It was an eventful couple of days at Thryv Connect20. Thryv hosted dozens of speakers, industry professionals and Thryv experts to bring together the small business community. We shared inspiration, advice, strategy tactics, insider tips and more.
If you registered and missed any of the sessions, log into the Connect20 page with your email address. Didn’t register? No worries. You can grab an “on-demand” ticket and watch any of the recorded sessions.
Thryv Connect20 Recap
A big thanks to NYU professor and entrepreneur, Scott Galloway, for kicking us off with a fiery keynote session. He provided lots of no-holds-barred real talk on what small businesses can expect for the future.
“To the small businesses out there, you need to think at every moment, how do you enter into a monogamous recurring revenue relationship with your consumer base,” Galloway said, when discussing the benefit of setting up subscription-based models to continue to bring in business.
“The move to recurring revenue, whether it’s through Microsoft Cloud or what Adobe has done with charging monthly fee instead of $1,200 for a piece of software is the most accretive thing a company can do.”
Thryv’s Ryan Cantor highlighted one of our newest features, ThryvPay. He walked through how we took the concept of recurring payments and fine-tuned it with added security.
“What we did was try to take what was a basic concept and expand upon it to really fit many different types of business needs,” he said. “We have their card and bank account on file, so it handles it in a 100% PCI compliant and secure way. The small business owner doesn’t have to worry about how that information is stored.”
Tips & Takeaways
Liz Sara, Chair of the National Women’s Business Council, gave advice for business owners doing it on their own.
“If you are a solo-preneur, a lot of your own credit rating and worthiness will go into the application consideration,” she explained. “Every small business really relies on the skills in multiple functional areas, and to try and do it by yourself isn’t necessary and isn’t always the best way.”
We also heard from inspiring speakers, such as small business experts Barry Moltz and Gene Marks. Sandy Lohr, CEO of Matchcraft, really broke down how to approach business in the COVID environment by understanding your various customers and their changing behaviors.
Lots of actionable tips came from Emily Washcovick of Yelp, who discussed managing online reviews. And Patrick McFadden had some truly indispensable marketing tips, especially when understanding your customer base.
“The most important step of marketing is narrowing who you’ve been trying to market to,” McFadden said. “You don’t have to cast a wide net – that inherently will cause issues.”
Christian Ward of Yext drilled home how businesses can break through the noise and reach consumers. “People don’t want to be followed around, but they do want to engage with your brand,” he said, as he unwinds the non-linear path consumers take to find the answers they’re searching for.
“COVID has elevated and accelerated the need of data and business information exponentially. As a business, it is critical that you get the data right so customers can feel confident in engaging with your brand,” Ward explained.
Growing Brands
We also heard real-life business growth stories from Thryv customers, such as Diva Dogg Grooming, and other entrepreneurs. Heather Saffer, who won Food Network’s Cupcake Wars and earned two offers on Shark Tank told her emotional story. She also gave lots of advice on pushing through to reach goals.
“Spending some time alone really helps you tap into intuition and helps you to realize what your gut is telling you to do. What internally you know be right and you know to be wrong. It helps drive you to that North Star,” she said. “I never would have succeeded if I stopped at some of my failures.”
Capping off the two-day event was Jon Taffer, host of Bar Rescue. He provided a colorful, instructive and positive look forward for businesses of all kinds. He focused on the importance of finding new customers and building their loyalty.
“If I focus on new customers and I focus on building frequency and I focus on building spend, I have an opportunity to take this baby to the promised land,” he said.
There were many more speakers and topics covered. We encourage you to head over to the Thryv Connect20 page to check out the sessions, or even rewatch one of your favorites. They will be available for online viewing until Dec. 31, 2020.
