Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Thad Cardine, CEO of Shield Bearer Counseling Centers, located in Houston, TX, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Shield-Bearer provides compassionate licensed counseling and resources to help all ages facing all circumstances heal and recover after being knocked off their feet and having their lives spiral into chaos by providing affordable solutions and increasing access. Since 2005, Shield-Bearer has healed marriages and kept families intact, helped victims of crime, human trafficking, and trauma recover emotionally, and provided hope and resolution to everyone from children and parents, veterans and first-responders to business leaders and stay-at-home moms & dads change their trajectory by providing professional counseling and training resources in order for them to move forward and live healthy and productive lives.
Tell us about yourself
I'm married with five children. I love to learn and I love to create and plan. I love to take classes and go to school. Degrees are not my motivation; it's the learning process that I find the most rewarding and inspirational. Because of my passion for learning, I have, as a bi-product, collected quite a few bachelor's and master's degrees. My entire life has been working in education or serving nonprofit organizations. All people struggle to grow, improve, achieve, and thrive at something. I'm no different. I find great joy and satisfaction in being a support to help others achieve their goals and find whatever they define as success. Me, I want to have a successful marriage and prepare my children for life. My faith is crucially important to me, and it has always been at the center of my work, family, and all that I do.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Every significant achievement of growth that enables us to do more and impact more gives me a feeling of accomplishment. We've enlarged our spaces, we've added locations, we've partnered with outside organizations, we've achieved financial milestones, and then been able to provide much-deserved salary increases. Every step to making progress, impacting, and making a positive improvement is an accomplishment that fuels my motivation and inspires me.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
The patience and the lull that hangs between taking a risk and stepping out to initiate something before the fruits of that action become a reality. We've always been a shoestring organization. It has been extremely stressful. When a new program, product, or initiative is launched, there are months of work behind it. So much planning, so much time, so much money, and the risk and stress of putting all that effort into it for all that time and then finally launching it and then working it, managing it, massaging it, and revising it as you wait to see if there will be a reward at the end and if I will be able to make it sustainable is a very difficult process.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Plan strategically.
- Carry out your action steps often and with regularity.
- Master soft skills and keep learning.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.shieldbearer.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shieldbearer.counseling
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shieldbearercc/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shield-bearer-counseling-centers/
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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