when I first met Dasha, we went to have a cup of coffee, because she's been living in Louisville for like 12 or more years and she's been in education. She used to be the principal of Russian school mathematics and I just moved in here with my three and a half year old and I didn't know what to do, because all the schools, all the education system, daycare is something that is completely different from what I got used to. My son used to come home and he's like full of energy and he would tell me mom, I'm bored at daycare because we don't do anything. And back in Moscow he would have, like he would learn three languages. He would have math, logics, reading, listening, dancing, music all of it in daycare at the age of three. Wow, so he got used to different things. I was like, okay, when I first met her, dasha, tell me all about the education system here, because I want him to be well-educated. That was the first touch point with her, which has nothing to do with what we are doing right now. But then, after we spent probably an hour talking about different things and I just told her, like Dasha, let's open a business together, I was like, let's do it.
Speaker 2:And we did spend some time on defining ourselves, like what are the strong points of each of us? And that's what I find always important in partnerships. And, as I told you, I used to consult businesses. I do consult businesses from time to time right now more on the development, but I'm huge on leadership, and I spent my time back in Switzerland in the IMD business school attending leadership courses different ones. So it's how to build the foundation of any company is about. I truly believe the foundation of every company is people, and people and leadership.
Speaker 2:So I used to work with I would call them customers with my customers who had difficulties in terms of partnership. So at the beginning they were perfect together, but in the middle of a journey, with the obstacles, with everything popping up, they would have different views. Or I had one customer who would tell me, like, my partner doesn't want to grow the company and I see the ways of growing it and that's a conflict, because he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to invest not only money but also his efforts into that, when the other one wants. So what do I do? The way is to go different way. So one of the ways out is to part. But what if, by parting, they would become competitors? So that's not the best way. So that's why we did at the very beginning, when there was just thoughts in the air, so there was no business plan, there was nothing on paper well thought over. We started learning about each other. We talked about each other.
Speaker 2:So not only the experience, but also the personal qualities, and I'm really really big on that. Whenever I consult any company and I usually talk to the owners of those companies I would tell them do you know who is sitting next to you at the table when you do the sales analysis presentation? Is sitting next to you at the table when you do the sales analysis presentation. Do you know what that person wants, not now, not today, but in the future, because that might not resonate with you and you might need to change something before you go into the big thing. So I had a customer who was planning to invest a 1 million euro into his production lines. It's like do you really have the right partners around the table to do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's why I believe that we spend maybe not enough time. It's never enough, because our personalities always grow with the step by step. So we need to some qualities pop up and we need to learn as we go, but doing that from the very beginning, understanding what are the areas that I could look after, what are the areas she would look after and what are the areas the common areas where we would define basically the schedule. Or I'm also big on time management, that's also my thing. So it's like, yeah, how do we define the schedule, Even the schedule at the facility? Who would come and open the facility at 7 am? Who would close the facility at 7 pm? So those things we define those long before I started doing the business plan.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, the foresight to be able to say.
Speaker 1:What am I trying to say? Oftentimes when I chat with business owners, we recognize that we need to check in with, like, the business growth and how things are going with the business right. So you, you look at your financials, you look at customer acquisition, you know the health of the business in those ways, but we forget that we also need to check in with the growth of the team, the leadership team. You know and and think about, like you said, as we, with each step, our personalities, our values, they can change over time and so checking in with those and saying are we still in alignment, Am I still on my mission? You know, is this still right with me as a human, not just the business? And you know what I thought the business model was going to do? That's really powerful. I think that I'm going to ruminate on that some and try to bring that into my own experience a little more, because I can oftentimes ignore me and the human that I am behind the business owner facade and all of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for some time that would work. But we're all humans. We'll get tired of making that facade for a long time and at some point of time that's the worst thing is like where am I in all of it and I'm no longer there. So why am I doing this? And that's what I call it. The light at the end of the tunnel should be always there. But if you don't see it anymore, I mean there's no partnership, there's no business, there's nothing that would motivate you to go further, because there's no light at the end of the tunnel. And the best thing in partnership is to align on that light so that it's the same. So the end goal is the same. The past might be different because we have different qualities, we have different strengths, but the end goal is the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm going to make a trip to Louisville and I'll spend some time in meditation in your space and then maybe I can get back in alignment with who I am and where I'm going and what that end goal is who? I am and where I'm going, and what that end goal is.
Speaker 2:I'd be delighted to welcome you and welcome everybody. I know that for because it's my first time being an entrepreneur but having that corporate career, that leadership development career, consulting small businesses I'm in the middle of that and having those conversations. From time to time I got my good friends giving me calls like what would you think about it? Just tell me. And yeah, I'm a certified coach but I'm not, let's say, I've never imagined coaching as my career. It's part of the leadership development. Coaching skills for me is part of the leadership development and not career percent. So they would call me and like asking for, like coach me for a minute. And that would work Because sometimes by just talking to another person.
Speaker 2:Having that point of view makes a difference.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And our customers. They know that from time to time I might come up and just have the conversation, which would have nothing to do with the current treatment they just had, but more about thinking what? Like my favorite question, what do you think you're missing? Like, tell me, what would you like to see in here? Yeah, how can we improve? And our customers they are the best to tell us what can we do differently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so please do come.
Speaker 2:I'm a very person, people-oriented person, so I love talking.
Speaker 1:I feel, like I keep looking down at the timer and I'm like we really need to wrap this up, but I'm having so much fun and I want to keep talking with you. You're very interesting and easy to talk with. I'm very, very excited for your business and I get to talk with do you pronounce her name? Dasha? Dasha? Yes, dasha. I get to speak with her next and I'm like I don't know if I can handle much more awesomeness today, but I'm going to try.
Speaker 2:Well, you could, you could compare. I mean, you could compare us to, because, yeah, you've already got the end of the kind of the idea that we are different and yeah, yeah you would see that we are, we are, but we have a lot in common and so much different.
Speaker 2:yeah, but it's so nice talking to you. I feel like, uh, we're besties, I know so. From time to time we close our facility for a couple of hours to do the community meetings. Yes, it's like we have enough to do to think about, to digest, and the atmosphere is completely different in the area where kids are allowed and in the area where kids are not allowed where kids are not allowed.
Speaker 1:Well, it sounds amazing. I'm so happy. I'm so happy that you're offering that to the Louisville area. I'm so grateful that you and Dasha met and had this brilliant idea to go into business together. It sounds like you guys have laid such a groundwork together to be able to really make a huge impact in the world, and you already are. So thank you for everything you guys are doing, and you already are.
Speaker 2:So thank you for everything you guys are doing. Thank you, yeah, so nice talking to you.
Speaker 1:You as well. We will make sure to connect all of your socials and website and all of that, but is there anything else that you would want to leave everybody with a final thought, or anything like that?
Speaker 2:The final thought from my side would be is we built this facility, we opened this facility to make people feel healthier, and by feeling healthier, people would be happier. And that's our philosophy. It's like take care of yourself. There's nobody else who would take care of your health. Do it in a wise way, do it with the means that are available and that nature delivered, that have proven over years, and be happy, be happy.
Speaker 1:I love this conversation so much. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for having me. All right, we'll talk soon, okay, yes, bye. All right, besties, that does it for today. If you're interested in becoming a part of the small business bestie community, join us in the Facebook group or find out more information on the website at smallbusinessbestieorg. Please share the podcast with your friends, who could use a friend in business and it would really mean so much to me if you follow the show and take just a few seconds to rate or review. A five-star rating really helps the show become visible to other besties who may just need the support and friendship that we offer.