Entrepreneur Interview: Paul Tran of Point B Capital Corporation

Business Name:
Point B Capital Corporation

Website URL:
http://www.paulttran.com

Year Founded:
2006

Number of Employees: 2

What does your company do?
Point B Capital Corporation is a globally diversified company with subsidiaries in franchising, business advisory, private investment, and financial planning services. He has been involved in corporate banking, real estate, restaurant ownership; and has been featured in Entrepreneur, Smart Money, CNN, and other business and financial media. He writes articles and blogs on personal and business matters at http://www.paulttran.com.

Was there a specific turning point when you realized your business was moving to the next level?

My business’ inflection point really happened in 2009 when the economy took a downturn and my business revenue was still increasing. I was well positioned – in my franchising business, executives who were laid off with big severance packages were looking to do something for themselves and control their destiny for once. I helped them get into franchises that aligned with their monetary goals and passions. In my financial planning businesses, laid off people needed health insurance coverage, a place to transfer their retirement funds, and a life insurance review. And my private investments business were diversified not in the stock market or real estate, but other alternative vehicles, like foreign currency, precious metals, and insulated/un-aligned investments.

What processes or procedures have you implemented that have helped grow your company?
In my financial planning business, I:
* Kept open communication with my clients during the downturn; even though investment portfolios were suffering, everybody’s was, and we played counselor to help them ease their stress, and put things into long-term perspective
* Partnered up with companies who were laying off their workers, so that their ex-workers could transition into unemployment smoothly, with programs like (1) How to apply for unemployment; (2) Applying for health insurance after their employers plans expired; (3) Financial advising for their 401K’s that couldn’t stay at their employer anymore. It was all about educational, supportive workshops
* Partnered up with strategic advisors i.e. CPA’s, insurance agents, real estate agents, etc.

In my franchising business, I:
* Partnered up with business lenders to offer programs to entrepreneurs who needed financing to fund their businesses
* Created educational white papers and workshops that talked about great real estate in this down economy, a great labor pool to help them grow their companies, and performed strategic plans for clients

In overall business, I:
* Delegated a lot of administrative and unmeaningful work to outsourced companies, so that I could be a more lean machine, and more nimble in this volatile economy
* I hired or partnered up with people in my same industry for referral opportunities so that I could focus on my main and most profitable clients, and everybody gets the best service possible. You can’t please everybody, and if 20% of your clients produce 80% of your revenue, you’ll want to focus on that 20%, and worry less about sorting through 80% of the business that you can outsource.

What is most rewarding about running your business?

I get to control my own destiny, my hours, not miss out on family time and important non-work dates, not tie my life to my job, and I’m doing meaningful things that I’m passionate about – for my finances, my life, and the world. To know I’m really contributing to the economy is great!

What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?
A slower sales cycle. Although I am getting a good inflow of prospects, people are more afraid, and cautious, so it takes a little more patience, hand-holding and time. But it’s well worth it once they become clients. Cross-selling, referrals, and repeat sales are easy with the right product, relationship, and doing what’s right for the customer!

If you were starting over today, what would you do differently?
I would’ve outsourced a lot of unmeaningful tasks much quicker, I would’ve hired my executive business coach a lot sooner to help me cut through inefficiencies.

What advice do you have for other business owners?
* Always ask for help; there is no shortage of mentors that want to help you i.e. SCORE, local business leaders, etc. What I’ve found is that most are very approachable, despite popular thinking that they’re too busy or don’t want to be bothered. It’ll help cut your learning and mistake curve tremendously
* Spend time planning, but there are an infinite amount of factors, figures, and options – so don’t get caught up in paralysis by analysis, or waiting for your plan to be “perfect.” Just execute everyday, make tweaks along the way,a nd

Please list any favorite books, tools or resources (software, website, etc.) you would recommend for others:
BOOKS
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Who Moved My Cheese
Execution
The 4-Hour Work Week
The Millionaire Next Door
Think & Grow Rich
The Richest Man in Babylon

TOOLS
Salesforce.com – the monster in customer relationship software
Ace of Sales – a great way to create unique, differentiated emails and newsletters to clients, prospects, and partners

What is something that people might be surprised to learn about you?
I love singing. I grew up in a family that was financially poor, but rich in faith and spirit. I owned a Louisiana seafood restaurant. I’ve been in corporate banking. I’ve rode the mortgage refinance book when it was about to go down. I grew up very early (I’m 28).