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Add mentionThis week, we welcome a new regular to the podcast team, Rob Levin, co-founder of WorkBetterNow. I first met Rob more than 20 years ago, when we were both experiencing the decline of print media. I was an editor at Inc. magazine, and Rob had started a regional publication for business owners called The New York Enterprise Report. “Starting a print publication in 2003 was not one of the smartest things I've done,” Rob says. But he learned from that experience. In 2018, Rob and a partner started WorkBetterNow, which helps American businesses hire Latin American talent. The business took off during the pandemic and has continued to grow rapidly. But in recent years, Rob began to see another disruption looming. If artificial intelligence can increasingly perform the kinds of tasks his company supplies people to do, what happens to WorkBetterNow?
Rob tells Sarah Segal and Jaci Russo how seriously he took that question, what he decided his company needed to become, and how he’s trying to position WorkBetterNow for whatever comes next. We also talk about why referrals are no longer enough to sustain the company’s growth, what went wrong when Rob tried to build an outside sales force, and what he’s learned about managing remote workers. Plus, in another Beyond Small segment brought to you by Grasshopper Bank, Sarah, Jaci, and Rob compare how they manage the cash they keep on hand—and Jaci explains why she’s sleeping better since adopting Profit First earlier this year.
Rob Levin’s book is called The New Talent Playbook.
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About 21 Hats Podcast
The 21 Hats Podcast presents an authentic weekly conversation with small business owners who are remarkably willing to share what’s working for them and what isn’t. Unlike many business podcasts, which tend to talk to highly successful entrepreneurs whose struggles are in the past, the 21 Hats Podcast features a rotating cast of business owners who are still very much in the trenches fighting the good fight. Every week, our regulars gather to talk about the kinds of important issues many owners won’t even discuss behind closed doors: whether their businesses are as profitable as they should be, whether they are willing to give up some control to an investor in order to grow faster, why they had to lay off employees, how they wound up with way too much inventory, why they don’t have a succession plan, and even why they are concerned about their own mental health. Visit 21hats.com to hear all of our podcast episodes, read episode transcripts, and learn more. The show is produced by Jess Thoubboron, founder of Blank Word.
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