Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Faye Almeshaan, Founder of Faye Almeshaan Consulting, located in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Faye Almeshaan Consulting is a strategy startup consultancy. We help startups and small businesses, predominantly in tech, launch, grow and scale.
Tell us about yourself
I've been in the startup ecosystem for 10+ years, working at hyper-growth, venture-backed startups as a Chief of Staff and also on the Venture Fund side as a Head of Operations and Venture Partner. When I worked on the venture investing side, a big part of the job was helping the founders succeed, which meant everything from giving advice, making introductions, setting up educational content, and being a shoulder to cry on. That experience opened my eyes to how much help, support, and manpower entrepreneurs need. Seeing my clients succeed is what motivates me, and the great part about working with such fast-paced companies is that there's usually great news to celebrate very often!
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment is the speed at which I got started. As someone who's been around entrepreneurs my entire life and started other businesses, it's so wild that the nerves and self-doubt never go away. So the fact that I put those on mute and started this business in just two weeks made me really proud of how far I've come.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
The fact that there's no one else to lean on. When you're on a team, it's easy to let everyone focus on their strengths or jump on projects they're interested in, but here it's me, myself, and I. Oh, you don't like doing taxes? How about prospecting? Or creating marketing collateral? Too bad you're doing it all, or it doesn't happen.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Hire me! Lol, just kidding, just kidding. First, test to figure out if it's a viable business while taking the least risk possible. For example, if you want to be a consultant, can you do that while keeping your day job? If you want to sell a product, don't go and buy a ton of it first; start a website and do some paid social. Are you getting hits? There's usually no reason to jump right in if there are ways you can hedge your risks and get market feedback.
- Don't stress about the little stuff, aka the solvable problems. I see so many people freak out about whether they need an EIN number, a state business license, how to pay employees, etc. There are millions of business owners in the world; if they all figured it out, you can too. It's just information you don't have yet. What should be on your mind is finding customers willing to pay for your product or service.
- Figure out what problem you're solving and become obsessed with it. Don't create a product and try to convince people to buy it; work backward and make your company solve your customer's problems. The best companies are created by the founder recognizing a problem and then building a solution for that specific problem, which includes talking to many of your prospective customers before deciding what the solution is exactly.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.fayealmeshaan.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FayeAlmeshaan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/almeshaan/
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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