Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in coaching and leadership development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Maya Liberman, founder of impro, located in Toronto, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
At impro, we are making personalized coaching and leadership development accessible in the workplace through breakthrough coaching methodologies & advanced data science. Our daily micro-coaching solution empowers managers & employees with the necessary tools, knowledge, and guidance to reach their full potential. The impro coaching methodology enables leaders to better understand and optimize their organization-wide behavioural patterns and implement new strategies to improve performance across individuals and teams.
Tell us about yourself
The first thing that got me to work on our business was one of my co-founders, Opher Brayer. Over the years, Opher has been creating a plethora of management skills methodologies. We decided that these methodologies were vital to the rapidly-changing 21st-century workplace, and should be expanded using artificial intelligence. The challenge of enabling numerous employees to enjoy and develop their professional skills was the key driver of our business.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Our biggest accomplishment was being able to create a proof of concept in a short time, onboarding real paying customers that are already enjoying their professional and personal development through our platform, and launching an official version in less than a year.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
One of the hardest things is gaining knowledge fast in various fields. As an employee, you traditionally need to be an expert in one field; if you are a developer, you need to be an expert in software development. However, as a business owner, you need to have an understanding about many fields: marketing, sales, finance, development, product design, product management, and more. Although you can delegate some of the tasks, in order to delegate them to the right person, you still need to gain an understanding about the field of expertise. If you do not have a sufficient knowledge base, you will choose the wrong person for the job. I think this is the most challenging part of entrepreneurship.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
1. Always listen to your customers. They know what they need.
2. Be careful when choosing your team members. In a small startup, every person’s abilities and character can elevate or ruin a company.
3. Be open to learning and adjusting many technologies and methodologies. Part of being a startup is being adaptable to change and innovative.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Entrepreneurship involves trade-offs. There is always something that you must lose in order to win. When moving from being an employee to an entrepreneur you need to understand that you are going to pay a price. This is the essence of opportunity cost. The price is leaving your comfort zone, and becoming more adaptable to changes. Instead of being responsible for one area in which you have the expertise, you will need to explore new fields that you have limited knowledge of. Developing your mental toughness for the inevitable crisis and unexpected changes will be one of your major challenges when working on your startup.
Where can people find you and your business?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maya-liberman/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/impro-ai/
https://www.facebook.com/ImproAI/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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