Create a reputation of “I’ve got this’’ — We are our client’s first choice because they know we will always solve their challenges. Construction delays and emergencies can be real issues that get costly and cause lost productivity. Our clients know we will solve or greatly reduce that impact every time.

As a part of my series called “Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Bowers, Principal & Chief Revenue Officer of Precision Facility Group. Brian Bowers is a great entrepreneurial mind with over twenty-five years of industry experience with focus in business and custom product development. His extensive experience handling complex client portfolios and projects as well as his knowledge of assembling elite client services teams, has been at the foundation of his long-standing success. …

Leaders Set The Tone — You can hire the best people in the world, but the culture of a company comes from the top-down. If I’m not responding to emails, showing up for meetings late, or disregarding my employee’s time, few people are going to call me out on it until it gets egregious. Yet, the people around me will be noting it all. They will be subconsciously taking cues from what I do. I can’t expect people to give me their best efforts if I’m not doing the same.

As a part of my series called “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Consulting Business ”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Vitale. …

Large sales force. Our very early investments were in scaling our sales force quickly and regionalizing it. We hired 15 reps in our first year and grew to 45 by the end of our second year. Today half of our head-count is sales. I knew if we wanted to have an effect quickly we needed to be in front of coaches creating those authentic in-person connections and relationships. We were never going to be a telemarketing, low-cost high-volume company. I really wanted to build something transformational.

You can’t build a transformative business by making the people feel like they’re just a transaction. We’ve always tried to address that first and foremost by having a physical presence to show our coaches and team leaders that we are there to help and that we care. …

80/20 Rule — In most aspects of business, the 80/20 rule applies. 20% of your deliverables represent 80% of the actual impact to the company. 20% of the clients represent 80% of the revenue and long-term value. Keeping this in mind, we implemented an HR policy which allowed for all of our employees to have 20% of their time available to work on whatever they wanted. This ended up uncovering new 6 figure and 7 figure opportunities for the company. This also led to bi-monthly team training calls where one person would train the rest of the team on a specific subject, and then get feedback for any hurdles they were currently facing in their field of work. …

Don’t watch your competition. Be original and serve your niche.

When we started Groove there were two other large brands in the space. Now there are over 100 brands selling silicone rings and even more selling watch bands and belts. A huge temptation is to watch your competition. The problem with that is that you will most certainly start following their lead and playing cat and mouse. Your designs will look like theirs and you will be going after the same audience. Unfollow your competitors, serve your niche and innovate for them ONLY. After this foundation is set, you can build out from there and tackle new territory. I had someone ask me once if I was worried about one specific competitor. …

Confront your confidence — An old friend and successful entrepreneur used to joke about getting T-shirts made with a range of confidence levels so that he could wear the appropriate one each day to convey his confidence that we could pull off a new line of business. That level of transparency — at least with yourself — is a powerful asset. Understanding where you stand can help you make the most of the moment.

As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women Leaders in Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristen Kane. She has dedicated her career to education, leading innovation to improve learning in large companies and start-ups, in finance and technology, and in local and federal government. …

Customers are human beings: The world of internet products is crowded and exhausting for consumers, and B2B is no exception. You can stand out by simply remembering that your customer is not a user ID in some database that should be upsold daily. They are human beings. And if you treat them as humans, they will reward you with their loyalty and support, no matter the competition that will continue to spring up daily.

As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women Leaders in Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Natalie Nagele, co-founder and CEO of Wildbit, the team behind Postmark, dmarc digests, Beanstalk and People-First Jobs. Committed to proving you can grow a profitable company while prioritizing people, she has led the creation of multi-million dollar products while focusing on her belief that business should be human. …

Don’t be afraid to ask any questions and to learn from your staff. Technology is changing every day. I must learn to understand and communicate better with the team for a better direction.

As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women Leaders in Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Justine Sinclair of dreamOway.

As a single parent, Justine’s daughter and her have a unique bond. They rely on each other for motivation and support. From a young age, her daughter had dreams for the future. Justine always told her, “Tomorrow’s dream can only happen if you start today!” …