Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in marketing but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ellis Fitch, Co-Founder of Edify Content, located in Mesa, AZ, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We are a technical content marketing agency and work with startups in the cybersecurity, data services, and compliance industries. Since developers and data-based experts don't always know how to talk about what they do and how they provide value, we help them to do that with key messaging, website copy, articles, social media posts, and more.
Tell us about yourself
After years in SaaS marketing, I was laid off during COVID. So was my husband. We had a 1-year-old, a 16-year-old, and no jobs. A former co-worker and I had already been talking about what was next. We were tired of the constriction that came with being part of a large company and ready to make our own money. So we started Edify in October 2020 and haven't looked back. What motivates me at the core is financial stability—I could have gone back to full-time employment for that, but I didn't. I love providing my expertise to startups that need it and doing work on my own terms.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
We were profitable from the outset, so being able to support my family as the sole breadwinner has been a huge win.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Business naturally goes through ups and downs. When you're in the down cycle, where some clients have tightened their belts, and there aren't many new prospects, it's terrifying. So far, things always trend up again, but the downs are scary. Our lives depend on the business's bottom line.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Find a good partner. I could not have done this alone, and my business partner Anthony says the same. Get someone with complementary skills and team up. You'll keep each other accountable and have someone else handle the things you don't excel at. For example, I hate selling, but Anthony loves it and is good at it. That enables me to stay in my writer's cave more often like the introvert I am.
- Don't scale faster than you grow. It was tempting to want to hire full-time employees earlier than we should have from a revenue perspective. But that would have really damaged our personal take-home pay and raised our operating costs too high, so we held off until we couldn't.
- Don't skimp on business services. Was it fun to pay an accountant to run payroll? No. Did we need it? Absolutely. Was it expensive to pay lawyers to help us set up our business? That's what lawyer jokes are for. But we knew that doing things the right way would actually save us money and hassle in the long run.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://edifycontent.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thisisellisf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellis-friedman-fitch/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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