Time We Discuss: Small Business Process Improvement Consultant (Marty Dunn)
Watch/Listen to this Episode Small Business Process Improvement Consultant (Marty Dunn)
Small business owners often excel at their craft but struggle with the operational systems needed to sustain growth. In this episode of Time We Discuss, host Dan interviews consultant Marty Dunn who specializes in process improvements for service based small businesses. Throughout the conversation Marty explains how improving processes, establishing clear workflows and strengthening daily operations can transform a business that is chaotic into one that is predictable and profitable. His approach combines financial insight, leadership coaching and detailed analysis of how a business functions at every step.
Marty's Specialty in Process Improvements
The central theme of the episode is Marty's deep focus on process improvements. He works with businesses that are excellent at the work they provide but lack the systems and procedures that keep operations organized. Many clients come to him because they feel overwhelmed or stuck. They may be in constant reaction mode, solving problems as they appear, instead of having documented processes that prevent those issues from occurring.
Marty evaluates how each business completes its everyday tasks. He observes how employees communicate, how customers move through the pipeline and where unnecessary friction slows everything down. By redesigning these processes he creates smoother workflows that save time, reduce mistakes and increase profitability. Business owners gain clarity and teams gain structure because they finally know what to do and in what order.
What Types of Businesses Marty Helps
Marty primarily works with service based companies such as electricians, plumbers, landscapers, marketing firms and professional organizers. While the industries vary they share a common challenge. Leaders often run the business the same way they did when it was only one or two people. As the team grows those informal habits begin to break down. Communication becomes inconsistent and training becomes unpredictable.
This is where process improvements make the biggest impact. Marty helps create repeatable methods for scheduling, invoicing, hiring, onboarding and quality control. When these processes are documented and refined the owner no longer has to personally manage every detail. A company that once depended entirely on the founder can now operate smoothly with a team following clear procedures.
A Look into Marty's Daily Work
Marty's day is centered on improving operations. Some days are filled with client meetings where he reviews process maps, performance metrics or task management systems. Other days involve outreach, sales calls or strategy development for his own consulting company. He also sets aside time for exercise and personal routines which help him stay mentally sharp.
Client sessions typically involve asking detailed questions about how work gets done, observing communication patterns and identifying bottlenecks. He may help rework a workflow so it requires fewer steps or adjust team responsibilities to eliminate duplicated effort. His goal is not minor tweaks but meaningful process improvements that permanently change how the business functions.
How Marty Transitioned into Consulting
Marty's background includes economics, accounting, financial services and cybersecurity. Throughout his career he gained experience improving internal processes and streamlining company operations. Eventually he realized he enjoyed the systems side of business more than anything else and he wanted to help more than one company at a time.
Leaving a corporate job to become a consultant required resilience. Marty explains that the first year is difficult because you must learn sales, build a client base and manage unpredictable income. Over time his focus on process improvements became his signature strength and his business stabilized. He now helps owners avoid the same mistakes he once made.
The Role of Teamwork and Leadership in Process Improvement
A major insight from Marty is that you cannot improve processes without improving leadership. He uses lessons from sports and music to illustrate how teams function. A band can only perform at its best when every musician stays in tune and follows the same rhythm. Likewise a business can only excel when its team follows consistent processes and receives supportive leadership.
Marty teaches a method called Build Break Build where leaders recognize strengths, offer constructive coaching and then reinforce confidence. This approach makes process improvements easier to adopt because the team feels respected rather than criticized. He stresses that leaders must take responsibility for creating the environment where good processes can thrive.
Operations and Finance Working Together
While Marty has strong financial training he notes that only a portion of his work is finance related. The majority involves operations and process analysis. Many owners he meets are unfamiliar with essential financial concepts such as net profit or EBITDA. When financial metrics are paired with strong processes, companies gain a clearer view of their performance and can make better decisions about scaling.
For example, a business might raise prices or hire another employee but without clean workflows those changes will not fix underlying inefficiencies. Process improvements provide the foundation that financial strategies depend on. Marty guides owners through both areas so their companies operate with stability and confidence.
Why Networking is Essential for Small Business Growth
Marty strongly encourages owners to join local networking organizations. He belongs to BNI which he describes as an extended sales team that generates consistent referrals. Networking supports process improvement because owners learn from others, receive feedback and build partnerships that help fill operational gaps.
He shares examples of finding trustworthy vendors through networking groups and how those relationships become part of a strong referral ecosystem. For new entrepreneurs joining such a group early helps accelerate their learning curve and provides accountability while they build their internal processes.
Advice for New Business Owners
Marty recommends joining a networking group even before launching a business. This creates a support structure while the owner builds their processes and prepares for opening day. New owners should also begin documenting how they want their company to operate. Even simple steps like outlining how to answer phones or manage client intake can save time and prevent confusion later.
He encourages owners to focus on process improvements rather than relying on memory or informal habits. A clear system creates consistency which improves customer experience and builds trust with employees.
Community Involvement and Personal Values
Marty also volunteers in youth sports and uses the interview to encourage parents to treat volunteers with respect. His coaching philosophy mirrors his consulting approach. Whether on a sports field or in a business, people need positive guidance and structured processes in order to grow.
Links from the Show
Also Mentioned Directly or Indirectly in This Episode:
- Becoming a Sommelier with Nathan Bihm
- Decluttering for a Living
- Pro Organizer Organizes Offices, Homes, and Lives.
- Becoming a Mentor with Doug Lawrence
🎧 Listen to the Full Episode
Discover the full story and more insightful conversations at Time We Discuss, where we explore real careers with real people.
Watch on YouTube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts Other Podcast Platforms
Consider sharing this video and podcast. By helping "Time We Discuss", together, we are helping others.
Transcription
*Transcription was automatically generated and may contain errors.(Music)
Marty Dunn: Every situation is different for everybody. Everything's an opportunity. To me, the transition was, "Hey, this is my next step and it makes total sense." Now, I will tell you, it's...
Dan: Today on "Time We Discuss," I wanna welcome Marty Dunn and it's time we discuss what it's like working as a small business consultant. Marty, thank you for joining me today.
Marty Dunn: Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Dan: Absolutely, so the one question I always start out with, what is a typical day like for you as a small business consultant?
Marty Dunn: There's not a pure typical day, but we'll go through what things, it depends whether I'm doing sales meetings for myself or if I'm doing client delivery, I vary day by day. Typical day in the morning, wake up, kind of get my kids out of the house, make sure everything's going well, get to the gym, make sure I'm taking care of myself physically and mentally every day. But then my meetings start. I typically meet with my clients once a week, so I'll have three to four client meetings a day or if I'm doing sales calls, I'll have anywhere from 10 to 15 of those a day. So it varies by day.
Dan: Have you always been in consulting or at some point did you leave a job to become a consultant? How did you get to be in this current role?
Marty Dunn: That's actually my favorite question. I grew up in financial services, which worked at State Street, J.B. Morgan SEI, worked at a hedge fund, was all over the place. Realized, through my career at smaller and smaller, smaller companies, right? Left the hedge fund, gosh, I wanna say in 2018, 2019, somewhere in there, and then started a small business doing cybersecurity consulting and a value added reseller, which a lot of people don't know what that is, helped to deliver a vendor and there's hardware software over the government or large businesses, things of that nature. Was there for about five years and I realized, I love the small business world, but I was doing the same thing over and over again for one business. I realized I had a skill set and I refer to myself as the operations nerd and people were like, really? I'm like, yeah, I wear that like a badge of honor. I'm cool with it. I'm an operations nerd. I know how the central part of a company should work. And I realized what I really wanna do was help as many companies as I could with that, right? So I go in and I help somebody who's, we primarily work with service-based businesses, the plumbers, the electricians, the landscapers, the marketing companies, them, right? They're all excellent at what they do, right? They're not, so they all started there in a couple of different ways. A lot of times, they didn't like the person they were working for and they wanted to do it themselves. They had a better idea of how to do it. You build a better bread box or, hey, I got mad at this guy and I'm gonna go make money more than that guy did, so I'm gonna start my own company. That's all well and good, but running a company is not the same thing as providing the service, right? So we come in and we help provide that, help run the company so it runs smoothly because if you ask a plumber, show me what your net profit is or tell them about EBITDA, they're gonna look at you like you have four heads, like I have no idea what you're doing, right? They're not used to deal with employee problems. They're not used to dealing with setting up an LLC, why go S Corp versus C Corp, right? Why did it incorporate in Delaware instead of New York or Pennsylvania or Jersey, all of the things. These are all the nerdy things that I do and I love doing. So I handle everything from operations, finance, leadership, team culture, team development, things of that nature.
Dan: It's funny you mentioned operations nerd. I was speaking with, I forgot his name, a sommelier, a wine expert and he referred to himself as a wine nerd. So I appreciate that. Some things coming back from the past, which is nice. So you talked about financial services, you talked about cybersecurity. What is your background in education? Do you come from a tech background? Do you come from a finance background, a business background? What is that like for you?
Marty Dunn: So I came from economics major in college and then obviously that helped with the financial services area, but I quickly, everyone's like, oh, you're going to finance, you're gonna be a trader. I didn't wanna be a trader. I didn't wanna be that guy, right? I wanted to fix processes, make things better, make things smoother, create workflows, right? That's operations 101, right? I learned very early in my career, I started in accounting and kind of went through things and I was like, hey, this isn't right. And I made things better, right? Hey, this failed process isn't right. Let me fix this and make it better, right? That was my passion, that's what I love doing. And that's why I call myself the operations nerd because who's passionate about fixing processes, right? This guy, right? But I realized my education helped to get me in the door with that, but process and workflow doesn't necessarily derive from economics or finance. It devides from doing things in a proper manner and making things efficient, right? So of course my education helped me in the beginning changed my career and quite frankly, it helps me now but from the financial side, but the core of what we do from the operations and finance side, I'd say probably 20% is finance driven and the rest is the operational and team development, team culture, leadership development.
Dan: In your current role as a consultant, do you work with another company? Are you self-employed? What is your role in that aspect?
Marty Dunn: I have a business partner, real good friend. I've known him for about 20 years. He went to the same high school I did, but he's younger than me, didn't know him in high school. He ended up playing on a men's league lacrosse team with me and he was brought in by another guy and really good dude, really passionate, really hardworking, similar mindset that I am, think let's figure out a way to do things. So a couple of years ago, he'd started something with AI driven financial services for FP&A, financial planning analysis. And he really wanted to figure out how to deliver that to small businesses and realized quickly that he wanted to shift consulting and we joined forces when I was leaving the cybersecurity company and kind of haven't really looked back from there. It's been self-employed, if you will, because we own the company, we've a couple of people who work for us and I say with us, not for us, because I don't need people working for me. The people who work with us are phenomenal and they don't need me to run the show for them. But kind of circling back, you've talked about education. I think sports provide just as much of an education as school does. A lot of the lessons learned from sports translate over a wall into the consulting world of how to develop leaders. You wanna be the captain, not the best player on the team, because you can be both, but the captain is more important. Helping small business leaders, owners become leaders is a lot of what we do. And I think a lot of that was derived as much from the playing field as it was from the classroom.
Dan: Let's talk about that a little bit more. So my background, I'm a music guy. I was never good at sports. I tried a bunch of them, it was not my thing. So I went the music road. So talk to me more about that. What are some of those transferable skills that people that have developed playing sports can take them with them into the professional world? Something that might've overlooked when they're doing their resume or something like that.
Marty Dunn: All right, I'm gonna relate this for you. Were you in the band?
Dan: I was.
Marty Dunn: Cool, all right. Imagine being at a band concert, right? And what instrument did you play? Bass. All right, you're playing the bass, right? Imagine that there's a out of tune violin, right? And you're in the middle of the song and that person is not hopped in and you're in a high school band, there's probably eight to 10 violins. One is out of sync. Do people hear the entire song or do they hear that one out of sync violin?
Dan: Oh, they're gonna hear it.
Marty Dunn: Right, and they're gonna focus on that, right? So it's the same thing with sports, right? If you're on a lacrosse field, a football field, however many people you have, if you see that somebody's kind of out of sync, not playing well, that's the attack vector for the other team, right? So, you know, the way to solve that problem is if everybody points the finger at that guy and says, "Hey, you stunk today, what's gonna happen the next time?" They're gonna say, "Oh, I was terrible." And that mindset puts people in what we call quicksand, right? In sports transferable skill and band transferable skills, how does that, what's the best way for that person to pick them to get picked up? Because in their head, they've got the negative thought now, right? The best way to do it is not by saying, "Hey, I can do better." It's just saying, "Hey, Dan, you played the bass great today. You were awesome, right?" Bring positive energy to somebody else because no matter how many times Dan says to that person playing the violin, it was wrong, right? You know, they're never gonna have that belief that it was okay, right? Once they start bringing positive outcomes to other people, that's when their attitude picks back up, right? It's the same thing in business, right? You know, if you teach people that, you know, it's, you know, mistakes are made everywhere and it's okay. Everyone's human, we all make mistakes, right? Well, in class, everyone wanted to get a hundred, right? Everyone wanted to do, listen, none of us are perfect, right? And quite frankly, we're not all robots and we're great at school or great at sports or great at music or whatever it is. But what I learned, you know, from the playing field is, you know, that what we just were just talking about, attitude, effort, gratitude, those are the three things that you can control, right? That gratitude off one, right? Somebody else makes mistakes in your company as a leader, you can't say, well, you screwed up. That's bad, right? What you gotta say is, how do we do it better next time, right? And, you know, one of the methods we use is called Build Break Build, right? You know, you learn this as, you know, when the athletic field coaching, you know, everything is, hey, it was, you did this part really well. You need to work on this, but it was awesome when you did this, right? That comes from at the athletic field, but that leaves somebody something to work on, but a positive outcome out of it, right? If you kind of hit that person, played the violin wrong and said, you really messed up our song, man. That guy's gonna go home, think about it all night, think about how terrible it was, all these things. You're a team, man. You're one band, right? Listen, if that violinist fails, we all fail. And as a leader, and like, you know, the director of the band, they can't point to the violin player and say, hey, we weren't prepared properly. I didn't prepare you guys properly, right? You know, that's a hard pill of swallow for a business owner, right? But that's what being a leader is, right? Being a leader is, hey, and I call it, you know, the extreme mentality of it is, everything's my fault, right? How do I make it better, right? That's how the captain works. That's how the leader of the band works. That's how Dan, the bass player, picks up the violin player, right? All these things, like, as you go through it, they're all related. Band is no different than a team's work, period, right? That's the way it works.
Dan: I love that. I love that analogy and how you can take that and apply to the business world or your job or your team or whatever. Really, really cool concept. Okay, so let's go back and talk about your transition from being an employee with these larger companies and then going and switching into consulting and being the owner of a business. Let's talk about that process, because a lot of times, you know, you start out and you might, you know, you do it on the side or maybe you lost your job and you decide to start a business. Everyone's story is different. How did that story happen for you?
Marty Dunn: I love helping others. And for me, it was natural, right? It was naturally like, hey, I'm gonna, Josh came to me, was like, hey, I got this thing I'm working on, you know, what are your thoughts? And I was ready to leave my other company. I've been there for five years. I kind of grown it to where I could, you know, the main owner was kind of more focused on himself than he was on the team, you know, wasn't being the proper leader. So I was, you know, it was time, right? Let's call it that. Cause that's the best way to describe it. And you know, I believe every, you know, every situation is different for everybody, but everything's an opportunity, right? For me, hey, listen, and you know, I don't care what it is, please, sorry, I'm Christian. I believe God puts me in places where I should be at the right times. You know, for me, God put Josh back in my life at my business partner to say, hey, Marty, what about this way to do it? I was like, it's right up my alley. This is exactly what I was looking to do anyway. This is perfect, right? So to me, the transition was, hey, this is my next step and it makes total sense. Now I will tell you, it's not for the weak mind, the weak at heart, right? Because there's ups and downs, right? You know, now you, you know, call it, you eat what you kill, right? It's no longer the cushy, I have a base salary and I can do these things, whatever. You have to make sure that you're prepared for the rough seas of, hey, I gotta go get customers. I am now have to do sales, right? Which, you know, sales wasn't my forte, but I'm not terrible at it. So, you know, that's part of the process, right? You know, you have to trust that you have a skillset that you can deliver that's gonna help. And if you will portray that to people, right? So, you know, there are some mentally taxing days. So for me, it was a natural transition, but it was also a, wow, okay, I gotta really be able to pick myself up on those down days, right? So, you know, it was great for the natural transition to this, but there are days, let's put it that way. And there are fewer and far between now that, you know, we're more established, you know, we're two years into this, you know, but the first couple of months are, you know, they're interesting.
Dan: Before we started recording, we talked briefly about different organizations that are available for small business owners. I think those are the International Business Network or something like that. What are some resources that are out there for small business owners that are just really, really beneficial?
Marty Dunn: So every business owner should look at networking, right? You know, all the VCs have brought some of these other companies for the service-based companies, and they can pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into marketing, right? Small business can't do that, right? So, you know, and our mission statement is, you know, is to help small businesses be David at fighting against Goliath, right? So in that, okay, how do we help them for that? I want you to go to network. I want you to go find people who can, you know, understand what you do, be trustworthy to you, and you be trustworthy to them, so they have a, hey, I got a guy, right? You know, go join that network group and find your, you know, extended family, if you will, right? Because, you know, I'm in what's called a BNI, right? And, you know, I've been there for about a year. I love it. I got a great group of 48 people who are quote unquote salespeople for me, not, you know, because they're spreading, you know, what I do. And they all get to hear me tell them what I do pretty frequently. So they get to hear the stories of who I'm helping and what I'm doing. Small business owners should go do that, right? Go find that network of people who can help. Join your chamber of commerce, right? You know, call me if you have questions. I'm happy to be a resource for people, right? And I'll help direct people what to do, where to go there. But go do those things to extend your sales force, extend your marketing, right? Because, you know, you're not, you're not alone out there when you feel like you really are when you're a small business owner.
Dan: When people are first starting with their business, how often does this happen? And I don't know if you have the answer to this or not. I'm just curious. How often do people join these organizations and their businesses are like day one, they are like at the very, very early stages. Does that ever happen? Or is it no, they're already all the time?
Marty Dunn: All the time, yeah. So certain people know, have had good mentors or good friends say, hey, listen, I know this sounds weird, but you need to do this right away, right? Like we have one guy who came into our BNI and his company is not even starting yet. So he's launching in January. He's been with us for two months and he's talking about what he's gonna do, right? Cause he's building it out. It's great for that, right? Because now he's got, okay, I know I have this, these group of people who's gonna help me and they know what I do and they can talk about it. And I can be a trust resource for them as we go, right? It's not the most prevalent way it goes about it. And all that happens is you join a chamber of commerce, right? Or you go to a happy hour networking event, right? Something and oh, you should do this. Come here, a friend of a friend invites you. But you really wanna get in there earlier than later because it really, mentally it's phenomenal. But as far as the extended sales force and network, it's tremendous. Cause somebody always knows somebody who might need something.
Dan: So how often does that happen where you have, you get almost business referrals by meeting other people that are there? I'm assuming that's probably pretty common, right?
Marty Dunn: Yeah, so that's what, BNI is all about that. But like, I'll give a plug for one of my BNI members. I do my HVAC through Boyle Energy, right? Right there in Havertown. I never would have heard of them through it. But in hearing him give his tenant presentation, this guy Pat Boyle, great dude, third generation like, guy, owner, he never will sell off to VC, the venture capital. He's family owned and operated forever. And hearing how they do business, that made me comfortable using them for me, right? So, and that was a phenomenal resource for me. Now I can refer with confidence, hey, you need HVAC, go talk to Pat Boyle, right? So that's easy and shameless plug for you, Pat, you better thank me for that. But like, things like that, like other things too, like there's a woman who's tremendously organized, her name's Nicole Dillon, she's a professional organizer. And she does it with a green thumb in mind, right? It's awesome, she's great. And she's amazing at what she does. She's great for realtors, she's great for junk removal companies, things like that. So I can refer her out to as many people as I can there, right? Where she wouldn't have that.
Dan: Marty, this conversation has been wonderful. Unfortunately, I am running short on time, but one thing I like to do, whenever I'm speaking with someone, I like to give them the opportunity to talk about a project they're working on, a cause they believe in, more about their business. So if there's something specific you'd like to discuss, the floor is yours.
Marty Dunn: Sure, my company is named Mingma, M-I-N-G-M-A. We help small businesses with their operations and the leadership of all things. If anybody needs any help, feel free to call up, do a free consultation with me, happy to do as many as those as I need to help people. As organizations, I run youth sports. One thing I'll plug for everybody, if you have children in youth sports, everyone is generally a volunteer. The refs get paid very low amounts of money. They have been few and far between now because parents have been ridiculous to them. Please be gentle in youth sports and understand that coaches are volunteers. Refs are doing this and barely making ends meet off of it. Trust me, they don't care if who wins or loses, they don't have an interest in the game. This is not Vegas, they're not betting on it. Please be gentle with them. That is my shameless plug because trust me, I've seen the gamut of it and the ugliestness of parents is just awful.
Dan: Marty, I'm really glad you mentioned that because I do have young kids and I've witnessed that as well, that the parents can be very, very intense.
Marty Dunn: Yes, you're not winning the world championship at Youth Soccer, Youth Lacrosse, Youth Football people, I think, and people make mistakes. It's okay. And if you truly want to understand what it's like, go volunteer to coach a team for a season. You'll understand how frustrating it is to do it.
Dan: I'm gonna doubly encourage everyone to go do that.
Marty Dunn: It's awesome.
Dan: Marty, I'll make sure I get links for your website, for your company. I'll put them on the website. They'll be the description. They'll be all over the place. So when people are trying to find you, they can easily find you.
Marty Dunn: Awesome.
Dan: Marty, it's been absolutely awesome having you on Time We Discuss and we learned what it's like being a small business consultant.
Marty Dunn: Thanks for having me, man. Great time. I appreciate it.