Episode 12: In Conversation with Jerry Hoffman: Small Business Secrets Revealed.

Jerry Hoffman is one of our most experienced mentors at SCORE Houston with a distinguished career in sales, marketing, and the fashion industry—designing and manufacturing clothing from women's leather jackets to men's sweaters, managing nationwide sales teams, and developing marketing campaigns. But here's what makes Jerry exceptional: he and Raj Mashruwala have mentored over 65 entrepreneurs into successful businesses across diverse industries, restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, skincare, med spas, and wellness businesses. In conversation with PV Bala, Jerry reveals the practical, street-smart strategies that have helped dozens of Houston entrepreneurs succeed:

→ The 20-call rule - Why calling 20 businesses outside Houston transforms startup success
 → Inventory management - The #1 mistake that kills new product businesses
 → Value propositions - How to convince customers to choose YOU over competitors
 → Consignment strategy - Testing products without risk (brilliant for new brands)
 → Listening to customers - Real stories of pivots that turned failures into million-dollar businesses
 → Digital vs traditional marketing - What still matters in the age of AI

Give your comments at https://scorehoustonpodcast.blogspot.com or write to pv.bala@scorevolunteer.org. Let us know what you like of this episode and suggest subjects on which you wish to know more. 

Transcript

Introduction to Score Houston Mentor Conversations

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Mentor Conversations at SCORE Houston, where we bring you insights and stories from our mentors. You'll hear from senior executives, entrepreneurs, and professionals who volunteer their time to guide small businesses. SCORE is America's largest network of volunteer business mentors and is supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration. In Houston, we provide free, confidential mentoring and education to help entrepreneurs start, grow, and succeed. Now, let's dive into today's mentor conversation.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Welcome to Score Houston Podcast. I'm your host and Score Mentor P. Bala. Our guest today is Jerry Hoffman, a senior Score Houston mentor with a rich background in sales, marketing, and the fashion industry. Jerry spent his career designing and manufacturing clothing from women's leather jacket and sportswear to men's sweaters and kneeshirts. Beyond design, he led product development and marketing campaigns all while managing a nationwide sales team. His background gives him a deep understanding of what it takes to move a product from concept to customer. But his expertise goes well beyond fashion. He has helped entrepreneurs launch restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, skate care lines, med spas, and wellness businesses. His specialty is showing small business owners how to market their products, build strong brands, and connect with customers. We are excited to have him with us today to share his insights on turning ideas into successful ventures. Welcome Jerry to Score Youstra Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Key Career Learnings and Sales Experience

SPEAKER_02 1:58

You had a long corporate career at leadership levels and you're well experienced in sales and marketing. That means wide interaction with customers and colleagues. What are the learnings from your career?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

My experience with the last 12 years with clients that we've had is has been both good and bad because some people come unprepared. And so we have to teach them as mentors to guide them and be patient with them and be good listeners. Some of the things I I've learned. We meaning Raj and I, I co-mentor with Raj Majorala. And one of the reasons for our success, I think, has been that we're good listeners. We give homework. We make sure that we see them monthly, every four weeks, unless they need service.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

I also wanted to have an understanding, Jerry. On your long corporate career, corporate experience in sales and marketing, what are the insights that you learned or gained from that experience also, if you'd like to highlight?

SPEAKER_01 3:08

The short answer is that you need to explain the client, needs to explain to their client that they're trying to sell what benefits that client gets. If you can't explain that, and particularly in bullet form, bullet points itself, you need to convince them why they should use your services. There are other people that are competitors with you. Why should they use your service? Is the biggest thing you can tell when you're trying to sell somebody and trying to market your product, that's the biggest thing that you can do is to tell your client why they should use your services or somebody else's. And it can't be just one point or two points. It's gotta be three or four reasons why they should use your service.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

I think in your kind of industry, there is a lot of perception, the brand, the concept that the client has to accept also for buying a product, isn't it? Beyond just a product as a commodity. It's a fashion business.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Well, in the clothing business, yes, it's a fashion business. And you need, if you're starting a clothing company, you really, first of all, the number one reason why you want to go to business is because you have a tremendous passion for the business. But in addition to that, you have to have a fashion eye to go into the clothing business. And if ever I could give anybody some advice when it comes to the clothing industry or any new product that you're selling, not a service, but a product that you're selling, the most important thing is not to have too much inventory when you get started. But it's real important that you start small and grow from there, and you keep adding to your inventory as you make more sales.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Jerry, what drew you to score after the corporate career? What is the motivation for you to start mentoring?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Well, that's an easy question to answer. Number one, I wanted to give back to the community. Number two, I uh felt like I would be good at this because I'm a good talker, but I'm also a good listener. And so I do listen to the new clients that we get. And number three, which is the standard answer that uh even you have, is my wife wanted me out of the house. So those three reasons.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

I think that's pretty common, isn't it? That's true. But I guess you have the journey has been good for you. And in your long years with SCO, you and Raj have earned the reputation of being some of the best mentors. So I was wondering what is it in mentoring that makes you and Raj, of course, so successful?

SPEAKER_01 6:02

I usually answer that question. Make sure you co-mentor with Raj, who's brilliant. In addition, I contribute a little bit. We're really good listeners and we get involved with the client and what they're doing. And if there's one thing I do always, almost 90% of the time, both of us do, is that when you're going in, it doesn't matter what, have a brand new cookie that's the greatest cookie, chocolate chip cookie, or you're a med spa, or whatever you are, we make clients make 20 phone calls. I want everybody to listen here. This is one of the most important things that we have been successful with.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

We make people call make 20 phone calls to businesses that are outside of Houston, not competitors. And so a med spa calls 20 med spas in North Carolina, South Carolina, the Dakotas, California, doesn't matter where, and see if they can get lucky enough to get two people to answer them and get the feedback on how they started their business, how they were successful. And those people know more about the med spa than I know about it. Well, they will get more information. So we strongly urge people to do that.

Sales and Marketing Strategies for Startups

SPEAKER_02 7:21

That's a good point, yeah, Jerry. How critical, Jerry, is sales and marketing for an entrepreneur? You know, he comes out with a product idea, he's yeah, he gets going on that and the funding and whatnot, he gets occupied. But how can a startup be good at the sales and marketing?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, that's that's a terrific question. The answer, of course, is that you need to know your product, and I'm repeating myself here. You need to convince people what value propositions, I use the plural plot propositions, that gives a customer a reason to buy your service or your or your product. And until you can convince that customer, you're not going to get anywhere in sales. And again, you could learn by calling 20 other people how they sold their cookies or their med spa or whatever service that they're they're selling. People sometimes want to get in a rush to get in a business, and inventory is so important. Make sure you don't overbuy until you prove that you can do it. One other thing in sales that people don't know about, but it's very, very successful in our 12 years together is to put the product in on consignment. If you're selling a very unusual umbrella, let's say, you go to all the this over 300,000 gift shops in the United States. So you go to a gift shop in Houston, if you're selling in Houston, and you and you offer them consignment to sell your unusual umbrella, and you give them two months to try to sell their product. And if it sells, you make money and I make money. If it doesn't sell, I'll take it back and I'll try it in another store. So people don't use consignment enough. It's very hard to sell a new product to somebody. But if your product is so good and you're positive it's going to sell, then why not gamble and put in three to six pieces into a store and see if they can sell it? And once you put it in 10 stores and four are selling, and that's a pretty good return. You now know you have a pretty good product. And so you can go to somebody else, hey, I'm selling ABC and I'm selling DEF. And you and you can convince them, hey, it's worth trying. And by the way, it doesn't cost you anything, Mr. Retailer, right? It doesn't cost you anything. Putting it in on consignment. I'm willing to take it back.

Traditional vs Digital Marketing

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah. Yep. Tell me during your lifetime, you have been leading your sales team. Your sales team members, you'll be advising them to go travel, meet customers, convince them, and with all those bullet points and trying to sell. But the modern way of marketing is more of digital marketing. Do you think that has significantly changed the way or the importance of sales and marketing? The traditional one versus the digital one. Whereas you sit on your desk and do your website and do some AI tools to promote your product. What's your view on that?

SPEAKER_01 10:34

You're correct. That's one of my weak areas because I grew up, as you can see, I'm old. I grew up selling on loyalty and having a relationship with a client. But you're correct, everything's digital today, the internet. But what people fail to do is number one, I don't think in the 12 years I've been helping people, I don't think I've seen three websites that I've liked. Everybody puts too many words in there, nobody reads anymore. So websites, number one, should be very clean and to the point. They all should be full of bullet points. They should be full of testimonials, but video testimonials. Again, the most important thing is please tell the customer what benefits they get by using your product or your service. That's a tremendous failure. Everybody goes on the website, they just say, hey, we have a really nice product. What good does that mean? What benefits do I get?

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

I'm screaming at the client right now. You know, yeah. The reason Roger and I work together is because he's the nice guy and I'm the nasty guy. We make a good team.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

But I remember I sought your help for a client who was in the clothing industry and I was a very interesting listener as you were mentoring. So you do a lot more than being nasty.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Thank you. I'd like to add something that you may be going to ask me this question, but I had two examples of stores that that became successful but were failing at the beginning. So one of them, Raj and I had a coffee shop. That coffee shop now has grown from one to three stores and doing over$3 million. Wow. But when she started the first nine months, uh, we had decided she'd got a liquor license and we were going to do coffee in the morning, lunch uh sandwiches, and then at night we would sell liquor. Well, total failure on the liquor. Nobody was interested, nobody came to that area. And so she listened to the customer. You need to listen to your customer. And so the customer kept saying, I wish you had breakfast. And now breakfast is almost equal to lunch. And so she listened to the customer and turned her business around from nine months to a successful story. The second story I'd like to share with you is Roger and I had a guy, his partner was a chemist, and so they came up with a product to wash the underside of your car from rust, which is normally in the north and the northeast. So they would clean the rust off of the cars because of the snow and everything, uh, the cars would rust.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

And he was doing okay, but he was limited particularly to the north and northeast. And COVID came. And he's a chemist, and so he came up with a product to clean, clean desks and walls and clean the offices. And of course, all the big companies, they were so overloaded with business that they needed somebody else. And that guy in six months did a million dollars turning, so he turned his business around by being alert to what was going on, just like the coffee shop was alert to what was going on and listening to the client.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

So this uh the second guy now, what business he's in? He's doing the car underside as well as the disinfectant.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Yeah, correct. The disinfectant has uh come down a little a lot because they go back to their original customer. They couldn't get delivery, so that's why they went to the big boys. So he's lost his business, so he's back to that, but he's expanded to doing boats, cleaning boats uh with that same rust product. Yeah, and then he's also expanded by having people start a business business using his product.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Oh, okay, good. Yeah, that's very good.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

So the lesson, the lessons here is listen to your customer and what they have to say.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

I think you get more opportunities by listening to the customer and fine-tuning your product.

Customer-Driven Business Growth

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah. The customer will give you uh great ideas in my own clothing business. Uh-huh. When I would visit with a customer, they would say, Boy, I wish I had an unusual boating shirt like you're wearing. And then I would take that idea and I put it in my line. So again, listening to the customer.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Yeah, that's right. You know, many of our clients want to start a service or marketing consumer products in their brands. Many of these are already competitive. You know, there are many players, but they can still be successful if they target their segment well. Don't you think so?

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, I do. But I encourage people that because there's such competition, unless they have something so unique that it's exclusive, that they start slow and also work with their friends and family to have them test the product. And doing consignment again, because you want to get your product exposed. And so when people try it, you see whether it's capable of selling. And by limiting the amount of inventory that you put out there, you can test your product and still try. And again, I go back to the same story. If you will call 20 people to find out how they became successful, it will encourage them to go into bit business because they now have a way of how how was a med spar, you know, well, how do they have any customers? How do I get started?

Advice for New Entrepreneurs

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Yeah. See, there are clients who are not employed, they don't have a job, and they don't have a steady income. Yet the approaches for a new business and need funding. So, in this case, how do what do you advise them?

SPEAKER_01 16:56

That's a really good question again, because we do come across that. First thing I say is if you really want to go in the clothing business, or you really want to start a coffee shop, you need to find out yourself how to run a coffee shop or how do you run a clothing business. And so number one priority is you need to get the job first, learn the business, then you can go to the bank and say, Look, I've worked three years or two years at so-and-so. I know this business backwards and forwards. I've saved up this much money, try to get started that way. But number one emphasis is getting the job. I don't immediately just say, hey, you can't get a loan, and being rude to the client. You need to tell the client that it's important that they learn the business. And so they will benefit so much by learning the business by working at a particular store.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Oh, very true. Some advice to clients. There are entrepreneurs coming wanting to start a business, but they don't have some ideas. They don't have any idea, they don't have any products, and they just come to us saying that I want to start a business. They seek your advice on what opportunities exist. I think what we end up doing is encourage them to look what area of business they could possibly succeed based on experience, or they have a customer, or they have a supplier, or they are a product. There is some basis on which to start a business. With no basis, very difficult to move, right?

The Rewards of Mentoring

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, the answer to that is we give them homework and say, explain to us why someone would buy your sportswear line or why they would buy your coffee shop when you know nothing about the coffee shop business. So for homework, I want you to write a four-page story about why your coffee shop's gonna work and how you tell me how you're gonna do it. True.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Good, Jerry. How is your mentoring experience so far? How it has enriched your own life or professional journey, and what keeps you going year after year?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

The perfect question. The answer, of course, is the thrill of putting somebody in business and that they become successful is it's like hitting a home run in a baseball game. It's just so heartwarming. I don't know how many people Raj and I put in business, but it's over 65 people. Wow. Yeah. Lovely, lovely. And it's not all of them a million dollars, but it's just a sideline business for them, but they make an extra 20,000, 30, or 40,000 a year. But it's a thrill to help them get started and be successful.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Yeah, anyway, they are much better off now than what they were when they approached you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Thank you, Jari, for the time and the conversation. A good piece of advice for our clients. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah, thanks. Good person to ask questions. Send it up real good for you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Bye. Yeah.

Closing and Contact Information

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Good luck, T. Thanks for listening to Mentor Conversations at Score Houston. If you're an entrepreneur or small business owner, we'd love to support your journey. You can reach us at 713-487-6565, or visit us at 8701-South Gestner, Suite 1200, Houston, Texas, 77074. Our office is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., except for federal holidays. Walk-ins are always welcome. To learn more, to request free mentoring, or to register for workshops, visit us online at score.orgslash Houston. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and remember, at Score, we're here to help you thrive.