The Small Business Startup School

Ola Williams brings over 20 years of experience as a retail entrepreneur, fintech founder, and certified financial coach to The Small Business Startup School, and that combination of street-level business experience and financial expertise gives the show a practical edge that most entrepreneurship podcasts lack. With 46 episodes published weekly, the show explores business strategies through a lens that combines financial literacy with retail psychology -- teaching new business owners not just how to sell but how to understand the money side of their operations from day one. The interview format brings in experts across different domains relevant to starting and growing a business. A recent episode featured veteran salesman Glenn Poulos discussing the emotional dynamics of closing deals, drawing from his book 'Never Sit in the Lobby.' Other episodes have covered topics like managing cash flow as a new business, understanding your customer's buying psychology, building a financial foundation before you scale, and the tax considerations that trip up first-time entrepreneurs. Williams earned a perfect 5-star rating, and the show maintains a focused scope that works in its favor. Rather than trying to cover every aspect of entrepreneurship, it zeroes in on the intersection of business operations and financial decision-making. For someone starting a retail business, a service company, or any venture where understanding money management is make-or-break from the very beginning, the show provides the kind of grounded financial education that most founder-focused podcasts skip entirely. Each episode runs about 30 to 40 minutes, long enough to get into substance but short enough to fit into a lunch break.