Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Stephen Dawson, Founder of SH Dawson, located in Knoxville, TN, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I sell consulting services to customers needing either business or technology assistance. Often, my customers need help developing their skills in both aspects of running their business structure. The scope of the business assistance I provide is broad. The scope of the technical assistance I provide is broad. I have concluded business and technology have been inseparable from each other since the late 1990s.
Tell us about yourself
I started with computers in college in 1989. The personal computer was still new at that time. I started with entrepreneurialism before I was in high school. Today, I sell services and not products. My services help organizations accomplish their processes, sell their services, and sell their products in ways they have never experienced before gaining my assistance. I help people do more with their resources through efficiency improvements, building suitable conceptual models, identifying new supplier opportunities, and realizing new selling opportunities.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Establishing at the global level of consulting. I juggle EU, APAC, and North American clients simultaneously. I enjoy working with many cultures at one time.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
The business plan changes faster than expected. A business plan must be revisited annually to remain relevant in the marketplace. The differences between running the business, finding the business, and then doing the business are just as vital to consulting as they are to any other business plan. I have been fortunate to do well at what I do. It has not come without trial and error. There has been much research and experimentation accomplished to arrive at this point. I see I am only getting started on the journey even though I have been doing this work for more than three-quarters of my life.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Start, a well-formed business plan. Run, having everyone involved in you doing your work already possesses the skills necessary to accomplish their work with excellence. Grow, seed-time-harvest. The time piece is the piece many do not comprehend. There are even fewer who execute the time piece well. This piece is a large part of why I have my clients. It is not to their discredit. It is to their credit they seek out my help to further empower them to run this piece with excellence. If I succeed with a client, then they have no further need for my services since they can do the work without me by growing who they are as people, an organization, and a part of humanity.
Finally, stay in startup mode as a business. It helps considerably to keep all things in focus, helping to eliminate waste and gain new efficiencies that contribute significantly to getting through the lean times faster and contribute meaningfully to staying in the lavish times longer.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: http://www.shdawson.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shdawson2020/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/shdawson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shdcs/
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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