Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Justin Khanna, Founder of Repertoire, located in Seattle, WA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I founded Repertoire as a modern hospitality education company to focus on helping hospitality professionals build, impact, and profit.
Tell us about yourself
Even after going to a high-caliber culinary school here in the US, I felt under-prepared heading into Michelin kitchens. I took those hard-earned lessons and began teaching them to my line cooks when I became a manager of a fine dining restaurant in Europe. When I moved back to the US, I took those skills and structured them in our flagship course, Total Station Domination. All of our courses are curated and built to help culinary school students, line cooks, and sous chefs to operate more effectively, avoid burnout and become more confident at work, minus the crippling debt.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Anytime I get feedback from our customers that they used the skills to get a new job, move across the world, launch a project or achieve a new milestone in their career, I add that to the list of accomplishments. If I'm being selfish, being able to host certain guests on our industry podcast that I look up to has also been incredibly fulfilling and fun.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
One of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner is improving the quality of your decision-making. When the work that you do moves in 6, 12, and 36-month time horizons, you have to relearn how to spend your time and ultimately get out of your own way by empowering your team to drive projects forward.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Our three values have been pretty helpful for me: Fix, Focus, Fun. We have our own way of utilizing these words, but they can broadly apply to a new entrepreneur as well. Ensure you're fixing a problem that people actually have, remove distractions, and structure your life so that you can focus on the work that needs getting done, and don't forget to have fun so that you can stick with it for a long enough time horizon so that you can actually see a return.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.joinrepertoire.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrjustinkhanna
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinkhanna/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/justin_khanna
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-khanna-12614285/
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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