There are many articles, courses, programs, marketing tools, professionals, consultants, and advisors that can help your company make money, increase profits, and zero in on your marketing to grow your business.
- But what about an almost invisible drain on your company income, the timewasting, and stress that comes with losses – especially after working so hard to be successful?
- What about stopping a preventable leak of hard-earned profits that can cost thousands, millions, even billions?
We tend to focus on the pipeline to profit, not on the holes that drain away money, time, and resources before we can react. And if your business has investor funding or is seeking investor funding, don’t you owe it to them to ensure their money is not wasted, whether losses are visible or not?
Today, we talk with the dynamic duo from NoticeNinja, who are a Vision Master / Execution Master team that addresses saving companies from unnecessary and significant monetary losses. Investors weight the value of a company’s team heavily when considering investing. If you have the golden combination of a great team and an excellent product or service, you have a winner.
Chances are your company, or someone you know could profit from their offering! But in the meantime, enjoy their story.
Rob Kramarz:
This is Rob Kramarz, Robert Steven Kramarz founder of Intelliversity, and this is the Vision Master Podcast where we talk to or about our fellow vision masters. And here today, we have one of the best I know, Rick and Amanda Pinkerman of Notice Ninja. How are you today?
Rick Pinkerman:
Great Rob, how are you doing?
Amanda Pinkerman:
Hi, Rob. Thanks for having us on.
Rob Kramarz:
So briefly. What does NoticeNinja do?
Rick Pinkerman:
Well, Rob, you know that companies are buried under 200 billion in tax penalties every year. Our software rescues companies from penalty hell. We can save companies billions.
Rob Kramarz:
So penalty hell. So where is that? I mean, what does that feel like to be in penalty hell?
Amanda Pinkerman:
Well, let me tell you a story of one of our biggest clients, entertainment partners. They were inundated with notices, penalties. They were buried under piles of them and they were using manual inefficient air prone processes. That’s penalty hell, they did a Google search, they located our software solution and we were able to give them oversight and reduce their penalties tremendously.
Rob Kramarz:
So for the CFO and CEO that you’re serving, what does it feel like to be in penalty hell?
Rick Pinkerman:
Well, the CFOs, CEOs right now, especially in the current time and situation we’re in, I mean, they’re really in a lot of stress because of, these penalties, not only are our clients, the people that are managing these notices have been worked furloughed. So they’re not even able to do the work, but some of the agencies, they have been shut down. So not only are these notices still going out, but there’s no one even at the companies to manage it. And even if there was someone at the company, there’s no one at the agency to respond to.
Rob Kramarz:
What does it feel like to be in penalty hell?
Amanda Pinkerman:
It’s a very stressful situation. You’re worried about seizures, levies, liens. You could lose your business if you aren’t up on your penalties and your notices. If you aren’t tracking them properly, if you aren’t processing them properly, they can really threaten your business and threaten your position with the company.
Rob Kramarz:
All right, awesome. So now you’re growing the company towards a hundred million dollar business in five years. So you’re seeking investors to join you in that journey and tell me quickly, what kind of person would you like to have as your investors?
Amanda Pinkerman:
Well, we’re looking for somebody who is trustworthy and we are looking for somebody who’s aligned with our goals. That will be really important that we’re all in alignment, we’re on the same page and we want to do the same thing.
Rick Pinkerman:
Yeah. The trust obviously is the biggest thing for us. We got to be able to trust each other because we’re going to be doing a lot of great things here together.
Rob Kramarz:
All right, speaking about togetherness, so you’re a couple running a business now, you’ve been married for how long?
Amanda Pinkerman:
20 years.
Rob Kramarz:
You have three kids, right?
Amanda Pinkerman:
Three kids, three teenagers.
Rob Kramarz:
Plus a business, that’s your other kid, right?
Amanda Pinkerman:
Plus our business, yes.
Rob Kramarz:
That’s the crying baby that’s always got your attention. So some investors, as you know, view couples running companies as not really a, there’s an extra risk factor there, but it has a plus side too. So how do you balance and separate your roles in this company?
Amanda Pinkerman:
Well, I handle business development. So I’m working on the front side of the relationship with the clients and Rick is in operations. So he’s really helping clients once they move in and they’re working with us on a day to day basis.
Rick Pinkerman:
Yeah, I’m more back end and Amanda is more of the front end. And then we do a lot of stuff together on the backside for administration work as well.
Rob Kramarz:
And you’ve worked together long enough and well enough together that you know that you actually do compliment each other.
Rick Pinkerman:
This isn’t our first rodeo, we sold our last company in 2008. So we’ve worked together and the more we work together, the stronger we get.
Rob Kramarz:
So that’s the plus side that you really know each other very well and you know how to make this work and you’ve already had one business-
Amanda Pinkerman:
Yeah. And we know who has the strength in which areas, I think we’re really respectful of that. And it’s great when we’re together and the clients feel that, our relationships are built from both of us.
Rick Pinkerman:
Yes.
Rob Kramarz:
Perfect. Well, now that you’ve just completed the bootcamp program that George Kenney and Shepherd Ventures offers that I recommended to you. And briefly, what did you get out of that that will help you work with investors going forward?
Rick Pinkerman:
Well, first of all, thanks to Rob for introducing us to George and Shepherd Ventures. It’s been a really great, very positive, Amanda, why don’t you tell them a little bit about what we’ve got out of it so far?
Amanda Pinkerman:
We’ve really come to learn what the investor’s looking for. We lacked that over the last year when we were doing fundraising and working with you and George has allowed us to understand the perspective of the investor. What’s important to the investor? And it has just given us the ability to take a step back, maybe a 40,000 foot view of what we’re doing and be able to really identify the right people that we are looking for as well, as much as they’re looking for us, we’re looking for them because it’s a relationship we’re going to have for a while. So it’s important.
Rob Kramarz:
Well, that’s what we were aiming for you to get out of it. So awesome. I wish we had more time today to continue the chat because there’s a lot to talk about, but for now I’d like to just sign off with this is Rick and Amanda Pinkerman on the Vision Master Podcast from Intelliversity. This is Robert Steven Kramarz and that’s the way it will be.