Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Firdaus Kharas, Chairman of Chocolate Moose Media, located in Ottawa, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Our work focuses on creating innovative solutions for some of the world's toughest issues by affecting societal and individual behavioral change through human-centered communications across many cultures and countries to better the human condition. We also consult companies and organizations on applying creative thinking and communications.
The services we provide include:
- Animated productions, including explainer videos
- Educational documentaries and videos
- Translations, sub-titling, and dubbing of media into numerous languages
- Workshops and speeches on creativity
Created for international organizations like the United Nations system, the International Red Cross, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and numerous governments, non-governmental organizations, and universities, often sponsored by companies, our work has been used in 198 countries, adapted into over 450 language versions and reached over a billion people.
Tell us about yourself
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, named one of the World's 50 Most Talented Social Innovators and awarded the prestigious Peabody Award among 120 international awards, I am a social innovator, author, speaker, media creator, and humanitarian. I founded Chocolate Moose Media in Ottawa in 1995 to create human-centered mass communications to better the human condition. What motivates me every day is the hope that I can contribute innovative solutions to problems by being a change-maker.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My work, done without a permanent staff or office, overcomes the various barriers we all have to effective communication, like culture, language, ethnicity, and nationality. I have been able to have a very wide reach around the world.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
When you're an individual entrepreneur trying to make a difference, you have to do everything. Funding is by far the biggest issue. Reaching millions of people with communications they can understand is the easier part!
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Believe in yourself. If you have an unshakable belief in your mission and have a clear vision of what you want to do, just go for it. Don't let anyone stop you. Above all else, don't listen to anyone who says what you want to do can't be done.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: http://chocmoose.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chocolatemoosemedia/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/culture_shift
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firdaus-kharas-95a28016/
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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