Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ariel Halevi, Co-Founder, and CEO of VAYOMAR, located in New York, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Vayomar is a boutique global training and consulting firm that is dedicated to narrowing the gap between our “caveperson” brains and the modern-day workplace environment. In short, we assist our customers in the mitigation of old vs. new work methods and business strategies so that they may truly benefit from the unprecedented potential of the digital Revolution whilst also ensuring the well-being and satisfaction of their people.
Our vast range of offerings, developed over a fruitful two decades, include methodologies designed to elevate the productivity of senior executive leadership teams as well as mid-level managers and sales organizations. All of our approaches bring together a panoramic view of the individual and what makes us “tick” – combining insights from fields such as Behavioral Economics, Neuroscience, History, Sociology, and even Philosophy.
Our customers range from F500 global enterprises to hyper-growth startups that have just reached “Unicorn” status. Over the past 20 years, we have delivered programs in over 24 countries to hundreds of companies across a dozen industries.
Tell us about yourself
Our founders started off whilst still in their undergraduate studies, where they both met in their university’s debate club and served as its president in subsequent years. Initially focused only on teaching people the art and science of effective public speaking, the founders quickly realized that they had a unique talent for understanding complex interpersonal dynamics within groups and organizations as well as an evolved understanding of how to facilitate rational decision-making processes in service of their customer’s strategy building challenges. Gradually, their services evolved from straightforward training to high-level business and management consulting until they emerged as a highly sought-after boutique global training and consulting firm.
Nowadays, the Vayomar team is dedicated to helping companies strike the right balance between meeting ever more ambitious business and operational goals and ensuring the true and sustainable well-being of their people. During the difficult and painful years of COVID-19, many of Vayomar’s clients found support in Vayomar’s deep understanding of the “Human Operating System” and relied on it to create programs and operational strategies that would help them and their people weather this once in a century storm. This is what motivates us each day, week, month, and year: to ensure that no employee is left behind as the company continues to purpose its higher purpose, vision, and mission statements.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Although Vayomar is now a well-established and financially sustainable global company, its biggest accomplishment is not a commercial one. The company is deeply proud and appreciative of the role it is allowed to play in shaping not just highly effective managers and senior executives or highly successful sales organizations but sensitive, empathetic, and caring managers and executives who truly see and are authentically committed to the well-being and ongoing development of the people they lead. Seeing our models and methodological approaches now presented to boards of some of the leading companies in the world and becoming a language and a mindset among our clients (and beyond!) is the company’s biggest accomplishment.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
In the current global climate, brought on by COVID-19 and a new and challenging macro-economic reality, the hardest thing that comes with being a business owner is the challenge of striking the right balance between “playing it safe” and waiting out the “storm” on the one hand, and maintaining an ambitious long-term growth strategy. Should we play it safe at the expense of our longer-term growth, or should we be brave precisely because others are not during these turbulent times? Where does being responsible and measured turn into being driven by fear? How to find the right risk profile and be both responsible AND proactive during a global recession is perhaps the toughest challenge a business owner faces nowadays.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Create a picture of what “Great” looks like for you several years from now. The more detailed and objectively measurable this picture will be – the better!
- Spend time mapping the things that are most likely to stand in your path, leading to the future “Great” you identified. What is likely to make you fail? What will slow you down?
- Start small. Spend time experimenting and learning from these experiments. You don’t have to quit your job or spend all of your money (or others’ money) as you take your first steps. Allocate a portion of your time to taking your first steps, and try to pick steps that don’t cost money at first. Gain experience and build a network of people who can help drive your success. When you start experiencing more and more success and have reached a point in which lack of time is holding you back – then quit your job and dedicate all of your time to this new path.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://vayomar.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ariel.halevi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haleviariel/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariel-halevi-82100a1/
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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